A train and a bus took us to where Chris and family live -- a lovely town of 900 which is a great place to live. We dined in their garden and then accompanied them over a significant hill to the town of Brugg where there was a street fest. Now, this only happens about every 20 years there and they take their festival seriously. The structures for this 2 weekend event rival many house frames, but they will all disappear after next weekend. It was great to talk to Chris and Liz and catch up on how that portion of the family is doing. Also very interesting was to get their opinions of life here in Switzerland which isn't as idyllic as one is sometimes led to believe.
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The bike riding was so easy. We had commuter (step-through) seven speed bikes, which, although quite heavy, worked very well and the riding was smooth (except for the cobble sections). The path we were following was 95% along the river, so we only got lost a few times when we had to go around some industrial area. Our maps and written directions were both good as well as the signage along the path. Mostly we shared a path with pedestrians, something we could certainly adopt in Canada.
So we rode for 6 days: Cologne to Bonn (37 km), Bonn to Andernach (45 km), Andernach to Koblenz (25 km), Koblenz to St. Goarshausen (38 km), St. Goarshausen to Rudesheim (32 km) and finally Rudesheim to Mainz (32 km). Officially that makes a total of 209 km. The Rhine has km markers starting from Lake Constance . Cologne is at 689 and we finished at 498, so not all of our riding was as the ships travel. There was lots of time each day to ride and no pressure to finish fast. We generally rode for about an hour, then stopped for a snack, rode another hour, stopped for lunch and then a third hour when we would usually arrive early at the evening's spot, and so go for a pastry. Very civilized!~
I want to hear all about it,in detail.
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