Riding the Rhine

From the Black Forest we headed a few hours north to Bingen and the start of a 2 day middle Rhine valley route on the bikes once again.

We loaded up the panniers and the tent and headed off with a target of getting to Koblenz by the end of the day, which was a mere 65km away. After a minor detour (not due to our superior navigational skills, but in fact from some dodgy sign posting, honest!) we got to our campsite by 2pm so decided to head on and head further north. We eventually got to Bad Breisig crossed the river and set up camp in Bad Honningen having cycled 113km since we left earlier that day. The following day we headed back south down the other side of the river and returned to the van, almost dry, after riding the final hour in the wet. The highs of the last 2 days riding where somewhat culled by finding the van a little bruised and battered. We parked outside some nice looking flats, close to a busy park thinking it would be a safe-ish area but some local little $#!t decided that the van didn’t need wing mirrors and must have removed one with a large German hoof and smashed the other. Annoying but could have been worse. Duck tape came to the rescue as always and bodged the passenger mirror back on but a trip to VW is on the cards.

Monday morning brought a morning of cruising back down the Rhine to visit a walled town and some impressive churches.

A long drive east towards the Czech Republic was temporarily halted with the oil light coming on the dashboard of the van and the rev counter malfunctioning. A 1500m crawl to the layby resulted in nothing obviously wrong so we carried on to the nearest fuel stop a few km down the road. A litre of oil later and still nothing meant it was time to phone a friend. Trusty Russ and his mighty Google skills narrowed the fault down to a bonnet catch sensor or a faulty alternator connection. After a little tinkering, some rewiring and a little more duck tape the alternator was fixed and off we went. We lost a few hours so the Czech border would have to wait. Passports ready? Check. Car insurance documents ready? Check. The border crossing was a bit of a let down to be honest. A rusty, unmanned check-point with smashed windows and the barriers bolted open was the only obstacle so on we went. What a contrast 10km makes. From the German border to 10km inside the Czech Republic we must have seen 10 strip clubs, 3 non stop casinos an a couple of Asian markets. It really did feel like another world. So that brings us up to date, sat in a wet car park in the pouring rain in Plzen.