Strasbourg to Mainz on the Bike & Boat tour

The first part of the trip (on the boat/bike tour boat Olympia) we did together, all four of us.

This morning I had to figure out what we were going to do, with all our bags, between 11 (check out time) and 4 pm (check in to the boat). I did a lot of research into luggage storage options. But the AirBnB was flexible with the check out so we ended up being able to leave at 1.30, then spent a little time in a very interesting park close to where we pick up the boat (Parc de la Citadelle). It was previously an old fort, you could still see about one sixth of the old wall.

We did manage to also see the cathderal, there's a long line where they do a completely useless bag check if you have a little daypack, but it moves fast. Inside a wedding was happening, and after we were in there about 15 minutes, they started ushering everyone out, and emptying the church. Then we checked out the hands on display at the archeology museum just across the square. There was a very interesting stone-cutting demonstration where we were also able try out the tools ourselves.

Also there was a demonstration of primitive tools like stone and early metal hatchets and knives. And we were able to use the bow-drill for fire making (actually made it smoke a bit, with some work!)

We're on the boat now, and I had a really good night's sleep. The mattress in this cabin is really nice and soft, very comfortable. Our first days ride was very easy, maybe 25k. We stopped at the Russian Orthodox church and were hoping to go in, but they were having services. We were putting the bikes away, a lady came up to me and asked what we were doing, and told me we weren't dressed properly (I had my bike shorts on). So, no go there. Took a little bike around the Orangerie park, nice, tons and tons of joggers. Then a very long, straight buggy stretch, still tons and tons of joggers on a pretty narrow path. We took the route that was a little bit longer, through Wantzenau. Very pretty, parts of it were very close to a road, I tried to get us routed on a road that was less trafficed, but was not successful. Anyway, a fairly short ride, and now this afternoon we're taking the boat up to Speyer, I believe, and spending the night there.

The room is nice, very efficient, comfortable. Unfortunately a weird smell comes from the shower - I wonder if we could just put a piece of plastic or something over the drain, and fix it like that. Large windows that can open, it's very bright inside with the curtains open.

So far there's two couples we've talked to, Lisa and Joe (?) from Seattle (!) and Lisa and Peka from Finland. Both very friendly.

In the afternoon we were on board, the boat went up to Germersheim. The water is extremely high, there's visible flooding in a lot of places. It was a pretty relaxing afternoon. We did a treasure hunt organized by the ship, and actually won, by collecting a lot of numbers (following clues) and then opening up a treasure chest in the captains cockpit area. There was a bottle of wine and 2 little figurines, we told him we'd leave it for the next guests. But then Josef (I think that was his name) came after us with the little figurines, so we took them.

Another excitement of the on-board afternoon was that there was a big fire on the side of the river. I couldn't find out any news about it, but from looking at the map, there was a paper factory right where the fire was occuring, so that's probably what was burning.

We played some cards together (rat a tat cat, and egyptian rat screw, Peter's favorites ) and then

Dinner last night was not sufficient since I'm continuing to do zero carb/carnivore, luckily I had some cheese and eggs on board. I will need to speak to someone, see if I can have them make a few changes to what they give me.

We walked around town in Germersheim after dinner. The thing that struck me by far the most was - wow, where are the Germans? Literally out of everyone that we encountered, and were able to figure out nationality because they were talking, or the way they dressed - at the least 95% of them were foreigners. I only heard one couple talking that were clearly native German speaking. Wow, what a change - it's like an invasion, without the war!

We went to a kebab place, because dinner for me was so skimpy, and Eric got a sandwich, I got a box, with just meat. Ate most of it as well, even though it was pretty full, that's how skimpy my dinner was (without the soup, without the dessert, and with just a tiny bit of the dinner - the meat roll.

I've been talking quite a bit with Josef, the ... hotel manager, I think is his title? He's very friendly, and is also from the province of Ober Oesterreich. He's very chatty and helpful.

About to go to breakfast, and have a good meal (plenty of meat, cheese, butter and egg), and also fill up my lunch box, which is the standard for lunch. Yesterday morning they also put full-size Mars bars next to our plates. Luckily I bought a little tupperware at the Deux Euro shop that came with attached knife/fork, which turns out is really good for this type of lunch.

Unfortunately the weather is not good - solid drizzle, if not actual rain, is forecast for the whole day. We'll see how bad it is for cycling. Hopefully not too bad.

Okay, actually everything turned out great in terms of weather, just the tiniest bit of drizzle. We ended up doing an easy bike ride (around 22k) to Speyer. The bike trail stayed very rural, we didn't see the river but were often in very bushy areas that were kind of buggy. But overall quite nice.

Before hitting Speyer, we went to the Technick Museum in Speyer, which is basically a museum for all kinds of transport, motorcycles, cars, old trucks, and most impressive were the airplanes and submarines, that you could actually go into. The Lufthansa 747 was WAY up in the sky, up multiple flights of stairs. I didn't really want to spend that long on it, because it was tilted quite a bit, and it felt weird to walk in it. We found out later that you could actually go out on one of the wings! I don't know how we missed it, but we did.

The submarine was very cool, I'm always very impressed with the way they managed to make the tiny little spaces work as living quarters.

Speyer itself turns out to be a beautiful old town with a cathedral from 1061, romanesque style. I was wondering what part was new, and what old (because parts of it were quite new looking), and went to the tourist office to ask that question. There was a man hanging around there, talking to the tourism office worker behind the desk, but I finally got to ask my question. And it turns out that the first man was a complete expert on the cathedral, he gave a long presentation on his laptop, complete with pictures, on the history of the cathedral. Quite interesting. He had apparently recently retired from a very intense career at BASF, working often from 4 am to midnight, and needs to have a very involving post-retirement job. So he's throwing himself 100% into being a tour guide.

What else...Kenny and I walked around, getting some kebab for Kenny - the food on the boat isn't really enough for him. I went to a grocery (REWE) and bought a few things as well, just to have something in the room to snack on. Dinner was actually pretty decent and I got plenty - it was a Thai style buffet.

Today, biking to Mannheim. In the morning before heading down the river, we first spent a little time biking around Speyer. It's particularly nice to bike around the main square, there are almost no cars and it's a beautiful spot, with the cathedral on one side and the old tower on the other. We looked for a few other sites, but either they were closed, or not that interesting. Another cathedral, a small archeological exhibit, and then we were on our way to Mannheim. Highlights of the ride - a nice bench on the side of the trail to eat our lunch (after breakfast, we pack some things from breakfast in our lunch container, either the provided bags or I have a plastic container with attached knife and fork). And the ferry, 1.50 to cross, a friendly Nigerian guy who was collecting the fares wished us well, he's been in Germany for 30 years.

Then past the coal plant for Mannheim, and through a huge nature park (very smelly and muddy because of the recent flooding, white/gray mud everywhere), and then through the city, to the mooring spot for our boat the Olympia. It's always a relief to get on the boat, everything is clean and comfortable, and a known quantity.

After a little rest, we went out into town. Mannheim does not have a lot of historical sites or anything, it's all industrial/commercial. We got a hair clip at Teddi, the dollar/discount store, then I got a few things at a grocery store, and also we found a sports shop where I got another bike lock, which makes 2. The owner of the used bike shop that we bought the bikes in warned us specifically about theft, said the cable lock we had was not much use. Just LAST WEEK he had had a bike stolen from right in front of his shop - the client had tried it out, and they were inside the store for a moment to discuss the bike, when someone came by and stole it. The owner ran after the thief, but couldn't catch him.

Peter put his feet on his (plastic) chain guard on the bike, and broke it. We tried fixing it along the way with the silicone band of a bike lamp, but it kept working loose. So finally at the boat, we used some of the duct tape that I had brought to fix things up. Very handy! I've already used the duct tape to fix my knife sheath. It was a cheap knife I got at a discount store (Deux Euro store in Strasbourg), but I kept on not noticing that the see-through sheath was on it, and using it to spread butter, for instance, with the sheath on! So a little bit of duct tape made it visible, so I would remember to take it off.

What else did we do in town... had some donner kebab, again. We've been doing that most days, to fill in gaps. Lots and lots of immigrants, at least in the area we were walking around. It reminded me of Germersheim, which was also mostly immigrants.

Dinner was okay, there's usually a scramble on the part of the rest of the family to get at the foods that I leave behind (whatever doesn't fit in my carnivore plan). Especially dessert! I'm still doing pretty okay, for food, there's a fridge in the room (doesn't get very cold though) that I put some sausage, cheese, and butter in, so in case of emergency I can fall back on that. I asked them them to make an omlette for tomorrow night because the other options didn't work at all for me.

Peter and Eric are playing a lot of cards - mostly rat-a-tat cat, but played with a standard set of cards, seems to work out okay.

A full day. We stayed moored in Mannheim, but changed the mooring location - that confused a lot of people, because the second location was hard to find. Biked into Heidelberg, which was the whole point of staying in Mannheim. We took the northern route, which goes into Landenberg, cute little city but unfortunately my chain came loose AGAIN, and this time before I was able to stop it, it actually broke a spoke. It's not something that will stop you, immediately, but apparently it does need to be fixed very soon, otherwise your tire gets unbalanced. As a matter of fact both Peter and Eric said that my tire was looking unbalanced (it was my back tire). So, first order of business in Heidelberg was not seeing the sights, but rather finding a bike repair shop. We called one (it seemed reasonable based on reviews) and they said to come on by. But then when we did, the guy said that they couldn't finish it today. However, there was another guy there, he seemed kind of like a customer or someone associated with the store. After I started talking to him a bit (like - does a broken spoke really need to be replaced right away, he said yes it does) and we got the "can't do it today" answer from the bike shop, he said maybe he could help us, and called a friend of his at another bike shop, who said they'd be able to fix it today. We biked there, they took it, and said they could finish it by 5, so that worked for us, plus they seemed very organized. In contrast, the first place that we went to...everyone there seemed a little off, like maybe they were volunteers, or apprentices from a bad technical college.

By the way, the whole time biking to the first bike shop, the first few minutes there was a rainstorm threatening, and then it broke, pouring rain the whole bike ride there. I was completely soaked.

We had lunch at the first reasonable place we came across (a Thai curry place run by a Vietnamese lady, in a shopping mall type place), then went up to the old castle. Great views. The rain had stopped a long time ago, and it was pleasant to walk around in the old castle grounds. So far Heidelberg is the first place we've been to that has any amount of American tourists at all. I heard American accents many times. Also there's lots of tourists from all other areas like Korea, India, etc.

Then, back on the train instead of biking, just for a little break. But honestly I think the biking might have been slightly easier, because getting the train tickets was a hassle, as was finding out which track the train would leave from. There were NO information signs at all, nothing printed on our ticket. You just have to know, or use the app or something. I ended up asking a guy with a bike, who was luckily also headed to Mannheim, and led us to the right track, and the right car of the train. Only a 13 minute ride.

Then back to the boat, and relaxing. No more going out tonight, there has been plenty of activity for one day. Kenny didn't end up going with us, he went on his own, early, got to the castle and then came back and relaxed the rest of the day.

After dinner they had some entertainers on board - a couple that sang and played hits from the 60's and 70's. A lot of people danced - I did too! That was after the Italian lady, Rafaela invited me up.

On the bike path today a little later, like 9.45 - we waited for a thunderstorm to pass. All worked out okay, we biked to the main trail and then got going along the riverside. There has been a lot of flooding, as I've mentioned before, but today the trails were really wet and muddy, and most importantly SLIPPERY in many places. In the very worst place, just a minute or so after I had alerted the rest of the family that the path was slippery, we came across a cluster of people from our boat, one of the gentleman had fallen down and was bleeding from his knee and hands, a little puddle had formed around his foot.

Also along the trail we passed a lot of BASF factories (chemicals), took a ferry, biked along the top of a lot of dikes. Arriving in Worms, we had a little picnic at a table, then biked into town and to the cathedral (cathedrals are all starting to look the same). Later went to another kebab place (they are absolutely EVERYWHERE in Germany, there's no other restaurant that's more common). Then I found a EuroShop where I was able to buy one of those silicone phone holders that attach to your handlebar - very handy for navigating in a city, stops you from needing to stop and take out your phone all the time. Although not so good when you want to stop and take photos... But heading back to the boat, through the city, was very easy with the accessible navigation.

Peter and Eric are playing cards a lot, rat-a-tat cat, with the regular playing cards (you can do that if you use the face cards as the special cards). Eric was even talking about creating a program to play rat-a-tat cat.

Dinner on the boat, chatting a lot with our tablemates Lisa and Peka. He worked for Iceland Air a lot, went to Norway to study (had to learn Norwegian as he went), and now has a few busines ventures going, one of them in Dubai, I think. Very well traveled. Lisa had a career managing (or designing) restaurants. Now she's working for a company that does feed supplements for cattle. Or pets?

Also the other Americans on the boat (Lisa and Joe from Seattle) are very business oriented and entrepreneurial, she does consulting (working for another company), market research for Google and Microsoft, and other companies. And he was previously an employee of the Seattle school district, in charge of finance. He was a former professor of finance or accounting or something at UW. I talked to him a bit about the broader economic situation, and what he thought. He thinks taxes should be higher. He's trying to get his son (getting a graduate degree in classical percussion) to learn some bookkeeping, so he has a "plan B" for his career.

Evening - after dinner we all took a little walk into the near part of town, to a local grocery, I wanted to get some cream. That's my dessert, after missing out on all the desserts that are offered on the boat. I'm pretty sure the cream here is a lower milkfat that what I get in the US, it's much thinner. It says 30% on the package. One little approximately cup sized package for .99 euros.

Then a magic show, run by the captain with some help from crew members. It was some fun schtick, lots of audience participation. The captain is a jovial guy but it doesn't seem like the magic show came naturally to him, I'm guessing that they're required to do a couple evenings of entertainment as part of the trip. Last night they had the traveling musicians on board, I heard from Josef that they travel around in an RV along the Rhine, doing entertainment specifically on the river cruise ships.

Booked our first hotel, we're spending Saturday night in Mainz. That will be the beginning of the independent travel, for Peter and myself.

The final day of boat biking. The first part of the day was on the boat (unless you wanted to do a 60k day), then the boat was halted in Nierstein (sp) for most people to get out and bike to Mainz. A bit of drizzle at the beginning, and then things cleared up. A pretty decent ride, then we got into town and navigated to the boat.. There's a huge carnival happening, lots of food trucks, lots of rides, and vendors. They also had that thing happening that we saw years ago in Brussels - the police blocked off access to the pedestrian area with a huge dump truck so that nobody could drive in and run people over. We were able to get some cash at an ATM, the rate didn't seem too bad. Then some time in the lounge, playing cards with Peter and Eric. (mostly rat-a-tat cat).

Last night on the boat, tomorrow morning we have to be out by 9, but can leave our things here until noon. Then Eric and Kenny will be headed to London, and I'll be here with Peter.