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Today we rode up a 52km hill made of wind. We left Mannheim and used the ferry to cross a tributary of the Rhine about 10km north of town. It was a very small ferry - similar to the Bleriot Ferry - it's just a flat-deck that runs back and forth on a chain. The tributary was small, but the ferry moved so slowly that it took about 15 minutes to cross. We arrived just as it was leaving with a solitary cyclist. Dang. If we'd been 10 minutes earlier... but, instead we enjoyed second breakfast on the dock and waited while the ferry crossed, then the captain did... something for about 15 minutes, then crossed back over to get us. It was slow going, but still better than the long detour around to avoid the ferry. After the ferry, we continued north to Rosengarten where we crossed back over to the west side of the river at Worms. At worms, we left EV15 and used a side route a little further west, which would take us through several towns before arriving in our destination for the night. We went through Herrnsheim, Osthofen, Mettenheim and Alsheim (although Brent says he's already forgotten that one) before arriving at Guntersblum, at the top of our 52km hill for the day. The route was mostly flat, and 52km should have been easy, but that crazy relentless wind made it a pretty tough slog.
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Since having a couple of bad experiences on our first couple of days in Germany, we have met so many friendly, helpful, sweet people that I feel bad for ever saying that the Germans aren't as great as the French. Every time we turn around, someone is greeting us, helping us with directions (even when they don't speak English, and we already know where we're going). It's fantastic.
Today was the best so far. We got to Guntersblum, and I wasn't sure how we'd find our Pension. The address didn't seem to come up properly in Google Maps, and the town looked to be another little labyrinth town. One of the first things we spotted was a sort of a tourist information office. I went in and waited for a lady to help me, and I showed her the name of the Pension and asked if she could direct me to it. She got the "deer in the headlights" look and started to ask her colleague for help when the lady behind me jumped in. She told me, in some English and some German, where the Pension was, and it seemed like it would be fairly straight-forward. I returned to Brent who was poking an automated "information/help" machine in the lobby. He poked it a little more, and we discussed, and just as we were about to leave, the lady (the other customer) came out and offered to escort us up the road to the Pension. We followed her over in her car. How freakin' awesome is that!
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We're staying in our first-ever Pension tonight and man is it ever NICE! I can see why they are so popular. We'll try to do more!
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