The official visit of Snail Queen Joyce to Germany was not over yet, and before heading off for some intense eating session at a wedding, her Majesty decided to shave off some more calories. So in spite of questionable weather conditions, the best way still seemed another cycling tour. And besides, with just a little support of the local German trains, she could combine it with collecting ideas for her new home by looking at some medieval castles along the Rhine river, just about 40 km out of her temporary residence in Mainz.
So off she went on her now obedient mixed breed horse (see other posting) accompanied by Sengkang Joe-rg, myself again, as a scout.
It was about 7:30 a.m. (German time, of course) at a thrilling 13 C, when we rode to the train station. Arrival at Ruedesheim shortly after 9 a.m. was not much warmer. So we took a little warm-up tour around the picturesque town, which attracts zillions of tourists a year ... You get easily around with just knowing English. At that time of day, though, all the many restaurants and souvenir shops were still closed, and we only ran into some other touring cyclists, a lot of them Dutch. At least her Majesty got to ride on her favorite cobble stone pavement again.
After the digicams memory card was loaded with these Disney World like scenes, we headed on to see some "real" castles. No bike trails at first due to the narrow river valley, but traffic was not too hard. 3 castles and dozens of pictures down the road, finally a relieving sign pointing to a trail off the road. The scout new it instantly, that there must be climbing coming up, but even after her Majesty realized, she was kind enough not to chop off his head. The view was rewarding and the ride back down with squeaking brakes relaxing for the muscles.
After about 40 km, a ferry boat served as the turning point to take the trail on the other river side back home. It was right at the Loreley rock, where a fairy tale talk about a beautiful blonde distracting the captains to sink their ships in the river ...
The trail on the other side was definitely nicer, off the road surrounded by green and water and still in a racing like condition most of the time. More castles, but this time seen from the other side ... and her Majesty finally gave up to document them all.
We made it to the destination train station in the town of Bingen about 1:30 hrs too early, so decided to ride our horses home for the remaining 35 km, totaling to 103 km for the day.
Unfortunately, the Kebab restaurant (Turkish meat sandwich) just had some waiting time for putting a brand new meat skewer on the grill, so we went on without the strongly desired carbo (sandwich), protein (meat) and vitamin (salad) boost.
The river valley widens towards Mainz, so we had more scenic trails through nature preserve and fruit tree farms.
On the way home, her Majesty took a look at the office building, her scout works at when not serving her, and followed me home on my short express trail through town. Being under-sugared by that time and not knowing all the traffic lights and German traffic rules, it was not quite as express, as I am used to, but we made it without any honking cars or falls or other problems. The Kebab place right next to our home revived the Queen instantly, and she seemed to have forgiven me for my ignorance about her desire for food earlier.
The weather was borderline along the way, but we were lucky to stay out of any rainfall. The cycling was a lot faster and partly brought up some real Singapore feeling with her Majesty drafting behind.
She went off in the afternoon, leaving me behind with sore muscles and a refreshed memory of great riding times with all of you Joyriders.
All the best,
Sengkang Joe+rg @ Mainz, Germany
PS: Can I get credits for 3 attendances of Joyrides, please: Wed, Thu, and Fri, total 235 km, 13 hrs in the saddle, and 10000 kcal ... no kidding !!
