Would be champions...

make sure to watch THIS.

The road less traveled part 11

Day 10, The Middle Of Nowhere to Bingen am Rhein. Without knowing it, this was to be our last full day of riding. Passed through some groovy places today as you'll see. This was our last day on the Nahe River as well. Bingen is where it flows into the Rhein river. We stayed in Bingen on our last Germany tour and tried to stay in the same hotel to no avail. All the good hotels were booked so we ended up in a less than stellar place.

We started out the day climbing to the top of these vineyards. If you look close you can see my dad way down the road in the distance. It was a fun downhill. Good thing the Bianchi San Jose is a solid descender.

The first town of any size we came to was Bad Munster. It is known for these bizzarre salt water walls. They pump salt spring water up from underground and drip it through these huge assemblies shown above. You are supposed to gain some health benefits from "taking the air" by these things. All I did was cough for the next two hours....

You can barely make out the trees at the top of this wall. I can't do it justice in a photo.

Bad Kreuznach. These houses were built on the bridge. Had a great lunch here of brats and fries and a raw beef and onion sandwich for dessert. Mmmm, health food.

What's a day without copius amounts of beer? Oh, and Ouzo to top it off. We went to a Greek restaurant for a little change of pace. Wasn't like any Greek joint here.

The road less traveled part 10

Day 9, Idar-Oberstein to The Middle Of Nowhere. What started off as a cool and rainy day quickly turned into another dazzler. You may be thinking that yet another day of perfect weather and beautiful scenery would get a bit boring. You would be wrong. On a cycling tour, it's all about that. Riding in the rain on your road bike on a hot summer day when a shower hits can be fun. Racing cyclocross in wind, rain and sleet is definitely fun. Touring in anything other than perfect weather isn't.

Nearing the end of the day, we were feeling a bit like we would be skunked for rooms after checking in three or four different towns. Then, lo and behold, what to out wondering eyes should appear (apologies to Clement Clarke Moore), but a veritable oasis in the middle of nowhere. Arguably our best accomodations of the trip with the owner of the inn cooking us primo meals and all. And of course the beer was ice cold!

Idar-Oberstein in the morning from our hotel veranda.

My brother and I hiked up to this castle above the town. It was mostly off limits but interesting anyway. There was a cafe there where the waitress turned out to be from Texas and had run away from a violent marriage. Long way to run.

It doesn't get much better...

....than this.

Ahhhhhhhh