Eh...Kemo Sabe, let's jump on our ponies and put on some kilometres: Frankfurt Airport to Ingelheim

September 2, 2014

Thought I would take a shot at the blog and give Kathleen a break. Our day started with a quick stop at the Golden Arches for a couple egg McMuffins (not supposed to mention that) in the airport. I actually enjoyed them.

So we are finally off by mid-morning trying to negotiate our way out of the Frankfurt Airport. Based on the blogs we have read it could be a bit tricky. Shouldn't be that difficult. We were directed to an intersection by an airport security individual and told to take a right turn on the bike path. We did not realize there was a bike path on each side of the intersection so of course we were on the wrong side. The bike path we were on went straight while the other one veered off to left. After a few kms I knew this wasn't the right way. So we backtracked to where we started and got directions again but this time from a biker who told us the bike trail started on the other side of the road. There is no signage for bikers leaving the airport. We really got turned around. The correct bike path led us through the forest through a maze of poorly marked bike trails. My offline mapping skills are a bit at the embryonic stage (using Offmaps 2 and Galileo) but really helped us to negotiate through the forest. They should improve as they say "practice makes perfect" - we will see.

Eventually we did make it to the other side of the Main River and made an immediate left turn involving negotiating a fairly steep set of stairs. From there we had a great ride on a well marked bike path along the north side of the Main River which joins the Rhine near Mainz. We crossed the Rhine to Mainz and headed north on the west side of Rhine.

While stopping to take some photos just before the bridge to Mainz a man probably around 50 or so on a bike equipped with touring gear stopped and commented on the Canadian decals on our fenders and told us that he once visited Ottawa. His appearance suggested that he had been on the road for awhile. He kindly gave us some advice about where we might go and what we could expect to experience on the Rhine going north to Koblenz. His English was really pretty good. He told me that he did lots of trucking in the area so I assumed he was a trucker. But as the conversation progressed I asked him where he lived and he said he has been homeless for 14 years. All that trucking in the area was really trucking on his bike. That surprised me somewhat even though I had noticed him as we leap frogged a few times when I stopped to take photos. I mentioned to him that we also had more than our fair share of homeless people in our city of Victoria. Really a sad situation and seemingly no concrete remedy. At least he was on his bike and hopefully enjoying it as much as he could given his situation. And not a hint of a request for a handout. Another reminder how lucky some of us really are.

Our experience riding north on the west side of the Rhine was quite different than our experience along the Main. Along the Main you really don't need a map - just follow the well marked bike path. Going north on the west side of the Rhine you really should have a good bike trail map as there are many intersecting paths which are not clearly marked.

Heading to Koblenz we had no set destination for the day and would carry on until we felt like stopping. We had offline maps to refer to periodically but no paper map. The river was our navigational aid. We relied on the advice of local cyclists when we came to a fork in the road. An elderly couple (ie older than us) told us to follow them. They spoke no English but took us by the leash for a mile or so to point us in the right direction. They had overheard our conversation with another biker who suggested a town 20 or so kms down the road we might enjoy. Pointing, gesticulating and explaining in plain German how to get there. We left them and got to the next junction and then just used our intuition as to which fork in the road to take. Probably the wrong one. We passed through forest land and a small town magically appeared.

Kathleen was keen to carry on while I was keeping my eye out for possible place to spend the night. We finally arrived in Ingelheim around 5. When a hotel clerk advised they were fully booked I asked if she could suggest another hotel. When she did I asked her if she could possibly call to reserve a room for us (better get that SIM card for my phone). She printed highway directions for us. We biked probably 10 km while the printed instructions indictated it was only 4.5 km by car. Once again relying on the locals we ended up being assisted by a very kind lady who jumped on her bike for approximately 4 km to guide us. Again no English! Prior to that I was starting to think that maybe we should have brought the tent.

Tomorrow we go to activate one of our phones and pick up a map.

That was the kind of day we had on Day 1.

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