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Rhine Bike Trip Narrative 10 August – 2 September 2015

Maggie & Ralph in the French countryside with the Haut-Koenigsbourg Castle in the background 10 August 2015, Monday, Flight from Albuquerque to Atlanta Well, we’re off on a new adventure, biking along the Rhine (Rhein) River between Cologne (Köln), Germany and Basel, Switzerland. This trip came about when I received an email from Piotr, a young Pole I had first met on my Orient Express bike trip (Paris to Istanbul) in 2007, on which Piotr served as bike mechanic and route marker. A couple years later he sponsored his own bike ride around Poland which I missed. But I signed up for his second go at it the next summer. Unfortunately, he had to cancel the trip due to lack of participation as a result of the economic downturn. Piotr told me another guy, a Brit called Stewart, still wanted to do the ride self-supported. So I contacted Stewart and we did it with Piotr providing maps and a list of hotels. I also rented a touring bike from Piotr’s dad who owned a bike shop in Gdansk. The third time I ran into Piotr was on TDA’s (Tour d’Afrique’s) Amber Road tour (St. Petersburg to Venice) where Piotr worked the Poland segment. He and his brother had taken over their dad’s bike shop and Piotr had gotten married. Now, he’s running this trip and it sounds like fun. I thought it would be a great trip for Maggie as it has considerable more biking than our Borneo trip last December, but the days are still reasonable for an experienced biker, plus there is no camping and we can rent touring bikes from Piotr which simplifies our logistics. I was interested in the trip because I wanted to support Piotr’s new enterprise and the route is new to me, only crossing once with one of my previous trips near the source of the Danube (surprisingly only 40 miles from the Rhine) [the town of Colmar, France proved to be the actual crossing point]. I have done my usual research which I shared with Maggie. Maggie took a different tack and has been learning German! For the past couple months, she has been

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listening to German-language lessons pretty much every day and seems to be retaining a surprising amount. I tried a few of her lessons and have been surprised at how my high school and college German has come back (weak though it ever was). Despite this I’m not expecting much as everything still sounds foreign when confronting a German in his/her natural habitat as I’ve found on past visits. However, every little bit helps. One of the other reasons I am looking forward to this trip is that Piotr gets most of his customers from past TDA tour participants. On this trip a half dozen of the 23 riders are past acquaintances and a few were good biking buddies on previous trips … it’ll be fun to see them again. Our route today heads from Albuquerque to Atlanta and thence to Amsterdam and Cologne where we’ll meet up with our group on Wednesday. We’re hoping our international leg is more comfortable than our United flights to Borneo last December. I just read an article discussing the cost-cutting measures United instituted after merging with Continental and the customer complaints they received. Good! ‘cause I was one of them! 11 August 2015, Tuesday, Cologne, GERMANY I’m beat! It was a 3¾ movie flight to Amsterdam and we landed to a gray and overcast sky. Maggie orders a special veggie meal when she flies which is always served before the other cabin meals. Her dinner meal seemed in line with mine; however, her breakfast was probably three times the size of mine. I was surprised at her large veggie sandwich, a banana, and orange juice. Seeing it made my salivary glands awaken and take notice. However, when my little box was delivered, no such bounty was revealed therein. So while I watched Maggie struggle to get her mouth around her substantial breakfast sandwich, I dabbed a bit of jam on my small dinner roll and tried not to whine. [This disparity was repeated on our homeward flights making me wonder if I should become a vegetarian when flying.] Just after breakfast I began feeling punk. I had developed a headache while watching movies but that wouldn’t account for it. I developed a general malaise and began sweating. All the food was pre-packed and I didn’t have an upset stomach, so it was hard to finger my breakfast as the culprit despite the timing. Finally we landed and walking to the gate for our flight to Cologne, I began to feel a bit better and by the time we reached Cologne I felt much better. I have no idea what that might have been. We took the train from the airport to Cologne’s main station and walked to our hotel under a still gray sky. Too early for check-in, we left our bags in storage and ventured out. We headed to the Rhine just a few blocks to the east and wandered through old town back toward the bridge our train crossed from the airport. By this time the sky had cleared and the sun was out. We could see the sparkle of thousands of colorful padlocks covering the fence on the bridge dividing the pedestrians from the train tracks. Although I had not previously read about this local custom, I suspect it’s the same as the bridge in Paris (and other places) where young lovers of all ages signify their abiding affection with this quaint symbol. In this age of marital inconstancy, I can only guess that the custom abides only because it’s such a good excuse for a selfie. In fact, in Paris (I think it was), officials snipped the locks off one popular bridge as their sheer weight were undermining the strength of the bridge.

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After crossing and re-crossing the bridge, we headed to the enormous Dom which dominates Cologne’s downtown. The inside is as impressive as its exterior; I particularly liked the tall and colorful stained glass windows. The church was jam-packed with tourists and, possibly as a result of this, I did not feel the peace I often get when entering such structures of man’s accomplishments to their faith in a supreme being. Or perhaps, it was just that the crush of tourists had eliminated the pleasant coolness you generally experience when entering a stone edifice. We circumambulated the open structure and vamoosed. I pointed out to Maggie one notable oddity which I have seen before in other churches. Several sarcophagi (or perhaps mere replicas of the original coffins) showed effigies of their notable contents lying prone, face up with folded hands – a typical pose. But then we passed an effigy of a bishop lying on his side, propped up by an elbow, and with legs akimbo – his whole manner somewhat relaxed. I had read somewhere that a point came where “the powers that be” (that seemingly omnipresent and powerful “they”) decided that viewers could not enjoy the full countenance of these interred notables when they were sculpted lying on their backs and so opted for a (much) more informal pose. I for one feel they overdid it. Upon leaving the Dom, we began a search for a bite. I was feeling a bit weak from my earlier malaise and needed sustenance. We checked out a couple sandwich places, but nothing looked good (or particularly fresh) and after an inordinate amount of searching, finally decided on a Thai place just opening for lunch. Part of the choice was that we could read the menu. It has been my experience in Germany that the Germans are much less scrupulous about providing translation on menus, in museums, at bus/train stations, etc. Although the situation seems improved since my last trip to Germany, I’m still finding problems in understanding menus. In the past, it has been my wont to just eat the misunderstandings. However, with Maggie’s vegetarianism, this strategy doesn’t work so well. Anyhow, the Thai food was good and will carry us to breakfast on the morrow. By then, it was nearly check-in time and so we did. After a short nap (which could easily have been extended for hours), we were up and going. After some consultation we decided to visit the Chocolate Museum. Maggie’s daughter Allyson had suggested it was a “must see” in Cologne, so we did. Although Willie wasn’t there today, it is indeed a factory and a museum. The designers have done a great job. The museum was built in an old customs house on a spit of land in the Rhine, a great location with views for miles up and down the river from the top floors. In typical (or stereotypical) German style, the presentation of the history, industry development, production, and selling of chocolate is extremely thorough. We spent two hours, but could easily have spent two more had we explored and read everything. Particularly good were the English translations with many fewer errors than is normally seen and the attention to entertaining and educational exhibits for the younger set. We saw lots of kids of all ages there and almost all, from tots to teens, seemed absorbed in chocolate in all its phases. Perhaps the most interesting aspect to us was the actual chocolate factory in full production mode with Plexiglas viewing ports at key junctures so you can watch the whole process with explanatory placards every step of the way. At the end, the chocolate not formed into bite-size squares, chilled, cut, wrapped and stacked, flowed to a chocolate fountain into which a worker dipped a wafer cookie for each guest to sample … and it was luscious chocolate.

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By the time we closed the museum, we were knackered but still took some time to explore another old church on the way back to our hotel. Tomorrow we ready our rental bikes and meet Piotr and the other riders. Today, we ran into Ken, a fellow Orient Express alumnus, and met his wife Barbara – they will be our only tandem couple. I’m looking forward to meeting other old friends tomorrow. 12 August 2015, Wednesday, Cologne We slept hard from 9:30 pm to 6:30 am and awoke to our alarm, a surprise for both of us early risers … and felt we could sleep some more. At breakfast we met a few more riders including Gaye, with whom I rode the second half of the Orient Express tour, and her husband Ian from Alberta. After a leisurely breakfast we headed out, first to St. Gereon’s, what our tour book called the best of Cologne’s Romanesque churches (the Rhine was generally the limit of eastern expansion for the Romans in northern Europe). On the way we stopped to inspect an ancient Roman tower being used as one side of a modern office building – you have to wonder why someone would do this … esthetics? The brick designs built into the tower were interesting as were the lighter areas which had obviously been renovated. Already it can be seen that these renovated areas aren’t going to last as long as the original brick and stone. A caretaker had just opened the church to a group with a large camera preparing for some type of shoot, and we took advantage to slip inside for a brief inspection. It is an interesting church which has been renovated multiple times including the repair from Allied bombing in WW II. Notable were the stained-glass windows which had damaged pieces replaced with clear glass giving the windows an odd appearance and a large metal bird adorning a baptismal font in a side room that was shaped more like a duck than a dove. We also passed through a small green park where a large Romanesque stone head, probably six-foot high, lay on its side with nothing to tell from whence it came. This quarter-block sized park also claimed a free lending library housed in a glass door bookcase on the sidewalk – a heartwarming sight. From St. Gereon’s we traipsed back past the magnificent Dom to the Altstadt Rathaus (old town government house) where a wedding had just taken place. Here we wandered around for a short while before realizing it was time for our 11 am bike fittings. Most folks showed up for the fittings. It was nice seeing Piotr again and we met Paval who had grown up with Piotr in Gdansk before moving to Berlin when he was seven-years-old – they have remained buddies and Paval is using his August holiday to staff for Piotr. Later at our evening meeting we met Marta and Marek both from Gdansk, who round out the staff. I get the impression that many of the riders have done at least one of Piotr’s trips, so it was like old home week. The bikes are fine although Maggie’s seat is softer and wider than she’d like. After adjusting them to fit us and attaching Maggie’s bike computer, we headed out for the afternoon. Our target this time was the Wallraf-Richartz Museum of fine art. Starting on the second floor you worked your way up through the centuries. The information provided the painting’s associations with Cologne where it made sense. The earlier pieces were mostly on a religious theme which often gets old quick for me, but the gallery has some interesting stuff and we worked our way through. The top floor held newer works

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including the Impressionists which both Maggie and I like, and they had some nice pieces in a smallish collection. Then it was back to the room for a nap (I’m still feeling the jet lag) and then out for an evening meal. We found a German restaurant with English menus. Maggie ordered fried fish over orange-fennel and polenta and I had pork medallions with spätzel (a type of German pasta) and a nice salad. We’ll need to watch our cash as meals here are a bit pricy. Piotr said Cologne has the most expensive hotel accommodations on the trip. During our wanderings the past two days we were on the lookout for stolperstein or “stumbling blocks,” little brass plagues embedded into the street showing where the Nazis arrested and “disappeared” people. Each shows the name and DOB/DOD. There are reportedly 30,000 throughout the city, but we stumbled over only two, though one had multiple names – sober reminders of the recent past. For our 7 pm riders’ meeting, we walked to a small café where Piotr treated everyone to a drink and explained how he runs his rides. We have decent maps along with explicit riding directions, but there will be no marking tape placed along the route. The rides are relatively short, averaging fifty kilometers per day (which is only about thirty miles). I know we have some riders who will have no trouble with the miles, but it sounds like it’ll be a challenge for a few. One way or another we begin our adventure tomorrow by riding to Bonn, the previous capital city of the old West Germany. 13 August 2015, Thursday, Bonn, bike 40 km (25 mi) Our first riding day was pretty laid back. We were again shocked awake by our alarm at 6 am. After a leisurely breakfast and packing time, we all met at 8:45 to help load the van, pick up our sack lunches, and retrieve last minute items for the bikes such as locks, spare inner tubes, and a small pump for me. It was typical first ride dithering, but we were soon ready to go. Though there is no reason to all start a ride together, that is often what happens on the first day. It reminds me of a flock of birds getting ready to migrate: a general nervous anticipation riffles through the flock which gradually increases along with movement and vocalizations. Then several of the flock make false starts, often alighting a bit further towards the destination direction, until finally one and then another and then others and finally all take off. Such was our first leave taking. The first lesson was how to follow a German bike path through town that meanders in ways not always expected: from a nicely painted lane on the street adjacent to traffic to a quick transition onto a section of side walk delineated by red bricks. Many initially missed these sharp little turns and found themselves in traffic. Maggie and I had been educated yesterday as pedestrians when we were almost run over a couple times by bicyclists flying down the red brick bike lanes—they are not obvious to a casual visitor. Stewart (with whom I have now done four bike trips) ended up in front all the way out of town as he often is. He’s a perfect guy for it as he keeps a smooth, slow pace, waits for those who get caught at stop lights, has a great sense of direction, and seems to intuit the nuances of the directions. There were several places where I would have been confused. After several kilometers we reached the Rhine, all but invisible beyond a wooded curtain, and turned to parallel it south. Until the next small town we alternated between woods and agricultural fields, both of which reminded me of rural Indiana. We recognized butternut squash and several healthy thatches of corn.

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As we pedaled through our first town, we paused to allow everyone to catch up and a consensus was quickly reached to make this a coffee stop. Maggie and I decided to plunge ahead by ourselves and discovered immediately the difficulty in navigating in a small town. We missed the first turn, retraced our path, made the correct turn somewhat uncertainly, then missed the second turn and ended up circling back to where the coffee klatch was in progress. Beginning again, we made the first turn and then Maggie called the second turn which turned out to be a good call. From there we were shortly on the river bike trail which we held until we got to Bonn. The trail is great, right on the river, mostly paved, and easy to follow. When we reached Bonn, we turned off the river and with only one misstep found our hotel. We were the first of our group to arrive and, luckily, our room was ready so we moved in, showered and got ready to explore the area. Bonn could rate a full rest day; there is plenty to do so we had to prioritize. We first walked to the Altstadt which is mostly traffic-free. We passed by Beethoven’s house without recognizing it, viewed the impressive Rathaus and walked through the large Münster in the center of town before turning south to hike the almost two miles to the Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, a free museum that charts the history of East and West Germany from the end of the Second World War to the 1990 reunification. The museum is not old as the history is recent and it is first rate, covering all aspects of the division, separate evolutionary paths, and final steps toward reunification of the two political entities from political, economic, and cultural perspectives. We were much impressed. The introductory placards to each new area and the many sub-area placards were translated into English, but the voluminous material in the displays was not, so we were able to understand the general trends but not the interesting specifics – like viewing history through a glass darkly. In particular, had the many political cartoons and billboard displays provided translation, we would have enjoyed them more. Even so, we were a bit overwhelmed and ready to be done by the end. Before we left we picked up a brochure showing the “Path of Democracy,” a waking tour of the area pointing out the various West German government buildings. We passed a few of them as we made our way back to the Rhine and then headed north along it on an idyllic walking trail back to Bonn central. We had eaten Piotr’s sack lunch when we arrived at our hotel and neither of us was particularly hungry for an evening meal so we stopped at a grocery to get Maggie a yogurt and me a big drink of iced tea. We’re wondering how this is going to work the rest of the trip [as the trip progressed, we probably skipped about half of the evening meals]. We finally returned to the room around 7 pm to shower again and me to journalize and Maggie to email and load her photos. I suspect Morpheus will win again tonight in a no contest fight. 14 August 2015, Friday, Koblenz, bike 68 kms (42 mi) We had another beautiful ride along the Rhine today. Breakfast was pleasant; a sour cherry jam sent me back for a second breakfast roll (which were also tastier than the last two places). Maggie and I rolled out on our own though others were either just ahead or not far behind. After a brief pause of indecision we found the Rhine trail again which we followed, more or less, to Koblenz. The “more or less” is that sometimes the route

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diverted from the river for reasons known only to the trail planners – but I’m sure they are good ones. And then the biker is taken on a merry chase with lots of turns, not all of them intuitive. However, having learned this from the last couple of days makes it easier and more stress free to follow the route. Also today we realized that Piotr’s directions almost always follow the green Rhine bike trail signs which gives us another path finding clue (we’re becoming regular Natty Bumpos – a nod to Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales hero). However, we were not long on the Rhine trail before Maggie’s front tire went flat. We were just about finished fixing it when Piotr, Pavel and Marta rode up as sweep. This surprised us as we were sure there were other riders behind us. Anyhow, Piotr used his superior pump to fill the tire and we were off. But not ten kilometers later Maggie’s rear tire went flat. Each of us have been given one spare innertube apiece and we had used Maggie’s on the front, so I applied my spare to her rear wheel, but the bore of the spare’s stem was too wide to fit in the stem hole of the wheel! I was just starting to put the flat innertube back on when Piotr’s group rode up again. He put air into the flatted innertube and it held so, since they didn’t have a spare that would fit the wheel either, he put the old innertube back on, pumped it up, and it held. So we were off again and both tires held, but we lost some serious time. The route today was even prettier than yesterday. We entered what goes for a river gorge here in Germany. Well, we did begin seeing some nice hills on both sides occasionally, but the situation didn’t strike me as being “gorge” material. Nevertheless, it added depth to our long views and atop one decent hill was an old castle looming picturesquely against the sky. Approaching 3:30 pm we finally reached Koblenz. So far we have been riding south on the western side of the Rhine and the first indication we had of our destination was the Deutsches Eck, that point of land sticking into the confluence of the Mosel and Rhine rivers like the prow of a ship. Koblenz is uniquely situated. The Mosel River, only a bit narrower than the mighty Rhine at this juncture, has been paralleling the Rhine from the south, but here curves east to intersect the Rhine. The large spit of land formed by the parallel rivers is where Koblenz squats on a large peninsula. The Deutsches Eck is topped at its point by a massive metal monument, quite impressive when approaching from the north as we were. So we rounded the bend and headed up the Mosel to the first bridge, crossed it, and found our hotel on the main drag a block from the bridge. Another great location! After taking care of our metal steeds, checking in, unpacking, and showering, Maggie and I began our exploration of Koblenz. It is a delightful town to wander. We started in the Altstadt where we sought out the AmPlan where four 17th C. buildings with highly ornate facades dominate the four corners of a main market intersection. We were also just in time to see Augenroller do his thing. The Augenroller (or eye roller) is a round faced figure just below the clock on an old building. The figure’s eyes shift back and forth and then on the half hour, it sticks out its tongue a few times. These mechanical contraptions associated with clocks are common throughout Europe. We then took a walk along the Mosel to the Deutsches Eck to investigate the monument to German Emperor Wilhelm I and then wandered back to the main town area through a pleasant garden associated with the Ludwig Museum, housed in the 13th C. HQ of the Teutonic Knights, which boasts a giant bronze thumb maybe seven-foot tall – a

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photo-op if ever we saw one. We also poked our noses into a couple of old churches but came away unimpressed. After searching out a supermarket (no mean feat) and grabbing some drinks (me a 1.5 l bottle of ice tea, Maggie a carton of milk and a bottle of carrot juice that she mixed together in the room – ‘nuff said on that), we headed back to the room for me to write this and Maggie to continue the endless mining of her luggage which in Dante’s Inferno describes the fate of those who overpack. Thus another day… By the way, many hotels in Europe at this latitude have no A/C; our last two haven’t and they have been stifling. Maggie basks in heat so no problem there, but I find it a tad uncomfortable. Oh, also Maggie proved her superior shopping prowess by finding sunscreen at a €3 savings (I won’t tell you how many shops she had to search, but it was two). Kudos to Maggie! (However, I also won’t mention that the sunscreen was €17 for 200 ml of the stuff.) Sunscreen = sonnenschutz, thanks to the world wide web (= WWW). 15 August 2015, Saturday, Bacharach, bike 52 km (32 mi) Last night was the third room on this trip (that’s all of them) that has faced the main street. With no A/C in the first two and with the nights as warm as they’ve been, the only relief, slight as it’s been, has been to open the windows. This means we also get the street noise. Last night was the worst; it never got quiet. Our room looked right up a main entrance to the primary auto-free area of the Altstadt. With several storey buildings all along the main street coupled with the pedestrian way going into the Altstadt, it was like we were at the confluence of canyons and the noise reverberated up and down all night long. Often it was just people talking, but even this seemed magnified coming into our room. Luckily we both have ear plugs which we used last night, so we did get our required sleep. I’m just saying … After ensuring we had two usable spare inner tubes, we were off this morning dead last of the group. It was another beautiful morning as we made our way to the Mosel and followed it to its confluence with the Rhine and then it was southward along the river all day. This journey just keeps getting better. For the first ten kilometers or so, it seemed one continuous town along both sides of the river, but we soon entered more wooded areas with decent hills on both sides of the river and the towns either pressed next to the river or high up on a hill. Also, at least ten castles graced our route today in various stages of decay. Maggie and I were overtaking Susan (from my O.E. trip) and Pavel when we overheard they were going to explore Stolzenfels Castle high above us, so we decided to join them. We walked our bikes through a tunnel under the railroad that paralleled the bike trail, parked and locked them at the bottom of a long hill climb and walked up. The castle has a magnificent view of the Rhine gorge both up river and down all the way to Cologne. Unfortunately, the guided tour was given only in German at this time, but the guide provided an English-language brochure with short explanations of each room. Neither the castle nor the furnishings are in top condition but the tour does provide a sense of how the other half used to live. We were asked to slip our shoes into large felt slippers so as not to mar the gorgeous wood parquet floors, a touch I like better than doffing our shoes. Down from the castle, we again headed south into a stiff wind making the kilometers fly by less briskly than normal. About the time we arrived at St. Goar and the

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famous Loreley (or Lorelei) narrows, the sky had darkened to the point of threatening rain. Luckily except for a few misty drops, we dodged that bullet and made it to Bacharach dry. The Loreley myth tells of a maiden jilted by a fisherman who then ever after sits atop the sheer cliff singing sweet songs and luring boatmen to their doom in the boulder-strewn shallows beneath. Despite modern dredging techniques, this is still a treacherous stretch of the Rhine. Bararach is much smaller than previous stops. It feels and looks like a throwback to bygone days – quaint would be the operative word. Although we arrived by midafternoon, we found no grocery stores open and I found no place else to get a big drink to rehydrate so I settled for water in the room. After showering and eating our sack lunches, we headed out to explore. First up was a strenuous two mile hike around a signed trail following the city’s 14th C. wall. Our first leg was straight up the hillside at a steep pitch to an old castle (Bürg Stahleck) that now serves as a youth hostel. Again, great views in all directions. This is a prime German wine growing region and the extensive southern exposure at the gorge to the north was a patchwork of grape arbors in all stages of growth – it was a beautiful sight. We switch-backed down the heavily forested northern exposure. The wall along the river is still in use and solid allowing hikers to walk the full extent. Completing the circuit, we then wandered through the small town before stopping to eat: Maggie had salmon spaghetti and I had a so-so dessert. Tomorrow we ride into a break day which will be pleasant. 16 August 2015, Sunday, Mainz, bike 52 km (32 mi) It rained overnight and was still overcast and threatening when we rode out this morning. Wet cobblestones are not to be taken lightly on a bike, but they only lasted a few blocks. The town was dead even before we hit the hay last night and stayed that way throughout – no Saturday night revels here. We might have been first out of the docket this morning, but it was not to last as my front tire went flat six kilometers out. I was able to change it with minimal drama while getting plenty of sympathy as the rest of the crowd passed by in dribs and drabs. We were back on the trail just ahead of Piotr and his staff and rode with them the next ten kilometers to our ferry crossing where most of the others waited (Jules and his group had already stopped for coffee). While waiting I was able to catch up with Piotr – he now has a three-year-old girl! We crossed to the east side of the Rhine and rode the rest of the way to Mainz before crossing a bridge to the west side for the night. The river had turned east for this segment and at Mainz takes a ninety degree turn back to the south as the River Main merges with the Rhine from the east. We again passed multiple castles, both ruined and refurbished, along the river today and again saw quite a few swans and, for the first time, four storks in a field. Although we passed some industrial sites, the scenery was mostly a tourist’s delight. It remained overcast all day and even lightly sprinkled, but not enough to even dampen my shirt. Maggie and I were yet again first to arrive at the hotel and, after we showered and unpacked, we made our way to the Landes Museum for a couple hours. As luck would have it, all of Mainz’s museums are closed on Mondays which is our break day tomorrow. The Landes Museum was at the top of my pre-trip list and was just a couple blocks away so we went for it. Again only the main placards were in English and the

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collection was only so-so, but the focus of the museum was to trace the history of art appreciation in the Mainz area and I thought it did this well. The museum had a temporary exhibit focusing on a local knight during the early Reformation that was interesting but would have been more so in English. After closing the museum, we headed to the train station to look for a place to buy some rehydration drinks as our hotel clerk had told us all the supermarkets are closed on Sundays. We finally found a kiosk that fit the bill, but locating an open restaurant was something else again. We canvassed quite an area before finding a café for a pizza (me) and salmon lasagna (Maggie) both of which hit the spot. Except for a walking tour, either guided or self-guided, tomorrow is up for grabs. We’ll first hit the tourist info desk for ideas. 17 August 2015, Monday, Mainz (rest day) We crashed early last night so were up for the start of breakfast at 7 am. The day was heavily overcast and we got sprinkles on and off all day; Stewart told us we can expect the same tomorrow. We crossed the largely pedestrian area past the Dom to the tourist office where we received bad news: the walking tour I had shown in my notes to be given on Mondays is, in fact, not available today. As it stood, all but one museum is closed today and even our first choice restaurant for tonight is closed on Mondays. What we did have available was a self-guided city walking tour that turned out to be pretty good – it certainly got us into niches we would not have found otherwise. Our first stop was a new and impressive city hall with a couple of interesting sculptures in front, one by the noted Dadaist Hans Arp (whose name I recognized as a frequent crossword puzzle answer). We passed a section of an old Roman ship (part of several recently excavated during new construction) while on our way to another ruin, St. Christopher’s Church which was destroyed during the Second World War. The 14th C. church was never rebuilt but was eventually stabilized as a memorial with an interesting and effective series of storyboards to tell its history. Evidently Guttenberg (he of the first printing press) was christened here in the 15th C. Our next target was St. Stephen’s church which we reached by way of St. Quinton’s (probably the oldest parish church in the city) and the old part of the city, particularly Kirschgarten, an area which boasts several handsome half-timbered houses. St. Stephen’s Church is worth seeing by itself but the real draw (it had more visitors than the Dom) is nine stained glass windows by Marc Chagall who created them as a tribute to Christian-Jewish relations. While I would call his style impressionistic, I was surprised that its impact on me was opposite that of impressionist painting. With paintings, the closer I look, the more indistinct the figures are (just blotches of paint), but if I move back, I see a clearer scene. However, when I gazed at Chagall’s windows I just saw splashes of color with only a hint at figures, but when I used my binos, I could clearly see what the scene depicted. From St. Stephen’s we meandered down the hill to again view the carnival fountain, one of the busiest sculptures I can remember seeing. On 11 November each year Mainz sponsors a big carnival. This fountain, maybe twenty feet tall, sports over two hundred figures representing some part of carnival with copious water raining down on them all. Especially on this cloudy day, it was difficult seeing them all clearly but it sure is a lot of fun.

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There were several other stops on our tour, but the main one was the massive Dom which dominates the old town “touristy” area. It is dark and cavernous and downright impressive. I saw a young mother lighting a votive candle while her two-year-old goggled making me realize again that the imprinting of a “religious feeling” begins even before one can comprehend any meaning. Our tour complete, we headed back to the room for a quick nap grabbing a tasty German pastry apiece on the way. Later we were out again to the only “museum” open on Mondays here. The Isis and Mater Magna Shrine is not really a museum in that it accepts donations and is otherwise independent of the state or city. During the construction of a mall in 2000, Roman era ruins were discovered. Archeologists were given seventeen months to excavate. What resulted is an unusual display. Beneath the mall itself is an archeological dig that is part ruins in situ and part ruins that have been staged. Surrounding the dig are displays showing various objects recovered. The site is the only known place of worship (but for one site in Italy) for both the Egyptian goddess Isis and Mater Magna from Asia Minor. Both goddesses were worshiped during the third century but not at the same site. Research on the discoveries continues. For supper we found a nice restaurant and ordered a pizza probably twice the size we needed for tomorrow’s ride to Worms. 18 August 2015, Tuesday, Worms, bike 56 km (35 mi) We slept well albeit with bizarre dreams which I attribute to what Maggie calls pizza toppings: spinach, goat cheese and figs. Piotr had called a group meeting at 9 am to tell us that in Worms we are split between two hotels, so we ended up in a group ride for the first several kilometers. While we have step by step instructions from Piotr, our route is mostly the Rhine bicycle path so we can generally just follow the green signs for the path – some riders have picked this up much faster than others. I suspect fully half our riders (23 riders so that would be 11 ½ people) have followed someone else the whole trip and have made no routing decisions yet. The first thirteen kilometers were along the river, but then we cut inland until we arrived in Worms. Piotr had told us the Rhine bike path along this segment of the river is dirt and gets muddy during wet weather. So today we again rode through agricultural countryside, passing through many small towns similar in size to where I grew up. Along the way we passed through many grape arbors with fruit both white and purple much in evidence. Corn and potatoes were among the crops, but I was surprised at how many fields lay fallow; I wonder if early crops have already been harvested. One field had several large gray herons feeding in the stubble; an aggregate of herons is not something you often see in America except at their rookeries. Maggie and I rode with Jules for a while and I was able to catch up on his life. I was pleased to hear his son has taken over his architectural firm in Israel – last time we talked, his son had gone to work for a big company. Later Maggie and I found ourselves riding with Susan who said she’d been by herself for some time and was not sure how that had happened. Anyhow we rode with her to Worms where we met up with Pavel. He seemed distressed as he had lost the whole group he had been leading. He led us to our hotels a ways into Worms. We had spent a good half hour with Susan earlier as she explored a possible alternate route with her GPS device – not sure why when our

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directions seemed clear at that point to me. The weather was iffy all day and only now at 8 pm seems to be clearing up. Maybe tomorrow will be sunny again. Worms is an old city. Most people know of it (if they know of it at all) from their European history class and the Diet of Worms (nope, I won’t touch it – it’s too easy) where the Catholic Church sat in judgment of that rebellious rascal Martin Luther. Luther was expected to recant his heretical stand but refused. As I remember it, he was given free passage from Worms but had to be on the look out forever after. Today Worms is a biggish city and we are again in the town center with St. Peter’s Dom a stone’s throw away (not that I would do such a thing). After checking in, showering, and unpacking, Maggie and I headed straight for the Nibelungen Museum. I had asterisked it in my notes as a potentially interesting venue with an excellent audioguide. It was certainly a different experience. The audioguide was indeed excellent with the voice talent of an English gent who sounded familiar even as his name did not. He takes the role of the unknown author of the Nibelungenlied saga and simultaneously summarized the plot, provided critiques on later interpretations, and added supplementary material to help put the whole thing in context. Most non-Germans know of the myth through Wagner’s Ring Cycle which, according to our narrator, takes much license with the plot. I won’t try to summarize the complicated plot here but it deals with Siegfried, Kriemhild, Gunther, and Brunhilda, jealously, revenge, and a touch of magic. In the museum you listen to all this explanation while winding your way up two stone towers with a few visual references including silent snippets from an old movie by Fritz Lang concerning the myth. After closing the museum (yet again), we walked to the Dom and then to the oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe dating to the 11th C. – talk about a spooky place on a dark and rainy night. It’s remarkable that the cemetery has remained relatively unscathed all these centuries. Finally we stopped for a very tasty Thai meal right next door to our hotel. Tomorrow takes us to Heidelberg and another great day of biking. 19 August 2015, Wednesday, Heidelberg, bike 52 km (32 mi) Maggie’s back tire was flat this morning, but was easily replaced and we were ready to follow Piotr as he led us to the other hotel where we picked up the rest of our group. He then led the way for fully half the route on many twists and turns. I’m sure we could’ve followed his directions but some of them were a bit confusing and it would certainly have taken us longer. For instance, our route led us over the Rhine and then down a corkscrew bike ramp to a road underneath that could have had us scratching our heads. Shortly after we left Worms, we had a beautiful stretch along a long green meadow atop what I assume was a flood dike. Many people were out romping their dogs in the meadow and we saw a large hawk probably sitting on its prey and later a couple of large gray herons. I forgot to mention, but will now, that on one of our earlier rides something much larger than squirrel but with a bushy tail streaked across the bike path. Based on its long shape, I’d guess it was a medium-sized member of the weasel clan, maybe a pine martin – too bad it didn’t stop for a look so it could be more closely observed.

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After a particularly gnarly section through Mannheim, the group stopped for a break and Maggie and I pressed ahead. We quickly reached the River Neckar and after a pretty dozen kilometers along it, crossed over on a small ferry and then proceeded along it south. It didn’t seem to take long to reach Heidelberg displayed impressively on the west side of the river. A small bridge crossing and a missed direction due to an err on the cue sheet and we were at our hotel, perfectly situated in the busy part of town, as have been all our hotels on this tour – kudos to Piotr. Heidelberg was considered a “must see” stop on the Grand Tour for young rich men and women in the 19th and early 20th centuries and, based on the gaggle of tourists crowding the main street, it still is. Maggie and I were soon back on the street and, after consulting with the tourist office, took the funicular up to Heidelberg Castle, the town’s big draw. And it is magnificent! Approaching from across the Neckar as we did, it looms high above this storybook town. Though badly damaged by French troops in 1688, the castle is still imposing. One turret is collapsed halfway up with the top half laying in what must’ve been the moat. Still, much of the interior is intact and it is an impressive sight with views out over the city and beyond, long distances up and down the Neckar.

Maggie at Heidelberg Castle With no English-language tours available, we were content to wander the large court and extensive grounds, and to visit the onsite apothecary museum and a wine cellar with certainly the largest cask I have ever seen, twenty foot tall lying on its side. Peering into the ponds on the park-like grounds I was surprised to see hundreds of inch-long salamanders swimming in their depths – easily more than I’ve ever seen in one place. I suspect these were efts or young salamanders – another good crossword puzzle word. The sky had finally cleared with a warm sun beginning to take the chill out of the day making us feel a bit lazy. It was easy to slip back to an earlier time and speculate what it must have been like to live in a place like this during its prime.

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20 August 2015, Thursday, Karlsruhe, bike 83 km (52 mi) Today was a long day on a bike. We began at 9 am and rolled into Karlsruhe about 4:30 pm. Piotr’s directions sometimes lose a bit in translation. We weren’t even out of town – and boy, old Heidelberg switches to new Heidelberg in the blink of an eye – before we got confused. Six of us all interpreted one of the directions wrong and we ended up on the wrong street heading the wrong way. Ken consulted his Garman and we backtracked, but then went wrong again. Ken consulted his Garman again and we finally decided to cut across to where it said the route was. This ploy seemed to be successful and we became sure when we ran into Piotr’s three staff members riding sweep. We knew this first part of the route today might be more difficult because Piotr had diverted us from the Rhine bike route with its helpful signage to Heidelberg as a treat. Today we were heading back towards the Rhine where we would hit an established bike route again. We struggled with the directions until we crossed back over the Rhine and reached Speyer and were again back on the Radweg (i.e., bicycle path). Maggie and I had been by ourselves for a while and were doing okay. It was a gorgeous day and that helped plus some of the longer stretches were very pretty, atop flood barriers all overgrown with grass alongside large meadows to absorb the water. This region had major flooding of the Rhine in 1995 and much work has been done to prevent a recurrence. We even stopped on one of these verges to eat one of the two sandwiches in our lunch sack and the fruit and veggies – first time we have done this, but also this route was thirty kilometers longer. We felt like we were finally getting the hang of Piotr’s directions when we again found ourselves at the wrong point. While stopped to decide how to attack the situation, we noticed a board (in German) that seemed to be providing a detour to the Rhine Radweg as they were doing construction on it for flood control. Since Piotr had us on the Radweg, we decided to stick with it and dead-reckoned ourselves back on the prescribed route along the river. This was another long pretty stretch and we did okay to the next ferry crossing. After the crossing we made a wrong move at some point, neither of us is sure when, and ended up having to dead-reckon ourselves all the way to the hotel. Mostly this involved heading towards towns we knew were on the route using a bike-friendly path whenever possible. In Germany, biking is so prevalent that there are bike routes heading in almost any direction you want to go, but the bad news is that there are so many of them that it can become confusing. They have not adopted a route numbering scheme which would help matters somewhat and not once have we seen a bike route map along the way, both of which I have seen in other places (like Poland for instance). Anyhow, we made it. We asked several people for directions along the way and all were friendly and helpful. It gave us a chance to use our limited German. Eventually we made it to Karlsruhe which was considerably larger than we expected. Luckily our hotel is on a major thoroughfare which was easy enough to find. The final confusion was the house numbering system. When we hit Kreigstrasse (our street), all we had to do was find our hotel at #92. We were on the odd numbered side of the street and thought we had just a couple blocks as the numbers were counting down nicely. However, when we glanced across the multi-lane street we saw that, according to the even numbers, we had kilometers to go!

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And those last few kilometers were not fun. The middle lanes of Kreigstrasse dove into a tunnel and we had to take to the sidewalks above and then we ran into major construction for a couple of kilometers so we were weaving all over the place trying to find a way through. Finally, though, we made it to our hotel. It felt good to be able to navigate a course on such comfortable bike-friendly paths and streets (except for Kreigstrasse of course). 21 August 2015, Friday, Baden-Baden, bike 53 km (33 mi) Maggie used her tablet last night to see how and where we went wrong on yesterday’s directions. One instance was a clear misinterpretation and the other was an unclear, almost counterintuitive, direction on the cue sheet. It’s startling how a single wrong turn gets compounded. Anyway, she also looked at today’s instructions to get out of Karlsruhe, but could not decipher them so we decided to go out this morning as part of the group. Well, that only worked so-so. Stewart, who is generally one of the best direction finders I know, led a group out. Within a very short time we were circling the wagons. There are just so many bike paths that it’s easy to get confused. We became stuck several times in the first five kilometers, once for a quarter hour or more. By the time we had gone ten kilometers, Stewart had lost half his group and the other half were ready for coffee. At this time, Maggie and I were pretty sure we were on the correct route so we headed off and did pretty well at first. At one point, we tried three different directions before finally scoring on the fourth and least likely option in our eyes. However, we finally missed the prescribed trail after crossing the Murg River in Postatt and from there we began to dead-reckon. We found a bike trail to Baden-Baden and decided to follow it. Unfortunately, just like yesterday’s ride to Karlsruhe, the signage just stopped. After a couple of forays we finally picked a route and headed forward. As luck would have it, we ran into a large group led by Piotr and his staff about two kilometers later. This was fortuitous as the route into Baden-Baden and our hotel was not straightforward. Along the path today we had wonderful rural scenery most of the way, often by burbling brooks. I always expect to see a furtive fox, or deer, or even rabbit, but the most I’ve seen was a few squirrels and a muskrat some days back. Again the weather was gorgeous, another beautiful day. Baden-Baden is considered the grande dame of German spas. The last couple of kilometers to our hotel were along a touristy street packed with tourists. It reminded me of Bath in England. The small Dos River bisects the town which, away from the central district, has lots of pretty green areas. We quickly showered and drew up our own walking itinerary. We first glimpsed the interiors of a Russian Orthodox Church, Maggie’s first, and a feast for the eyes it was. Peter the Great, when constructing his new Russian capital, sent ambassadors to various countries to find out about all the various religions. He finally chose the Orthodox Church, I suspect for its elaborate iconography. Next we wandered through the Art Nouveau Gonneranlage, a highly landscaped garden before promenading down the Lichentaler Allee, a shady path along the Dos, popular in past centuries as a place to get some air and of course to see and be seen. We saw a modest display of the old Roman baths and poked our noses into one of the several modern spas before returning to the central pedestrian area which was much less populated than when we biked through.

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Since Baden-Baden is not technically on the Rhine bike path, tomorrow we head back to the Rhine again and cross it to spend two nights in Strasbourg, France. 22 August 2015, Saturday, Strasbourg, FRANCE, bike 66 km (41 mi) I put Maggie to sleep last night reading her Mark Twain’s The Awful German Language, an appendix from A Tramp Abroad – although clever in places, I admit it can be a bit dull. Today’s biking was again along a beautiful route. We retraced our route for the first half dozen miles as a group, but then Maggie and I headed off by ourselves with only one minor slip up costing us four kilometers when we missed a turn to the ferry across the Rhine. The route was due west from Baden-Baden to the Rhine over which we took a free ferry, landing in France, and then headed south to Strasbourg. Much of the latter part of the ride was on long stretches, a nice break from all the turns lately. The penultimate stretch was through a thick forest which no sun penetrated, then the last stretch ran along one of the branches of the River Ill ending just two blocks from our hotel. Sweet! By the way, we passed a road-kill pine marten; its beautiful coat seemed unmarked. Strasbourg has changed hands between Germany and France several times in centuries past, the last being in 1945 from Germany to France. It has an odd layout. The Rhine runs south to north on the city’s east side. Meanwhile the River Ill, as best I can discern, comes in from the southwest and splits into two concentric circles. The smaller circle encloses the old city center and the outer circle encompasses most of the rest of the city. The various arms of the Ill then flow together northeast of the city before merging with the Rhine. I’m sure all this has been managed in times past; it certainly is not a natural occurrence. Strasbourg has been (and still is) a major port city on the Rhine and this is the reason. Our hotel is just inside the outer circle, but it’s a short walk to the city center. After checking in we headed to the busy center where we toured a museum of sorts known as “Aubette 1928” where three rooms of a larger entertainment complex have been recreated. The complex had been designed by three avant-garde architects of the time. The viewing along with an informative audio program was free. We next checked with the tourist office to clarify our alternatives for tomorrow’s rest day as my pre-trip notes are sparse for Strasbourg. With the day fading we wandered into the impressive cathedral with its strange astronomical clock.

Ralph (& friend) takes a close look at the Dom …. while Maggie showers (with friends)

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For dinner we hit one of the ubiquitous doner shops and then picked out a French pastry for dessert. The doner shops seem to be the fast food restaurant of choice in Germany (and now France). They seem to be everywhere and are open continuously while many of the restaurants are closed from 2-5 or 6 pm and on Sundays. The food is Middle Eastern which seems to be popular as the shops draw plenty of customers. We are curious to see our breakfast tomorrow – will it be the northern European spreads we’ve been getting in Germany or will it be baguettes, butter, jam and tea or coffee like so many hotel breakfasts I’ve eaten in France? Since Strasbourg has straddled the border for so long, it could go either way. [Our French breakfast buffets were similar to the ones in Germany, but we did start getting croissants and baguettes in the bread baskets.] 23 August 2015, Sunday, Strasbourg, (rest day) We made a day of it. We did a self-paced audio walking tour and hit four museums. Luckily we discovered we could buy a pass allowing entry to all the city’s museums for only €6 if you’re over sixty-years-old – what a deal! We chose this over the touted city pass at €18.50, although this pass does include a few fun things to do the museum pass doesn’t. The audio guide for the walking tour we rented from the tourist center was excellent, providing some history and lots of perspective on the buildings in the old city. For instance, it mentioned that the half-timbered buildings which are a popular style throughout this area were often looked at as personal property rather than real estate, and the owner would literally dismantle and move them to a new location. While we found this interesting, we could see no reason why this type house would be easier to move than other types. The guide also explained the reason for the Barrage Vauban, a long dam-like structure built across a section of the Ill River just before it separates to encircle the inner city. Vauban, the great fortification genius of his time, was tasked to fortify Strasbourg against attack. His solution was this dam which allows the Ill to flow through in thirteen places. If attack is imminent, defenders can close the holes causing the river to back up and flood thus deterring any advancing army. Three of the museums we visited occupied different floors of the Rhine Palace: one museum walks you through the sumptuous rooms of the Rohan Cardinals; one is a fine arts museum; and the third is an archeological museum. We enjoyed each in its turn. Then, after a power nap, we hit the city’s historical museum. It came with a highly effective audio guide that activated automatically at each station. The info dovetailed nicely with that given on our walking tour. For instance, we learned how the city went back and forth between France and Germany (or the Holy Roman Empire for part of the time), that author copyrights are almost as old as the printing press, and a new (to us) word, “caltrops,” which are metal pikes, looking much like large “jacks” used in the kid’s game, that are thrown into the road to disable war horses. While we were in this last museum, it began raining and looks like it could continue all night and into tomorrow – hope not. For supper we had a pleasant French meal which included a dish Maggie had enjoyed in Paris years ago called tarte flambé. In its most basic form, it’s like a thin crust pizza with a thin layer of cream cheese, bacon and onions, atop which we ordered more cheese – it was very rich.

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Before I close I should mention that we saw three armed soldiers standing outside the Lutheran Church today and one soldier outside the cathedral. When I asked around our group, someone said it probably had to do with the thwarted train attack in France on Friday. Later Jules told me the city’s synagogue was crawling with armed soldiers. 24 August 2015, Monday, Sélestat, bike 66 km (41 mi) It rained off and on throughout last night, but going down to breakfast, a bit of blue shown through and it seemed to be clearing. After another fine breakfast (the first hotel so far with pain chocolat—it is France after all), we did a final check on the weather and any break in the weather was long gone so that shortly after we started it began to rain. It rained a good hour or more and then tried again several times throughout the ride. Then, as Maggie and I were on the home stretch into Sélestat, it began again but so lightly I did not stop to reapply my raincoat. However, we were again the first riders to arrive and later riders were caught in a steady rain. As unsettled as the weather was all day, I’m sure each small group experienced different rain patterns. That’s par for the course on a bike trip; you just have to be prepared. Although the weather wasn’t much fun, the route today was one of the most pleasant of the trip so far. We had a long stretch next to a pretty brook on a lightly forested path and pedaled through a half dozen small rural towns which are always fun; one had an old town wall still standing, much of it probably rebuilt, with one rather squat tower incorporated into the walls of both adjacent houses. We also passed extensive vineyards, all looking healthy in the rain and hanging in grapes. I saw several large hawks or eagles today on or low to the ground, several medium-sized herons, and one stork. While it was raining toward the start, Maggie and I were with the group, but later we broke away to route-find for ourselves – we did better today, but the route was more straightforward than some of those in past days. Tomorrow to Kaysersberg we have a late start as we only bike 25 kilometers. Piotr had told us at the beginning that what is generally considered a two-stage segment from Strasbourg to Basel, he made into five stages due to the shortage of rooms in the normal overnight towns and the beauty of the route. Piotr has noted a couple off-route destinations we might want to visit, but we’ll see what tomorrow brings. 25 August 2015, Tuesday, Kaysersberg, France, bike 30 km (19 mi) Maggie and I stayed in last evening as a walk in the rain after a day of riding in the rain did not sound much fun. Good decision. Today the sun was out and we had time to bike into Sélestat’s old town where they were busy setting up stalls for some big market, and to poke our noses into two old church’s and view a couple of interesting towers from their walled town days. We got back to the hotel just in time to hear that Susan and Jules along with some others were planning to take the bus to Haut-Koenigsbourg Castle instead of biking up. So we quickly grabbed our lunches and rode with them to the bus station barely in time to catch it … and we found that the bus driver would let our four bikes aboard instead of having to lock them at the station. Our plan quickly evolved to busing up and biking down to catch our route in some later town rather than bus up and back to Sélestat and beginning our ride from there. As it turned out, only the four of us caught this first bus, a

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couple more caught a bus an hour later, a few hardy soles biked up, several others tried but turned back and still others just did the prescribed route. The castle is a marvel. It had been destroyed once by the Swedes and again later before being beautifully rebuilt by a famous restorer named Bodo Ebhardt under the last emperor of the HRE at the beginning of the 20th C. This castle shows why castles were so hard to breach. It sat upon a solid wall of rock from which its walls rose vertically up and up and up. The only entrance was over a drawbridge at the base of one tower and the views in all directions went on forever. Occupants of the castle could see the enemy coming from tens of miles away and could keep watch on the many small villages surrounding the mountain. The audio tour was very good, keeping us interested for over two hours as we wandered around the castle. One interesting note from the tour is that the Haut-Koenigsbourg Castle was used as a set for the classic French film The Grand Illusion which is considered the first instance of the prisoner of war escape genre. [When we returned to the States, Maggie and I got a loaner copy from the library and enjoyed taking our castle tour all over again.] Zooming down from the castle aerie was a blast through a healthy forest with occasional views out over the plains. Finally we were down and found Piotr’s route almost too easily. The rest of the ride was some of the best so far. Again it was through village after village with mostly vineyards in between, but today we were constantly climbing and descending small hills which gave us plenty of far views over the bucolic countryside. I know the highways and railroad tracks must be out there somewhere, but we didn’t see them – again, it seemed as if we were looking back through time. We arrived in Kaysersberg and slowly rode up the main cobblestone street to our hotel. Most of the towns we’ve biked through still have substantial cobblestone streets. I’m not sure if it’s because they help keep speeds down and are therefore safer; if it is for esthetic purposes; if it’s because they wear well and so keep maintenance costs down; or if it’s some other reason(s) altogether, but whatever the reason, they sure keep bikers on their toes. The old town sections of all these little towns and villages we pass through (and Piotr often constructs his route to take us into the old town areas) are much the same: uber-quaint as it were with the cobblestone streets, half-timbered or old stone buildings with hardly a newly constructed one in sight, and flowers everywhere. Seemingly every window has a box bristling with colorful flowers. Like many of the towns we’ve visited, Kaysersberg has a small river (the Weiss) running through it with many small stone bridges for pedestrians (and bikers) to stop for a look. After checking in, etc., we headed out, first to a museum dedicated to Albert Schweitzer who was born here and then just to stroll the main drag, poke our noses into their church with a huge cross showing Jesus in agony upon it hanging halfway down the middle aisle to the altar – a new twist. Speaking of which, we passed several crosses at various rural intersections today and yesterday. It seems I’ve seen similar displays in other places before but can’t remember where (maybe Poland?). After a meal of quiche Lorraine (since we are in that province) and a three-cheese quiche (both sadly overdone) we retired to our hotel to prepare for our short ride to Colmar tomorrow. Jules reminded me today that we had also crossed through Colmar on our Orient Express trip. I knew we’d be crossing that route at some point and I guess this is it – wonder if I’ll remember it?

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One further odd incident: under the eaves of one of the buildings lining main street Kayersberg were a half dozen cuplike containers. We had been attracted to them by the twittering of swallows, a sound much like what we heard in Borneo coming from loudspeakers atop large barns. The sounds were used to attract swiftlets in hopes they would build their nests which are the main ingredient in birds nest soup. This sound also appeared to be coming from a loudspeaker under the eaves and soon we saw a swallow dart into one of the bowls where it evidently had a nest. I can’t think why they would want to attract swallows to these artificial nest boxes unless it is to deter them from building their messy mud-daub nests. 26 August 2015, Wednesday, Colmar, France, bike 28 km (17 mi) Confronted with another short riding day, the start was delayed to 9:30 am and Piotr offered a short diversion to a pretty little town called Eguisheim to help pad the day. Again we had gorgeous weather, even hot at times. And again our route was rural and beautiful with yet again lots of grapes. Maggie and I mostly made our own way to Eguisheim and saw our whole group ride into the main square. The lot of us essentially lingered and loitered for more than an hour exploring and eating and talking. Though the town was pretty, there was really not much else to do. Several tall buildings sported stork nests with the storks still in them. I’m sure this late in the year that the young are long gone, but evidently the adults continue to use the nests. One pair engaged in the stork equivalent of billing and cooing, clacking their bills and arching their necks until their heads touched their backs, pair bonding I think it’s called. Storks might be one of those species that mate for life. Eventually we mounted our metal steeds and proceeded on to Colmar where we are staying in the European chain hotel Ibis which offers small efficient rooms for a fair price. Maggie and I ventured to the tourist office where we found that the Unterlinden Museum is closed until December for renovation; unfortunately it was at the top of our list. Its major attraction, the Isenheim Altarpiece, has been temporarily moved to Colmar’s Dominican Church, but Maggie and I haven’t decided to foot the surprisingly expensive bill for a look. Meantime, we took a self-guided walking tour around town. Trying to find the various buildings along with the plaques describing them was fun and used up the afternoon. It was when we finally decided on a restaurant that we made our mistake. We had walked quite a ways before we even found a restaurant open, very strange in this tourist-centric town, but then we found three together and made our choice. We proceeded to order a torte flambé to share; I also got a pork shoulder smothered with Munster cheese with a side salad and a heap of potatoes with chopped ham and Maggie ordered a large bowl of riced potatoes with bacon and multiple cheeses. Unfortunately, it was all delicious, prepared perfectly, in ample servings, and we ate every bite. My shoulder had more lovely pieces of pork than any I’ve ever eaten … maybe twice as much. Needless to say, we are uncomfortably stuffed. I wonder if we’ll be able to do justice to breakfast tomorrow. Good thing it’s a break day. 27 August 2015, Thursday, Colmar (rest day) Today was a lazy day. We slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, and then cut straight through old town to the opposite side and walked counterclockwise around the outskirts

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of old town back to our hotel while looking for more prominent buildings on our city map and constantly looking for a nice walking path. After a couple hours we returned to the hotel, took a short nap, and headed back out to do the other half of the circle around old town. Maggie had investigated loading Piotr’s maps on her device (i.e., Android tablet) and she proved we could use the device to locate our current position on the map during our walk. We might give it a try on the road tomorrow. We have certainly had some situations where it would have helped in our route finding. Again we had trouble finding a restaurant serving food early, but we eventually found one and shared a torte flambé and a salad, a much more reasonable amount of food than yesterday. Tomorrow is a 47 km ride to Mulhouse, our penultimate ride for this tour. It was 90º F today and should be hot again tomorrow. What a change from just a couple days ago. 28 August 2015, Friday, Mulhouse, bike 50 km (31 mi) After another delightful breakfast, we got on our bikes and rode hard. The route was straightforward with many stretches of several kilometers and so we just pedaled. Mostly we were with the tandem and another rider. We had a pesky headwind most of the ride which abated somewhat when we entered a forest or a town where it was blocked. This was maybe the least scenic segment so far. We are clearly off the tourist route as the small towns were nondescript with no quaint old town areas and few people abroad. The rural areas were pleasant with lots of corn and maybe some beans and lots of fields lying fallow, but I felt I could’ve been anywhere. All in all, it was a good day to just ride We arrived in Mulhouse at 11:30 am. Maggie wanted to see an automobile museum touted as one of the best in the world and our room was not ready so we clambered back on our bikes and rode the several kilometers out to it. Now, those who know me must be all agog with disbelief as you read this as I have never had the slightest interest in cars except as transportation, but there you are.

Maggie tries something other than a Volkswagen

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The museum is housed in a former spinning factory and is full of the 400-plus well-preserved old European cars in row after row beginning from the earliest to the 1960s with the emphasis clearly on the older cars. You are provided an audio guide loaded with maybe a couple hundred explanations on select vehicles. Each car also has a plaque with a short description in German, French, and English. Several short films in French were shown on monitors along the route providing a history of the automobile. Also, in rooms off the main showroom were films on specific subjects like racing, motor cross, factory assemblage (my favorite), etc. Anyone even slightly interested in cars would be in seventh heaven in this place. I was truly impressed with both the number and variety, but also with their elegant presentation as all had been lovingly restored and look great. We ran into Piotr and his staff there and later found out that several other of our crew had come later. By the way, there was not an American car in the bunch except for one Ford which had been manufactured in France. Once back at the hotel, we checked in, took a short nap, and then walked to old town just a few blocks away. Most of the interesting items are in or around a large central plaza dominated by the Temple Ste-Etienne. We didn’t quite figure out the temple. Immediately in front is a luscious water display with three water falls coming out of a wall covered in verdure. Next to it is a large five foot tall egg out of which is hatching a dinosaur. Across from this tableau is what looks like a South Sea setting complete with hammock. Peaceful music plays from hidden microphones. All ages seem delighted as they were all just hanging around. Inside, the temple is equally puzzling. They must be preparing for some art exhibit as white strips of cloth have been stretched between the ends of every pew to up near the ceiling so that the middle aisle looks like the backbone of the skeleton of a giant beast with the ribs rising all around you. The walls were hung with pictures of biblical icons (Job, Jonah and the whale, Solomon, David and Goliath, etc.) painted in a modern kitschy way. The style reminded me strikingly of the Australian artist Ainslee Roberts who painted similar pictures depicting the Australian Aborigine Dreamtime mythology. We saw a copy of the artist’s Bible using his paintings to tell the stories. It was hard to tell whether or not this “church” is used for religious services although a poster at the back of the church mentioned Protestant and Catholic in the same breath so maybe it is an ecumenical place of worship. We stopped in at the impressive Hotel deVille or town hall and strolled through the local history museum inside. Nothing was in English but its artifacts were interesting. I saw one prehistoric tool I have not seen anywhere else and wonder if the restorers got it right. Pieces of chipped stone had been embedded into the curve of a hardened piece of wood. It looked the perfect tool to slit the throat of a pig … or an enemy. After another turn around the plaza, we found a grocery and a bakery and bought a few items for our evening repast. Now we’re primed for our final riding day to Weil am Rhein right on the German-Swiss border. 29 August 2015, Saturday, Weil am Rhein, GERMANY, bike 35 km (22 mi) We ended our bike tour with a pretty ride mostly on bike path next to a small canal. Piotr led us out of town as his route was compromised due to construction. Maggie was again feeling her oats and we soon left the pack far behind. For a Saturday, the path

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was not too busy and we enjoyed the beautiful day on the canal along with the swans, ducks, rails and one muskrat (or the European equivalent). Our last canal crossing ended at the Rhine and forty meters on was the pedestrian bridge to our German hotel on the other side. We stopped and waited for Piotr and the group and all rode over together. Piotr’s staff popped the corks and the group celebrated our success (no injuries) while we did what needed to be done to ready our bikes for the truck. A few riders had brought their own bikes which they boxed. Others recovered pedals or seats or what-have-you from bikes we had rented from Piotr. It was a really good tour and if Piotr does more, we’ll definitely be interested. We end with 721 kilometers or 454 miles if anyone is interested. Maggie and I checked into our spacious suite which even has a kitchenette, looked over my Basel list of things to do, and Maggie did some exploring on her device. Basel is called Dreiländerstadt meaning three-country city because it is situated at the intersection of France, Germany and Switzerland. Our hotel, Dreiländerbrücht (three-country bridge) is within a kilometer of the point where the three countries meet, probably in the middle of the Rhine as it flows out of Switzerland. Piotr chose to end the tour on the German side of the border (which is literally a stone’s throw from our hotel) to avoid the customs battle he might face if he had to transport twenty bikes over the border from Switzerland in his truck. Since Basel is where the action is, we first had to figure out how to get to its old town area which took a bit longer than we had originally thought it would. While the Swiss border (and Basel) is just a block south, we have to travel fourteen trams stops to include a Rhine River crossing as it takes a big bend to the east. A significant portion of Basel’s populace seemed to be sunbathing on both banks of the Rhine or boating upon it or floating down it on inflatable bags. I wonder how close to record temperatures we reached today – any shade or water on our ride was welcome. The Rhine is important to Basel as it is not navigable for commerce upstream making Basel Switzerland’s only port. Getting a later start than we expected, Maggie and I did not even stop to obtain Swiss francs (the SF, the Euro, and the USD are at near parity right now), but proceeded directly to the Basel tourist bureau where we obtained maps and info and then headed to the Gegenwartskunst which had not even been on my pre-trip list. The reason is that the city’s fine arts museum (Kunst Museum) is closed for renovation until the end of the year and, during this time, some paintings have been moved to two other museums. The paintings we most wanted to see were in the Gegenwartskunst and during the renovation, entrance is free! As expensive as everything else is proving to be in Switzerland, this was a revelation. We easily found the institution, rented audio guides for a couple of francs apiece and set about exploring. The audio was good and, although the number of paintings available for viewing is relatively small, the selection is excellent (Renoir, Monet, Matisse, van Gogh, and Picasso were among those represented). Having gotten our art fix, we walked back to the town center where a small area of old town was really hopping. We took the tram back to Germany and found out what the true meaning of “hopping” is. As we were riding over the pedestrian bridge from France to Germany today, we saw many pedestrians crossing to Germany and also many people coming back

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across to France loaded down with heavy bags. As we were disassembling our bikes and assembling luggage, we found out that our hotel sits atop a large mall which includes a supermarket. Well, after our Basel excursion, we visited this supermarket which puts a Super Wal-Mart to shame – it was huge and we only saw the first floor which was all food items. And it was packed! Boy, was this place hopping! We didn’t wonder why until later when we saw the prices in grocery stores in Switzerland which in some cases were nearly twice what we found in Germany; evidently people flock to this supermarket from France and Switzerland to scarf up the good deals – a very strategic location! Our final adventure for the night was finding a restaurant. Maggie researched her device for restaurants in the local area, but on the street, we found our two top choices no longer existed. So we chose a very busy restaurant where ownership and clientele seemed to me to be Turkish. We stepped in and chose one of the only tables open and then waited close to thirty minutes for someone to notice us and bring a menu. Meanwhile others around us ordered and received food. It felt like a distinctly local place and, since we weren’t local, we were nearly invisible – although we felt like we stood out like sore thumbs. The menu was mostly indecipherable. When the waiter came Maggie asked for a non-meat dish (luckily the guy spoke English). After offering chicken, he finally pointed to two items and Maggie chose one. I pointed to what the guy next to me was having and said I wanted that. What we got was maybe not what we would have ordered had we been able to read the menu, but it was interesting: Maggie had stuffed grape leaves and maybe cabbage leaves and I had a nice salad, fries, and a heap of kebab meats. We also each got a tall white yogurt drink we saw many other people ordering that went well with the spices in our food. In planning our trip, we gave ourselves another full day to explore Basel before heading to Zürich for another couple days before flying home. As yet, we don’t have a plan for tomorrow and its 11 pm, so we better get to it. 30 August 2015, Sunday, Weil am Rhein We didn’t set the alarm but still woke early. We put a plan together last night that evolved to fit the day’s circumstances nicely. For just under five francs Maggie bought the same series of five podcast Basel city tours that the tourist office was selling for fifteen francs. So we plan to do the audio tours plus the Basel Culture Museum which also has some of the pictures from the closed main museum. The Culture Museum costs sixteen francs each, but we get in for five francs with a voucher from the free museum we toured yesterday – hey, I don’t explain the Swiss rules but I do take advantage of them. So the flow of our day started with a tram ride to Basel and a walking tour from 9:30 am to about noon ending in a ferry ride across the Rhine where people were floating with the current using sealed plastic bags that serve as both floating device and storage for your clothes – they are definitely all the rage here. We have seen people young and old walking around town in their swim suits or damp clothes and it’s clear where they have been. The ferry, one of four pedestrian ferries across the Rhine in Basel, is also worth an explanation. The ferries are powered only by the river’s current. The boat is attached to a thick wire that runs across the river and maybe 20-30 feet above it. The boatman angles the prow about thirty degrees in the direction he wants to go and the current does the rest.

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Once on the other side of the Rhine, Maggie was gracious enough to let me strip down to my gym shorts and float/swim the quarter mile or so to the second bridge which is the one the tram to our hotel uses. So we jumped onto it (after I was once again decent) to ride to our hotel for a short rest and to charge Maggie’s camera battery and grab mine in case her low battery died. Boy, did the cold Rhine water feel great on this hot day! Out again in the hot sun, we caught the tram back into Basel’s old town and walked to the Cultural Museum where we spent an hour or two. The main works here from the closed main museum were by a son of Basel named Holbein, the younger. His style was interesting but he was mainly a portrait artist and this museum had no audio tour, so we didn’t spend much time with him. The museum also had five other exhibits of varying interest to us. The exhibit we enjoyed the most was a thirty-minute version of the classic Swiss story of Heidi using snippets from about a half dozen film versions including Shirley Temple’s try at it. Although most were in German, it was still fun to watch the various young actors go through their paces. We then spent the rest of the day continuing the walking tour and ended up visiting most of the places of interest on the five tours. It was a fun, if busy day. The walking tour on Maggie’s tablet using an audio splitter coupled with her GPS app worked very well – something we’ll probably explore further. The woman who provided the commentary was good but she did not pronounce the “s” in “Basel” making it sound like “baal.” Out of context I don’t think I would recognize “Basel” pronounced like this. We learned in the commentary that there seems to be some connection between the word “Basel” and the mythical “basilisk” so much so that over twenty of Basel’s fountains employ this theme. The highlights of the city tour would have to be the impressive bright red Rathouse which dominates the downtown area with all its painted figures, also, the

Basel’s beautiful Rathaus

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Munster or huge church, primarily its exterior appearance. Then there are the many gorgeous views across the Rhine from both sides – you never get enough of them. We also passed many nice fountains. Our favorite had mechanical devices all through the water, each spewing or splashing the water about. A few of the fountains had people lounging or frolicking in them (one woman was dunking her dog). Evidently this is okay with city officials as no one seemed to think anything of it. Actually we didn’t see a single policeman in Basel. There are also plenty of stately of interesting old buildings that are fun to see but become so common when traveling about Europe that you forget to mention them – Basel certainly has its share. We called it quits around 5:30 and took the tram home to have dinner at a local place just across from the hotel. Again, it seemed to be run and frequented by people I would guess have their origins in the Levant. Actually, this area of town does not feel very German at all, which of course is a situation that Germany and other European countries are currently facing. Tomorrow, we’ll breakfast, take the tram to the train station and find a train to Zürich for another two days of exploring. 31 August 2015, Monday, Zürich, Switzerland We slept in this morning but still got to breakfast in time to say another good-bye to several on our tour, most of which are also leaving today. Stewart is taking trains, five of them, back to his home in England for about €75, a bargain – he clearly understands the system. We took the tram to the main Bahnhoff or train station in Basel, bought tickets for the next train to Zürich and enjoyed a pleasant hour ride through grassy meadows with significant hills in the background and lots of tunnels. It felt like we were climbing as our ears popped a couple times. (However, I later found Zürich is only at 407 meters or about 1,200 ft). Having arrived at the Zürich Bahnhoff, it took us a trip to an info stand to find the right tram to our hotel. The hotel is nice and expensive as Maggie had found all the hotels in Zürich to be, and our room was ready so we moved right in. Being a Monday with museums and such closed we decided to take a free walking tour Maggie found on the internet (The tourist office walking tour is 25 SF each!). That began at 3 pm so we first headed downtown on the tram (again we bought a 24-hour pass and have used it seven times already today) to walk around and check out the pretty Limmat River that bisects Zürich and then empties into the Zürichsee, a large lake at the south end of the city. Then we jumped onto a tram to the Prime Tower on Zürich’s west end. The tower is the tallest in Zürich at 176 meters and, until recently, the tallest in Switzerland – this isn’t saying much as the buildings really aren’t very tall and we found out why on our tour: evidently it is very difficult to get a permit for tall buildings as they inevitably create controversies. The free city tours group is a non-profit evidently throughout Europe. The guides are generally college students or young adults who take pride in their cities and want to share info about them; they work for tips. Our guide was a recent college graduate who begins her masters program this semester. She did a great job. The West Side tour is relatively new and is having growing pains as this part of town has a mixed history and is now mostly industrial and high tech companies, i.e., the business part of town – not necessarily what tourists want to see. Regardless, the tour was interesting. There were

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only seven non-paying customers in the group so it was easy to ask questions and get our guide to elaborate. She showed us some of the big businesses, but mostly she discussed the region’s history and focused on how the area was evolving to attract people with avant garde markets and cultural venues – with mixed success. The area was first home to various mills lining the river. As craftsman guilds took over, mills began merging until one large mill company was left. Then heavy industry moved in. For a while heroin and later cocaine use caused big problems and the area became trashed and dangerous. Realizing that arrests did not solve the problem, clinics were finally established to educate and help the addicts and things turned around. Now the area is gradually gentrifying and greening up. It is interesting seeing this process in progress. One of the entrepreneurial shops we visited was built entirely of cargo crates. It was begun by two brothers making sturdy bags from used materials (such as old trucks tarps, bicycle inner tubes, etc.). The company now outsources most of the handiwork and their products have become a hot commodity at top prices. This was the second time we’ve heard the term “upcycling” which means the reuse of something directly without reconstituting the material; the first time was in Basel’s Cultural Museum which had one whole exhibit devoted to the concept. I suspect the word will eventually make it into our jargon. We also saw the first of two interesting swimming areas. A portion of the river is diverted into a channel that acts as a self-flushing pool while all around the pool lay people on towels, a concession stand, everything just like a real pool. Since the pools are just an offshoot of the river, you can make them any length – this first one appeared to be somewhat longer than Olympic size. What a cool concept! The only similar use of a river I’ve heard of is some towns in our own West that have devised kayak runs in the rivers running through their towns. However, because water is so tightly controlled, they must get special permits to make “beneficial use” of the water without consuming it. After our tour, we took the tram on out to the Zürichsee where we caught a river taxi (included in our 24-hour ticket) up the Limmat River to near our hotel, stopping for a pasta meal on the way. All in all a full day. Tomorrow, we plan to take the free old town tour and maybe hit a museum. 1 September 2015, Tuesday, Zürich After breakfast, we checked out the automatic tram ticket dispenser to ensure we have kept enough coins for our ride to the airport tomorrow, and then rode the tram to its southern terminus just to see more of the city before heading to the meeting place for our old town tour. This was also a free city walking tour and was also given by an able young college student. The group was considerably larger, maybe thirty, so it was nice the young man had a loud and clear voice. He was born in Bulgaria but grew up in Jo-burg, South Africa, and he said he will most likely settle down here. Zürich is the largest city in Switzerland at 430,000 which our tour guide found almost laughable as Jo-Burg is seven million strong. He showed us Bahnhoffstrasse, “the most expensive street in the world,” full of very high end shops stretching for a mile. Many of his comments concerned the high cost of living in Zürich. He told us that people generally rent homes in the central district rather than buy, even those living twenty years in the same place. The food, in particular, is pricy, as we have seen in stores and

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restaurants, close to twice the price for the same items in Germany. He showed us three of the cities iconic churches, one of which boasts several stained glass windows by Chagall, the same artist we saw in Mainz. Our guide mentioned that the city has twelve hundred fountains and that all have potable water, the most of any city in the world (according to Google). He said that 70% of the Zürich’s drinking water comes from the Zürichsee which is certainly remarkable since the entire coastline of the lake seems inhabited. The city uses trout as their bellwether species for water purity and the trout are thriving much to the enjoyment of the city’s fishermen. Our guide provided lots of personal recommendations for eateries, drinks, clubs, etc. along the way, talked a bit about student life, and provided more anecdotes about Swiss democracy. He pointed out one shop which collects day old bread from the city’s bakeries and sells it at much reduced prices. He said they generally close around noon having sold all their stock: they call it “Fresh from Yesterday.” Besides the fountain’s potable water, the Swiss public bathrooms are also a surprise. Our guide said they might be cleaner than our hotel. The one we used was all stainless steel and the toilet seat raised almost over your head so a man could use it as a urinal but you could pull it down to sit on it. When you wash your hands, the waste water drains directly into the toilet bowl too. You can flush it normally, but it also flushes automatically cleansing the whole apparatus when you unlock and open the door. The sky, which had been overcast since we left the hotel, finally dribbled some drops during the tour. Maggie saw one entrepreneurial shopkeeper replace his outside dress display for one with umbrellas. As the tour ended, it began sprinkling alternately lighter and harder until we returned to the hotel. We stepped into the Grossmunster and then found the Wasserkirche next to the river. The upper part of this “Water Church” has been converted into a display center for student artists who have been given grants. Maggie and I walked through a series of odd displays, but one caught our attention. It was an underwater video of the carnival fountain we had found so charming in Basel. We “got it” but couldn’t imagine what someone who has never seen the fountain thought about the piece. From there we wandered about goggling at the menu prices (SF59 for a vegetarian buffet!) – our guide had said you could survive in the city more cheaply if you ate no meat and drank no alcohol, but if this is any indication … We finally decide to take a tram to the hotel, don our raincoats, and find a local eatery … and this we did. Now we are repacking for our flight home in the morning. We heard it’s going to rain tomorrow with a drop of a dozen degrees Celsius, so it’s a good time to leave. 2 September 2015, Wednesday, Flight from Atlanta to Albuquerque We are almost to Albuquerque; it’s been bumpy the whole way so I best try to finish during this calm period. It had stopped raining in Zürich but was still heavily overcast when we left. The tram ride to the airport was a snap, but the airport was not. We could not find what airline counters were at which of the three main areas; even the airport information boards and maps were no help. We finally picked one and were redirected to the right place. After that it was smooth sailing. The flight to Atlanta was a five-movie flight for me and a 4½ movie-flight for Maggie, but she watched all drama type films which were a bit longer than mine. I ended with Fantastic Mr. Fox for maybe

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the fourth(?) time – it makes me laugh every time. The Atlanta airport was not much of a hassle although they seem to change procedures every time I’m there – still have to take off your shoes which doesn’t happen much outside the States. Just a moment ago when drinks were offered, Maggie opted for the cookies over the peanuts and pretzels. I mention this because we learned on this trip that the type of biscuit Delta currently offers, “Lotus Biscoff,” comes in the form of “cookie butter” called “Speculoos” in both Germany and France. We tried it one morning for breakfast and it’s quite tasty – just like dissolving the cookie in your mouth to a paste form. This discovery ranks right up there with my first taste of “Nutella” in 2003 on my Odyssey ride. Maggie was so intrigued with “Speculoos” when she first tasted it that she Googled it and found that it is becoming quite the thing in the U.S. and can be found, naturally (or not), at Trader Joes. It’s most common use in the States is as a prime rib rub – no, no, that’s not true. I’ve been up too long and should just sign out now as we prepare to land in Albuquerque after yet another fun trip. Oh, I should mention that Maggie spotted Ethan Hawke and his family on the plane with us from Atlanta. His wife was directly behind us and he and his two young daughters were across the aisle and one back. No one on the plane acted like they recognized him. He must be in town for the new remake of The Magnificent Seven. And …. Cut!