For better or wurst!

Rüdesheim.        snuck.gullible.unsubtle. (It sums up the blog in three words).

Distance.        71km

Total.             811km

We said our fond farewells to Gernsheim and caught the ferry to the west side.  Whilst waiting for the ferry a local man who couldn’t speak English had a chat to us about where we were going.  As we cycled off he wished Janice a ‘gut farht’, I’m not sure whether that was appropriate in Germany but probably not in England.

We usually enjoy our first hours of morning cycling.  All seems fresh and quiet on the tracks and we cover plenty of ground.

We travelled through vineyards for kilometre after kilometre. Our intermediate port of call was Mainz.  It is a small city but we enjoyed what we saw.

We had a coffee and then visited the Gutenberg Museum that celebrated Johannes Gutenberg who invented the printing press in Europe by adapting the wine press.  It was a big deal in the history of European culture.  He printed the first bibles and the invention of printing was a massive step in human development.

It fact printing was invented in the Far East 500 years earlier!  The museum did include the history of printing around the world but celebrated Gutenberg as a native of Mainz.  Whilst we were there there was a Fashion Festival on near the Cathedral, not that I paid any attention.

We crossed the bridge to the east and cycled through some nice towns before reaching our destination at Rüdesheim.  We discovered that this is the second most visited place in Germany by foreign tourists after Cologne Cathedral. We thought it was a version of Bowness on Rhein!  All the Rhine Cruise Ships stop here.  It is pretty with many narrow streets with shops and restaurants.  It also has a cable car up to Niederwalddenkmal, which is a hillside with a gigantic statue of Germania, which commemorates the unification of Germany after victory in the Franco-Prussian War.

We did the whole thing, with the cable car to the statue with the masses.  It was a good view over the Rhein and the statue is imposing.

We went out for a meal in the evening.  The problem in a place like this is choosing where to eat.  All menus look similar.  We fancied some home cooking German style and ended up having ‘bangers and mash’, sauerkraut and a bier.

We couldn’t do any wurst! Another fab day....maybe our last, it’s due to rain tomorrow!