5 Rivers Tour: Day 1 - Main and Rhein

My last multi-day bike tour was 12 years ago, that was with my oldest son - then 15 - and with the MTB in Karwendel and overnight stays in Alpine Club huts. I have done many beautiful, long and big bike tours before 1989, so it's time to start again.

The Hessen - RLP - Saarland bike tour is my test tour, to test if I still can do it, if my old bones can hold up - no, I don't have an e-bike - I still pedal myself. And above all, to see if I still enjoy it, or if I have become too comfortable, too focused on my comfort zone, too warm and too soft - for breakfast.

There is frost again, so I dawdle a bit after breakfast, waiting for the March sun to warm my black cycling shorts with its first rays. However, I don't want to wait too long, the daily mileage is too long, the condition is uncertain. I start at 8:40 am with thick gloves, a neck gaiter under my helmet, and two layers of merino wool under my softshell jacket - the thermometer on the bike computer shows 0.3 °C.

I still know the route to the mouth of the Main from last summer, when I cycled it with two colleagues, but I still miss the Main bridge in Sindlingen and have to carry my bike and panniers up the steps of the Main bridge in Eddersheim. Well, those who can read (maps) have a clear advantage :)

From Mainspitz to Oppenheim, I ride in a kind of trance state, a mixture of no-longer-foggy and almost-bright-sunshine. Hardly anyone is on the road, I am alone on the bike highway, alone with a few birds of prey and the silence.

In Oppenheim, the ferry across the Rhein is just about to leave, and I manage to get on it in time. I'm happy to pay 2.50€ for this pleasure. After that, I have difficulties finding the right route and make a few unnecessary kilometers until I understand that there are two bike paths, an unpaved one right next to the Rhein and an asphalt one to the west of the flood protection dam.

As soon as I (re)find the right route, my inner sloth speaks up. Pee, he says. And then thirst. This is followed by hunger, is-this-still-the-right-route?, too warm / too windy and in the end, what's-the-point-of-all-this, it's-nice-at-home-too.

Tired and frozen, I treat my inner sloth to a cappuccino in a industrial area in Worms at McDonald's. It's empty, warm, and there are even outlets where you can boost iPhones with weak batteries - the battery of my old Samsung was much better by orders of magnitude.

After recharging, the mobile phone navigation finally finds its way through the chaos of Worms city center. I decide to skip the St. Peter's Cathedral due to the advanced time, although it already looks very impressive from the outside. More or less by chance, I come across a sign "Barbarossa Cycle Path" right in the middle of Worms. Great, that's the one I wanted to take anyway. Relieved, I head west, always towards the evening sun. The sun has already set when I finally reach my accommodation in Grünstadt after 108 km and it immediately becomes uncomfortably cold again.

I haven't taken off my woolen gloves all day.

https://www.komoot.de/tour/690643992?ref=itd

https://www.komoot.de/tour/691173701?ref=itd