Saturday 11 July – long day ends in railway carriage
Today was another long ride 123 km – because we are pushing to get to Kassel by Sunday night and also because there was no accommodation at our planned destination.
Before leaving Weilburg we stopped to have a look at this canal that goes through a tunnel under the hill – something we have not seen before!
The first part of the ride was along the Lahr cycle way, through Wetzlar, Giessen and Marburg. We stopped for some ice cream at Marburg, a bustling town.
The cycle path was very long and frustrating as it kept going back and forth across the river. So Kris took a short cut onto secondary roads from Marburg to Colbe.
Our short cut took us up a hill and through some wheat fields – all the wheat was green when we started our trip and now it is yellow and ready to harvest.
We took advice from other cyclists on our route to Rauschenberg – we first went via the cycle route to Kirchhain and then the cycle route to Rauschenberg. This was the best stretch of the day with the nicest cycle paths.
Unfortunately when we got to Rauschenberg the town was very quiet, with no tourist info. We went to the one hotel on the outskirts and she told us that they were full up, as was Kirchhaim, due to a dog show! She suggested that we ride on to Gemunden!
We were pretty tired, but it wasn’t so bad in the end, only about 10 km. At Gemunden the first hotel was full with a wedding in full swing. However we found accommodation at the second, which was actually in a railway carriage next to a beer garden!
We had a great time in the restaurant, which turned out to have excellent food. There were heaps of people there too. We sat for a long time drinking beers, eating pasta and salad and working on our computers (free wifi in the restaurant). We also chatted with the bus driver who had brought a bus full of people to the restaurant.
The room in the carriage was so small that we left all our luggage on the bikes (there was a bike shed). I slept very well despite being in a small hanging upper bunk with leather straps to stop me falling off.
