Bicycling in Germany

 Since we have been home from our walking/cycling trip in Europe for over a month now, it’s probably time I show you the second week of our three week trip.  You might recall that our first week was spent doing a walking tour in the Cotswold area of England.  For week two we took the Eurostar through the Chunnel from London to Paris and caught another train to Metz, France where the cycling portion of our trip began.  It was Mr. Right’s birthday, and the attendants on the train gave us our own special room with a nice breakfast and all the attention we could handle.  We really appreciated how seriously they took their jobs.  This post has a lot of photos, and since I used my point and shoot camera in the rainy weather, their quality isn’t so great.  Sorry…

 We spent weeks two and three of our trip on what is called a bike and boat trip aboard the Iris.  The boat holds 18 passengers plus crew.  It was once a cargo barge that was converted into a passenger boat.  Its home is Amsterdam, and there are many Dutch companies that offer bike and barge trips.  The way this works is that each morning around 9 a.m. after eating an abundant breakfast, we all climbed onto our bikes and pedaled away.  The boat left a few minutes later and traveled on the Mosel river.  We had a picnic for lunch each day and always stopped to visit historic sites and to have some tea or coffee.  Then after cycling all day, we reboarded our boat around 4:00 p.m. in our destination town for the day.  We cycled between 30 to 40 miles a day which was an easy ride since the route was flat.  The boat stayed docked there for the night.  We then had free time to visit the town/village, take a shower and a rest, and eat a chef-prepared dinner.  Then after dinner we did a walking tour of the village.  After a good night’s sleep, we did the same thing the next day, etc.  We have taken a bike and boat trip in Europe every year since 2005, and we just love it.  We were on a paved bike trail for almost the entire trip, which involved four countries.  Here we have to cycle on roads, and so the trails were a real luxury.

 

 

We spent the first week of cycling in the wine region of Germany.  It was a very rainy and cold week, but we didn’t let that stop us.  The photos, though, aren’t so bright.  The trip started in Metz, France, but we quickly entered Luxembourg where we spent only one day/night since it is so small.  Then the remainder of the week we cycled in Germany.

 

For six days it was pure charm surrounded by hills and hills of vineyards for as far as we could see.

 

This area is known for its Reislings and Pinot Noirs.  They valued their real estate and used as much of it as they could for growing grapes.

 

 

 

Some of the hills were so steep that the workers had to wear harnesses to catch them if they started to fall.

 

Miraculously, this area was not bombed during the war because everyone wanted to protect their vines/wine.

 

 

The villages were just loaded with charm and well-preserved since they weren’t bombed away.  I’m sure Walt Disney and his team got a lot of their inspiration from these villages.

 

 

 

I thought the hills looked like a patchwork quilt with all of the colors.

 

 

We cycled beside the river most of the time.  We never tired of seeing it.

 

 

 

We saw several castles in various stages of aging.  They are hundreds of years old.  We visited the perfect Eltz Castle, but since we hiked two miles through the woods to get to it, we really didn’t have a good vantage point for suitable photos.

 

 

I loved strolling through the village streets and seeing how they live life.  When I started taking this photo, the cat on the chair started licking itself.

 

 

The fall colors were at their peak.  The only decorations they put out were pumpkins, but they were surrounded by so much beauty that they really didn’t need to add anything else.

 

I thought this artwork was interesting.  They were growing grapes on portions of that hill in the background.

 

 

This little village had a waterfall right down the middle of it.  You can tell that the buildings were hundreds of years old but still in good shape and being used.

 

 

How would you like to live it that house????

 

 

There were shops and restaurants built all around this little river that ran through the town.

 

When we do the bike and barge trips, we just use the bikes that are provided.  They also give us panniers to hold our lunch.  I was wearing every piece of biking clothes that I took because it was cool, but if the days grew warmer, the clothes fit nicely in the bags.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the second week of our trip.  During the third week we cycled along the Rhine River where almost everything was bombed during the war.  I’ll show you those photos on another day.  Thanks so much for stopping by.  Tomorrow we have a traditional Kentucky recipe for you.

Take care.