Photos of our trip

It's taken a while, but we've finally gotten to posting some photos of the trip for you to check out here. It was hard to decide which ones to omit... we took hundreds! Enjoy the photos.

--Lynne and Robby

5 Days Off Festival Amsterdam

Fischerspooner at Paradiso










The lighting console at Melkweg











M.I.A. performing at Melkweg

What great shows! We had tickets to see this 5 Days Off festival at the Paradiso and Melkweg clubs with our good friend Claire, we headed down and got our passes around 9pm, then saw Fischerspooner at the paradiso. Fischerspooner is an electronica-pop group from NYC, who sound a lot like 80s groups we like a lot (OMD, Depeche Mode), but with more of techno edge. They have a new album out called Odyessy.

There are a number of interesting things with the clubs here; first, the people are really happy. Everywhere we stood people were polite and didn't shove (even though it was crowded). Second, for the most part people were very happy to dance to any music playing, so the in-between music was just more opportunity to dance.

The festival is a techno- and multimedia festival, so the break music was excellent. The sound was really good too, very loud but not very "dirty" so our hearing wasn't too damaged (I don't think...). The Paradiso is a large place, a former church, and has one of the best sound and lighting setups we've seen/heard. There was a large projection screen 20 feet above the stage that showed all kinds of weird film and video loops, fractals, and slides. When Fischerspooner came on, the place was filled with fake and real smoke, the lights were fantastic. There were about 30 moving "intelligent" lights (perhaps Suma lights?) that sprayed light patterns all over, as well as these neat neon-like tubes that could change color. Fischerspooner had more "real" instruments than electronic ones, but the sound was fantastic and blended really well. They wore interesting costumes and had great stage presence, as well as fantastically weird projections on the screen above.

After the show we went through Leidesplein (the nearby square), had some curry fries and then went to Melkweg to go see M.I.A., the Sri Lankan born, female hip-hop star who lives in England. The Melkweg was set up with DJs in every room, more multimedia displays from video projectors, and various photo exhibits throughout. The main room was packed with people waiting for M.I.A., we staked out a good spot off to one side.

M.I.A. came on about 1 am, it was very loud but again, terrific sound so it wasn't so bad. They had pumped fog into the room so the lights looked great, and the visual images behind the stage were excellent... silouhettes of fighter planes (M.I.A. grew up in a war zone) and running tigers flashed on the screen behind. It was a fantastic show, well worth waiting for. When we left the club at 3 AM the place was still packed with no signs of slowing down any time soon.

We walked to Leidesplein (square) which was also still very lively and full of people. We hadn't really had any dinner so some late night pancakes sounded like just the thing to do. We went to a place called, appropriately, Pancake Corner. The pancakes were more like crepes, eggy concoctions that you can order with whatever you like... Robby had the "hungarian" pancake with peppers and salami, Lynne had a sweeter one with mandarin oranges, almonds, and honey. The square was still hopping when we left. Just when DO these people go to sleep? We walked Claire back to her hotel after this, then made it to our hotel by 4am! Great night out.

Here are some links:

MIA website

NPR article on MIA

MIA review in Pop Matters

Fischerspooner website

Fischerspooner fan website

Fischerspooner review in Pop matters

More Amsterdam Photos

As promised, some more photos. At the top are Irving, Peter, and Bill. Our Fondue dinner next, then some shots of Amsterdam taken at night. The last photo is just one aisle of the 6 aisles of record stands!

16 July Amsterdam

Final Post from Amsterdam!

Today we are hanging out with our friend Claire, planning to do a touristy boat tour and the music festival tonight. We head back to the US tomorrow morning.

Thanks so much for reading our blog. We hope you have enjoyed it almost as much as we have enjoyed our trip. When we get back we may add a few more photos so check back later this week.

Logan, we will see you at the airport tomorrow. Thanks for picking us up.

Ian - HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY!!

xxx
--Lynne & Robby

15 July Amsterdam

Night bridge.


Short post today.

This morning we headed to the Albert Cuypmarkt (a lively 10-block pedestrian market filled with all kinds of great stuff to buy). We found everything from cheap tee shirts to fresh herring to hot sambaal (red-hot indonesian pepper paste).

We trucked our purchases back to the hotel and then headed out again to the Reijksmusum which is where the Dutch master paintings are housed. We saw many famous Rembrandts and a few Vermeers as well.

After this, we headed to the area of Leidesplein, a square with a lively night life. We will be back over there on Saturday for the shows at the Melkweg and Paradiso clubs. At about 6pm when we went back to our hotel for a brief nap. Claire me us downstairs at our favorite local bar around 8pm (she had just taken the train from Brussels). We went out for a delicious Indian dinner down the street and then walked along the canals in the nice warm evening.

Tomorrow we are planning on taking a canal tour and then going to the 5 Days Off festival that night to see Fischerspooner and MIA. Can't believe it's almost time to go.

14 July Amsterdam

The local bar we would hang out at, Onder de Oodvaar.










Reistoffel, or "rice table," the indonesian meal we ate.

Lynne's conference is over, and all the epidemiologists have either flown back home or gone on to further adventures in Europe. We decided to walk around a bit, exploring the environment near our hotel and towards the Maritime Museum. Our good friend Dan Hall recommended this to us, and it was well worth the visit. We spent about 2 hours there, looking at the ship models, astrolabes, swords, and sextants. They had exhibits dealing with the history of colonialism and slavery as well. Outside there was a full size clipper ship, the Amsterdam (a modern replica of the Batavia which sank off the coast of Australia in 1629). You can walk all over the ship and get a sense of how the space was used. Very interesting. Now we both want to go rent 'Master and Commander' again...Pretty amazing museum.

We ate lunch over in the Niewmarkt square. In the middle there was a market set up and it looked like there were a lot of records so we went over to check it out. Lucky us! It turned out that the special record market is only ONE DAY A MONTH and we happened to hit it. Robby was in seventh heaven when he found a guy who specialized in Dutch beat records from the '60s. They had a lively discussion of the scene back then and the guy told us all about all the shows he used to see and about how he used to live next door to the drummer for Shocking Blue. For those of you who don't know Dutch Beat, Robby assures me that this is EXTREMELY COOL. Robby walked away from the transaction with a healthy stack of vinyl.

Then we visited the Rembrandt house, which had a dazzling display of Rembrandt's etchings. Rembrandt had lived there and did many of his most famous works there. But, he was a big spender and ended up losing the home in bankruptcy. The legal documents of the sale of the home were used to reconstruct its contents. It was interesting to see but the collection of etchings was by far the highlight. We closed that place down and then split up for a while.

Lynne headed to do some shopping at Hema (the Dutch version of Ikea) and Robby went to the internet cafe. We met up later at our bar and then headed out for dinner. We decided to do Indonesian again and it was an excellent choice. We found a tiny place in our neighborhood (Soenda Kelada). It was one of the best meals we have ever eaten. We got a rice table, which means that they give you rice and about a dozen little dishes full of different spicy concoctions to put over the rice: fish with chili sauce, chicken with peanut, green beans in coconut milk. Marvelous! We have yet to have a bad meal in this town.

We went for a walk after dinner, through the canals and then back to our hotel for some sleep. More museums and markets tomorrow...

11 - 13 July Amsterdam

Lynne has been at the Conference the past few days, and is having a good time. Her poster is at 2pm on Wednesday. While Lynne's been in the conference Robby has been walking around and sketching, or drinking beer at weird taverns and cafes all throughout Amsterdam.

This is an interesting city... built along canals and rivers, it has a very relaxed feel and the people are really nice. It somewhat resembles New Orleans, and our theory is that it's the New Orleans of Europe, with all kinds of kids coming here for the weekend to smoke marijuana legally, party like rock stars, and make a great deal of noise. Like New Orleans, there is a lot of wonderful architecture and art and there are lovely quiet neighborhoods where the locals and "older" tourists hang out to avoid the partying crowds. We haven't met anyone who doesn't speak English. It's an easy town to get around in if you stay out of the cyclist's way, this town is ruled by the cyclists, with paths marked off on every street, alley, path, highway, and bridge.

July 11 (Monday) we had our breakfast in the hotel, then Lynne went to the conference. I (Robby) walked over to the Melkweg and got tickets for the "5 Days Off" electronic music festival on Saturday, where we'll get to see M.I.A. and Fischerspooner, and Claire will join us again. Then I went to the Van Gogh museum to see more of those great drawings, I spent most of my time upstairs in the drawing wing of the museum. Fantastic!

I found a great record store near the Paradiso, they had a bunch of mid-60s Dutch Beat (Nederbiet), but it was pretty expensive. I settled for a great compilation of mid-60s Dutch Girl Groups, looks like a goody (the guy at the store said as much). I plan to dj another Garage Rock show on WXDU when I return, and I'll feature this disc as well as my other Dutch Beat collections.

Back to the hotel after this and then met Lynne at the RAI, then we all went out to dinner with Bill, Alia, Kim, Piku, Julius, and Irving. We ate outdoors at a Thai Restaurant near the Nieuwmarkt, then took an interesting stroll through the Red Light District where the epidemiologists discussed the merits and pitfalls of legalized prostitution. We bumped into other people from the conference over there as well. It's interesting to note that Holland has one of the lowest STD rates in the world, as well as very low crime.

JULY 12 Lynne was at the conference all day and I went up to the Centraal Station to rent a bike. I rode all around the canals and up the river a bit, it turned into a really gorgeous day. I also went to the Vondelpark, a sprawling park just south west in the city, and did some sketching and leisurely riding. Then I headed up to the docks near the Centraal Station and watched boats chug around. I ate at an asian fusion restaurant that was quite good, a Japanese vegetable curry dish. The skies were cloudy for the first hour or so, then cleared up later and really was quite pretty.

The conference over for the day, Lynne met me at our local bar downstairs "Onder de Ooievar" or Under the Stork, and had a beer. We met up with Bill, Alia, Julius, and Piku, went to the Anne Frank House over on the other side of town. This is a really interesting and sad place, the exhibits are well done and describe mid-40s Amsterdam quite well under the Nazi occupation.

After this we wandered up to an African restaurant in the north part of the city. Piku, Julius, and Bill (all whom have either travelled or lived in Africa) noted that our service, as well as our food, was typically African (Veeeery slow, the owner of the restaurant took our orders, made our drinks, and then disappeared for an hour to prepare our food...). It took us an hour to get our food, and after it was all done, we'd been there for nearly 2 hours, leaving at midnight! Still, the food was excellent.

We walked Julius back to the Metro at Centraal Station and then took the tram back to our hotel.

July 13
Today is the last day of the Conference, and Lynne has her poster session from 12-3 (see above) Robby's going to the Reijksmusuem and meeting her at the conference to cheer her on and take photos (and also use the free internet!).

Piku and Alia flew out this afternoon to continue their travels in Italy. We met Bill, Irving, and Kim at Rembrandt Plein, then headed up to Marktplein to go to the fondue place. We had almost given up on Peter when we got there, but when we got to Cafe Bern he was sitting there waiting for us! Our reservations were for 6, and we had to wait about an hour, but it was well worth it... a hot bubbling cauldron of rich, creamy swiss cheese and delicious bread. We feasted for about an hour, washing it all down with great white wine.

After this we went on a massive quest for ice cream... odd that in Germany we found an "Eiscafe" on every street corner, but could find none here. We must have walked two miles and all we could come up with was ice cream on a stick... but it was a beautiful night. We all departed at a tram stop near Rembrandt Plein and said goodbye, they are all headed back to the States tomorrow.

10 July - Amsterdam

We met Claire this morning on the Rembrant Plein (Rembrant Square), then walked over to the Van Gogh Museum. It was a really nice day, plenty of sunshine, people were out walking or cycling around. The Van Gogh Museum is a fantastic place; a very modern looking museum with some of the more famous paintings, including some Irises and Sunflowers, and of course a whole host of great drawings which Robby enjoyed.

We walked back up to Rembrandt Plein and met Bill Miller, Claire and Lynne's advisor at UNC, and went out for a nice lunch at a nearby cafe, overlooking a gorgeous waterway. We then walked with Claire up to the Centraal Station and said goodbye to Claire (until next weekend, that is!). We then took the Tram 4 all the way down to the RAI Center where Bill and Lynne checked in and went to the opening talks. Robby checked email and wrote on this blog at the free internet kiosks, then went to the hotel to change.

There was a reception at the RAI later, Robby met Lynne and Bill, and Alia and Kim (other students from UNC) and we all went out for a Reistoffel, a delicious and spicy indonesian meal of lots of little plates of food and rice that you can pick and choose from. We were stuffed! We said goodnight around 1am and slept very well.


Hotel Prinsenhof
Prinsengracht 810
1017 JL Amsterdam
Tel +31- 20- 6231772
Fax 6383368

List of things to check out: Concerto Records in Amsterdam... any Dutch Garage/Dutch Beet?

Clubs.
Paradiso, where we hope to see a show or two.
Panama nightclub
Melkweg

09 July - Koln Cathedral & Amsterdam

The spaceship-like cathedral at Koln and crazy Amsterdam on a Saturday night!

09 July - LeTour in Pforzheim

What a crazy day!

We awoke early, at 6am, to get a good start on our day. We ate our fruestueck (our last German breakfast, Lynne was so sad...) and then packed up. We were at the train station at 7:30. We put our bags in a locker and headed to Pforzheim, about 30km away. It took a while to get there, maybe a half hour or so. We got there just as the madness was beginning. The entire town was decked out for the tour.... another umpah band was warming the crowd up to "Da Do Run Run", "Ob La Dee Ob La Da" and some Abba tunes, all dressed in old German attire. The fence wasn't as croweded so we got a good spot, just in front of the train station (we got there just in time, so we didn't get to find the team vehicles for signatures... sorry Stacy!). We also managed to miss the official Tour de France vehicles that come by to sell official gear. It is odd but they don't have a stand anywhere that you can buy that stuff, it is ONLY when the vehicle comes by and you have to act fast. So, we missed that but got there in time for the parade.

Across the way was a Native American family with a big American flag, and we stood next to two American girls who were studying in Goetingen for a year, we had a nice conversation with them. Robby taught them how to use the high speed shutter on their digital cameras and promised to email them some of his pictures later.

Just like yesterday, the sponsors drove by and threw stuff out, but this time we managed to catch some stuff (pens, keychains, bottles of water, gummi bears). It was just as crazy as the day before, but less people and a much older town. No big screen TVs this time and a much more smalltown feel to things. When the tour riders passed they weren't going as fast so we got to see them, and I got a good picture of Lance in the center of the peoloton.

After the madness left we wandered around a bit, but had to catch the 12:13 train back to Karlsruhe, then catch the 13:00 train to Koeln, which would lead us to Amsterdam. The timing was tight, but we made all of our connections in just the right amount of time. A few times there we both said "Thank God we're in Germany where the trains run on time..."

In Koeln (Cologne) we had an hour layover. We figured this wasn't enough time to do anything but were very happily surprised to find that the famous cathedral is only steps from the station so we actually did have time to walk through it a bit. Truly amazing. It was huge, even bigger than Speyer, but had the same cozy feel as the one at Worms. We were so happy that we got to see the three famous Gothic cathedrals of southern Germany. Gorgeous.

We were in Amsterdam by 8pm, got some tram tickets and found our hotel Prinsenhof just fine. It is a very local little place. Clearly the proprieter has his apartment in part of the building and then runs a 10 room inn in the rest. He doesn't answer his bell after 8pm so he left a note on the door of the hotel to "check with the bar at the corner". Sure enough, the very friendly bartender had an envelope waiting for us with a key, a nice note, and coupons for 2 drinks at the bar. What nice hospitality!

We met up with our good friend Claire (who just moved to Brussels for work and came up for the weekend to see us) afterwards and then had some drinks at our local bar downstairs.

Family, please note that there is no phone in our room and no phone or lobby at the hotel. It is minimal! So if you need to call, leave a message with the owner and we'll get it when we can. Email might be the best way of getting to us...

Right now we are posting from the free internet kiosk at Lynne's conference. It is especially nice because the keyboard is American. No funny characters in funny places!

Off to eat dinner now. More from Amsterdam later.

xxx

L and R

Pforzheim Webcam
Pforzheim Nordstadt Webcam
Going to see the beginning of Stage 8 of the Tour de France in Pforzheim, then take the train to Amsterdam.

More Karlsruhe Tour Photos

08 July - Rastatt to Karlsruhe

Another lovely fruestueck, then we said goodbye to Rastatt and our bikes (we were still sad that the bike tour was over), then got on the strassenbahn to the train station. We had an uneventful trip to Karlsruhe, and found out that there was a special on the local KVV (Karlsruhe transit), we could travel anywhere for 24 hours for only 3 euro each!

We found our hotel, and as luck would have it, it was just one block from the main Tour de France route through town. We checked in around noon, then headed to the streets which were already filling with people. Just two blocks from our hotel was a huge video screen, about 3 stories tall and blasting live coverage of the tour on German TV. There were about 10 of these along the route through town. There were "umpah" bands playing Abba tunes and big beer tents off in side streets, with the smell of sausages (wursts) grilling on large propane grills. We bought a couple of big 1/2 liter beers--in thick glass steins no less (you pay a deposit on the glass) --and staked out a position along the fence that barracaded the bike route. This was at about 1pm, and we got the last available space on the fence. By this time there were even more people crowding into the streets and lining the route. The route itself is only about 2 traffic lanes wide.

We talked to a nice group of German 20-somethings who came from Marburg (Lynne noted that this city is famous for the Marburg Virus!). Our new friends assured us that Marburg is very pretty and much more than just an ebola-like virus!. We talked about how Jan is "lazy" but still one of the best cyclists in the Tour. We watched the big screen, first advertisements and pre-tour stuff and then later live coverage of the race as it neared town.

Around 2:30 pm the crowds were really pusing at the barriers. Official tour vehicles started racing along the route, checking the way for the cyclists. At times police on bikes would ride by and the croud would cheer and egg them on. I went back for beers or pretzels a few times but after a while the crowds were so thick that it wasn't worth it.

On the big TV around 3pm (I think), the Tour coverage showed Fabian Wegmann-- A German cyclist-- riding into Germany, the first rider across the Rhein into the Fatherland. The crowds went wild. At one point a helicopter was videotaping the Karlsruhe streets and the announcer said that there were upwards of 700,000 people in the streets. The entire city left work for the afternoon to see the tour!

Then came the sponsor vehicles. These are almost like floats in a parade, very gaudy, brightly colored vehicles with dancers on top throwing out goodies to the crowd; Gummi bears, hats, bandanas, water bottles, and some even squirted water from big water tanks. It was really exciting to see. There were American semi-trucks blaring EuroDisco with dancers on top, then funny cars with big clown heads, some of those funny French cars, Durchevaus (sp?) with gigantic plastic baguettes on top.... and megaphones with French announcers saying "Guten Tag!!" in very accented German. I'd say there were probably 200 or so sponsor cars that drove by... it was absolutely incredible. At one point the French gendarmes car went by blasting a tinny europop version of the 'Beverly Hills Cop' theme. No kidding!

Then the Tourofficials drove by, followed by team cars, people would cheer when their favorites went by, but the real crowd favorite was T-Mobile (Jan Ullrich's sponsor). After these were the motorcycles, with the cameramen riding backwards on the back. Helicopters swarmed above, maybe 6 or so, and then the crowd was going wild.. huge cheers and honking horns, the umpah bands were playing as was the disco music down the street.

About a dozen motorcycles passed honking their horns and then we could see the bike riders just behind them, rounding the corner about a block away and standing up to get some speed. Huge cheers erupted in the crowd and cameras were held high and stuck out into the route. I set my camera on "high-speed shutter" and just clicked away. The riders were going about 25 or 30 miles per hour by this point, and they have a huge rush of wind as they pass. I caught a glympse of Lance Armstrong in his yellow jersey (this means he leads the Tour), safely in the center of the Peloton (main pack of riders). And in an instant they were gone.

We watched the screen to see the rest of the race. Manyjumped the fence to get in the Tour route. I looked back at my photos and saw that I had taken a good picture of Ullrich... I showed it to the German folks next to me and they said "ULLI!" and then other Germans crowed around to see the photo. German flags with 'ULLI' written across them were a popular window dressing down the streets.

The crowd then wandered around, happy to have seen the Tour, and all were glad that this time there are 2 stages that graze Germany. We wandered down to a few more "stations" along the route, eating pretzels and sausages and listening to some funny bar bands (one band sang "The Letter"--originally by The Boxtops-- and sang the lines "Gimme a ticket to an airplane..." our emphasis).

We walked around Karlsruhe and then had dinner at a converted bank building called, appropriately, Alte Bank. We checked our email at an internet cafe and then went back to the hotel to get some sleep.

The next stage begins in a neighboring town (Pforzheim) about 30 miles away so we need to get up early to get over there by start time.

Hotel Rio Karlsruhe
Hans-Sachs-Str. 2+3 • 76133 Karlsruhe (beim Mühlburger Tor)
Tel (0721) 8408-0 • Fax (0721) 8408-100

A bunch of Karlsruhe webcams here and another site here.

Stage 7 of the Tour de France!

07 July - Bad Bergzabern to Rastatt

Today we would like to give a special blog shout out to our friend Thierry because we are visiting his homeland today (bon jour, Thierry!)

Breakfast at the Hotel Wasgau was exceptional. Most of the fare was the same as usual - meusli, yogurt, cheeses, meats, etc. It must have been the presentation and our friendly hostess that made it extra special. It was a great way to start our last day of cycling. The weather certainly wasn't anything to be too happy about, drizzly and cold. Plus, the day started out with some serious hills back up into the vineyards. Incredible views at the top though.

Our first real destination of the day was the town of Weissembourg which is just over the border in France. Somehow we thought (or perhaps were hoping for) some ceremonial check point as we crossed the border and traveled with our passports handy to be prepared. Instead, we entered a vineyard where the signs were in both German and French. The village on the other side had signs only in French (Rue de this and Rue de that) - we had arrived in the outskirts of Weissembourg. Where was the actual border? We had never seen a sign so maybe it was somewhere in the vineyard.

The town itself is truly lovely, full of half-timbered houses and lots of little German grandmothers on sightseeing tours. We parked our bikes near the 13th century Abbey and did a bit of walking around. The Abbey was a beautiful Gothic cathedral with amazing stained glass windows. The river Lauter runs through the town and several tributaries have been formed into little canals which are lined with houses and inns busting with geraniums.

We got a little surprise when we headed into the business district to buy some lunch. We didn't intend to sit down anywhere, just wanted to pick up some sandwiches and get back to riding. It turns out that all the shops close from 12-2! We found one lonely bakery (boulongere?) that was still open and snatched up their last few sandwiches and a few pastries for the road.

We headed down the Lauter river towards Rastatt, going back into Germany for a long and cool ride through the forest. We ate our lunch at a funky picnic area by the path - the table was an enormous stump. Then the trail led us back to France again to another cute town called Lauterbourg. This allowed us to mail some French post cards we had bought in Weissembourg. Then we rode down the Rhein along the levee.

It began to rain a bit after Lauterbourg, a little at first and then began to downpour. We ducked into a bird-watching hut and waited the storm out (and had a little chocolate). A German woman ducked under the hut as well and we had a funny conversation about where we were from and what we were doing... Germans don't hesitate to ask "How old are you? How is your Mother?"... very forward but still pretty friendly.

We crossed the river on a neat cable-driven ferry, then into Rastatt. We both felt pretty sad that this was the end of our fantastic bike trip. We found our hotel, the Hotel Da Franco, got cleaned up, ate a delicous dinner downstairs and then updated the blog. We were exhausted!

A fantastic bike trip. We were sad to say goodbye to our bikes, but more adventures await!

Check back later for more pictures.

Hotel Da Franco
Josefstraße 7
76437 Rastatt
Tel 0049-7222-32103

Description from Bike Tours Direct:

Day 6 - Bad Bergzabern – Rastatt (approx 56 km, 34 miles)
Vineyards, country of groves
Only a few kilometres south from Bad Bergzabern the total 85 km of the German Wine-Street come to an end. You cross the German Wine Gateway in Schweigen and then you are in the Alsace. In Wissembourg you visit the historical old town and cycle on the banks of the idyllic Lauter. After Lauterbourg you leave the Alsace and cycle on to Baden until you reach today’s destination Rastatt.

06 July - Germersheim to Bad Bergzabern

Today began with a valuable lesson. NEVER mess with a German and his parking space!! When we arrived at the hotel last night, they were very nice, knew we were coming, etc. They told us that we could put our bikes in their secure parking garage. This turned out to be a locked underground structure that also belongs to a nearby apartment building. Robby asked specifically WHERE in the garage they should go since there are other parking spaces in there too. Either the answer was vague or Robby was missing a preposition somewhere. Regardless, we put the bikes near some other bikes that were already in there, taking care not to block anyone's way out. Just to be safer, we locked the two bikes together, along with our helmets.

This morning when we entered the garage, the bikes were not in their original position. They had been moved about 20 feet to another space. We realized that we had probably put them in someone's private space. We knew it had been a piece of work to move both bikes, chained together with dangling helmets across the garage. Then we noticed that one bike had a flat tire and was missing the front bike bag. We found the bike bag in another part of the garage (we figure the frustrated bike-mover had kicked it furiously at some point in the transaction). Robby almost started to fix his 'flat tire' but had second thoughts, thinking that JUST MAYBE the parking space owner had also let the air out of the tire. He pumped it up and it ended up holding all day just fine. Odd detail: the cap of the bike valve was where it should be showing that even a vengeful German will still make sure that all is 'in ordnung'. Hilarious.

We started out out of Germersheim in the rain (adding to our odd start), a less-than-drizzle that reminded Lynne of England. We cycled south along the Rhein, watching tug boats and barges, then into the marshlands and forests of the Hördt. We then worked our way through field after field of crops: asparagus, potatoes, turnips, beets, tobacco, cabbage, wheat, onions, and a whole bunch of other stuff we couldn't quite figure out. Along the way the clouds got darker, the wind picked up, but it didn't look too bad...

We got a few delicious pastries and some capri suns from a bäkerei in a small village, then cycled out directly into more fields. We hit a pretty strong wind, then the rain started... first with small drops and then with more gusty waves, until we finally stopped under an apricot tree in the middle of a large plain of wheat to eat our pastries and put on our rain jackets. We waited a few minutes, looked at the clouds and decided it wasn't getting better any sooner, so we rode out into the rain. With rain jackets we felt pretty good, we just rode slowly and braced against the wind... it wasn't so bad after a while since we were warm and very happy.

We stopped in Landau for lunch at a small bäkerei for lunch and then wandered around the main platz for a while. Robby remembered that there is a really great webcam there, and tried to call his brother Jonathan to see if he could see us LIVE, but for some reason or another the global calling card didn't work with T-Mobil payphones (could this be because of Jan Ullrich not doing so well in the Tour?). The next quest --Lynne's, for chocolate --was fruitful, then we headed out of town.

And boy did we head out of town. Straight uphill, into the vineyards and into the semi-paved hills. We cursed the name EuroBike a few times but at the top of each majectic hill, all was forgiven. By this time the weather was holding out, and we could see the storms as they passed south of us. There was some lightning about 5k away, so we stopped for a while, had some of Lynne's chocolate and lay down in the grass to watch the clouds go by. At one point a weird train-shaped vehicle drove on past, with an engine car and two trailers on the back filled with people. There were canopies over all the cars, and inside there were long tables with people drinking wine and beer, with these funny holes cut in the tables to hold the beers and wines from spilling. Fantastic! There must have been 20 people in this contraption. This must have been a vineyard tour of some sort.

At one point we heard the sound of church bells ringing. We were in the middle of the vineyards and the wind was whistling a bit so we stopped to listen. It lasted for at least half an hour and was completely wonderful, coming from the nearby hills. We assume that it must have been coming from Klingenmünster, a monastery up in the hills. Who else would be ringing their bells at 3 in the afternoon? The monastery was listed as an optional and HILLY side trip on our tour. We were very interested but decided that we didn't quite have the legs for it. The 80k day yesteday kind of did us in.

We rode through some really neat towns in the bottom of the valley; half-timbered and old brick farm houses packed around small cobblestone streets, with grape vines arching over the small streets. The grape vines seem to grow out of small holes dug out of the street next to the buildings, and then up the buildings and across the narrow streets on some kind of truss. Very efficient and gemütlich!

More vineyards and hills after this, but like we said before, as soon as we reached the summit of one of these hills our view was magnificent.

We made it to Bad Bergzabern by 4:30pm. It's a quiet town with more twisting cobblestone streets, and a large hot-mineral spa up in the hills. We found the Hotel Wasgau easily, checked in and took showers. The Wasgau is a really nice place, they are nice folks (they said--in German-- "You've brought the Tour de France with you, haven't you?!").

We walked into town to the Pfälzer Stube, where we had Jäger Schnitzel and Gemüse. Lynne ordered something that she thought MIGHT be a salad with toast but it turned to be cooked mided vegetables and hash browns. Oh well, tastes great! We sat next to a local family, parents and their 16 or 17-year old son. At first it sounded to Lynne like they might be speaking French? But Robby said no, it was German but with a very different accent. We are only a few miles from France (we will actually dip into France tomorrow on our ride). We sampled some of the local white and red wine (kind of had to, you know) with our dinner.

After dinner, we found an internet cafe, but alas it is "Windows 2000", which for some reason won't let us upload pics via firefox.

Notes on Internet Cafes:
1. Very often they are not really cafes. The ones we went the other night in Germersheim was literally just a hot little room full of computers. NO cafe component.
2. They seem to function like the video arcade used to when we were kids. They are often full of kids sipping sodas, smoking cigarettes, and playing games on the net.
3. They are sometimes associated with long-distance telephone services. Presumably, those who do not have their own phones, certainly do not have their own internet connections(?)
4. The German keyboard is ALMOST the same as ours but not quite. Most notably, the Y and Z are transposed. This may sound like no big whoop. One would assume that these are not letters you need very often. But, when you actually try to do it, you realize how freakin' often you use them! There are lots of other punctuation marks in different places as well.
5. Many internet cafes are run by Turks. There are a lot of Turkish people in Gemany, something we knew since our honeymoon in Turkey when Robby's German skills came in handy. Why they seem to be heavily into the internet cafe business, we don't know.
6. The cafe we are in right now has beer available, which is not typical, but we are also rocking out to some fast-paced Turkish hip hop (yes, that exists).

Tomorrow is sadly our last day of major cycling but then we will be watching the experts at work at the Tour de France.

Tschüüüüüss! Bis Morgen...

L & R

Hotel Wasgau
Freidreich-Ebert-Straße 21
76887 Bad Bergzabern
Tel 0049-6343-8401
On the way... Landau has 2 webcams: this one and one of the Rathausplatz
Official Bad Bergzabern website
Herzlich Willkommen in Bad Bergzabern
Bad Bergzabern Webcam

Description from Bike Tours Direct:

Day 5 - Germersheim – Bad Bergzabern, (approx 46 km, 28 miles)
Rhine-plains, Vineyards
You cross the important nature-reserve of the Hördter Rhine-meadows and further on to the Rhine-plains, again you reach wine-growing areas. Because of the lovely climate and the special ambience, this region also is named the “German Tuscany”. Learn about the true story of “Leather-Socks” in Landau, home of Karl May, and discover the fantastical scenic views of the region. These are found in several vineyards of the picturesque wine-growing villages. A detour to the fortification Landeck and the monastery Klingenmunster can be recommended, before you reach the 2nd health-spa town of the tour Bad Bergzabern.

05 July - Bad Dürkheim to Germersheim

Thanks for reading! We've recieved a lot of email from folks, but we can't reply to each one.. but thanks for thinking of us and reading our blog. Also, we only can get to the internet from time-to-time, so posts might not happen that frequently. Also, we've figured out how to upload pics but it only seems to work in Firefox, not Internet Explorer which tends to be standard on these machines. So we'll upload a bunch when we get to more friendly machines.

After our restful night we had our frühstück in the hotel restaurant (we think that it is "not possible" to not have breakfast in this country*) we headed out of town, back into the vineyards. This time, however, it was straight UP and in gravel too. Then cobblestones next, then more gravel. I (Robby) said at one point "Gotta earn my schnitzel" to which Lynne merely grumbled. Again, though, after each one of these grueling hills comes a great vista of grape vines with castles perched on green forested hills in the background. Even Lynne felt the hills were worth it, after we got to the top, that is. We would ride down similar cobblestone, gravel, and sandy paths through vineyard after vineyard. We got to Neustadt and rode down into town after a particularly grueling hill, and after each bend in the path we would say "WOW! This is beautiful" or another exclaimation (hee hee).

We were starving after a full morning of hills and dirt roads so we got some pastries in Neustadt and then headed back into the lowlands of the Pfalz. Our cue sheets worked pretty good today (or actually, Lynne had them down to a science... being a scientist helps I guess). We rode through beautiful forests on our way to Speyer, past fields and meadows and over small brooks and streams. Some of the forests were pretty dark, we talked about how easy it would be for Hansel and Gretel to get lost in these mysterious woods.

Since it was flat by the streambeds, we made good time and got to Speyer by 2pm. We ate a nice lunch of Würstsalat and some coffee at the Hindenburg Cafe (Lynne said "This might be a worrysome title of restaurant"). After that we visited the Speyer cathedral, a beautiful romanesque cathedral that was originally built in 1000 AD. This cathedral is one of Robby's Mother's favorite places in the world. It looked sort of weird because it has just undergone a very lengthy renovation in which ALL of the stone was cleaned. All the stone inside was cream and rose colored and looked almost new, nothing like the blackened age of its sister cathedral in Worms. Gorgeous.

We rode south of Speyer along the Rhein and the marshlands, finally reaching Germersheim around 7pm. We rode close to 80 km today, so we're pretty tired... we cleaned up and walked to town, had a nice meal at Dal Pazzo Restaurant, along with 2 'gross' hefeweisen.

Tomorrow we ride to Bad Bergzabern, our cue sheets say "Anschliessend führt die Strecke durch Hügliges Gelände"... and from my limited German, it seems it might be "hilly..."

-- L and R

*once we heard a German airport security worker tell some Americans sitting on the floor of the Frankfurt Airport that "It is not possible to sit there!"

Hotel Germersheimer Hof
Josef-Propst-Str. 15a
76726 Germersheim
Tel 0049-7274-5050

Traveling through Speyer on our way, check out the Speyer webcam here!
More photos of Speyer

Description from Bike Tours Direct:

Day 4 - Bad Dürkheim – Germersheim (approx 52 km, 31 miles)
Vineyards, Rhine-plains
You leave the vineyards and cycle through the Rhine-plains to Speyer. Enjoy the old town visit the dome and maybe also the technical museum. On the banks of the Rhine you travel through the nature-reserve of the Old Rhine to Germersheim, the historical fortification.

04 July - Worms to Bad Dürkheim

First we want to start today with a huge birthday SHOUT OUT for Kathleen. Happy Birthday, Kat! We are thinking of you!!

Our day started well; we woke up and had yet another lovely fruestueck (granola, soft boiled eggs, meat and cheese) and left our bags to be hauled to the next town by the good folks at EuroBike. We had not been able to see the inside of the Worms cathedral when we were there the previous night (closed) so this morning we rode to over there and did a brief tour. It was built between 1000-1025 and was truly amazing inside. The stained glass was wonderful though probably fairly new.

Around 11 am we finally bought a few large bottles of water and headed out of town. We rode south along the Rhein and then inland through the potato, asparagus, and onion fields of the Rheinland-Pfalz. The paths that our cue sheet tells us to go through are sometimes interesting and VERY remote (by German standards), through vineyards and past old stone walls, up and down hills of grapes and large windmills. At one point we misread the cue sheet and headed uphill in a potato field for 2km until it started raining... we got mildly drenched and slogged our way through the sandy mud until we found our way back to the original path. The rain didn't last long, so we headed on our merry way.

The skies remained dark so we thought we better eat quickly. We stopped at a small store and bought some picnic supplies (salami, cheese, & crackers) and stopped to chow down in Gruenstadt in a park that was a memorial to German soldiers in the 1850s. We rode south of here and got caught in another cold rain, but this time we hid under a railway bridge until the rain let up (meanwhile kids were riding through the rain past us, giving us funny looks... we wanted to yell 'hey, we're doing 60k today!!'). We decided to tough it out and head into more vineyards and gravel roads. The air smelled fresh and there was a bit of wind, and at sometimes we seemed entirely lost while tumbling over rocks and stones through vineyard after vinyard. We passed a few stone markers with the letter D on them, they looked old enough to be Roman, but we weren't too sure about that (This area was inhabited by the Romans for hundreds of years).

We went through the most amazing town of Freinsheim, an intact medieval village with a huge stone wall completely surrounding it. Most towns in the region once had city walls and many have sections still intact or on display. But this place still has the WHOLE ring, really incredible. We could barely ride through the narrow streets that run along the inside of the city walls, and sometimes had to slowly scoot through tight passages. We actually almost missed this gem of a town, our cue sheets took us almost to the edge and then out of town. Robby remembered that the guy who delivered our bikes mentioned that the town was great so we backtracked to check it out. EXCELLENT plan.

We got some breaddy goods from a Baeckerei and then headed to our final destination for the day, Bad Dürkheim.

Just 5k out of Freinsheim the skies opened up and it POURED on us. We slogged on, Lynne leading the way and not complaining a bit as the rain drenched through our helmets and shorts. We knew that hot showers were less than 10 k away.

We made it to Dürkheim and to our lovely hotel, which is basically a health spa. Our room included two passes to the baths which was exactly what we needed after being cold and wet and muddy for the last 10k of the ride. We showered and headed down to the spa which had a larger tub and smaller one, both warm but neither as warm as a hot tub in the US sense. It was lovely.

Then we headed out for dinner at a local restaurant. We had traditional German (bratwurst and saurkraut) and Swiss food (Raquelle - melted cheese served with potatoes). Bad Durkheim is in the heart of the wine region and hosts the largest wine festival in Germany (the equivalent of beer festivals in Munich). So, of course we had to try some local wine with our dinner which was really nice.

An oddity in Bad Durkheim is an American-style hokey attraction The Largest Wine Cask in the World. Of course we found this highly amusing and had to check it out. In the true US style, it was just a large building in the shape of a wine cask that sells tons of souvenirs of the same. Hilarious and very out of place.

After that we decided to skip the internet cafe because the next day is our longest day, over 70km. If we were on paved roads in our own bikes that would be nothing but with these heavy bikes going over cobbles and dirt and who knows what else, it is a lot of work. Gotta get some sleep.

xxx
- Robby and Lynne

Kurparkhotel
Schloßplatz 1-4
67098 Bad Dürkheim
Tel 0049-6322-7970

Bad Dürkheim official site
A great webcam in Bad Dürkheim of a castle. Another webcam of just weather.

Description from Bike Tours Direct:
Day 3 - Worms – Bad Dürkheim (approx 49 km, 29 miles
Rhine-plains, vineyards
The day starts on the banks of the Rhine and goes on to the northern part of the German Wine-Street. Through almost endless vineyards you visit lovely wine-grower villages, offering quality wines directly from the grower. Further on the route leads to Freinsheim with its beautiful medieval centre and the old fortifications. Today’s destination is the health-spa town Bad Dürkheim with the biggest wine-barrel of the world. The health-spa offers a variety of well-being facilities at the disposal of our guests.

03 July - Heidelberg to Worms

Note: the greeting thing seems to happen all over the place, not just in the shops. Each time a new person enters the hotel breakfast room, he or she will likely greet all the tables already seated with a monotone good morning 'morgen', 'morgen', 'morgen'...

We got our bikes at 9am and gave our baggage to the kind folks at Eurobike and off we went. Our route was supposed to take us straight out of Heidelberg but we couldn't quite bear to go right away so we took a spin around town first, adding about 6k to the day. The bikes are typical European hybrid city-country bikes, somewhat fat tires and they both weigh a ton. 30 miles on these things is MUCH more work than our sleek road bikes we ride at home. Still, the terrain is flat, and not all of it is paved so it's good the bikes are versatile.

We followed our route down the Neckar river to Ladenburg, an old Roman and medieval town. We were unprepared for how incredibly beautiful this first stop was going to be. It felt like a dream; twisted cobblestone streets with half-timbered houses, windows bursting with geraniums, Romanesque churches and all throughout the town the ruins of the Roman walls that once surrounded it. The town square was bustling with activity, a little odd for Sunday. There was a bakery festival of some sort going on, with loaves of bread that took up 6 tables. Then for some reason, a series of horse-drawn carriages with well-dressed passengers kept arriving at the square, receiving a glass of champagne or wine from a table there, and moving on. We couldn't figure it out - a wedding? a ceremony of some sort? something to do with the bakery festival? We remain at a loss but it was fun to watch.

We had lunch at a pub called Zwiewwel (The Onion) right next to the Cathedral. The sun was shining and we had a perfect seat at an umbrella-covered table out front, perfect for people-watching. Because of the prime location and incredible weather, the place was packed. It's typical for people to share tables when it gets this busy. So, a couple looking to sit down motioned to the chairs next to us and asked Robby in German if they could sit down and of course he said yes. The interesting thing is that just because they are sitting inches away from you doesn't mean that they have to really talk to you. We exchanged pleasantries like 'guten apetit' when food is delivered and 'auf wiedersehen' when we left, but that is pretty much it. Other than that we had our own quiet conversations just as if we had the table to ourselves.

After Ladenburg we realized that only 10k of our 46k was done! We then left this charming city and headed out into the countryside. The cycling was amazing, partially clouded and pretty warm, we rode through farmlands and small farms, through a beautiful forest that is really remote but just outside of Mannheim. As we rode through the forest we noticed that all the bikepaths were straight as could be, and were intersected by other paths at certain 1/2 km intervals. We then began to notice that different 'sectors' of the forest have different kinds of trees in each. There were people everywhere enjoying their Sunday afternoon; young and old were on bikes and walking, it was great to see so many folks out and about.

More farmlands and fields, then finally we started to see the tops of the cathedral at Worms just over the tree line next to the Rhein river. We crossed the old Niebelungenbrueke (Niebelungen Bridge) and headed into this quaint medieval town. By this time we were both pretty tired and sweaty (we think it got up to 90 degrees today), but we found our hotel and put the bikes away, cleaned up and then walked to the old cathedral. Just as we left we heard the bells ringing all over town... in Germany this is quite a sound, really beautiful tones and chimes, echoing through the narrow cobblestone streets. The cathedral was having a festival outside so we got some Apfelsaft (apple juice) and some pretzels. After this we walked next to the old Jewish cemetery, the largest in all of Europe. It's both sad and beautiful.

We had a nice dinner at an Italian Restaurant, Michaelangelos, then walked up to this Internet Cafe.

We're pretty tired but having a blast, and ready to continue on for many more days!


Hotel Römischer Kaiser
Römerstraße 72
67547 Worms
Tel 0049-6241-93370

Here's a webcam along the way in the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis
Official Worms tourism site in English

Description from Bike Tours Direct:

Day 2 - Heidelberg – Worms (approx 46 km, 28 miles)
Rhine-plains
Crossing the beautiful Heidelberg on to the medieval Ladenburg. A sightseeing tour of the old town, dominated by half-timbered houses, is worth it before the heather and meadows leading to the river Rhine are discovered. Leisurely crossing the “old father Rhine” you directly arrive at the old emperor town Worms. The dome of Worms as well as the old town and the old fortification walls should not be missed.

02 July - Heidelberg

Rainy day, or rather a drizzly day, but still pretty warm. The hotel has a traditional german breakfast (salami, cheese, bread, yogurt, muesli, and of course soft-boiled eggs) and great strong coffee. We can't think of a better way to start the day.

After our lovely meal, we took the strassenbahn to the Bizmarkplatz, did some shopping (first order of business - an umbrella), then walked up the Hauptstrasse, the pedestrian-only main street of the town. It's full of fun shops (or at least ONE of us thinks they're fun!). It's a very interactive experience. All of the shopkeepers say hello and goodbye to you and you are supposed to do the same. If you make a purchase, you will definitely need to make these pleasantries with the person ringing you up. That said, they really do leave you alone WHILE you are shopping which is nice. Lynne said 'danke' (thanks) and 'tschuess' (bye) to many of these folks today.

Next we headed to an internet cafe, the one up the sidestreet that Jonathan I went to a few years ago). We had hoped to get to a bit of walking on the Philosophenweg, but ran out of time and there was a constant threat of rain.

The hotel clerk pointed us to a great place for dinner - a place called Spriedel (I think). It is right below the old bridge and all of the customers were Germans which we took as a very good sign. The place was all dark wood with little decoration besides hearts carved into the backs of the clunky wooden chairs and a crazy decorative wreath thing made of huge felt flowers. Odd but really cool. Robby had rindrouladen (thin strips of meat wrapped around yet more meat in a rich wine sauce), rotkohl (pickled red cabbage), and dumplings. Lynne had krautwickel (cabbage leaves wrapped around spiced meats), kartoffel (sauteed potatoes), and salad. This was the first place where the beer was served in huge ceramic steins instead of glasses. We were completely stuffed but happy for our long walk back to the hotel. Biking starts tomorrow!!


Hotel Ibis Heidelberg
Willy-Brandt-Platz 3
69115 Heidelberg
Tel 0049-62219130

Heidelberger webcam

General Heidelberg Info Here, the Tourist bureau
Heidelberg Aktuell, news and updated info
Historic Highlights of Germany's Heidelberg Page

The tour has this:

Day 1 - Heidelberg – Individual arrival
Tour information and handing over of bicycles. Enough time remains for an evening stroll to the famous castle of Heidelberg, down to the banks of the river Neckar and the bridges and through the idyllic old town.

01 July - Arrival in Heidelberg!

We're here! Long flight but not so bad, considering it's a huge fat people mover flying through the air. Newark airport is nice, had some salads and a smoothie. When we got to Frankfurt, we noticed how quiet it was... even the baggage claim was whisper-quiet. People talked in hushed voices, and there wasn't a TV to be found. Very nice. We talked to another American we met on the plane about this, he said the same thing.

We were doing pretty good by the time we got in (9am), we got our hotel room in Heidelberg after our bus ride from Frankfurt. It was raining. We hit the strassenbahn to the Bizmarkplatz, then the 21 bus up the mountain to the Bierhelderhof, an old farm that has a great restaurant...I (Robby) remember going to this when I was a kid, it was just about a kilometer from the apartment we had when we lived here in 1980. It's the kind of robust German farmer food that people always look for... I had schnitzel and pommes frittes, Lynne had the Ungarishe Gulasch mit hausgemacht kartoffel spaetzle. And of course we had a couple of pilsners to wash it down with... and after it was over I felt like one of those old German cartoon men who have enormous bellys and walk with feathered caps.

After lunch we walked down through the cobblestone streets and half-timbered hamlet of Rohrbach, caught the streetcar back to the main town center, the Bizmarkplatz, then walked until our legs gave out. Fortunately there was a great restaurant in the exact spot where we fell to our knees... the Palmbraue Gasse, where we revived ourselves for the walk home. We walked back along the Neckar river, as the sun peeked out after a full day of 0n-and-off rain.

Now we're pooped and headed to bed, it's about 9pm here now, or onlz 3pm Chapel Hill time! ('cept we've only had two hours sleep). We watched an interesting spectacle on TV... a French program on the Tour de France, where the riders are paraded on their bikes... we have NEVER seen this in the US... they ride over a big stage and are introduced one-by-one, and of course the French team got the most applause... but Jan Ullrich got a bunch too, since he's one of the main contenders against Lance this year. The Tour is pretty intense here, picutres of cyclists and especially Jan Ullrich all over. Can't wait to see what it'll be like tomorrow when the Tour starts.

More later when we're awake... running on 2 hours of sleep, 2 pieces of schnitzel, and 4 pilzners!

--Robby

Hotel Ibis Heidelberg
Willy-Brandt-Platz 3
69115 Heidelberg
Tel 0049-62219130

Almost Ready...

We're just about ready... and now remembering that the last time we went to Lynne's ISSTDR (Int'l Society of Sexually Transmitted Disease Research) conference we were in Ottawa, Canada, and that involved cyclying all over. Ottawa has a great network of bike paths that wander all around the canals and rivers. I (Robby) spent every day riding 30-60km on that great Giant roadbike I rented. Check out the pictures here. To your left is a photo of Lynne and I on the Ottawa River, with Parliament behind us. I just hope the weather is as good in Germany!
During the second week we'll see some of the same folks at this conference: Peter, Bill, Piku... but sadly no Marlene this time. Claire will probably come visit us in Amsterdam for a weekend. Lynne will be at the conference all day and I'll go wander around in some museums and cafes probably.
We hope you enjoy the blog! Please feel free to comment. We've been posting trips like this for a while; the first time we did was on our 1998 Cross-Country Mooch Tour, using my Dad's old (and VERY old) Mac and a small digital camera. We barely had dialup! Pretty funny read. Nowadays it's pretty easy to do with services like blogger and such... this way I don't have to edit anymore HTML, and it'll (hopefully) give me less time on the computer and more time sampling local cuisine!
As I mentioned below, we'll try to update this as much as possible, but depending on computer availability it might only be every few days.

Lynne and Bobby Julich--Tour de Georgia '05

Lynne and Bobby Julich
Originally uploaded by biovarg.

We've become bicycling fans and are getting ready for our very own bike tour of Germany, which will end right as the Tour de France goes through Karlsruhe and Pforzheim.

Plans

This trip is centered around Lynne's presentation of a poster at the International Society of Sexually Transmitted Disease Research (ISSTDR) conference in Amsterdam from 10-13 July 2005. We decided that since we were going all the way to Europe anyhow... why not add a bike trip in the mix?

Plans are coming along nicely! Just got tickets the other day, reservations have been made, and we are pretty much confirmed on about 85%. Amazing how we can do all this stuff over the internet. Years ago in 1984 I remember just flying over to Germany to see my Uncle, then hopping on trains and not really knowing where to go or what I'd see. Nowadays we can search maps, book hotels and trains, see pictures of the rooms in the hotels...even read the menu on a restaurant that we want to visit.

Here's the link for the Heidelberg-Strassbourg bike tour we are taking. This is a "self-guided" tour; we won't have a guide or ride with a group, it'll be just Lynne and I with maps provided by the company. Hopefully this will give us time to explore at our own pace and not have to worry about following a group. Included in the package are pre-booked hotels and luggage transportation from one hotel to the other (leave the bags at the front desk in the morning and a van comes to pick them up, then drop the bags at the next hotel). We get 21-speed bikes with bikebags, and maps of the routes, as well as tourist information. The tour company so far has been really nice and punctual with information.

We are adding one extra day in Heidelberg and not going all the way to Strassbourg (we are taking that last day to go to Karlsruhe to see Stage 7 of the Tour de France), but Bike Tours Direct were really nice about this. Kinda sad to miss Strassbourg, it's a gorgeous city, but that'll give us a good excuse to go back!

Our itinerary:

1 July Arrive in Heidelberg
2 July Heidelberg
3 July Heidelberg - Worms
4 July Worms - Bad Dürkheim
5 July Bad Dürkheim - Germersheim
6 July Germersheim - Bad Bergzabern
7 July Bad Bergzabern - Rastatt (last day of bike trip)

8 July Rastatt - Karlsruhe (Stage 7 TDF)
9 July Karlsruhe - Pforzheim (Stage 8 TDF) - Amsterdam
10 - 17 July - Amsterdam (Lynne at ISSTDR)

We'll try to post our blogs when we get to computers, although I doubt that'll be every day. We really just want to ride, enjoy the countryside, and eat lots of great German & French food.

Meanwhile, here's a link to the Tour de France's official site, and the entire route. We'll be in Karlsruhe for the end of Stage 7, and will get to Pforzheim for the beginning of Stage 8.

Also, while you are surfing the 'net, invest some time learning about German culture.

We'll post up hotel and contact info on another page when we get it.

Some links:


Deutschland Wetter from Spiegel Online
SWR.de, info about Rheinland Pfalz & Baden Württemberg
Map24 Germany, a great map, goes down to pretty good detail

Discover Germany By Bicycle A good bike tourism website
Bicycle Germany, a great website with lots of pictures from a couple who love to bike
Some really great photos by Ken Brown of trips through Germany
Eurobike, bike & walking tours
Radwandern in Rheinland Pfalz
Bike-touring.de, a German bike touring website

Kurpfalz-Tourist, another Rheinland Pfalz tourism website

Babel Fish Translation, does pretty good for basic translations