Roman spring?

I reckon I cycle about 10km in the morning before my toes turn to blocks of ice. That’s about 40 mins each day of riding! Sometimes, if the cold starts spreading towards our ankles, or the balls of our feet go numb, we get off and walk for a bit. This is the downside of cycling in cleated shoes with a lump of metal screwed into the sole of our shoes. It is an excellent conductor of cold. Even two pairs of socks fail to make any difference. If our feet are the only cold bit, at the moment we consider ourselves lucky.

We had wall to wall sunshine on our final full day along the Mosel and the blackthorn is now in flower, so spring must be coming???

Blackthorn and blue sky

For the first time since October we were able to sit in a sunny spot at lunch time and stay warm. Usually we stop, eat and go. Graveyards are our place of choice as they usually have a sunny wall that is out of the wind and Tuesday’s was in Piesport of wine fame.

Then it was on up river to Trier, the oldest town in German and the old Roman capital of their western empire. Here we were lucky enough to stay with Joe, a British cyclist, in his international house share. He works out here and hosts through Warmshowers. We got fed well, enjoyed chats with him and his house mates, and got to sleep indoors for a couple of nights. Warmshowers really is an magnificent group.

Trier is full of Roman buildings and boasts eight World Heritage sites just in the city. We got to see seven of them including the old palace, the amphitheatre and the thermal baths.

The Roman palace - only 1800 years old - now a Lutheran church

The amphitheatre, but no gladiators today

Roman baths - in need of a little renovation

The Roman city lasted for about 500 years and Britain was ruled from here. After that the buildings were converted for other uses in the medieval period or stones taken to build other structures. Roman buildings are certainly very solidly built with 1 metre thick walls using thin red brick or enormous quarried stones.

Most amazing to have survived almost 2000 years are the Roman bridge supports. Having seen the Mosel in powerful spate over the last few days, we know the Romans knew how to build something to stand the test of time. Will the Forth Road Bridge last as long?

Roman bridge stanchions still supporting river crossing

Rising rivers

From Frankfurt we followed the Main to where it meets the Rhein at Mainz. We had a lovely days ride until we took the ferry across at Rüdesheim. Here Jerry hit a patch of broken glass and ended up with multiple punctures.

We tried repairs and replacement in an underpass beneath the railway sheltering from the rain, but his tyre would not stay up. Luckily, there was a Warmshower host nearby so we called to see if we could stay at short notice. Martina said ‘Yes’ so after a short train trip we ended up in a warm, dry house with lovely people who treated us to a local wine tasting session. We found all the holes eventually by using a big bucket of water to see the escaping air bubbles.

The last two days we have been cycling past castles and vineyards on the Rhein and Mosel rivers. There is a lot of water coming down with all the recent rain so some paths have been impassable. Tonight it’s snowing, so we’ve decided to stay in a youth hostel rather than camp. Here are some pictures from the last few days.

Castle above the Rhein

Jerry at Deutsches Ecke where the Rhein and Mosel meet

It's a bit too deep to cycle!

Jerry takes in the view down to the Mosel from the vineyards above.

Mmmm..... Lots of lovely wine to taste.

Time to be on the Road Again

A longer blog about our winter in Bavaria is coming in the next few weeks, but for now I thought I would write a quick update on where we are. I need to find a new way of doing these blogs that is less onerous on me whilst travelling. So here is the first….

We’re now cycling across Germany following the Main, Rhein and Mosel rivers towards Luxembourg. We had a surreal experience in Aschaffenburg yesterday when riding along the towpath to see the Schloss (castle) we came across a sign saying ‘Perth Inch’. Apparently our home city is twinned with Aschaffenburg!

Home from home!

The weather is cool and damp, we got very wet a couple of days ago when it rained all afternoon. Drying out in the tent proved a little challenging. We had to sleep with our wet clothes in the sleeping bags to dry them out ready to put on the next morning!

Tonight we are staying with a delightful couple through Warmshowers just to the west of Frankfurt.