Wurzburg to Eberbach

Day 47 – Wurzburg to Miltenberg, 81kms

And then there were only two left.

Phill and Chris set off with Linda Steve waving to them from the Dortmund.  They will meet us in Strasbourg.

It seemed unusual riding along with no one in the rear vision mirror. We rode thru the town and then were faced with a climb of about 7k of 7-8%.

Not all that much fun. Had to dodge the road works along the way and the weather. We stopped under a shop verandah to put our rain coats on and by the time we took off again it had stopped raining. The ride out of Wurzburg this way was to miss some of the ride along the Maine River which we had done last year. We joined the Maine River at Remlington.  Much easier riding now along the flat bike path.

While we eating lunch in a little village a Peugeot 505 drove past we both made comment as we had had one and the next thing it is reversing back, stops and out jumps the driver. He was so amazed to see the Aussie flag he just had to stop. He sat and talked for about an hour. His son and American wife live in Townsville and later in the day he was to put them back on the plane to fly back to Oz. Phill asked him if they used chains to drive in the snow, but no that was not necessary, they just use winter tyres. BUT if you get out early enough in the morning before the snow plough has been through its really good for doing slides and 360s! He and his three boys love it but the wife, she is not so keen. Some things are the same the world over. Udo, our Peugeot man, is a guide for walking tours from the Tourist Office in Wertheim, he sent us off with a note to get some free stuff. We called into the tourist office and were given two small bottles of a local spirit and 2 badges from Wertheim. As we were leaving the small village we met him in we could see this man on the path with a small German flag, it was Udo, Phill is now sporting a German flag and his Australian flag on the bike. These are some of the things that make cycle touring a treat in Europe.

We pushed onto Miltenberg which is again a lovely old village, did the shopping and set up our tent with a small view of the river between caravans. It is lovely to be by the river again with all the river traffic birdlife.

Day 48 – Miltenberg to Eberbach, 67ks

We knew we had a long climb ahead of us today, with varying information on length and degree of difficulty.

The first 10k was very easy which we expected and was thru some lovely villages and very rural scenery. It sometimes reminds us of the Riverina when there were some good years. You can see the paddocks with all their different crops and the tractors driving along the roads.

The hill work turned out to be 7k and a constant climb of about 5 to 5.5% gradient. It was quite easy to get into a rhythm and just push on ahead. We were expecting up to about 15% gradient so we were pleasantly surprised when it was not that.  We managed to average about 10 t0 11 kph on the climb with the bikes fully loaded.  So we must be getting stronger in the legs.

We started to follow bike path R1 which took us along some nice bike paths but then it turned to crappy old bits of gravelly side roads, We decided to revert to the road which had fairly wide lanes and reasonable drivers. After a flat ride of about 10ks it was a lovely steep downhill of about 8 ks.  Some clown in a merc decided he wanted to chat to Christine as she was descending the hill.

After that it was more undulations and then a fantastic downhill of about 13 to 15ks to our campsite.  What a great way to end the day.

So now it is a two bottles of beer and one of wine before bed.  And tomorrow we should be out of the hills as we are now following the rivers again on our way to Strasbourg.