Today’s distance was approximately 27 kilometers, give or take a few. After yesterdays blistering hot day, we set off in rain this morning which normally would make everyone feel a little down. Not this morning though as we all regaled in our good fortune.
First point of interest was the chain ferry that took us across an off shoot of the Rhine River.
Up until now we had been through some very industrial areas which were not that pleasant.
Our ferry crossing was probably our biking highlight of the day.
If we were to sum up our biking experience so far, we would all agree that it probably is not a particularly picturesque part of the Rhine River to cycle, but enough there to keep us going.
Biking into the city of Worms you come over the Ernst Ludwig Bridge with the Nibelungen Tower standing to attention at the far end. The tower has a total height of 53m.
As we had left our morning in Mannheim at 8.00am to accommodate other riverboats, we arrived in Worms at midday where we would be moored for the night. This gave us the afternoon to explore Worms.
Worms has a pre-Roman foundation and is the oldest city in Northern Europe. Currently the population is 82,000 and heavy industry, especially chemicals is its claim to “fame”.
There is a strong connection to Martin Luther the great reformer of the 1500’s. He was declared a heretic after refusing to recant his religious beliefs. Having little to no knowledge of Martin Luther, we are gathering though that he was very much a pain in the arse for the Catholic Church – that is it in a nut shell.
We did go into St Peters Cathedral in the city which wasn’t very ornate except for the altar. A lot of gold leaf going on here. They had replaced a lot of the stained glass windows with out of the place modern glass designs – not appealing in any way and quite a negative distraction.
There were some nice sunken gardens to wander through that were in full bloom but otherwise there wasn’t a great else to go and check out. We made our way back to the boat in time for the 4.00pm coffee and cake.
Whilst sitting in our cabin catching up on “life admin” crap, we timed how frequently barges passed our window. It was one every five minutes. It would be very interesting to look at some aerial footage of the Rhine River to see this as we imagine this volume of traffic would cause large bottle necks at the locks. It probably wouldn’t be a problem with berth spaces as they travel 24/7 unless they are loading or unloading. Will look into stats on the Rhine River – am sure you will all be thrilled by what we find out 🤪🤪🤪
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