Europe 2023 from Frankfurt
| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
To Trier then back to campground
|
|
|
$0.00 |
16.00 |
16.00 |
|
For the second day in a row now I’ve decided that I didn’t care for The campingplatz we were at.
The night before last we were at a Kanu Club that had a zeltplatz full of car campers who were loud and took up so much space with their vehicles and mondo tents.
Last night we were at the campingplatz in Konz, and they’re not really set up for tents but they did have a small place for us. What I didn’t like is that they are automated, so there’s no person working there to ask questions. They charge a deposit for using electricity- their instructions say you can use it by waving your card key over the card reader on the outlet box, which would be totally fine, except… there are no outlets with card readers - there are essentially no outlets at all. I tried to ask the Biergarten staff, but they don’t know anything about how the campground operates so… hopefully we get a refund on Brent’s €5 that he paid to use the facilities. I did find showers with card readers.
I hope this isn’t a trend on the Mosel.
We rode a short 7km to the campingplatz at Trier.
Just before Campingplatz Treviris, there is a Wohnmobile campground that we thought was it. We rode in. It looked awful for tenting. Then I realized we were in the wrong place, and our place was right next door!
We hustled on over to the right place. They let us check in early so we can set up and go to town without all of our gear. They have coffees, and daily bread delivery. They have the biggest, most beautiful zeltplatz I’ve ever seen, with tables, chairs, benches and covered gazebos.
Yay!! I’m so relieved, especially since we’ll be here for three nights! |
We got to Trier first thing this morning so we set up camp and then went to check out the oldest city in Germany, aka Second Rome, aka Trier. The city has nine unesco sites, and it is really something!
We started at Porta Nigra and walked through the old town. We saw the Basilica and Dom, and walked past the Kaiserthermin, which we will return for another day. We had a good long look at the Amphitheater, which was fascinating. |
There ended up being a number of cycle tourists in the campingplatz tonight. Kirsten from Germany, a young single woman from the Netherlands and a couple from the Netherlands. They all spoke English and we had a really fun evening schmoozing with them. Especially Brent - he gets so excited to talk about cycle touring with cycle tourists.
First he went for a walk to get us beers. He was gone for about an hour searching endlessly for beers and returning to the campingplatz empty handed. Then he discovered that they sell beers AT the campingplatz. Haha!
I didn’t get a photo of the cycle tourists, but I did get a photo of Brent with his spoils, and one of the sun shining on a tower behind our tent. |
We took the train to Luxembourg today. We’d heard that it’s a beautiful city, so even though we didn’t have time to cycle there, we really wanted to go. So, we put the bikes into a bike parking lot in Trier and off we went. Luxembourg did not disappoint. With the city being over a thousand years old and build on the top of cliffs, the views of the city and its fortifications were stunning.
We had first coffee in Trier near the Hbf. Our first stop on arriving in Luxembourg was the tourist info office where we got a couple of walking tour maps. Then we had second coffee and Brent studied the maps. Then he led us on a walking tour of Luxembourg, which was fantastic. Then we had Asian lunch (I had sushi and Asahi while Brent had dim sum and Tsing Tao). Not long after we had second beer and then we made our way to the gare to catch our train back to Trier. |
Everyone has their own unique things that they consider‘required’ to bring on a light-packing trip. One of ours is to bring small spoons to eat yogurt with in the morning. Enjoy the pic of our small spoons full of yummy Rahmyogurt!
Today we went back into Trier, this time to meet my ‘long-lost Cousine’ (from my Laggai side), Sylke, and her husband, Alfred. We had a long coffee visit with them, then we visited the Dom and the Basilica. The Dom (Saint Peter's Cathedral) was built in the early fourth century and is the oldest church in Germany. The Basilica (Aula Palatina - Konstantinbasilika) was built around the same time and is basically just one enormous room. It was built to be an impressive throne room for Emperor Constantine, and it is certainly impressive. The contrast between the Catholic and the Protestant churches is interesting.
After we parted ways with Sylke and Alfred, Brent and I visited the Kaiserthermen, which we missed on Monday. It was super interesting. I love ancient ruins almost as much as I love medieval architecture.
Tomorrow morning we will leave to continue our journey along the Mosel. |
| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
To Neumagen-Dhron
|
|
|
$0.00 |
45.00 |
61.00 |
|
The original plan for today was to ride 45km to Neumagen-Dhron. Then I got ambitious and thought maybe we’d ride 56km to Wintrich. It was a beautiful day for riding - in fact, it was the first day on this tour that my arms and legs saw the sunlight.
Anyway, when we got to Neumagen-Dhron, I thought the town was so pretty and interesting that I didn’t want to leave, so we’re staying here, per the original plan after all. |
| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
To Wolf
|
|
|
$0.00 |
41.00 |
102.00 |
|
We’re camping at Wolf tonight but the highlight of the day was Bernkastel. It had the best old town we’ve seen so far on this trip, and one of my favorites ever so far. We never did get a really good shot of Burg Landshut because of the angle of the sun, but it was still neat to see.
Riding along the Mosel is flat and beautiful. I’m sure that when the vineyards are further along in the season it will be spectacular. For now, though, they’re just big fields of sticks. |
|
The forecast today was for no rain but that proved to be wrong. It started to sprinkle as we reached our campingplatz. Expecting it to be short-lived, we decided to wait it out, which was a bit of a mistake. We had an absolute downpour for a while. So, we had to console ourselves with a glass of local wine. When we got a brief respite from the rain (according to AccuWeather) we raced out and set up our tent before the rain started again. |
| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
To Brutig
|
|
|
$0.00 |
48.00 |
150.00 |
|
We had a 'place to stop and have a look' today only a few kms from our campingplatz. We stopped in Traben-Trarbach where we enjoyed first coffee at the old town council tavern, which was beautiful and interesting, including the old English bathroom fixtures.
Brent enjoyed the St Nicholas Church with its addition that spans a creek and I was fascinated by a house that seems to be completely overrun with vines… except the doorway is very well kept so you know it’s not abandoned. |
We woke up to an extremely wet tent from rain and dew. Along the way we were fascinated by the vineyards, including:
- little rail cars that the vin keeper can use to ride up the steep vineyard hills
- some lumpy hills that look less than ideal for growing anything, and yet, a vineyard
- multi-colored vineyard hills
Before our campingplatz we had to take a ferry across the river. Thankfully this ferry was actually running (unlike the one when we first left the Saar). At Campingplatz Brutig we are enjoying ’first beer’ while our tent dries. |
| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
To Koblenz
|
|
|
$0.00 |
52.00 |
202.00 |
|
|
Almost every town along the Mosel is pretty but some seem to have been earmarked as particularly special. They attract so many tourists! Trier was one. Also Bernkastel, and today, we discovered Cochem. We didn’t spend a lot of time there exploring - just spent long enough to take some photos of this lovely place. |
|
Gondorf was another pretty little town that we passed through. It was too pretty not to give it its own post. |
|
Our last day of cycling along the Mosel was spectacular. In addition to Cochem and Gondolf we passed through other pretty towns and more interesting countryside and vineyards. Tomorrow we’ll pass through the Koblenz old town and then start heading down the Mittel Rhein, which we did before in 2017, but it was so spectacular we don’t mind the repeat! |
When we got to the outskirts of Koblenz today we had to decide whether we would stop here or continue on to Lützel, which is where we stayed in 2017 with Laura.
The forecast didn’t call for any rain, but there were some dark clouds and lots of thunder so we decided to stop for the day. We pitched our tent really really fast to beat the rain that didn’t come, then did a laundry and had dinner and beers.
At about 7pm, I left Brent at the restaurant and came back to the tent because it was getting cold. Within about ten minutes the sky opened up and it has been pouring since - mostly heavy, but with an occasional pause. AccuWeather has been great for letting me know when it would ease up so I could run out to the loo.
It’s supposed to stop in the night so hopefully we can pack up normally and have a nice ride tomorrow. |
| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
To Sankt Goar
|
|
|
$0.00 |
48.00 |
250.00 |
|
We rode to the very end of the Mosel today and visited the Koblenz old town. We discovered that my theory that the name Koblenz has something to do with ‘confluence’ was right. Yay me!
We had lunch in Boppard, and while it had been cool and cloudy all day there had been no rain. Until we were heading for Sankt Goar where we’re camping tonight. Thankfully it didn’t last so we’re taking advantage of an opportunity to dry out the tent (that we packed up wet this morning) before moving in. |
| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
To Bacharach
|
|
|
$0.00 |
14.00 |
264.00 |
|
|
We have a very short riding day today to Bacharach where we’ve booked into an Airbnb to stay out of the heavy rain forecast for tonight, so we started the day by backtracking slightly into Sankt Goar for a more thorough look. It is a very small town, but well worth the look if you’ve got the time. |
|
It’s easy to see why Bacharach is called the World’s Prettiest Town. We visited here in 2017, and are back again on this tour. We had more time to spend today since we hardly did any riding (14km). The rain held off while we explored this beautiful place. |
| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
To Bad Münster
|
|
|
$0.00 |
40.00 |
304.00 |
|
Today we left the Rhein for a brief side trip to Bad Kreuznach. Since Bad Kreuznach does not have a place for tent camping, we’re camping in Bad Münster, just a few km past Bad Kreuznach.
As we got close to Bad Kreuznach, some really dark angry clouds came up and we decided to race on to Bad Münster to get the tent set up before any significant rain started. Even if the tent gets rained on, it’s nice to at least start out on dry ground. It turned out that we only got a few drops of rain, so we managed a thorough walk-around of Bad Münster, and tomorrow, on our way back to the Rhein, we will do an exploration of Bad Kreuznach.
One thing we found interesting along the way were some large wall-like structures being built. We surmised that they were ’living walls’ that would grow plants, as we’ve seen such things before. As fate would have it, we had a conversation with a random cyclist along the way and she told us that they are, in fact, designed to remove salt from the water. The water, which is salty in this area, is pumped up to the top, and on its journey through the wood on the way down, the salt is removed. Very interesting.
The campingplatz at Bad Münster, Nahe-Alsenz-Eck, is one of the nicest we’ve ever stayed at. It’s incredibly scenic, and tranquil - no highways or trains or hoards of geese. The sanitary building is great and the showers are the best camping showers I’ve ever seen by far. The Nahe Radweg, to be honest, isn’t the nicest, but this place makes up for it. Highly recommend. |
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