Rothenberg´s City Walls
Snowball
Summer Gazebo for the night
Supper my friends brought me!
The kind people who looked after me so well
Frankfurt´s old area from the river (the church on the right)
A REAL Frankfurter!
"Grilled Rib"
Le Fort´s supper of Frankfurters
Frankfurt
My cycling pal down the RhineOn the morning of the 17th, I received a text message from Justin Le Fort who is on business in Frankfurt that I should go and visit him. As I was only 50k away, this was a great idea and it turns out that there are cycle paths on this route as far as Munich and beyond, usually following rivers.
After a glorious morning cycling down the Rhine with Holyie, a German chap who is cycling the length of the Rhine, I turned onto the Main (pronunced mine) river for Frankfurt.
I looked a little odd walking through the lobby at the Marriot in cycling tights, clutching my worldly belongings in black pannier bags, however we made it unchecked to the lift, and the thirty somethingth floor which afforded an amazing panorama of the city. Frankfurt has skyscrapers like Manhattan, however it is as though all the people have permanently gone upstate. It feels like a ghost town, and there are not even nearly enough cars to fill the broad streets. It is rather like Birmingham, but cleaner. It was carpet bombed in the war, so very little remains of the old city, save the church where the Holy Roman Emperors were crowned. I had no idea Europe had a skyline like it.
We had a good evening sampling Germany´s best beers and some of her Riesling. Arguably too good an evening. We supped in the most extraordinary stereotypical German restaurant with kitsch gnomes and cuckoo clocks adorning every available space. The chiwawa which trotted about the place was the cherry on top. It was quite extraordinary, but the food was tasty and the service was friendly. Everything was served with sauerkrout and mashed potatoes, and half the menu was different types of Frankfurter. I plumped for the "grilled rib" on the English translated menu which turned out to be a pork chop, but it was rather nice.
We walked out of the first restaurant because they didn´t accept plastic- Germany has not fallen in love with credit cards as we have. I have found my card to be always refused in Supermarkets, and where they to accept it, there is never chip and pin. These wild barbarians!
The next day, the 18th, I didn´t feel as hung over as I would have thought and managed a long day to Miltenberg (a very quaint German town on the river Tauber) where I found the youth hostel that had been indicated on the map was closed. I therefore found the camp site, pitched up and lit my stove. The sunlight was by this stage gone. Just as I was preparing to cook my Pasta Sauce supper, I heard a voice near the reception kiosk, so I went over to let them know I was there.
"I am sorry, but zee cimpzite iz clozd". When I asked if I could just sleep there and move on in the morning, the little bastard just repeated himself. Looking back on it, it was rather humorous, like a scene out of "Allo Allo", but it placed me on rather a sticky wicket. I packed up my stuff, and cycled back to the bridge (the campsite was thankfully in the town).
As I looked at the tourist map, working out what I was going to do, a chap asked me what I was doing. I explained what had happened, and he beckoned me to the house where his daughter Tanja lives. "She speaks better English." She came out, and very kindly said I could sleep in her garden. It turned out that I could sleep in the summer gazebo. I was incredibly well looked after with a blow-heater, tea, a thermos of hot water, and a beef stew! I was even invited inside to take a warm shower, and we used an internet translator to just about converse.
I have therefore experienced coldness, but extreme kindness and hospitality in Germany.
Next day, I cycled to Bad Mergentheim, where I found I was once more the only person at the hostel and I received a buffet breakfast all to myself! The chap was a German student (Ben)- all German boys have to choose between 9 months in the army or 9 months doing public service, and youth hostel work counts as this. He is bright, and finds the menial work irritating as he wants to get to university to study science. It appears unfair that German girls don´t have to do it. He gave me a "Radler"- a German bottled shandy (tasty) and we stayed up talking about history. It´s the first time I have chatted to a German about that which Basil Fawlty couldn´t help but mention; it was interesting to hear him, and reassuring to know that Germans generally feel the same way about that period as we Britons do.
Yesterday, it was gloriously sunny but hideously freezing with head winds so I decided to stop in Rothenberg after only 50k. I have taken a rest day here. It is a beautiful walled medieval city, like St Malo but smaller and prettier. A quarter of the people on the streets appear to be Japanese tourists, and many of the menus are in Japanese and Germen (not English!) The local delicacy appears to be "snowballs" which are solid spheres made of ribbons of biscuit, dusted with icing sugar. I thought it was a little disappointing.
German youth hostels don´t have kitchens which is irritating for those of us on a budget. I have used my camp stove in the past, but tonight it is going to be potato salad and a few other cold things. I am sharing a dorm with a friendly Frenchman called Dominic who is addicted to travelling, it appears.
Need to go and have some supper!--but first I am going to try to upload some photos for the first time to all the blogs I have written so far
After a glorious morning cycling down the Rhine with Holyie, a German chap who is cycling the length of the Rhine, I turned onto the Main (pronunced mine) river for Frankfurt.
I looked a little odd walking through the lobby at the Marriot in cycling tights, clutching my worldly belongings in black pannier bags, however we made it unchecked to the lift, and the thirty somethingth floor which afforded an amazing panorama of the city. Frankfurt has skyscrapers like Manhattan, however it is as though all the people have permanently gone upstate. It feels like a ghost town, and there are not even nearly enough cars to fill the broad streets. It is rather like Birmingham, but cleaner. It was carpet bombed in the war, so very little remains of the old city, save the church where the Holy Roman Emperors were crowned. I had no idea Europe had a skyline like it.
We had a good evening sampling Germany´s best beers and some of her Riesling. Arguably too good an evening. We supped in the most extraordinary stereotypical German restaurant with kitsch gnomes and cuckoo clocks adorning every available space. The chiwawa which trotted about the place was the cherry on top. It was quite extraordinary, but the food was tasty and the service was friendly. Everything was served with sauerkrout and mashed potatoes, and half the menu was different types of Frankfurter. I plumped for the "grilled rib" on the English translated menu which turned out to be a pork chop, but it was rather nice.
We walked out of the first restaurant because they didn´t accept plastic- Germany has not fallen in love with credit cards as we have. I have found my card to be always refused in Supermarkets, and where they to accept it, there is never chip and pin. These wild barbarians!
The next day, the 18th, I didn´t feel as hung over as I would have thought and managed a long day to Miltenberg (a very quaint German town on the river Tauber) where I found the youth hostel that had been indicated on the map was closed. I therefore found the camp site, pitched up and lit my stove. The sunlight was by this stage gone. Just as I was preparing to cook my Pasta Sauce supper, I heard a voice near the reception kiosk, so I went over to let them know I was there.
"I am sorry, but zee cimpzite iz clozd". When I asked if I could just sleep there and move on in the morning, the little bastard just repeated himself. Looking back on it, it was rather humorous, like a scene out of "Allo Allo", but it placed me on rather a sticky wicket. I packed up my stuff, and cycled back to the bridge (the campsite was thankfully in the town).
As I looked at the tourist map, working out what I was going to do, a chap asked me what I was doing. I explained what had happened, and he beckoned me to the house where his daughter Tanja lives. "She speaks better English." She came out, and very kindly said I could sleep in her garden. It turned out that I could sleep in the summer gazebo. I was incredibly well looked after with a blow-heater, tea, a thermos of hot water, and a beef stew! I was even invited inside to take a warm shower, and we used an internet translator to just about converse.
I have therefore experienced coldness, but extreme kindness and hospitality in Germany.
Next day, I cycled to Bad Mergentheim, where I found I was once more the only person at the hostel and I received a buffet breakfast all to myself! The chap was a German student (Ben)- all German boys have to choose between 9 months in the army or 9 months doing public service, and youth hostel work counts as this. He is bright, and finds the menial work irritating as he wants to get to university to study science. It appears unfair that German girls don´t have to do it. He gave me a "Radler"- a German bottled shandy (tasty) and we stayed up talking about history. It´s the first time I have chatted to a German about that which Basil Fawlty couldn´t help but mention; it was interesting to hear him, and reassuring to know that Germans generally feel the same way about that period as we Britons do.
Yesterday, it was gloriously sunny but hideously freezing with head winds so I decided to stop in Rothenberg after only 50k. I have taken a rest day here. It is a beautiful walled medieval city, like St Malo but smaller and prettier. A quarter of the people on the streets appear to be Japanese tourists, and many of the menus are in Japanese and Germen (not English!) The local delicacy appears to be "snowballs" which are solid spheres made of ribbons of biscuit, dusted with icing sugar. I thought it was a little disappointing.
German youth hostels don´t have kitchens which is irritating for those of us on a budget. I have used my camp stove in the past, but tonight it is going to be potato salad and a few other cold things. I am sharing a dorm with a friendly Frenchman called Dominic who is addicted to travelling, it appears.
Need to go and have some supper!--but first I am going to try to upload some photos for the first time to all the blogs I have written so far
Thank you so much for sharing your journey online like this! I have been contemplating a trip to Germany for an acupuncture Symposium in Rothemburg next year. I am a keen cyclist AND listen to the music of Hildegarde Von Bingen all day every day in my clinic in Australia, so the idea of making a pilgrimage to Bingen by bicycle after the conference is very exciting!!
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