Seligenstadt to Mainz-Kastel

July 1, 2015

Happy Canada Day!

I didn't get much sleep last night, mostly due to the heat. It's been in the mid to high 30s the past few days and our room was quite warm all night, even with the window open. I woke around 1:30 and could not get back to sleep so of course my mind was doing its best to keep me awake.

When I entered the hotel yesterday to enquire about a room, a man came from outside to offer assistance. He listed the options with respect to rooms, shower/WC in the room or down the hall. I left to discuss it with Al and the man said he'd be on the bench in the platz, where he could see the door. A string quartet was practicing in the hotel and he couldn't use his phone in there. We came back and said we'd take the 68€ room (shower/WC down the hall). He got the key, showed us where the tiny lift was, and took our unloaded bikes to the garage. Al saw him ride off on his (Al's) bike, holding mine. So what game was my mind playing at 1:30 a.m.? That this was a clever fellow who waited outside this Bett & Bike hotel to steal bikes! In the clear light of day, this was ridiculous--especially when this nice fellow brought us our breakfast and spoke about taking his vacation in the winter cycling in Mallorca.

We had a quick look around the gardens of the former Benedictine abbey but it was already too hot to linger. We were off.

The gardens of the former Benedictine abbey in the morning. It almost looks like it would be cool, doesn't it?

Look at the apples on this tiny tree! There were lots of these miniature fruit trees producing various types of full-size fruit.

There were actually some citrus trees in the "orangerie" but they look like kumquats. Is the curved overhang to reflect and concentrate the sun's light and warmth? I'm assuming, of course, that the weather we are experiencing is not normal for this area!

We didn't get very far, however, when I saw Al's front pannier do a funny bounce. He said something and quickly stopped. The pannier hadn't bounced off as I'd thought; his Axiom lowrider rack had broken at the welds. Done in by all the cobblestone streets we'd ridden. There was no way we could duct tape or tie it together well enough to carry anything so we needed a bike shop and a replacement rack.

We missed the bridge to Hanau so continued on to Offenbach. This was definitely a big city, and getting bigger judging by the amount of construction. Finding a bike shop was a challenge. The first one we found with an Internet search was no longer there, the second (to which we were personally guided by a friendly man) did not open until 2 p.m., more than two hours to wait, so we ate our lunch in a park and considered our options. Yet another Internet search yielded a third bike shop very close by--and it was open. It was a very small shop though, and did not have any lowrider racks in stock. The owner (I think) called another shop for us, ascertained that they had a suitable rack, and gave us easy-to-follow directions. Pedalinski, Kaiserstraße 92, Offenbach. Nice shop.

The fourth shop, with racks, was very close to the Main. They installed a Tubus Tara on Al's bike, the only lowrider they carry, but it doesn't work well with his MEC front panniers. Al worked out a solution and we hope his bags don't bounce off.

Onward to the Rhine. The last 20 or so km seemed to go on forever, but we finally arrived at Mainz-Kastel, right across the Rhine from downtown Mainz. It's actually on a sort of semi-island, with the Rhine on both sides, just downstream of where the Main flows in. The bike route goes right by the campground which looked quite nice. Since we had been lugging camping gear (no stove, though), we thought we should at least use it once.

After setting up, showering, and refreshing ourselves with cold beverages from the tiny beer garden at the campsite, we walked across the Rhine into Mainz to look around and have dinner. This required first crossing the little Rhine inlet on a footbridge then the main channel on a large road bridge with wide cyclist/pedestrian paths on either side.

Mainz has some interesting architecture and history, including the Gutenburg Museum. However, by the time we get around to sightseeing, everything is closed. We did find an open bookstore in a modern mall, though. The mall is different from those at home in that its main thoroughfares are open to the sky. I guess I should have taken a picture.

We also saw bike share stations. The bikes here are different than the ones I used in Montreal in 2013. one difference is that they are equipped with a way to carry things on the back, either a large "trunk" or a smaller plastic tub.

Back over the bridge to our still-hot tent. Maybe it will cool off during the night? I didn't bother getting my sleeping bag out of my pannier, just spread my towel on my sleeping mat.

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Today's ride: 82 km (51 miles)
Total: 596 km (370 miles)

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