Stage 6 - Speyer to Gernsheim 76km (09-Jun-2019)

Sunshine and warm weather again – left Speyer at 8.15am and our very first stop, a few hundred metres from our accommodation, was the bakery. Tough choices to make when everything displayed looks yummy. Choose we did, a pastry and a bread roll each to be had later. None of the other shops are open on a Sunday. Also took the opportunity to take one last photo in a deserted Speyer.

Not long after we left Speyer, we stopped for a short break on a bench next to the bike path where a number of locals were either riding bikes or going for walks with their pooches; one young man kindly stopped to take this photo of us.

On we went towards Gernsheim. Again, perfect bike paths and my Garmin never ceases to amaze me as it guides me correctly through a maze of bike paths or roads to choose from. Riding along fields of corn and wheat, through forest and across small waterways and rivers, we barely saw the Rhine today.

Stopped a few times in search for a decaf coffee for Ursi without success; she is more approachable (laughs) after she has had her decaf coffee but she is hanging in there. I guess Germans don't do decaf. However, we ended up in a place in the middle of a forest, which was a cross between a Bunnings Saturday BBQ, a drink station (mostly beer) and a coffee and cake station, surrounded by lots of wooden tables and benches. Heaps of people were already having a pretty good time having sausages and beer (mind you, it was only about 10.30am, but that didn’t stop any of them). We sat for a while and, after examining the cake station, I just had to have one, a cherry cake with a thick layer of chocolate on top – all that for 1 Euro !!

More fields, but slowly the area got more and more industrial as we approached Worms, with some big factories in the distance.

On the way, we ran into lots of cyclists. Some young, some old, some fit and some not but the good thing is, they were all at it. Got talking with one solo tourer from Taiwan. He was doing a 3 months cycling tour from Amsterdam and heading towards Switzerland and back again in a big loop. Got tired just listening to him – he is planning to do well over 2000km all up.

Getting closer to Gernsheim, we had to cross a railway track, which was under renovation – a bit of improvising and we got to the other side.

Finally we arrived back at the Rhine – such a majestic river with cargo boats going up and down delivering their loads/goods. 

Both of us were very glad to get to Gernsheim – tired from 3 days of riding 70 plus kms and the wretched wind, which only ever blows against us. Not a lot to say about Gernsheim. Here are a couple of photos, one where folks are enjoying refreshments outside a restaurant (where we had dinner later) and one of an industrial area behind a quay next to the Rhine.

After a well deserved dinner of wurst (sausage) for Ursi and a couple of dry meatballs (not bad as it reads/sounds) for me, both served with potato salads; off to bed for a well earned rest.