Bike Trip to Germany & France

PART I

Biking the Rhein River Valley

May 21-25, 2008

Guten Tag! Bonjour! I am recently returned from a quick vacation to Germany and France. I was convinced of the impossibility of making such a trip at this time, citing expenses, lack of preparation for such a big adventure, my upcoming race in early June that I’ve been neglecting to train for and some restrictions on my time with a 12 year old daughter to tend to. But I finally realized what a good opportunity this was: my daughter was to be out of town with her dad for a good portion of that time anyway; I found a good deal on airfare; my friend who has experience doing lots of bike touring in Europe and elsewhere was going anyway, offering to play tour guide and loan me his spare foldable bike (yeah, it really does fit in a suitcase); biking through Germany and France would be a difficult thing to plan by myself and it sounded like a great way to visit the area. So I jumped on the chance to do it.

Day 1

I arrived in Frankfort, Germany early Thursday a.m. with this 49.5 lb Samsonite suitcase containing the Bike Friday (and another 40 lbs. of duffle bags and gear). I met my friend Saul who flew in from San Diego several hours later and soon we were on the train head for Mainz, a suburb 20 minutes outside of Frankfort.

This was my first time assembling the bike and it was easier than I thought it would be. Bonus the flat tire I got to fix before even riding (yes, I did check the tires and inflated them prior to leaving Seattle). At this point I’ve been awake for about 24 hours and am a bit disoriented being in a new place and needing to figure out the simplest of things like going to the bathroom (first you pay the attendant in the “WC” and I had to ask him to break a $20.00 for me to be able to have the small change in Euros I needed) or wondering whether it is socially acceptable to publically strip down to jog bra to change cycling shirts. Oh well, I resign myself to sticking out like a sore thumb and being a clumsy American about things.

Traffic seemed kind of busy and I was further disoriented by the road signs (Are we going up a one-way street? Who yields here?) and getting used to the feel of this odd bike towing the suitcase now converted into a trailer and weighing easily 70 lbs. Within a few blocks we found quieter streets and the town square to meander through. This would become one of my favorite things about riding: the quiet, small streets and village centers to cruise through where bikes and pedestrians clearly rule.

The late afternoon was balmy and warmish as we got out of town and onto paths that took us along the “River Rhein”, through rural areas and vineyards, along dikes, or through small patches of wooded area. Every several miles, er, kilometers, there would be a small village to go through for a few blocks and then it turned into fields again. It was quite pleasant! Though I was jet lagged and hungry (I hadn’t eaten for 12 hours or slept for 28) I didn’t really feel that way. The fresh air, nice scenery and exercise helped stave off the tiredness – for awhile. A couple hours into this meandering, map-checking and asking directions, we took a “short cut” to get back on route (I hoped) that took us up a steep, rutted, rocky path through a vineyard. The good news was it dropped us on the backside of a hill and the backside of a town which I think was Oppenheim. I did look at the maps from time to time, but since I wasn’t the route-finder on this trip, I didn’t pay much attention to detail. We covered about 25 miles (longer than it should have been if we had stayed on course, which we didn’t) and finally found a hotel. Shower, food, sleep. Ah!

This area of the Rhein is famous for it's medieval castles and I guess they are quite common up and down the river, with a lot of tours set up to see them. Well, the only castle-like thing I really saw was this tower in Oppenheim.

Day 2

We biked for 10 hours (including breaks), I got tired, found lodging, shower, food, sleep. That was pretty much the drill from here on out. Oh? A bit more detail? Day 2 and 3 were about 65 milers each. The rural and river-side paths continued, weaving through villages, the occasional dirt, cobblestone or brick path, some woods, some fields. A stop in some bigger towns for fruit, cheese, ice cream, afternoon iced coffee or bike tire tubes. There was frequently the scent of something very sweet in bloom as well as the strong scent of wild onions growing in the woods. Some of the towns along the way were (this all becomes a blur): Worms, Ludwigshafen, Speyer, Hartshausen, Germersheim, Offendorf, Strasbourg…

It is worth mentioning our 2nd night’s stay in Hartshausen, a small village about 8 km outside of the larger city of Speyer. If there had been any small hills or round front doors about, I would have sworn I was in Hobbiton, it was such a little rural Eden. We had a host, Bilbo Baggins, I mean, Hans Juergen, who opens his home to touring cyclists via a web site called “Warm Showers” (http://www.warmshowers.org/). What a treat to stay in this nice, peaceful home! He and his partner Giselle went above and beyond the expected provision of a bed and, well, a warm shower. We had a nice homemade dinner, wine and good company in the backyard garden on a fine May evening. A very comfortable, clean bed for the night and breakfast the next a.m. with preserves made from their own fruit trees and cake that HJ's mom had made. Hans Jurgen had to go off to work (donned in cycling shorts and jersey) to his job in Speyer as a bicycle rickshaw driver. Giselle accompanied us through the woods a few miles to get us pointed in the right direction. Hans Juergen has a website with photos of the region and is worth checking out (the photos are his own and the link to "Aktuelles" shows his home where we stayed). Have fun trying to read the German text if you know that language: http://www.rikscha-tours.com/index.html

The bike paths are very extensive there - every couple miles there is an intersection, often just 2 unmarked paths meeting in the middle of the woods, which makes it likely to take a wrong turn and get off course. Near towns, you'll see several cyclists per mile, outside of town you might go for miles without passing anyone. The cyclists there are likely to be families or older couples or just anyone, really, in street clothes going about thier business or out for a leisurely evening ride. There were few road warriors on fast bikes - the type in cycling jerseys with turned-down handlebars and all that. I was trying to compare the trails to something I know around Seattle and the closest I could think of was the Sammamish Slough trail with hardly any other riders on it and less development around it. And for town riding, think of Pioneer Square or maybe Pike Place Market, with narrower streets, fewer and smaller cars that actually watch out for and yield to cyclists or physically separate bike lanes alongside roads.

Day 3

Another 65 mile day with more long stretches of paths, many villages, a few stretches along the Rhein (where it occasionally got slightly industrial looking for a short stretch). In the afternoon we crossed an insignificant looking canal and had entered France. We were due for stop, so at the next village we found ice cream and pastries (the goodies were so pretty that I took a picture!). I heard something about “a few more miles” to go. OK! A few more miles, then some exploring of France! Well, it started to rain, we returned to the Rhein path and it was the longest, most monotonous, most endless-seeming of trails. Woods on right, dike on left, or river on left (it was an impressive, fast flowing river, but really, not the most scenic I’ve seen. It’s a working river – always a barge to be seen). Well I was tired and saddle-sore (I had been the day before as we got closer to our 65 mile day, but the weather was better and the scenery prettier and more varied). I was in that physical and mental space of being done already, but had to plow on unless I wanted to invite myself to camp along this unattractive section of the river with the campers fishing along the riverside. Ugh! It was grey and rainy and there were slugs and snails about. Fixed a flat and trudged onward.

Riding through the first French village was a treat. Charming with the pastel painted houses! It must have been around 7 p.m. and it was Saturday in a smallish village, so chances were slim of finding places open. But we finally found a little hotel and I thoroughly enjoyed my hot shower (it was humid the whole trip, I’d been riding for 10 hours and the “performance fabrics” of the bike shorts and jersey might as well have been stinking Petri plates…). Dinner was delicious and was the best I had in France (despite Paris' claim to famous, fantastic cuisine, I was disappointed by the 3 meals and several of the snacks I had there).
Day 4

A 30 mile ride through French rural countryside and villages, with some stretches along the river or through woods. Final stop was Strasbourg, an old city (well, all those cities are old there, aren’t they?) with some impressive church spires, bridges and stuff. We found the train station, got tickets for the 1.5 hour ride to Paris on the TGV, the high-speed train. It was interesting to get the perspective on the countryside as we sped along. I really love how the villages dot the countryside, stay small, contained and surrounded by fields without sprawling about and spawning a commercialized style.

Day 5 & 6 were in Paris and I'll enter a post about that ASAP.