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Stage 8 - Wiesbaden to Bachrach 51km (11-Jun-2019)


Didn't capture this key milestone in yesterday's blog. 5km into yesterday's ride; we reached a milestone of having ridden 500km since leaving Zurich. Happy to report that we both feel fit and well.
It rained heavily last night but yet again, we walk up to a dry and mild morning, warm but a tad overcast. We took off around 9.20am after a leisurely breakfast of muesli and yoghurt (a change from bread and pastries) , a tad late for us but knowing we only had to cover 51 km today, we decided what the heck?
Getting away from Wiesbaden was relatively easy but on busy roads until we got to the bridge to cross the Rhine in Mainz on a dedicated bike path and thereafter the ride was pretty much all along the Rhine. 
We cycled past many rural allotments, growing mostly vegetables but also some fields of flowers, wheat and lots of fruit trees.


Our bikes got absolutely filthy because we had to ride through many puddles and muddy ground. But the views along the river were amazing.








One advantage of touring, especially along a popular route like the Rhine, one meets like minded people and today was no different when we ran into a couple of riders from Canada having a break, offering us a share of their strawberries. We sat with them for a while; bought some more strawberries and chatted about Australia and Canada. Alberta, which is where they were from, gets absolutely freezing cold in winter, they said last winter it was minus 50 degrees. Why on earth would you live there? They were on a self guided tour heading to Bingen as were we but we took different routes. On arrival at Bingen, we both got off our bikes to walk around the old town to stretch our legs.
With another 15km to go to our destination for the night, Bacharach, Ursi asked me to stop quickly to take a photo of one of the cargo ships named “EILTANK 36”, on the Rhine which translates in English to "TANK IN A HURRY 36" but I can assure you, today was anything but as it was the most leisurely ride we have had for a while as we decided to slow down to smell the roses.


Observed lot of castles on top of the many hills (very difficult to photograph) along the way




before we finally arrived in Bacharach (recommended by my mate, Ellwood), which is one of the cutest little villages we have come across so far. Hopefully these photos do it justice.











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