No cycling this morning, instead we took a boat trip from Koblenz to Boppard and back.
First of all, though, we had to walk to Deutsches Eck. The long route involves going over the Balduinbrücke (bridge) but there’s a shorter option via little passenger ferry, which James and I and Poppy took. 1€ each for James and I, 50 cents for Poppy.
Once on the other side we watched the ferry return to the north side of the Mosel where it was picking up the in-laws shortly.
Here is the ferry with M-i-L in white cap and F-i-L to her right. In the background you can see the very complicated boat-launching tracks.
Heading up the steps to the Deutsches Eck monument.
Dog and human in the middle window of the three tall ones!
And then we walked along from Deutsches Eck to find our ship for the day.
A bit of info on the bridge just down from the boat’s mooring. One we destroyed in WW2.
Poppy enjoying the vantage point
With a convenient headrest
This is the point of land that Helen got ‘stuck’ on her first long ride.
More dozing dog
Approaching one of the bridges – there are two that cross the Rhein here and none southwards for a long way (past Bingen/Rüdesheim); you have to use ferries after this point.
Looking up to the cycle path on the railway bridge – complete with holes!
This tour guide told us that this building contains 15 million litres of beer!
Dog on a different, comfy lap. You can see from the blue square with the flashing light on the left hand side of this picture that our boat was on the wrong side of the river! They use this system to show that they are driving on the left, not right, because of turning/current issues.
This is the cafe we had stopped at the day before.
This is where the Lahn flows into the Rhein. A fairly nondescript junction for a rather pretty river. Burg Lahneck in the distance.
Schloss Stolzenfels – impressive!
An attractive church at Braubach (I think!)
Marksburg Castle at Braubach.
Vineyards between Spey and Boppard, called the Bopparder Hamm.
Boppard landing stages – the ship stopped for just a couple of minutes.
We had got a bit chilly on the journey so decided to enjoy the return trip (which was half the time as it was going downstream) downstairs with some food and beer/wine.
James the sailor was very impressed by this rope repair – a huge, thick rope repaired by a very thin piece.
The boat on our return.
This sculpture / fountain in one of the main squares of Koblenz depicts the history of the city in layers.
Rude spitting-boy fountain! We hoped to trick Poppy into getting wet (whilst I stayed out of the fountain aim) but she wasn’t in the right place when he did his spitting act!
James and Poppy outside the bike shop where we purchased a back tyre for the trike and some waterproof SPD shoes for James.
Our goodies from the bike shop!
A restorative cake each.
We got back at 5pm and Poppy had been awake the entire day, which is exceptionally unusual (she spends a lot of the day asleep). In consequence she was absolutely shattered and jumped straight into her basket for a snooze.
Whilst we went downstairs and fitted the shiny new back tyre to the trike. The bumpy wheel bumps no longer!
We obviously had to go for a ride to test this out so James and I headed northwards towards Sankt Sebastian (where we bumped into the in-laws coming back – they’d been for a ride whilst we fitted the tyre) and then we came back inland which involved cycling past some nice fields which eventually turned into cycling through an industrial estate (less nice) which had a whole row of caravans parked beside the road which we soon realised were a troupe of travelling prostitutes. It’s surprising what you find on bike rides!
Once we got back Alfie was disassembled (seat and both front wheels removed which also involves removing the disk calipers) and put in the car ready for the full packing job tomorrow morning as we return home from Koblenz. It’s been a great holiday with lots of good cycle rides and I can certainly recommend the Lahntal route for a very enjoyable and picturesque (and downhill!) route!
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