Koblenz to Hattersheim

Saturday October 30, 2010
I had a good sleep but unfortunately we had to wake up early because I wanted to cover lots of kilometres. We were heading the same direction so we decided to ride with each other for a while.
We ate breakfast and headed off. We were cycling up the river Rhine which was very scenic, through gorges, beautiful winding valleys with fantastic views of castles and palaces perched on each bend proudly overlooking the Rhine, and colourful autumn woods and old wealthy towns dotted all the way up the Rhine.

A ferry traveling up the Rhine, Stolzenfels, Germany.

Cycling up the Rhine, in Brey, Germany.

Cycling up the Rhine, in Brey, Germany.

Cycling up the Rhine, in Brey, Germany.

Cycling up the Rhine, in Brey, Germany.

Cycling up the Rhine, in Brey, Germany.

Simon cycling up the Rhine, in Brey, Germany.

Simon cycling up the Rhine, in Brey, Germany.

At one point we came across another touring cyclist whom Simon stopped to chat to:

A German touring cyclist who we came across riding along the Rhine.

A German touring cyclist who we came across riding along the Rhine.

Amazingly he'd been touring around Germany for eleven years! His home was wherever he pitched his tent, and when he ran out of money he'd stop and work on maybe a farm or drop into an employment office and work for no longer than a week before hopping back on the bike.

It was much more enjoyable riding with someone else for a change. Simon and I chatted as we rode, and also used each other's "wind shadow" as Simon called it. The weather was warm and sunny but we had a headwind so drafting each other helped.

Looking across the Rhine from Brey to Braubach, Germany.

Looking across the Rhine from Bad Salzig to Kamp-Bornhofen

Riding up the Rhine, in Bad Salzig, Germany.

An der Loreley, on the Rhine, Germany.

We also had a go on each other's bikes to compare them. Simon's got his bike for free from another company that he got to sponsor him, so his bike was a bit of a prototype for him to test out and report back. It was comfortable enough to ride, but quite different. Most noticeably, I was sitting in a much more upright position, without drop-bars, the handling was much different without front panniers, and the brakes were leagues better, Simon's bike had hydraulic V-brakes. It also had Shimano's Alfine internal 11 speed gearing, which seemed to work smoothly to me, but Simon reckoned there were some gears it didn't like much and sometimes he couldn't change onto those gears properly. My concern with them is the gear range, there was not a low enough gear for many of the hills I've ridden up, and had my bike been equipped with those gears, I think I would have done a fair amount of walking my bike up hills.
We stopped in a town called Bingen for lunch, then said our goodbyes as we went our separate ways. Simon hung back to talk to people and see if he could get some more survey's filled out, while I continued on my way to Frankfurt. At this point the weather seemed to get even better because the wind direction changed, and I now had a welcome tail-wind to push me along and I was making good progress.
I stopped in a city called Mainz, because I'd stopped a big bike shop. I walked in and it was one of the biggest bike shops I'd seen, so I expected they'd have the right sized tyre so that I could replace my front one.

A large bike shop in Mombach, Mainz, Germany.

But alas, they didn't. I thought "if I can't get the tyre in a shop like this, I don't think I'm going to have much chance of finding it anywhere else". I needed some waterproof booties though, so that my feet wouldn't get wet when riding in the rain, so I went to purchase a pair of those, but realised I'd run out of cash. I went and found a bank to withdraw some money then went back to the bike shop and bought the Vaude booties for €40, not cheap! They had better be waterproof!
Simon had given me the heads up about the next day (Sunday) being the end of daylight savings, and I'd heard from someone along the way that Monday was a public holiday, so I went to the supermarket and stocked up on supplies to last me for the next two days. I also bought these effervescent vitamin tablets that Simon had recommended to me. They cost about 70 cents for a tube of ten, you just add a couple to your water bottle and they dissolve and make the water taste really good, like mineral water with cordial. This is good because it means it encourages me to drink more water, as I tend not to drink enough. It's also good for another reason, which is to do with energy limits in the body. See, if you've been riding hard all day, and you've depleted your body of energy, you actually have some energy left in reserve even though your body isn't telling you, and your body won't let you use it either, unless it thinks you really need it, like if you're in a life or death situation. But if your body notices that there is food being consumed, then it will say "okay, we're getting some more energy coming in, I guess it's okay if we release some of the reserve energy supplies". Drinking this fizzy flavoured water with dissolved vitamin tablets tells your body via your tongue, the same thing - that there is some energy coming in, so it allows the reserve energy supplies to be released.
This is what Simon told me anyway, he said he'd learnt about it in a podcast called "Limits" from WNYC Radiolab.
Simon also made me realise that listening to podcasts as I rode would be a really good idea, since I just have so many hours where I'm just sitting on the bike pedaling away, kinda bored, where my mind could really soak up some podcasts. So Simon recommended a few podcasts that he listens to: the WNYC Radiolab ones, This American Life, The Economist and LSE (London School of Economics) Public Lectures, although he said these can be a bit hit and miss. And I guess he's slightly biased towards these economics podcasts since he's a social economist, but I studied some economics at uni too and I thought it was really interesting stuff. So next time I have a moment with a good internet connection, I'll try and download some of these podcasts, to give me some food for thought while I'm on the road.
By the time I left Mainz, it was properly dark. I was following the course of the Main river towards Frankfurt, but as I went on, I began to realise I wasn't going to make it to Frankfurt that night (I don't know how I expected to make it there yesterday!)
I ate some cereal and then bought some hot chips for tea, and continued up the river until I found a suitable spot to camp. There were actually many options, so it was mainly based on how long I wanted to keep riding for.
I stopped near a town called Hattersheim, and got to sleep just after 11 pm, much earlier than usual because I wanted to get up at the crack of dawn for a massive day the next day. It was crunch time, and unless I put in a string of massive days on the bike, I wasn't going to make it to Vienna in time to see my friend Juls while she was there visiting from Melbourne.

My route for the day, Koblenz to Hattersheim, Germany.

An overview of my route so far, France to Germany.

Ride stats:
Distance: 129.98 km
Average: 19.7 km/h
Maximum: 36.2 km/h
Time: 6:34:41
Total ascent: 366 m
Total descent: 369 m