We left around 8:30 am today without our Norwegian friends.  We rode from Mannheim following the Nakar River, a tributary of the Rhine.  We made our way on the east side of the river to Heideberg, just where the foothills come together. Here I am on the bridge framed by the gates of Heidelberg on the west side of the Nakar River. This is the bridge at Heidelberg, looking at the east side.  We spent the early afternoon walking around this town looking for ice cream - we found some Lindt  ice cream.  We are looking forward to a similar product in London. 56 km today starting at 20 C in the morning and 31C when we returned at 4 pm.

We cycled from Worms to Mannheim today with much more moderate temperatures, starting at 23C.   This was our starting view.  That castle is actually the end of a bridge. We crossed a bridge and went on the edge of farms, seeing many horses. We pause here with our Norwegian friends.  My ride is in the foreground, my travel companion nearby in light purple. Much of the 31 km ride went through industrial areas, BASF, the chemical company has a huge presence here. Check out some ice cream and sites in Mannheim this afternoon.

1. Are there other Canadians? No, we are the only ones.  We met the leader of the Norwegian group, Johann, this morning and found that he is a pastor.  Every day they start out with a short passage and commentary. We also overheard a couple speaking French and found that they are Swiss.  The gentleman keeps us up to date with soccer scores. We are assigned the same table for breakfast and diner. We are just 4.  The other couple are a retired orthodontist (he) and a retred dental instructor (she) from New Jersey. All are very kind, and we laugh together often. 2.How are the meals? Breakfast is fantastic with anything you would like.  I tried out a green smoothie this morning, everything is good. The diner is a 3 course meal: a salad, different every night, a soup and the main entrèe all with beautiful presentation.  I had brocolli soup tonight (not a brocolli guy), it was well disguised.  Tomorrow night I'm having duck! 3. How is Rob keeping cool on 40C...

Our first cycling day started well, but warm, 40C.  We left Mainz on good quality biking trails, and a fairly good app with turn by turn instructions that I piped to my hearing aids by a bluetooth receiver.  The morning ride of about 2 hours covered 17 km, meeting the barge at Nierstein.  We had maps as well, but we were helped by a group of 36 Norwegian cyclists from the barge who let us follow them.The path moved away from the Rhine at one point to reach vineyards in the hills. These are the vineyards, small plants, in rows.  Much like in the Niagara area, but the soil is red. Not a lot of shade today. Here we stop for a sandwich and water. We took a break on the barge mid afternoon for a sponge bath, and then off again.  But our Norwegian buddies were gone.  We set off together trying to follow with the app.  We travelled through hay fields and some small towns.   Let me tell you about my ebike.  Th...

We stayed overnight in Mainz on Friday, another 40C day.  We ventured out for supper at a restaurant called Zenz.  Mariette had vegan schnitzel which looked a lot like a salad with light brown pieces on top.  I had farmers bratwurst with sour crout and thick homemade bread.  Sour crout and I don't usually get along, but this one tasted different and didn't bother me. We took a taxi at 3ish to the Rhine at the pier on Saturday afternoon.  Here are some outside photos of the barge. This is my stateroom - all of it, bathroom on the right, small closet on the left. To get an idea of Mariette's split mine in two between the beds. I have a double! This is the lounge, or saloon as our activity director, Julia, calls it.  It may also be called the chapel by some.  We get briefings on the day's travel here, one in English and one in German. This is a view of the Rhine from the chapel.

We spent the day travelling from Amersfoort to Utrect on a first train, then on a bullet shaped ICE (inter city express) train to Frankfurt.  So how fast do these trains go? I was impressed when the conductor accelerated to 159 km/h. I made it to the bathroom at this speed without much of a problem. I thought we were at top speed here. This was the top speed.  Mostly in tunnels and away from any livestock.  This is moving!

Thursday evening was very hot as we returned from Zwolle.  Our little VRBO did not have any windows that open on the main floor, just 2 windows that would open a crack on the second floor.  So when we get back, we opened the front door and the back door to get a breeze.  Mariette must of been hot and discouraged as our neighbour and bar owner came and lent us a large floor fan. Just as we were about to move kitchen chairs outside for a few minutes, the bar owner says to us "Do you like Dutch beer?", and proceeds to serve us a cool glass of beer each, a Texel, which I thoroughly enjoyed We sat on chairs that he gathered up for us and chatted with him and another couple that wanted to know about us.  There was a private party across the street that the bar owner was serving and he would escape their service from time to time to be with us. Mariette just outside the little bar. Our VRBO in Amersfoort on the left and the little bar on the right....

We made our way to Amsterdam again for a wine and cheese pairing.  The Old Amsterdam Cheese store were are hosts.  We started with 8 month old gouda in darker cow cheese and lighter goat cheese with a light a fruity wine wine. We had a mustard sauce and a chutny for dipping as well as an interesting 'bread' made of figs and almonds. The second group was a year old cow and goat cheese with a nice red wine.  The last cheese was 2 years old with a sweet Porto wine.  Amazing flavours!  We were given a history of cheese making and we had an interesting discussion of the wine pairing by Rik, who is the sommelier who chose our wines. We then took the train to Zwolle to meet up with a former student, Sean.  We had diner and an ice cream while touring this beautiful city.

We started out the day with a pastry and a coffee shop,our new favourite place in Amersfoort.  In Amsterdam we took a 26 km looped ride that brought us to major sites and then the countryside. We stopped at a sheep and dairy farm along the way.  You can see the sheep being herded into a different field - 2 photos above.  There we sampled  cow and sheep cheese made in the gouda style.  Here we are in a ferry dedicated to cyclists and pedestrians.   Our tour guide is in the orange.

The Netherlands is beautiful!  We were out of the plane in no time.  The EU entry was smooth with lots of kiosks available. Just scan your passport, stand for a photo and get your right hand scanned for fingerprints.  We grabbed a train a few minutes after getting our baggages - and in 45 minutes we were in Amersfoort. We found a beer Garden for supper. That is an essential part of our bike, barge, beer trip. 

Park n Fly is super easy.  Took a picture of the car's location.  It's amazing how quickly I forget these things. The shuttle came in a few minutes and dropped us off at Terminal 3.

 June 8, 2026 - Training for the trip 47 km in 2-1/2 hours