Day 23: Bamberg to Lichtenfels

May 22, 2014

Today figures to be really easy, because our objective is Lichtenfels, only about 50 km away from Bamberg We see there is camping there, and then there will be no more than 60 km the next day,in to Beyreuth. With this in mind, we were able to enjoy the breakfast buffet put on by the hotel. One thing we especially like is when they bring you your own plate of cheese, meat, and vegetables. Then we can slowly and without any feeling of guilt make sandwiches for lunch. With both breakfast and lunch taken care of, the practical cost of the hotel comes down a lot.

We also used up some time talking to fellow cyclists who are also at the hotel. In all cases, these are credit card travelling along the Main, with appropriately lighter loads than what we have. We are definitely the oddballs here, even among cyclists, and we can see our North American ways clearly highlighted. Take for example the reflective clothing. Sure, people can be wearing special cycling stuff here, but it is not the same life and death imperative to be visible. Why would you worry, when you are seldom on a road. The same goes for the array of front and back lights, on helmets and on the bikes, all designed for easy and frequent recharging. There are no desperate night time rides here, trying to reach the next town. Normally, you are already in the next town before you wonder about it! We mailed home some of our lights already.

Finally, there is cooking, camping, grocery stores, and squirelling food from breakfast to help ensure survival during the day. Nobody here does any of that. That is not to say they are worry free. At 11 a.m., with temperature quite high, some oncoming cyclists stopped to ask us if there was anything to drink up ahead. I immediately began to review our water supplies, to see if we could share any. But no, water was no concern. Finding a biergarten within the next 5 km was! We could only assure them that there was one in 10km. We left them to desperately struggle on and try to reach it!

Well, not much after I wrote the bit about being seldom on the road, it seems we got thrown more on the road than not. Being on the road does not mean th kind of experience I remember from back home, where you cling to the white line while you hear woosh, woosh as a car or truck passes every second or two. Here, rather, it was a car chugging past every minute or two. Still, it prevented going into my favourite state, the donkey dose, and required a certain minimal amount of alertness.

After crying about cold and rain for the first two weeks of this ride, here in the third week we are starting to suffer from heat. The thermometer briefl hit 40 today, and usually hung around 36. This, together with being on road, took a toll and despite the short day, we both ended feeling fairly ill.

The town of Lichtenfels looked fairly innocuous on the map, but in fact was quite large. At either end of it was an area of car dealers and repair, hardware stores, and such like, plus relatively heavy traffic. In the centre, which is demarckated by two gates, is a pedestrian area that was ok, but in our debilitated state did not make much of an impression. We thought about stopping for a restorative eis, at one of the two side by side eis cafes, but decided to press on and try to reach a shower, at the camping.

The camping was at the furthest extreme of the other end of town, and it seemed a long time to reach it. However the shower was great! Also the camping has one of our more prized features, a kitchen room with counters and plugs. Tables and chairs, though, are an unheard of luxury.

We have now entered the upper valley of the Main. By tomorrow it will split into two source streams, the red and the white Main. The source of the rivers is the Thuringer Wald and the Franken Wald, which we will stay out of, since they sound hilly! As we have seen when we cycled other rivers to their source, or from their sources, they all start small. right now the Main is about 200 feet across. We know, because our tent is right beside it! Had we not chosen the shower instead, we could be swimmming in it right now. Hmm, that was a tiring thought. Maybe the next move will be to go lie down!

This lovely breakfast plate will soon become lunch

Typical houses in Halstadt. This construction is sure to outlast our expensive balloon house back home by decades.

Here are more kids out for a walk with their teachers. They all have their sun hats nicely on. The attraction at this overpass is watching the trucks passing below.

Kloster Banz - high on a hill. There is a bikeway up to it. No way!

At the other end of Lichtenfels. It was not a lot of traffic, but still a bug.

Today's ride: 52 km (32 miles)
Total: 1,380 km (857 miles)

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