Day 8: Bad Brückenau --> Lohr am Main

Breakfast at Hotel zur Mühle, with lots of plastic wrap and perfectly soft-boiled eggs (just as described on Booking.com), reserved tables for each guest, and three men whom I would see later.

Then we set off, passed by the Staatsbad again, and shortly after that, there was a new cycle path in the Sinntal, the Rhönexpress Bahn-Radweg. Brand new, wonderfully smooth asphalt, gentle downhill slopes, an absolute delight! The only downside was that the river Sinn was hardly visible along this route because the train tracks ran slightly elevated in the valley. (But the Sinn river is often hard to see anyway, so I just had to mention it again)

However, there were still some remnants of the so-called Route 46, a highway that was started in the 1930s, from Hersfeld to Würzburg, but construction was halted at the beginning of the war and never resumed. So there are still bridges and embankments that were once built, and now almost overgrown clearings in the forest. It was something completely new for me, documented with large informative signs, with a strange, slightly eerie touch of history.

And now back to the three men from the breakfast room whom I caught up with on this Rhönexpress, we started talking, separated briefly, only to meet again at the next ice cream shop, and from then on, I was kind of adopted by the guys until Gemünden. The three of them were brothers and they go on a longer weekend cycling trip together once a year. Along the way, we also had another encounter with a very talkative older local who told us interesting anecdotes from his past. In Gemünden, we had a farewell coffee/beer/ice cream together and I continued - then alone - from there.

I almost stayed there, by the way, because in the evening, the wonderful Gankino Circus was announced at the Gemünden castle, but waiting so long for the concert was just too much for me.

In the end, I only made it another 15 km to Lohr because a heavy thunderstorm seemed to be approaching, which didn't completely let up for the rest of the day, so I decided to organize a room in Lohr, kick it into high gear, and reach there without getting wet. Ultimately, the thunderstorm passed more or less without consequences.

However, Lohr was not the worst choice because although it was the seventeenth charming small town with - of course - lots of half-timbered houses and a beautiful atmosphere. But Lohr was somehow a little different, I couldn't really say why, maybe Franconia is a bit closer to me than Hesse.

So the usual, eating out in outdoor seating areas, before and/or after, taking a little ride around town on the bike and looking around. There were no more encounters on this day, anyway, I talked more with the three brothers than with all the chance acquaintances combined on all the previous days. 69 km, total 625.