Breakfast was excellent, and we were away shortly after 9am and cycling in perfect conditions and gawking at beautiful scenery, but joined by loads of grumpy old people on eBikes. I’m hereby over them all. There’s no reason not to smile on a day like this !
We stopped in St. Goar for some pastries and coffee and as we left we passed by a few busloads of retirees descending on the souvenir stores like seagulls on chips. We made it out in the nick of time.
We went past the Lorelei which I remember from high school German classes but I had to google the full story. At Bingen, we stopped for a tea and coffee. Miles had the water boiling in an instant and we relaxed in the park by the Rhine with apple cake and our drinks. This is what it’s all about – taking it easy in beautiful surroundings and talking and laughing with friends.
There were a few camping options, but we chose the furthest one which was probably a mistake. I’d spoken to the manager who said it was a beautiful place, with a restaurant and bar by the river, and that we’d like it. We would have liked it much more if we hadn’t had to share it with a couple of hundred others, and a guitarist with the most bizarre repetoire and horrible voice. He sang everything from AC/DC to Abba to Lynrd Skynyrd to Albert Hammond to country, and it was all really pathetic, especially the whistling solos. He was so bad that it affected the taste of the food. Even the mosquitoes left but for some reason, the crowd of locals stayed and gave him money when he passed the hat around.
It was the second night camping after patching my sleeping mat for the second time and it was ok, but needed a little bit of inflating early in the morning. More to come on this for sure.
