The End of the Line: Day 74 - Seligenstadt to Mainz - Get It While It Lasts... A Big Loop Through Europe 2017

October 20, 2017

The End of the Line: Day 74 - Seligenstadt to Mainz

The Frankfurt metropolitan area has a population of approximately 5.8 million people. We started the day within the defined metro area and rode along dedicated rural bike paths beside the south side of the Main river until we were in the heart of Frankfurt. We did not cross one road or have any need to stop or get off our bikes on this entire journey.

We did cross the river to see the Old Town of Frankfurt and grab a quick lunch, but once on the south side of the river again, after another 15 km we had our first traffic control ... a stop sign where the bike path crossed a road in a quiet industrial area on the west side of Frankfurt.

What a way to end our trip ...

We've had some exceptional cycling and have seen 10 different countries and cultures over the last 74 days, and the cycling network in Germany has been one of the main highlights. Stress free and for the most part, exceptionally beautiful.

It was much much more of a fall day today, some wind, with a really cool edge to it, some light rain, but all very manageable as we rode along the Main river, waiting to reach the Rhine and the end of our trip.

We did stop in Frankfurt for a short time, and while quite nice, it reaffirmed our decision to use Mainz as our base to wrap up our trip. Mainz has everything we need (bike shops, transport etc) and is a smaller more low key place.

By the time we reached the Rhine at around 3 pm, the sun was out, it was warming up and after a short trip across the Rhine into Mainz, we were done!

Not quite the same exhilaration we felt at the end of our cross Canada trip, but a very satisfying feeling nonetheless. This was been a wonderful trip and we are so happy with our decision to turn west at Novi Sad. While the EV6 route had it good, and great parts, both K and I agreed that the real highlights of the trip came in the last few weeks as we rode through the mountains in Croatia, Italy, Austria and finally Bavaria.

We're taking a few days in Mainz to wind down and get ourselves organized for our flight home.

The agenda for the next two days will be cleaning the bikes, getting bike boxes and packing supplies and organizing a ride to the airport. But that's tomorrow .. tonight it's a nice little end of the road celebration at The Boot Haus restarant!

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Song of the Day

The Long and Winding Road by The Beatles

We ended our last tour with The End by the Beatles, so at the risk of setting a precedent .... but there's no better song to sum up the amazing cycle network in Germany. Till next time ... good night.

Packing up in the morning for the last time!

Turn left ... hit the bike trail and pedal on ...

Gotta love it ... civil construction along the river disrupted the bike path, so a very good paved detour was put in place!

Stopped for a pic of the detour ... not because we had too!

This is one of the coolest tree's I've every seen!

Approaching central Frankfurt ... still on amazing bike paths

Frankfurt was pretty much flattened in WWII. Rebuilt as one of Europe's main financial centers, it looks like no other European city ... this looks more like North America!

Rain to the east ... this is what we were riding out of!

The Rathaus in Frankfurt ... a few weddings going on but no lady selling bubbly like in Regensberg

West of Frankfurt now ... still amazing bike paths .. and starting to clear off and warm up

Almost the end of the line ... the confluence of the Main and Rhine rivers. We were on the other side of the Rhine four years ago when we rode the Eurovelo 6 route and stayed a day in Mainz.

This is also km zero for the river boats as they head towards the Danube and eventually the Black Sea along the Main and canals connecting up to the Danube

That's our final destination on the other side .... and the sun is out to great us!

We're done ... check into the Novotel for a few days and then it back home to Canmore ... It's been a great ride through some beautiful country!

Today's ride: 83 km (52 miles)
Total: 5,332 km (3,311 miles)

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