We hit a slight slag while trying to leave Koblenz this morning. We'd decided to ride along the eastern side of the Rhine today so crossed the bridge, followed the signs to the path (this involved taking the bikes down steps with an in-built ramp), hopped back on the bikes and rode about 200 metres before coming to a grinding halt at the end of a point surrounded by water.
There was no alternative other than to turn around and go back the way we came, but, sharp eyed Michael spotted an open gate into a little harbour, through which we were able to take a short cut to get back on track.
The rest of the day was a bit of a mixed bag. Initially, the path closely followed the river though we couldn't always see it through the sometimes quite dense undergrowth and when the path ended and the only sign we saw was not terribly enlightening, we followed a local who seemed to know where he was going. He led us to Lidl's Bakery/Cafe so we stopped there for cold drinks and a rest.
Leaving the cafe we headed towards the supermarket a little way up the road, as we needed to go in that direction anyway and hoped we'd find a sign thereabouts which we did, in the form of another local who we also followed and soon found ourselves on the main road, in the bike lane with a barrier between us and the motor traffic.
It was easy going for a while, through a couple of small, quiet towns and when we eventually came back to the river, lo and behold there was a shady beer garden with three kiosks, one serving drinks, one serving hot food and the third serving ice creams.
We needed no persuading to sit for a while, have a light lunch and enjoy the cool breeze wafting across the Rhine while people and boat watching.
For a while, the path after the beer garden was excellent until it went a long way in from the river, through the grape growing region and up a couple of small hills before returning to the Rhine, then along a path that was full of cracks and ruts caused by the roots of trees lining the path, requiring concentration and extreme caution to negotiate our way through.
When we came across a car ferry about 10kms from our destination, we quickly boarded for the short trip across the river in order to ride the rest of the way on the western side. Dismounting as requested to walk through the lovely terrace of cafe/restaurants in Bad Breisig,
we thought it would be a shame not to stop for a while and enjoy the surroundings while sipping iced coffee/iced chocolate,
and so we did just that! An excellent choice.
A short ride after that and we arrived at our hotel in Kripp, 3kms from Remagen and across the river from Linz.
As we're staying for two nights here, we'll explore this town and take a ferry ride to Linz tomorrow.
We've survived our first day back on the bikes and are very happy to be here!
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