Today didn’t work out quite as we had intended courtesy of the weather. We knew rain was forecast and we were prepared for it and accepting of the fact that we would get wet but unfortunately Elfi wasn’t of the same mind set. We even put back on our dirtiest bike clothes so that they could get a pre-rinse🤪
Our plan today was to bike to Warzburg which was only 30k away and then put the bikes on the train back to Aschaffenburg. Instead, Plan B was put into action. We biked back to Kitzigen which was only 4km and booked a train for just the two of us whilst Elfi and Horst drove back to Aschaffenburg. It is always such a difficult task getting bikes onto trains in many different ways. In this case, Kitzingen railway station did not have an elevator so lugging any bike up and down stairs is a mammoth task. Add an e-bike into that and you double your problem. Then of course getting a space on the train with any kind of bike is a nightmare.
Obviously with the wet weather a lot of people changed their biking plans and opted for public transport and you guessed it, it was a shit show getting a spot in one of the carriages. We mastered the task at Kitzengen but had to swap trains at Warzburg. The platforms were absolutely chockers and pushing your bike down them was mayhem. In our case we were lucky in that we just had to go from one side of the platform to the other but what you have to do is look at the electronic diagrams of your impending train, locate where the bike carriage is and proceed to an area of the platform where you think the doors of the carriage might be, and this is where it gets interesting. Any person pushing two wheels is aiming for that spot and it turns into a wrestling match and then when the carriage doors do line up there are only so many spots available inside BUT it might already be loaded with bikes.
All Germans are fuming about the current state of their rail system. They state they do not run on time with German proficiency. We have certainly experienced this but we think they are so lucky they even have a rail system like they do. They privatized it about 10 years ago, and, yeap, you guessed it, it has gone into the toilet since then. The rolling stock is certainly looking very tired and it just doesn’t have that look of German maintenance around the railways stations we are use to seeing.
Anyway, back to the bike situation. We had managed to locate ourselves in the pole position when the train pulled in and got our spots. There are many type of trains and some do not line up at all well with the platform and in this case we had a foot drop with the bikes which normally is fine but e-bikes are totally different beasts. Their heaviness causes many issues and we reckon this is a problem for older people who are the main users of them. Di is currently wearing a few injuries from the two bike trips on e-bikes. Nothing serious but annoying all the same.
So, we made it back from Warzburg to Aschaffenburg which took an hour. We rode straight to the bike shop to drop off the e-bike but found the bloody shop was shut on Mondays. In Germany, there is weird shit that goes on when it comes to who is open when and you have to be aware of it. We reckon old Mohammed who owns the shop uses it as a front for money laundering as he only wanted payment for the bike hire in cash and said that is how most Germans do business – he was certainly a suss character. Anyway, we will take it back tomorrow as we need his help to dissembled Fraser’s bike to be able to get it into the bike box.
We spent the rest of what was quite a wet day doing laundry, repacking our bags, doing more of the jigsaw, playing competitive sudoku and eating too much.
Summary of our bike trip.
We basically followed the Mainz River from Bamberg to Sulzfeld riding downstream. Elevation gain/loss – zip! Ride classification – easy as hell – Di did not need an e-bike.
Better perspective as to the location in Germany. We were east of Frankfurt and way north of Munich for those that are interested. Our overall thoughts of the ride. There are a lot better ones if you are in it for the riding but the traditional villages along the way were excellent. It is certainly a very popular bike route for the German people. We did not meet hardly any other non Germans along the way. Our problem with bike rides is that we spoilt ourselves very early on by doing the two rides in Switzerland about 10 and 8 years ago. You should not start off with the best and then work your way down.
Step – 3,110 and 6 kilometers – 142 kilometers in total for the bike ride.
Rowkin Rovings Blog 