With time on hand and a long flight leaving it's ill effects, we were primed to ride the 20km or so toward downtown Frankfurt and ultimately to Mühlheim am Main to meet Oliver. In our hands we had a GPS with freshly downloaded OSM maps of Germany put together by a bicycle centric lad. The maps were routable meaning that they could generate a route given a destination. Fortunately, we did not need to play with this feature as we had "tracks" preloaded that left a breadcrumb trail back to Oliver's house. It was full steam ahead along the Main river and an early sample of how madfully wonderful the cycling infrastructure in Germany is.

The trip was 22 days and 21 nights with the following breakdown:

1. 3 nights as a guest at Olivers
2. 2 nights at a hostel
3. 1 night at a hotel
4. 3 nights guerrilla camping
5. 9 nights at a campground

Day 2:Frankfurt
The first day of sightseeing in Europe (for me) started off in the Frankfurt beautiful town square anchored by church in the background. With a minimal cable lock, one purchase to be made was a higher security Abus BORDO lock...but would our existing locks see us to the end of the day? We were warned that bike theft existed. We locked up in a high traffic area and hoped for the best. Time flew by as we took in the sights and Alex's continued bad luck with European phones continued until a helpful local took hold of the dial and connected us with Oliver around 5:30pm...half an hour beyond the time that I would considered "dire" for us to sync up. I owe one to the cellphone. A visit to Karstadts department store for the lock, a trip to a high end audio store and we were set to have a hearty meal of Haxe in a patio courtyard that we topped up with a 40 minute ride back to Mühlheim am Main.

We set out early from Oliver's place on Saturday with no fuel and a few packs of noodles. These would not be eaten for another 3 three days until we reach Kassel as fuel (alcohol) was not as easily found as we were told. The first night on our own was an open field with trains running all through the night. The town of Steinau featured the brothers Grimm with a museum nestled in walled and moated courtyard. Some interesting videos experiments were shot...picture using a moving bicycle as a camera platform while riding on top of cobblestones. We anticipated reaching Fulda around supper hour with the intention of camping out just beyond the town limits... that is... until the rain came. One thing that we noted was that the region around Steinau had many older citizens living there...a high concentration of couples in their seventies and eighties were nonchalantly riding their bikes. In Canada, it would be rare to see someone over sixty still on a bicycle. The existence of separated bicycle paths may have something to do with this.

Day 3/Sept 20:Fulda
With no fuel and rain coming down just as dusk was settling around town, we decided to stay in a hotel. At a covered walkway we parked our bikes and got warm with another Euro based meal at McDonalds. While we waited for the downpour to subside, a German man pulled in on his bike in the sheltered area. As we were asking about hotels, he overheard us and this prompted him to say hello and "to practice his English" (his words). He was retired and using his month long train pass to tour Germany by day and to return by nightfall to his hometown. His real passion was flying gliders.

The next day we met Rik (from Belgium) on the bike paths. A newly retired teacher, he was getting used to the new rhythm of not being in the school environment come fall and, instead, experiencing the joys of fall cycling. If he had been wearing his white cotton shorts, he might have passed for Alex's German speaking twin. We became a group of three over the next few days until Kassel. This was to be a serendipitous meeting as we neared the town of Bad Hersfeld when Rik pointed out "Grenzebach" on a farmer's billboard. We decided to inquire and found a young Grenzebach equally interested in the knowledge that Alex's great grandfather had lived in this region.

Sept 23:Grenzebach Country...Hilperhausen/Bad Hersfeld
With information that a lady named Maria had organized a re-union of 500 people with ties to the Grenzebach family, we made a 3km side trip to the small town of Hilpenhausen. The path to this town offered some welcomed/gradual climbing that gave a good view of the surrounding landscape. Following directions to a house, we rounded a corner to see Maria looking out a second floor window of her house. For about two hours, Rik acted as an interpreter to bridge the language gap between Alex and Maria and to reveal several pages of the family tree. A fruitful afternoon decided a nice meal in Bad Hersfeld where we relaxed and stayed at a Hostel with what seemed to be a 20 minute check-in policy...or as they say "Very Slow"...even for relaxed cyclists.

Sept 23:The road to Kassel
The next morning made for an early start on what would prove to be a 100km of cycling on some of the most picturesque landscape of valleys. I found when I got home that a lot of the paths here had recently been altered between Malsfeld to Morschen to to move bicycles off the quiet roadways and onto separate bike paths. One of the neatest aspects of this was a section of the route that crossed a river using a manually operated cable car. It required people to crank themselves across the Fulda River. You can read some more about this, here. (Note: The picture in the previous link shows 3 bicycles and their passengers with very little room to spare...we manage to fit 5 people and 5 bicycles...three of them loaded with touring bags. I think we were near the maximum weight limit).

The entrance to Melsungen was a beautifully constructed stone bridge that seemed immense in length. Built over 400 years ago, it is also known as the "Bartenwetzer Bridge" that translates into "Axe Wetter"...a tradition whereby the locals would "whet" their axes on the stones of the bridge. I think it made for good luck.

Further along, about 10 km from Kassel, is a bend in the river where a number of people had gathered on a bridge to relax, take in the view and fish. The fella fishing had visited Canada many years ago on a cross continental driving trip. He showed me a picture on his cellphone of a fish weighing about 10 pounds that he had caught in the previous year. I marked the bridge on my GPS(N51.22768 E9.47230)...hoping to come back with my fishing crazed nephew one day.

The final push into Kassel would lead us into a campsite with a a full kitchen and allow us to cook for the first time on the trip. With the fall season and colder weather, we had the facilities all to ourselves. An unexpected bonus was that the City of Kassel was co-operating with our campsite to reduce car usage and we were given a 3-day bus pass.

Sept 24:A day in Kassel
Camp Giesewiesen in Kassel turned out to be the only campsite that we would stay 2 consecutive nights. With the use of the camp's indoor kitchen we tasted the slightly crushed instant noodles that Melinda had packed for us in Toronto...could it be that we were that we were just overjoyed to cook...the meal went down easily. With our bus pass tucked away, we were eager to meet up with Rik at his hostel about 2 km away. The night before he mentioned that he notice the hostels in Germany were always located at the top of some steep incline. As we rode our unloaded bikes and had the GPS plot a direct route to the hostel...we encountered the second steepest grades of the trip. Germany is not flat but the thematic routes are so well graded that they steer you around the steeper parts. We locked the bikes at the hostel and took a tram to the central station for a demonstration of the automated ticketing system used to buy train fares. We parted ways for the morning with Rik (visit to Wilhemlmshöhe Art Gallery) while Alex and I walked in the area of south of the Königsplatz tram depot aiming toward a palatial setting housing the Astronomy Museum called the Orangerie. The grounds of the museum stretched off into the distance for over 2km with a line of symmetry down the middle. It was a spectacular space that we would ride through the next morning on our exit from our campsite and Kassel.

While charging batteries at the hostel, a few nights before, I had left Alex's sentimentally charged AC adapter in the outlet and we were in need of charged batteries. Someone directed us to a shop called Saturn and it has to be one of the largest and best stocked electronics stores of its kind anywhere in the world. The plastic bags at the checkout would come in handy against the rain that would come on the Mosel River. The scale of the tourist site called Herkules was truly grand. From the very top, a torrent of water is released, which then flows out of fountains and a twisty staircase almost a kilometer long to the bottom. This release happens once a day, around noon, and runs for about an hour.

Sept 25:Bad Karlshafen/Höxter
The route up to this point was to head mostly north of Frankfurt and to then head east toward Münster along the Euroroute R1. The junction point between these two routes would be the town of Höxter. Halfway out of Kassel to the Euroroute, , we reached the town of Bad Karlshafen situated in picturesque bend of the Weser river. The campsite was just beyond a bridge where we greeted by a friendly ducks. Compared to the Kassel campsite, there were almost no vacancies in this scenic and popular area. The next day we continued to beyond Höxter and pedaled toward Paderborn. About 7km beyond "Bad Lippspringe", we headed toward BauerKamp and were greeted by a steep set of hills and darkness. With another 2km of steep climbing ahead, we opted out of the original plan and camped out in the woods by a farming side road. This made for an early start (pre 9 am) to the next day. By noon, the farmers market was in full swing in Paderborn. The cold dinner from the night before gave us good reason to look for cooking fuel in unlikely places like the pharmacy. We stopped by the local library to see if any potential warmshowers.org hosts had answered regarding possibilities in Münster. A local lady urged us to visit and hear the fine acoustics at Saint Bartholomew's Church. As we headed out of the town but not before we finally found fuel at a Jack Wolfskin outdoors store. There would be a hot meal tonight! While on this topic, I might mention a basic fuel favoured by the two cyclists called Mischung Waffelthat was used before, during and after meal preparation. It was high octane. As the sun began to set, we found ourselves near Delbrück and decided to continue on for another 7 km to the next campsite..."there's always room for a small tent" said Alex..."no matter how busy the site". We ended up getting the bad news and traced our route back to the Delbrück toward Camp Boker (one of the more fortunate had phoned ahead to confirm space). With only very dim front bike lighting, we navigated the smooth silky country roads about 4 km outside of the Boker campsite. The complete lack of unexpected bumps is a testament to the mastery the road crews who lay down the asphalt in Germany.

After signing in, a man lead us on his bike to our campsite. We set up the tent and then found a table lit by some night lights near the shower facilities. We cooked our first meal on our alcohol stove (Trangia)...a delicious meal augmented by people wishing us "Bon Appetit" as they made their way to the camp showers to cap off their day. One of cardinal rules gleamed from earlier trips is a "no doubling back" policy in the choice of routes. If we went to join the route that we had ridden on the day before, we would have ridden on it three times. Often, the most interesting parts of a tour have come about from following this rule. We decided to have our GPS "route function" guide us toward a more direct/untaken path. It was then that we found another cardinal rule..."always check new equipment that you know you are going to depend upon": The GPS would only route up to a distance of 10km before going berserk. Despite this, we used it to plot intermediate destinations to workaround this limitation and followed more of the beautifully paved roads until we joined up with the Euroroute again (a.k.a. as R1 or the D3 route or the Wellness Route).

Week Two/

Sept 28:Münster
The soft light prior to entering the region of Münsterland took on a decidedly surreal quality with lush natural feel to the landscape. It was very reminiscent of light of Campingplatz Sonnenwiese where non working hot water taps (we passed on the cold showers) were the exception. Not surprising, the campsite had a very decidedly empty feel to it. Referred by some as the center of cycling in Germany, we entered Münster by crossing over the Dortmund Canal. As we entered the city core, we passed one of the large bike store called Drahtesel. Alex was impressed enough to volunteer his services to shoot a video of the inside of the stores and I bought my wife an Axa bottle generator to power a matching B&M halogen headlamp. On passing the older section of Münster containing the town square we stopped for another scoop of gelato. We exited Münster by taking the bike route along the Dortmund Canal until we were force to abandoned the route due to construction and the coming of sunset. A short ride and wait at Camp Unbekante (a.ka. Niehues Erwin) resulted in a car pulling up with the owners of camp returning from shopping. The camp was situated by a waterway with tall hedges indicating many long term residents. Again our campsite was situated by a river probably about 10 feet from the water's edge.

Sept 30: The road "not" to Düsseldorf
The North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen) region is the heart of energy production in Germany but also a large consumer of energy related to heavy industry. The preloaded "tracks" on a GPS are like highlighters used on paper maps. We decided on a more westerly route to Grevenbroich. As preloaded tracks did not anticipate this change and the "real time" navigation abilities of the GPS (and in combination with me) were questioned, we began to use good old paper maps. These were gifted to us by a helpful man while we trying to get orient ourselves on a quiet Sunday morning in Olfen. He would not accept money for the maps, we did the next best thing and sat down with him to a treat of coffee at the local bakery. He had done a wide range of car travel over the years and talk ensued by him trading travel stories and "highlights" with Alex...somewhat like comparing "battle scars".

We continue west of Olfen to Ahsen and then headed south and just east of Recklinghausen but west of Herne. As we came to Rhein-Herne Canal we travel about 10 km east along the canal until just before Gelsen and cycled south along a bike path that also served to transport gas via pipeline. This made for easy cycling through some areas that were a combination of older industrialized areas along with new. The cycling was fast and with time on our hands we detoured to see the UNESCO heritage site of Zollverein cited for its industrial design. In this area, there was a scarcity of camps and we found that a hostel could be had in the town of Werden. As is customary (sic Rik), this hostel was placed at the top of a very steep hill that I ended up walking up. Alex did much better and rode half-way up before the notion that an exhausting climb would invariably result in a situation of "hurry up and wait" (for Ray). The room we stayed in housed four occupants in about one third the space of the hostel from the week before. From this point, we again found overlapping and well signed bike paths pointing toward Düsseldorf.

Sept 30: The road to Düsseldorf
As we headed south passed the outer regions of Düsseldorf (west of the Rhine) we came across an impressive fountain of water shooting sideways from a fish with its mouth pulled open by the hand of sculpture (Triton-Brunnen). For the first time in the trip, we saw the Rhine River . It was marked by an immense bridge joining both of the developed banks of the river. The river was much wider than the Dortmund canal and it was easy to spot larger number barges traversing its length.

We made our way toward the Kyll River Cycle Route (Rik's recommendation) and the fact that the Rhine meandered in a westerly (non-preferred) direction (away from the Kyll) had us also add in the Erft cycle route. We would follow the Rhine until Neuss where the Erft River emptied into the Rhine and make our way to Grevenbroich. As mentioned, in this region, the bike routes stored in the GPS were few and use of "autopilot" route features resulted in us taking meandering regular roads shared by cars. The early experience with the predictability of the GPS unit finding a direct and quiet route had changed and we found us trusting the unit less and less. We were in need of better data but needed a home computer to do so. As it turned out, the Erft River turned out to be almost a stream in some sections with the valley route not signed clearly. The GPS came back into use at this point by following blue lines that represented established bike paths. The only complication was that these lines would vanish and re-appear depending on the level of zooming on the small 1.5"x2" screen...yes...yes...paper maps have their place in this world. The net result was that the tried and true method of asking locals was put to use: This "style" of navigation eventually led us to sports facility where the locals thought we might be able to pitch a tent for the night. When we actually got there, the groundskeeper was wary about how his superiors might react if he let us camp in the grounds. Eventually someone in the group pointed out a nearby spot completely hidden from view amongst some trees: Guerrilla camp #3 with all the stealth qualities and empty bear bottles that often mark the more public spots.

The next morning revealed lit views of large coal fired electric generating stations that we had passed the night before. These huge structures were very similar to my memory of newspaper clips of the wide curvy towers from the infamous Three Mile Island generating station in the States. With lack of paths and clear maps of the Erft cycle route, we altered our plans to travel back toward the faster (and more obvious) route along the Rhine River and thus head back east towards Köln. I would get to see the massive Dome Cathedral mentioned and seen before the trip from borrowed library videos. Along this route, we came across views of both large and small roads.

Oct 1:Köln
As we got near the city, it seemed as if all outlying roads converged toward it. We found some smooth paths that were slightly downhill with a tail wind. It all made for a fast morning of cycling with some of the highest average speeds of the trip. We arrived at the large square surrounding the Cathedral on Thursday afternoon with about week left in the trip. Could we fit in Trier and make it back to Frankfurt...but first we had to get to Koblenz. These are things to best be pondered while sitting down in the grand majesty of the church and while riding along the Rhine. In the late afternoon, we rode to just beyond Bonn and camp at a well kept campsite on the edge of the Rhine.

Before continuing with this tale, I have to take a tangent and talk about the topic of "getting lost", or rather, losing contact with your cycling companion. I write this about 2 months after our return to Canada and perhaps time will lend some objectivity. For each occurrence of "getting lost", the relevant sections below have been indented and the font reduced to highlight those interesting times:

With the predictability of staying on the path adjacent to the Rhine, the possibility of getting "lost" decreases but does not entirely dissapear: Earlier on our attempted Erft route, the constant juggling/consultation of maps made for a rather unsteady ride filled with numerous breaks at 2 km intervals. The Rhine afforded a more constant tempo with fewer stops every six to ten km. Over the course of the first two weeks, Alex or I would pull over to take a picture while the other continue riding at a slower/constant tempo to allow the other to catch up. This was the very manner in which we met Rik from Belgium as I mistakened him for Alex doing one of his up tempo synchronizations. You might term this as "Click and Hurry up". By the end of the trip the photo stats had me taking some nine hundred pics and Alex easily trebling this count. As the stats can testify, I often slowed/waited as Alex snapped his additional pics. It was during one of these intervals where Alex did not re-appear that I made a rather ill-thought-out decision to continue riding despite not having seen Alex for about twenty minutes(not unusual). I entrusted the simplicity of the path running along the Rhine to sync us up and would continue but just ride a little slower. Another 20 minutes past (still no Alex) and the sensation of "continuousness" enveloped me...could I do an hour? I continued. After an hour of riding, I stopped. Ten minutes past and Alex caught up...but was obviously upset for me losing contact for that hour. As I apologized, Alex cautioned me that we could have just as easily to have not found each other (due to some unforeseen detour) and lose further time from our tightening schedule that now added in the Trier leg to the schedule.

This topic was to continue in Koblenz over dinner and later when we retired for the night in our tent: Partnerships, whether on a ride or in marriage, often have differing temporal priorities. One much admired canoeist is a Canadian named Bill Mason. As much he loved paddling with his wife and friends, he was quoted that "time on his own" was the only way that he could achieve a inner solitude that his soul periodically craved. Different priorities ? A combination of one person being more into the ride and the other more oriented toward capturing the 'moment' ? It covered the gamut from what to do in the future incidents to the possibility of "doing our own thing" over the last week . Foreshadowing, anyone ?

Oct 2:Koblenz
Along the Rhine, we would be riding faster than the barges that average about 18km/hr along the river. The path took us through some of the areas where the barges loaded up and refueled. Quite often these areas contained train tracks that would then shuttle these loads inland. We arrived in Koblenz and camped out at a site located right at the juncture of the Rhine River with the Mosel River. After setting up camp, we rode into town to purchased train tickets (for the next day) and to have a Thai dinner complimented by two glasses of the most expensive tap water that we could find. It was in Koblenz that I had the first problems with my knee locking up from some acute kneeling movements while setting up the tent. The result was a dull ache from within the knee not unlike that of a bruise. Previous experiences indicated that things would most likely be fine for cautious riding in the morning.

Week Three/

Oct 3:Trier/Trintenheim
In the morning, we took a path through the less trafficked pedestrian malls and took some daytime views of sights that we had faintly seem under the cover of darkness from the previous night. We arrived early and secured our bikes to the vertical stainless steel posts using the retractable straps. The cabin quickly filled with other bikes and we made our way to the observation deck to watch our progress to Koblenz following the Mosel River. The masterful engineering of the trains was evident in their quietness and speeds that were often at 100km/hr. Over the course of 90 minutes, I shot one video and Alex many pics.

It was not until we arrived (12:15pm) at the Trier station(ignore the Koblenz caption) that I realized that our tickets had not been checked by anyone. Despite putting these items away for ready display, I thought that if public transport were ever to be a birth right, it would have exactly this feel. At the station, a bike rental shop had been setup within the interior with a group of about ten waiting on their bikes. I went up to one of the mechanics to borrow a larger wrench to tighten up the slack bottom bracket bearings that had been squeaking for attention over the previous 3 days.

Although, we had earlier seen the influence of Romans on the country of Germany, it was here that they first established Trier as a gateway into the country. Some of the buildings could be described as old and some as ancient . The square was abuzz with activity despite many of the shops being closed as is traditionally done on weekends. Equally busy were the churches with their majesty attracting all. Trier was definitely colder as we started off along the Mosel on what could be termed the "worst section of pavement" next to the equally bad section just north of Koblenz, It would have been typical fare in my city back in North America but we had been spoiled by this point. We arrived at a campground in Trintenham to be greeted by a welcoming and warm groundskeeper who put our tent on the north-west corner of lawn surrounding his property. With few provisions, we were directed to a cozy restaurant nestling a laneway. The only seats open were those by the bar and we sat down and waited for a table to open up. A couple from Holland were winding down the dinner with a fine local Riesling and invited Alex and I to join them in their booth. We ordered and had a wide ranging discussion of taxes, retirement, travel, France, and fine wines for the next half hour. After dinner, Alex headed back to camp but I lingered around with coffee and desert. The cool night featured a full moon with fast moving clouds dancing everywhere about the backlit sky. We were on the final leg of our trip heading toward Frankfurt: The route would take us past Koblenz along the Mosel River bike path after having spent an evening at the one of the best stops on our trip. Life is beautiful.

Oct 4:Bernkastel-Kues
We were tipped on supplies being available in the town of Bernkastel-Kues with their regular afternoon farmers market. On the way there, Alex and I continued alternating taking leads as the other stopped to snap views along the Mosel. It was during one of these exchanges that Alex and I separated (again) with Alex out front. Around this stretch, we were saw stretches of the bike path being laid down to offer a faster bypass around the traditional routes that wound through the towns.

It was during one of these forks that I think we took our own separate paths. With my knee still being a question mark, my more moderate pace meant that things would be fine providing Alex continue to stop and take pictures. It turned out that Alex had decided to push ahead to the town market after not reconnecting within our customary period. This plan revealed itself to me as cyclists (some opting for completing the return leg of a day loop by boat) reported the "split times" of a red coated bearded man on a drop handlebar bicycle (not many in Germany) with a full set of front and rear pannier bags.

Oct 5:Cochem...lost for good
In the morning, we found an cool overcast day and got started early to gain time on any possible rainfall. In Cochem, we found ourselves only about 35 km from Koblenz by noon. I stopped for a coffee at a cafe whose specialty was gelato based deserts. The owner ask me about my trip and revealed that he was an avid cyclist and was planning some trips in Italy as soon as the cafe shut down in a couple of weeks. We continued riding took small breaks about each half an hour depending on whether there were available shelters, such as a bridge, to dry out from the rain. The coffee break was to serve me well over the course of the entire afternoon. With my knee feeling fine, energy to spare and the drizzle washing out picture taking opportunities, we cycled steadily. As the wind picked up and the rain intensified, we found another stretch of the bike path where shelter was rare...we rode.

I rode ahead this time and kept warm by increasing the pace. After an hour of riding, I found a large tree on the other side of the roadway and crossed over to take shelter and to change out of my drenched water resistant jacket. I waited for Alex in the knowledge that he had an extra waterproof poncho that he had been carrying since the start of the trip. About 5 minutes passed when I saw Alex approaching on the other side of the roadway. I anticipated him stopping but I think, with the rain and wind, he missed me. I got back on my wet jacket and started riding after him but the two minutes I spent were enough for us to lose each other (again).

At this time, I was on the cold side and Alex was probably quite warm (and dry in his rainproof poncho). With him not knowing that I was behind, it made for an interesting puzzle as to whether he would solve the mystery of my disappearance. At each of the few bridges I looked for Alex but more to dry out from the rain and to warm from the increasingly cold/wet windy chill. My choice of equipment was failing me. Around 3pm and close to Koblenz, I took cover in a Restaurant and had a leisurely meal to allow my clothes to dry up. After this, I borrowed the computer from a small hotel to send e-mail instructions to Alex to sync up at the Koblenz train station at 10 am the next day and to notify Oliver to relay any messages that he might get from Alex. I eventually located a poncho at a Car dealership and this allowed me to stay damp (versus soaked) until my 7pm arrival back into Koblenz . Again, I took a leisurely dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant and waited out the rain and let my damp clothes to dry out. I found the Koblenz campground from 3 days earlier and checked in around 10pm to put new meaning into the word "leisurely". The male owner told me that Alex had been by around 4pm and was directed to a choice of two hotels somewhere in Koblenz. It was not until morning, that I found from owner's wife that Alex had altered his plans and would find a hotel in the next little town. It turned out that Alex was in town to secure goods to fix a mechanical bike problem. I continued to the Koblenz station hoping that he might have received my messages from the day before...this was not to be. We would continue our trip on separate paths.

Oct 6:Ingelheim/Bingen
At 10am in front of the station, I have a take-out breakfast and waited to see if Alex might show. After about an hour, I figure "No Alex" and go back into Koblenz to pick up food as most the goods picked up earlier in Zell were in his panniers. By noon, I'm back on the smooth path laid out next to the Rhine and begin cycling as the heavy rain starts. For the entire course of that day, it basically rained. For my effort I took a rare picture that day...if you look closely, you'll see a cloud that hovered above me as I cycled south along the Rhine. I decided that whatever the conditions, I would ride and not stop until reaching Bingen. This town sits at bottom of the low lying section of the Rhine: Just north and higher in elevation were roadways leading to an ancient monastery (Kloster Eberbach). Despite the late start, I made time around 4pm for coffee and pushed on. By 6pm with about about 15 km to go from Bingen, more supplies were picked up at roadside supermarket. Dusk was in full swing and it had become dark quickly. With a GPS in one hand and bike mounted flashlight, I found that smooth pavement made night riding along pitch black paths possible. I eventually pulled into a campsite and met Michael from Duisburg preparing his dinner at 8pm at night. His adventure was stopped early due to mechanical problems with his fully loaded trailer.

Oct 7:Kloster/Wiesbaden
The next morning, the sun came out and warmed everything. In two hours, the wet clothes and panniers from the night before were dry and ready to be mounted back on the bike. Michael packed up his tent and waited for his sister to arrive to pick up his heavy load. His sister called at 10 am in the morning to inform him that he would need to wait another two hours as a bad car accident had jammed the roadways: Time for another coffee. By noon, I was off and doubled back on part of my path in the daylight from the night before to a ferry crossing just outside of Bingen. Two weekend cyclists asked about my loaded bike and were impressed enough by scope of the trip to treat me to a ferry ride on them. Just another example of the German spirit and friendliness of people that I encounted during the trip. As for Alex, he had stayed at a hostel and met up with an fella named Marco from Italy who had the worst luck with rain but nothing that a the few plastic bags could not solve.

As I cycled on quiet roads towards Kloster Eberbach, the view became very beautiful and serene. Even a walled compound took on the feel. On arrival of the monastery, I stopped by the wine shop and afterwards quickly toured the grounds of the site on bike. (I later found that some of the most impressive aspects of the monastery were the interior design and architecture...next time). I exited the monastery along a cobbled pathway around 4pm and made my way toward the Hauptbahnhof train station. The 6:40 pm departure would have me back in Mühlheim by 8pm. The night ended when I had both Oliver and Daniella delay their dinner hour so that Alex and I could have a final meal together at a pasta buffet before our flight the next day.

Exit/
From the first forested bike path, just 300m off the busiest airport in Germany, we tried to ride as much as possible...even if it meant ignoring the common sense advice of Oliver. Our exit plan was to ride back to the Frankfurt airport to catch our train and again Oliver recommend that we take the train. We rode toward downtown Frankfurt and a drizzle reminded us of how quickly the weather might change and we finally took Olivers advice and took the train at the Ledermuseum stop to catch our flight.

Three weeks of relaxed cycling in Germany had given both Alex and I a chance to really soak in the countryside and experience both the people and culture of Germany. Cheers!!!