June 30, 2022
Worms to Mainz
Riding north from the city, we discover where all the industry and traffic went from yesterday. I would say the south entrance is much more picturesque. Nonetheless, Komoot pieced together a route that was reasonable, and paralleled the Rhine and its flood plains. Leaving the city was noisy and full of zooming traffic, but eventually we got out to our old friend and a more peaceful setting.
As we left the environs of Worms however, you could almost imagine you were north of Superior, along the trails of Thunder Bay.
To add to this image, we frequently saw barges along side. They would creep up on us as they seemed to be travelling around 20 kph - we were keeping between 15 and 20 kph.
We moved west from the Rhine, which is probably about 2-300 meters to the right in this photo. There is a levee all along here, then farm fields. Hard to believe you need a levee this far from the Rhine! The day was heating up, and reached the low 30's by the time we were done.
We are actually just on a channel of the Rhine here, the main body is a further 3-400 m to the right. These zig zag barriers are a pest, but they do actually slow you down on the cross streets, otherwise some people (ahem) might just zip across. We found this sign intriguing....
Although this pic doesn't capture the deep violet colour, I thought we were approaching a field of lavender at first! Then thought no, a little too far south for that.
The town of Oppenheim was very pretty. It is a celebrated wine town, primarily for Riesling, and we would have stopped to sample if it weren't so darn hot. The colour of the buildings made of pink sandstone was really something.
The angle on these grape fields was very steep. This is what they mean when they say "Clos de ...." on those French wine bottles, I think. And on these slopes the grapes were getting the full benefit of the sun for sure. We, on the other hand, had on about 1 cm thick sunscreen.
Mainz is where the Main river joins the Rhine (not quite there yet) and is famous for being the home of Gutenberg. Gutenberg was not the first to invent moveable type, but was the first European. A larger city (225,000), the approach to it so far has been wonderful, with parks and sun bathers all along the way. We stopped for a late lunch at a Boat Club, just 1/2 km prior to our hotel.
Cooling off in the shade, I finally got to sample a little of the local Riesling. Divine! You can see Marjory below, sampling her 2022 Perrier.
After cleaning up and cooling down (yay to A/C!), we walked to dinner in the old town.
Mainz is a beautiful city! We were not taken with Worms at all, but think living in Mainz looks like it would be great. Except they speak German, and we do not. Oh well.
The architecture everywhere was stunning as it uses that pink sandstone that we first saw earlier today in Ossenheim.
Finally, there were some intrusions of the modern with the ancient. I would dub this photo "juxtaposition of the incongruous"!
Sadly, only one night in Mainz, but we'll be back I am sure. For tomorrow, we are off to St Goar (Sankt Goar), a longer ride, but much cooler weather tomorrow after rain tonight. That's when it should rain, at night - right?
Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 951 km (591 miles)
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