Day 34, 30 6 2014, Bamberg to Schwarzach
There is little to be said about to today. The point of this blog is to provide some information to people who may be considering bike touring in Europe, but today offers no additional insights.
The route continued to be of very high quality, both in the surface and in the signage. There are a lot of bike riders on this route, not so many that you actually see most on the path, but they are there in the towns and rest places. There are enough to drive some response from service providers like hotels, restaurants and cafes.
It was a blustery day with a full-on headwind for most of it. Normally on a good flat road with no wind we cruise along at about 25KPH. This is somewhat faster than most, judged on how rarely we are overtaken by touring riders, and how many we pass. Today it was taking a considerable effort to maintain 20KPH, which makes a difference over the course of a day.
Of course our average speed is nowhere near these speeds. We started today at around 8:50, and finished at around 17:30, with perhaps 40 minutes of actual rest stops.
The wind does affect the enjoyment of the trip, but you can hardly expect any journey to be free of trying times.
The country, and in particular the towns and villages continue to be beautiful and a pleasure to ride through.
We are on track to ride into Frankfurt as scheduled, which is partly why today was so long.
109Km for the day, some of it a bit ordinary pushing into the wind.
Roz says: It is thrilling when the super beautiful villages pop up unexpectedly en route, or a couple of mulberry trees laden with sweet ripe fruit for the picking AND eating!! There are few bridges over the Main river but there is a very efficient ferry system. Tonight we are staying next to a monastery and the monks wear real cassocks, black with hoods.
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