We watched one farmer descending the steep rows with a machine that seemed to be grinding up the prunings. I think I remember a bit from Year in Provence where they had the bright idea of bundling the prunings and selling them to America for BBQ flavouring.

You seem to be right about ebike distances. In the two trips before ebike for Dodie our overall average was 50 km per day, and after ebike it's 65. That's a 30% increase, which seems consistent with the fact that on "eco" the Bosch powered ebike gives you a 40% boost. I think we also see this from the fact that pre ebike we would slog along at about 10 km/hr and now we zoom out at 14 km/hr. Notably, the people on unladen regular bikes go 25 km/hr and of course the lycra warriors can go 40 km/hr.

Interestingly, in a "River Route" your average was about 50 and in the "Miraculous Tour" it was also 50. You are just a more stable kind of girl than us!

It really feels so much better to ride in lighter clothing. The only problem now is that we are still having to drag all the cold weather gear around with us. All in all not the worst priblem to have on a tour.

You are so fortunate with the weather! It continues to be chilly and rainy up here, keeping us bundled up in our layers whenever we venture out on the bikes. I long for the days when we can ride with just our shorts and a light jacket!

Reminds us a little of the Lochside trail

Having seen those pruned grapes you will now understand why we have always gone to Europe so late in the season. To get from the massive tangle at the end of the season to two neat canes took Ken from early May until just before we were due to leave working 7days a week to deal with our 6 acres of grapes. Getting rid of the canes is in itself a big job, we burnt them to get rid of all the overwintering nasties - had a mobile incinerator which we pushed down the rows and I did the burning

You seem to be doing rather longer days on your ebikes than you did before

Keep safe
Tricia

I was stationed near Ramstein/Kaiserslautern back '76-78, and we drove to the Black Forest area numerous times, took a Rhine cruise once, and bought some clocks. Ours was repaired several times before it just became a decoration. They sure do have a huge variety of them! Fond memories.

We are really enjoying today's entry because we remember so well this area from our trip in 2014. We stayed in Boppard, very close to the river. I remember you were actually on the Rhine at the same time only way way up river.

I especially like that it has all those bikes in it.

Yes, it must be typical, Dodie is in it :)

Thanks for getting the pictures back up.. I had 2 brothers in WW2 but not here..

You guys have all the fun. This one ranks high in the category of best bathtub stories.

I do enjoy following along routes I know well. Boppard is a lovely little place. It has the most fantastic man in the bike shop twice he has expertly fixed problems for us. In fact last year we held on to a problem for a couple of days till we got to Boppard and knew we would get expert help. Ken was also delighted by a couple of fine old tractor there

Keep safe
Tricia and Ken

Thanks for the heads up. We are not sure why this is happening, but are working on it. Stay tuned. On another note, we are glad you are along for the ride again. We are having a great time and only expect it to get better every day.

Pictures also wouldn't come up for me!

Steve/Dodie, for some reason today, I've been unable to pull up your pictures.. Been following you for years.. The last entry featuring the map only came up OK.. I'll work on it too good to miss.. Betty and I went into France several years ago.. We can only enjoy the accomplishments of others now..