Romantische Straße and the Mittelrhein : 2017-06-03 : To Aschaffenburg

Activity
Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total Notes Actions
Cycle Rumpenheim to Aschaffenburg Today: 46km; Total: 72km $0.00 46.00 46.00
Sight See Seligenstadt $0.00
Sight See Aschaffenburg $0.00
Sight See Park Schöntal, Aschaffenburg $0.00
Accommodation
Type Name Service Provider Confirmation Location Cost Notes Actions
Hotel Hotel Wilder Mann $135.00 Incl breakfast


Trip Log

Notes Actions
Brent passed out without even having dinner last night and slept all the way through. Laura and I at least made it through dinner before passing out. That's when the thunderstorm hit and it was some impressive thunder to be sure. By 9PM or so it had played itself out so I re-opened our tent flaps to get some breeze through. And that's when the people showed up. Some folks up on the veranda having a good time, and some young folks scattered around the campingplatz having a good time. And that's when Ray Charles showed up. Someone came by with a vehicle blasting a remixed version of "Hit the Road Jack" that made me think "oh hell no, I'm trying to sleep here", and also "hmmmmm... I should get that version of that song for my collection". Interestingly, the vehicle moved on so the serene little campingplatz returned after just the one song. Yay for Ray!

I laid awake for a while, so I tried my usual trick to fall asleep... counting down from 100. Didn't work, so then I counted down from 100 in German. I had to think about every single number as I went, which, although it didn't help me get to sleep, it sure gave me some good experience with German numbers.
We all woke up this morning pretty refreshed and ready to go. The restaurant at the campingplatz offered two breakfast choices: "Kleine Frühstück" and "Grosse Frühstück". We all opted for the "Grosse Frühstück", and although it was a LOT of food, we had no trouble packing it all away (in our bellies).

The forecast for the day was not promising at all. There was a severe weather warning for thunderstorms and hail. It was originally supposed to come in several one-hour "packages": noon, 3PM, midnight, then a four-hour "package" from 3AM to 7AM. We decided to aim for Selegenstadt and see what was going on. Maybe we'd check into a hotel there and escape the storms. We got there before the noon storm... which ultimately didn't materialize at all... and had coffee and a look at the town. We then heard that they were calling for the weather to start at 3PM. So, we decided to aim for Aschaffenburg and see what was going on. As we rode, the clouds started threatening more and more, so we thought the 3PM was going to happen, but then, we started passing by the storm clouds and it seemed like we might just bypass it completely. Then, a new set started to develop as we were on approach to Aschaffenburg. About 4KM out of town, we encountered a local and his daughter who warned us strongly about the weather and recommended that we stop at Aschaffenburg. We told him that was actually our plan. He and his daughter "escorted" us all the way to Aschaffenburg and then stopped at the entrance to town to tell us about the Wilder Mann hotel, which is set up well for bicycles. Since it is a long weekend, we hoped against hope that they would have rooms for us... annnnnnd... they did. Yay! We got settled in, and the updated forecast said that the storm would start at 4PM, so we went walkabout looking for dinner, groceries and sights. We had amazing Thai dinner, bought some groceries (and a new sleeping bag for me), then randomly stumbled into Park Schöntal which contains the delightful ruin of a moated castle.

At the time of this writing (7PM), we're still waiting for the severe weather to show up. We've gotten about 20 raindrops on us so far, collectively. Hopefully we'll get the storm tonight... otherwise we could have ridden further and camped tonight (and saved a pocketful of Euros).
Last night I made a most unfortunate discovery. On our trip in 2015, I'd given away my lighter sleeping bag in Croatia. When I was just thinking about replacing it several months ago, our friend, Jo Marley, asked me if I knew anyone who needed a sleeping bag because she'd bought one, but it was too short for her. I gleefully took her up on the offer for myself.

Last night was my first time using it, and the unfortunate discovery was that the side zipper doesn't go down past about armpit location. I get really claustrophobic in mummy bags, and sometimes way too hot, so most of the time, I keep the bag completely unzipped so I can stick one foot out at will. Well, there's no sticking one foot out when the zipper only goes down to my arm pit because... well... I'm just not that good at yoga. So, I spent all night having to sit up every 30-60 minutes to alternate between being in the bag and getting too warm, and being out of the bag and getting too cold.

In Aschaffenburg this evening I bought a new ultra-light mummy bag with a zipper that definitely goes all the way to the bottom. It's so light that I can carry it AND the "Jo bag" and figure out on a night-by-night basis what is going to work best. Even though it is too hot here for the "Jo bag", I think once we get down closer to the Alps, I might be happy to have the extra warmth of the "Jo bag", and in the meantime, I can just use the "Jo bag" as extra sleeping pad.


Photos