Bacharach to Bingen and Back

We have enjoyed our stay in Bacharach Germany immensely - can you tell?? Rosi our landlady has been so accommodating for us - not that we have had to ask for much. We will miss the area but are grateful that we have had this opportunity. Even the view from our roof top windows and balcony would have been enough.

Feeling like locals, it was off to the market again this morning for stuff to pack for lunch and we were off biking. Food here is very reasonable in price compared to Canada - maybe that's why they go every day for the basics.
We had read about the 17 km bike path from Bacharach to Bingen so today was the day to test it out. It was quite picturesque - very close to the river - and smooth riding all the way. This path unlike others we have been on was mostly paving brick all the way except for a few spots. Very ingeniously the brick have been laid so that there is minimal bike tire noise and bumping as you might expect. Had to wonder if they do not get frost here - if they do I could see a lot of spring work to get them all back flat and smooth again. Nearly the entire stretch had lots of bike traffic and some walkers especially near the willages we passed. Also we were right beside the railway tracks but they were up higher with a brick wall so on one side we had the trains and on the other side the river.

All along the west side of the river are stone jetty walls extending half way out into the river. These are presumably constructed to minimize the erosion of the shoreline due to the frequent passing of ships of all shapes and sizes. Just had to walk out to the end of one of these jetty walls to greet some ships as they passed by. And just had to sit and give thanks to God for these waters that carried our forefathers to the new world to start anew after so many years of persecution. As we walked in town the other night and looked at the old building - one with a date of 1579 and another - the oldest in town with a date of 1368. hey they were there when Hans Hisey snuck by probably under cover of darkness heading for the new world.

At 10:30 a.m. we happened upon the town of Trechingshausen and went in under the railway arch up into the narrow streets - and I mean narrow. There is no way even small cars could have navigated in there - maybe horses. It was so steep up to the main street that we had to walk our bike up through the streets. We happened upon a small fountain in the centre of this car free zone so sat and had our coffee break - stuff we had packed for just such an occasion. On up on the main street again it was so narrow that we had to walk our bikes close to the houses. While walking our bikes down through town we notices a big garage type door open with stumps of wood piled out near the front and immediately recognized the noise of machines running inside. I walked over and found an elderly gentleman working on a wood lathe behind some stairways up into his house. He saw us out of the cornewr of his eye so shut off the machines and came out front to talk. Of coarse we could not understand most of what he said nor visa versa but again my trusty iphone app came in handy. He showed us some Christmas stars he was making and how he would slice them out on his bandsaw to make them thinner. he was working on a wooden mushroom - he had a number of them there - different sizes that he was working on. I told him I had been a woodworking teacher ( with the aid of the app) and then asked if Jean could take a picture. In many places along the way - to the right of the bike path and between us and the railway tracks were small plots of gardens. Obviously they have been there for years. Almost every plot had a little shed. They had every kind of flower and vegetable and fruit trees imaginable. It appeared that some may even "live" there for short periods of time - very colourful - all fenced in probably so that the wayward bikers could not stock up on grub - it was tempting - especially when we saw nice grapes ready to be picked.

Further at the town of Bingen we sat along the river in a park where other cyclist and walkers and school kids had gathered to enjoy the view - had our lunch before heading home. Soon it was noisy with school children--probably grade 7 age. They go out from their school for lunch--if they live close to home they probably go home, if not they come to that park with their teachers. Being a old retired teacher, my interest got the better of me, so I went over and chatted with a group of the kids and their teacher - 7th graders she said. Some of them said they have family in Canada or their brother went to Canada last summer...

The sky had cleared so the camera shots were better on the way back. Before leaving Jean had mentioned that my rear tire looked a bit flat so I tried to use our hand pump to put more air into the tire. Well more came out than I could get in and by now it was almost flat. We looked around for a service station but there were none to be found in the centre of town where we were. While standing there with our bikes wondering now what to do, a parks worker went by with his wheel barrow on the way to tend to his job so I asked him "sprecken sie english"? He did not but when I showed him my almost flat tire he said 'luft' and he motioned for me to follow him. Back we went to his shed and be brought out a better 'luft' pump and I was able to get lots of air back into the tire and we were on our way - another angel sent to look after us in time of need. We pretty much hightailed it home then. It was 33 km round trip. We were home by 3 p.m.