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The day started out well, with an early start. We were cruising along the Saar bike path when there was a huge bang. Kris’s outer tire had blown out and was completely irreparable. We were around 8 km from Merzig, the next large town. So Kris began to walk.

     

I rode on a few kilometres to Fremersdorf to check if we could buy a tire in that small town. I asked at a garage – the people there were very sweet and concerned but also confirmed that there was no place to buy bike tires in that town.

We decided that Kris would go ahead to Merzig with my bike, about 5km, and I would stay on the bike path pushing his bike. This worked out well, as I was almost at the bike path turn off to Merzig when I saw Kris coming back along the bridge with a tire. Kris replaced the tire on the bike path and we returned to the nearby Kaufland store where he had bought the tire.

The store is huge and sells everything, including food. We were overheated by this time, so we bought some ice cream and juice to cool down and get our energy up. Then also some pastries. We decided to buy and carry another tire with us, in case his other tire does the same thing!

It was after 1pm by the time we hit the road again and very hot. However this was the most scenic part of the ride, and we did get a bit of shade from time to time. The river narrowed and there were steep rocky cliffs alongside it in places.

       

At one point the path climbed up alongside the river to this cute little chapel.

             

We also rode past a huge quarry alongside the river.

We stopped at Saarburg and found a hotel near the river. It is a very picturesque town, with a castle up on the hill. This is the view just outside our hotel.

We didn’t pay the extra 10EUR for a river view, so our room faces the road. However, at least the afternoon sun was not shining in our windows. 

The weather began to change just as we reached the town with a strong wind coming up. Later on there were some brief showers and distant thunder claps.

We were both exhausted after the long hot day, and fell asleep early in the evening.

We continued along the Saar bicycle path today to Konz, where the Saar joins the Mosel. From here on we followed the Mosel river bicycle trail.

The weather was cool the whole day – an almost perfect temperature! It was overcast with occasional strong winds. It threatened to rain several times and we even got a few drops, but never got wet. It was very enjoyable to have a day’s ride without feeling overheated.

We did a side trip off the path at Trier to have a look at the Porta Nigra (Roman city gate dating back between 186 and 200 AD).

       

It took a while to get back onto the path again, as it took us through some semi industrial areas on the outskirts of the town and this was confused with road works.

From here the route became very scenic, as the river snakes back and forth through a hilly landscape.

       

The hills are all covered with vines, in some places you can hardly believe that they could cultivate on such a steep slope.

     

We saw rails set up along the vines – to help move grapes and equipment up and down these steep hills.

The villages we passed through were very scenic and all very neat. There were a lot of places offering wine tasting, food and rooms. There were also lots of cyclists along the route – it is very popular and rightly so. The bike path is of very good quality, mostly wide and tarred, and well signposted.

We stopped at Bernkastel-Kues, a beautiful town on the river, also with a ruined castle up on the hill.

        

We found accommodation in a gastehaus in the old town (the pink building to the right in the picture below). This was the nicest and best value accommodation we had in a long time. The room is large and in an exceptionally neat house in the centre of town. She has just three rooms to hire out, but runs it very professionally.

We spent some time walking around exploring the town, drinking a beer and buying some food.

               

 

We had another fabulous ride along the Mosel Radweg today, in cool overcast conditions. We did 113 km from Bernkastel-Kues to Winningen. This was possible because of the ease of the route, being mostly flat or a gentle downhill.

This is one of the best cycle routes that we have ever ridden, up there together with the Loire Valley and the Danube routes.

Once again the cycle route was a well maintained track with good surface –  along both sides of the river for most of the way. There are many gaste zimmers and accommodation opportunities along the whole route. Also lots of camping parks with caravans along the banks

The highlights of the ride are beautiful old villages that are full of character. Every now and then you spot an old castle on a hill top.

We were also impressed with the spanning arches of huge bridges across valleys. We saw a cable stay bridge under construction, being elevated at least 100m up.

     

The most scenic part of today’s ride was through the river bends before Cochem, where we stopped for some juice and ice cream around midday. Another picture perfect town with a castle on a hill above the river.

    

The character of the valley really comes out through its vineyards – which we continued to see along the whole route again today. According to this cartoon, they are the steepest in the world (and we believe it).

Farmers have filled every spot on the hills. Some of them are so steep it is hard imagining anyone working on those banks.

This bridge was near the end of the ride – it is huge but what is amazing is the vines, growing hundreds of meters up alongside the bridge.

We stopped at Winningen, just short of Koblenz as it looked like a nice little town, just in the bend of the river – and we were getting tired.

The tourist info was open and found us excellent accommodation in a bed and breakfast nearby. She has a large well kept home with two rooms to hire out on the ground floor, totally separate from the rest of the house and very comfortable.

 

Today we reached two milestones – Kris’s birthday and 4,000km on our journey so far!

Our bed and breakfast hostess served up a delicious breakfast and also some advice on the day’s route.

Our first ten kilometers or so, to Koblenz, was still along the Mosel. We saw some more impressive vineyards along the way. At Koblenz we reached the Deutsches Eck (German Corner), the spot where the Mosel joins the Rhine. There is a large and impressive statue of Emperor William the Great and a cable car going over the Rhine.

   

We passed fairly quickly through Koblenz, following the Rhine. There was an impressive amount of commercial traffic on the Rhine, including barges carrying scrap metal and tractors. We only travelled about 10km along the Rhine before turning off onto a cycle way along the Lahn river, which we followed for the rest of the day to Weilburg. This is a smaller river, also very pretty with regular castles and a fair number of cycle tourists.

There were also many groups of people out in canoes – we were told that motorised boats are banned from large parts of the river. Another feature of the river is very regular camping parks with caravans alongside the river – it is obviously a very popular holiday area.

Bad Ems was a very attractive town, with ornate buildings along the river front.

     

After Laurenburg, the signs became unclear as to whether the cycle path followed the river or went over a hill. We were advised that we could continue along the river but that we may have to get off and push in places so we continued on. The path deteriorated to little more than a narrow walking track. I hurt myself by smashing my toes against the rock on the side.

Just after this stretch we met a couple of helpful guys, out on a ride. Kris asked for directions and they offered to guide us to Limburg, where they live.

We rode with them for about an hour – this was nice and relaxing as we didn’t have to think about the route.

Here is a photo of Kris with our guides and the Limburg Cathedral.

Here is a new bridge being built alongside the old one. Our guides told us that a lot of the bridges in the area are being replaced.

This is St. Lubentius Basilica in Dietkirchen, which we passed by, still with our guides.

And after we had said goodbye to them we passed through Runkel, with its’ castle.

   

From here we pressed onto Weilburg, making it a long day at 124km. Here is the view from the Weilburg Schloss gardens, where we had picnic supper.

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.

   

It was nice to be in the hills again today, after spending so much time cycling along rivers.

From Gemunden we climbed for a few km into the Kellerwald nature area. The first town was Dodenhausen – which looked remarkable normal despite its name.

From here it was a scenic ride with lots of little hill climbs, passing through Haddenberg and Hundsdorf. At Hundsdorf we we turned off onto another road that had lots of downhill curves, some through forest, down to Bad Wildungen. We saw a turn-off to Reinhardshausen along the way.

Bad Wildungen

Then we worked our way through suburban roads, to the river Eder, where we found a bike path into Firtzlar. There we had to negotiate a carnival in full swing, with a fun fair and stalls selling all types of goodies – directly on the bicycle path.

We continued on the bike path – on rural land – all the way to Felsburg, where we turned to the north and made our way along rural roads to Edermunder.

Then we picked up a bike path along the Fulde river into Kassel. It began to drip and then rain as we reached the city. We found our hotel in time to avoid being soaked.

Today we had our planned rest day in Kassel. We had arranged to meet Ester in Kassel, so that she can join us on the next part of our tour.

We slept late and then explored the city a little. Kassel lost 90% of its buildings through bombing in the war and most of the rebuilding has been in the style of the 1950’s (so no cute old town centre). It is known as the town where the Grimm brothers wrote most of their stories. It is also a centre for fine arts, with international festivals every few years. Below is a picture in front of the Rathaus.

We went to see the main attraction of the city, the Bergpark Wilhelmshohe, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a huge park on a hillside, with baroque water features. The main feature is a statue of Hercules that overlooks the city with fountains running down from it.

Unfortunately the water fountains only flow on weekends and Wednesdays, and Hercules was partly covered in scaffolding, so we didn’t find it that impressive.

It was hard work riding up the hill to the statue on our rest day – much of it through forested parkland. Here is a photo of Kris asking where the Hercules is.

There was also this strange castle, built in the late 18^th century to look like a ruined fortified castle at that time. It became an actual ruin after being bombed in WWII and is now being restored again.

Esther arrived late after having some trouble with the trains (not a good day for her, but at least she got there). Kris went to the station to try to meet her but they missed each other and arrived back at the hotel separately.

Today was our first day on the Weser cycle route, and also the first day touring with Esther. Kris and I enjoyed the change of pace.

Here are Esther and Kris, about to leave from the Kassel hotel after a good buffet breakfast.

 

This huge anchor is on the route out of Kassel.

The first part of our route was still along the Fulda river. The bike path was generally good, although we did do a stretch along the road because they are resurfacing the bike path – luckily with very little traffic.

The Fulda joins the Weser river at Han Munden, and the rest of our route followed the Wesser – sometimes directly and sometimes alongside adjoining wheatfields.

We were amused by these young men and their makeshift covered raft.

We had a couple of light showers on the way and one heavy one. During the heavy shower we quickly ducked into a shelter outside a Harley Davidson workshop. A couple of pug dogs appeared and were very interested in the biscuits we were snacking on.

We enjoyed watching this ferry crossing to Reinhardshagen (sorry Reinhard, we didn’t cross but got a couple of photos of your town). This is another ferry that just uses the river current to power it back and forth, and it takes cars too.

       

Our next stop was the Klosterkirche St. Georg und Maria in Lippoldsberg – a stunning romanesque church from the mid 12^th century. There was an exhibition of paintings by a local artist and music playing in the church to add to the atmosphere.

     

         

From here it was not far to our destination at Bodenfelde – a 68km ride in all. We found our accommodation in an old fashioned pension quite easily. As we were standing nearby the proprietress walked by and spoke to us – the price was right and they have wifi so we took it.

We had a beer at this river front outdoor cafe, and followed that up with a meal at a Greek restaurant on the river – the portions were huge so we ate well!

Today we continued along the Weser river cycle route, watching the river slowly swell and grow larger. We enjoying seeing small towns at regular intervals, and occasionally a ruined castle or old tower up on a hill.

  

A lot of the ride was through ripe wheat or corn fields alongside the river.

We also had the occasional up and downhill through forested areas. This must be one of the steepest slopes our whole trip (25%) – we had to push, thank goodness it was not very long.

We noticed there were very few canoes or any other boats on the river today, but quite a large number of touring bicycles.

We wanted to stop for a juice and ice cream at a supermarket in Holzminden, but we became separated from each other twice and spent a long time finding each other again. Eventually we rode on a little frustrated.

We reached Bodenwerder at around 3pm and arranged our accommodation through the tourist information (we have huge rooms, very beautifully decorated, but with no wifi).

We explored the town and enjoyed a beer at a beer garden on the river bank before doing some shopping.

Bodenwerder is the home of Baron Munchausen (18^th century), known to be a teller of tall tales. There are a number of entertaining statues all around the town depicting some of his stories.

           

                           

For our dinner we had a picnic supper on the riverbank – after having to move downriver from our original spot because of pesky wasps.

 

Another ride along the Weser cycle route – a real “path of tales”. Today we started at Bodenwerder, paused in Hamlin and ended our ride in Minden. The first part of the ride was still along the river, enjoying some forays into the forest alongside it. There are regular little villages alongside the river, some with small ferries crossing to them. We saw our first Weser tourist boats leaving from Bodenwerder. We note that we have never seen anyone swimming in the Weser – we are told that it is too fast flowing.

This statue is of men who worked pulled boats up the river. There is a story about how they stole a rabbit stew from an inn keeper. When they returned to the inn he recognised them and got his revenge by serving them a stew made from a cat!

We also saw this nuclear power plant (using river water for cooling) before Hamlin.

And this old mill.

This is the riverside as you come into Hamlin

We did some quick sightseeing at Hamlin and bought some ice cream. Kris bought a pack of 8 from the supermarket. It was more than we could eat, so he gave some away to old people and children on the street.

Hamlin has a beautiful town centre with busy pedestrian only streets surrounded by ornate old buildings. Kris was told off by the Police for riding his bicycle in the pedestrian only street. There are also lots of references to rats and pied pipers.

    

           

         

The landscape flattened out after Hamlin – travelling through farmlands with fields of vegetables (runkeln (root crops) – for animals to eat), wheat and corn. There were also heaps of other cycle tourists on the path after Hamlin (many with electrical bicycles). We notice that the buildings are all made of red bricks, with some huge brick farm buildings.

This monument, found at the side of the road, is to the Eisberger woman who crossed the Weser to milk cows in the pastures from 1820 until 1970.

After Rinteln we took a short cut through Porta to Minden. Kris helped a couple of older ladies on touring bikes, one a tiny cheerful Chinese lady, find their way along this route.

The monument we see on the hill is the Emperor William Monument from 1896 at Porta Westfalica.

     

At Minden the host from our bed and breakfast came to fetch us from the tourist info office and gave us a guided town tour. Minden used to be a military town and has a number of interesting buildings.

        

This is a pole they used to tie people to, as a punishment.

The bed and breakfast rooms are really beautiful – with a shared kitchen and bathroom. We bought some food to cook in the kitchen.

We had some beer in a beer garden before coming back to the house to make our evening meal.