SPEZI 3 – Bad Breisig to St Goar

Wednesday 22 April 2015

Bad Breisig to St Goar map

Today was going to be a lot cooler, according to the weather forecast, so we fortified ourselves with breakfast in our fab Guest House.

This was sitting in the dining room off the kitchen – a wonderful English country-style kitchen with aga-type oven (called a Falcon). We had bread rolls, cheese and ham and she cooked scrambled eggs for Klaus who is eating minimal carbohydrates at the moment. But we also had as part of breakfast some cake!

Whilst we were finishing breakfast Nigel arrived on his trike & trailer from the campsite and our landlady gave him a cuppa too.

A small amount of trike fettling took place (Simon sorted my bar-end shifter which was a bit too slack) and then we gathered for the landlady to take a photo of us.

We set off with the Rhine to our left again, in a rather cloudy and chilly day with some wind.

After a short distance a recumbent two-wheeler appeared in our rear view mirrors. He said hello to Joyce and Simon at the back and they said there were German speakers at the front so the rider soon came alongside me – and I recognised him. We had met at the Trike Treffen last May. He, too, was on his way to SPEZI and we had a good chat. Michael had set off from Osnabrück on Monday and ridden 170km the first day. Today he was heading to Bingen so rode with us until Boppard – it was great to have him to chat to although our speed was notably less than he usually rides at.

Today had a few obstacles – steep inclines with hairpin bends and Drängelgitter appeared occasionally. For the trikes they can be a bit awkward but Nigel with his trailer had quite a lot more bother with them but he always manages to get through.

We had a cheery hello from these chaps chainsawing a fallen tree. One of them had to reverse the van a fair way so we could get past.

Soon we were riding on what were to me very familiar tracks as I had a week’s holiday in Koblenz with the bike a couple of years ago. We crossed the bridge over the Mosel and were soon in Koblenz at Deutsches Eck.

We created quite a stir with the tourists who were photographing us – but we had an interesting display from a Viking Cruise Ship which was broadside across the river, travelling downstream with the current before powering up and heading down the Mosel. Clever driving!

Here we all are in formation.

And then we lined up in front of the statue of Kaiser Wilhelm. Photo taken by Michael our two-wheeled companion.

We continued on along the impressive waterfront in Koblenz which was abloom with beautiful tulips.

Klaus knew of a good café in Koblenz so we headed there for a burger and cup of tea. The staff were really friendly and helpful and we had a good relaxing break there. The six recumbents parked outside caused a lot of interest for passers-by.

Klaus had been regularly assumed to be British as he was travelling with four Brits which caused great horror to him, so whilst he’d popped to a chemist for some After Sun we fixed one of my cycling buffs, which has a Union Jack flag on it, to his flagpole. He didn’t notice until we were parking the bikes up for the evening. Here is Killer his trike flying the British flag!

Between Koblenz and Rhens there’s a long cobbled section which really rattles your teeth out. Klaus’s Wild One trike has front suspension which makes a real difference so Simon tried it out.

More obstacles!

We reached Boppard and with 15 more kilometres to do it was time for cake, so I led us to a Konditorei that had been my furthest point on my first ever cycle tour of the Rhine. At this point Michael carried on as he was heading to Bingen today.

Joyce and Simon each had one of these.

I had this lovely strawberry cake with cream.

Simon had to do a bit of fettling of Joyce’s trike when we came out as the mudguard was being really rattly. Here is his excellent ratchet allen key set!

However it turned out she now had a broken mudguard stay.

The answer was to take the mudguard off and throw it away!

We just had to find a bin!

We rolled into St Goar and found our hotels.

Then after a bit of a break it was time for food. Soup:

And our main courses.

      

We have 80km to ride tomorrow and we will also tomorrow say goodbye to Nigel who feels it sensible to have a rest day as his knees are complaining a little. He’ll travel with us as far as Mainz and then stop there for a day.

Today was a great day and despite the cooler weather we saw lots of wonderful scenery – the river, castles, vineyards – and cake!

Total distance today was 74.1km at an average speed of 14.2 km/h which took us 5 hours 14 minutes.

3 comments

  1. A bit late now, but – a metal clotheshanger from a drycleaner? Probably a thinner gauge and hard to bend/cut but the mudguard fastenings should cope.

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