July 29, 2023
Day 9: Speyer to Mannheim
It’s Saturday. It’s parkrun-day!
The reason for spending the night in Speyer, and incurring a grumpy response from the B&B hotel owner for being late last night (4.30pm!), is to be as close as possible to a parkrun on Saturday morning. Which we are. The forecast is for a thunderstorm until 8.45am, and Mother Nature does not disappoint. By 8.40 am, rain jackets on AGAIN, we’re loaded and ready to ride the 10 minutes up and over the Rhine bridge to a park on the other bank.
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It's always a little nerve-wracking to turn up to a strange parkrun event, especially in a strange country. But this morning, no worries. The weather does as it’s told (it’s Germany), the event organisers are setting up and are curious about these new arrivals from far away. And, of course, the majority have excellent English, putting my token German to shame.
After the 5km event, we all stand around to drink coffee and eat bread and cake. One man opens a bottle of champagne to celebrate his birthday and I’m only too happy to help mark the occasion. Well, it’s nearly 10am by now, and it’s important to share local customs. What a lovely friendly bunch of parkrunners!
Eventually, people wander off, back to their other lives, while Bruce and I bike into the centre of town to explore Speyer further. It’s a beautiful town.
It’s hard to miss the Dom, the 11th century landmark Romanesque cathedral. We had a good view of its rooftop and spires as we slogged up a pedestrian bridge on the run . . . not once but four times. Now, we lock our bikes outside and explore its interior. It’s huge. According to Wikipedia, around 1.4 acres. And – this always gets me – it was built in less than 100 years, starting in 1030. Mind-boggling. Inevitably Bruce notes that, in NZ, it would take that long to get the building consents approved.
We cycle down the main street afterwards, for a spot of people-watching while eating lunch. Bike-watching, it turns out. All sorts of bikes ridden by all sorts of people. We’re really enjoying riding through countries with an evolved cycling culture – where bikes are for recreation, commuting, the school run, deliveries, shopping, dog transport . . .you name it.
From Speyer, Tour Leader has plotted a route to Mannheim. It’s a shortish, pleasant 30-something km, in weather much hotter than we’ve encountered up until today. Our route is similar to yesterday’s in that we are skirting various bodies of water for much of the ride, only sighting the Rhine once, I think.
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We sweep inland through Ludwigshafen and across the Rhine a final time to the outskirts of Mannheim. Tour Leader’s excellent route plotting and Mannheim’s excellent cycling infrastructure combine to make our ride through the city very straightforward. This is another European city where we feel confident about being on a bike.
In no time, we pull up to the Central Hotel, which has seen better days but is situated within sight of the railway station, and tackle the pressing task of laundering absolutely everything.
This is the end of our journey on EV15. We have parted ways with the Rhine; it wasn't meant to be a long-term relationship but it was good fun.
Tomorrow sees us heading in a new direction. And we have a surprise in store,all going well, a CycleBlaze meet-up no less!
Today's ride: 33 km (20 miles)
Total: 466 km (289 miles)
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9 months ago
9 months ago
9 months ago
I am glad you have enjoyed your time here so far and appreciate the bicycle culture. Life isn Germany isn't bad.
9 months ago
We're enjoying Germany...life here is not too bad indeed.
9 months ago
Glad you had better weather today and looking forward to the kiwi cycleblaze meetup!
9 months ago