Back to Koblenz

July 13, 2022

from Cochem

Today was an easy, flat ride and clearly downhill. The only sticky point (see what I did there?) was the heat. It was 32 when we finished.

Before I get onto this ride, I have wanted to point out the prevalence of eScooters here in Europe. In the cities, you see them everywhere - and going really fast. I saw one for sale (probably low tier) for 189 euros. So very approachable, and not a bad solution for school kids or somebody commuting to work. Here is one fellow with his on the train, something we saw a lot.

We got out of town in a couple of minutes, and the scenery stayed fairly constant for the first 1/2 of the route. Although hard to see in this photo, the river was to the right and highway to the left - then train tracks further left.

Hiway to the left of you, Mosel to the right, here I am!

Geology 101. Rivers start out pretty straight near their source and as they get closer to the ocean (or drainage basin), their sinuosity increases. The outside of the curve is usually scoured out forming a cut in the bank - even a gorge, and the inside of the curve is the accretion side, where sediments are deposited and the ground is flat. A rule of thumb: the towns are on the accretion side (inside of the curve) and the grapes are on the scour side (outside of the curve). This section of the river though, broke that rule quite a lot. Although far from the source, the grade was steep(ish), so the river straightened out quite a lot. You could really tell we were biking downhill today. Flat, downhill, mostly no wind in our face. What's not to like?

lots of this view for the first 1/2 of today

So many towns along here with wonderful architecture. We used to think "how do they get people to do this to their homes" and now are thinking "these are the buildings which are available" - built centuries ago for the most part - and the towns are wealthy from the vineyards. Life is good!

We found it funny to see the town names that we saw yesterday on the train stops going to Eltz castle. Hatzenport was where we got off the train to catch bus 365 up the hill.

made it back to the bus stop for Eltz castle

Ho hum, another castle. We have noticed that if there is a castle, even a ruined castle, there is a village below. Two theories for this: One is that whatever wealth was present to create that castle - and it takes a lot of wealth to do so - must still be around to some extent, having filtered into the general village below the castle. The second theory is that this particular hill must be a great place to plant grapes. It was true when they built the castle, and is still true today. Which do you think makes more sense?

Every so often you see a very tall bridge across the Mosel. When you go under those uprights, you cannot believe how slender they are. Then you realize its German engineering, so you relax and go under.

For the second half of the route, as we got closer to Koblenz, we left the highway and were winding through towns - but roughly paralleling the river and highway anyway. It was a wonderful opportunity to see the buildings and cute towns.

Marjory wanted to see this one mural - an advertisement it turned out for Mosel wine.

mural on side of building - of course it was about wine

Although the wooden framing on most buildings is the classic defining look, I particularly liked the dark stone and light mortar look. Here is an example building in the photo below. Sometimes they used dark bricks and sometimes dark stones, but often had red geranium planters and dark shutters on all windows. Such a classic look.

Marjory convinced me that we needed to cool down and make an ice cream stop at some town. Mission accomplished!

It even turned out to have a horse trough, so I could give the bikes a quick rinse. Kind of like giving your horse a rub down when they have been good.

The towns merged eventually, and we passed the welcome to Koblenz sign. Then we crossed the Mosel for the last time. Marjory did not like this bridge much.

We may get one more look at the Mosel when we head to Cologne along the Rhine, but just to be sure...

And we made it to our hotel. Its only 32 degrees, and they let us check in early so we have the AC blasting. Same hotel we had a week ago before starting our Mosel trip (The Sander) with the awesome bike storage.

Tomorrow we stay in Kobenz, and then next day we head down the Rhine river to Cologne (Koln), our last stop in Germany.

Today's ride: 50 km (31 miles)
Total: 1,348 km (837 miles)

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