Day 1 cycling

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.  There are no headwinds and no hills,  you just need to pedal like you mean it and it gives you a lift.  A little like horseback riding.  It's a big animal.

Mariette is a good cyclist keeping up with her conventional bike.

We were riding for several kilometers without shade and came across this watering hole by the trail.

Happy to slug back a soda drink.  A beer would have killed us.

38 km in the afternoon,  including a few course corrections.  Our trail finished at the Rhine at Gernsheim, but we needed to cross the river as the barge could only moor on the other side.  So we took a ferry that connected both sides: 3€ for you and your bike.  Roughly 55 km for the day.