Heildelburg Castle

half of this round section had sheared away and was resting against the tower itself, so you could see inside...
i loved this, parts of the castle were falling down, and there were single outer walls remaining that you could see the scenry and sky through, which gave the whole place a very "light" feeling


up in one of the castles many gardens... this place was so nice and mello...
view down into town from the castle gardens

Heidelburg Castle

Mainz to Heildelberg

no idea what this thing is... some sort of welcoming man-monkey...

Heidelburg at night after a few dunkels...

part of the university castle at Heidelburg

I don´t know wether this is sinister or not...

the huge tower as i was leaving Mannhiem behind

night evening light on a building in Heidelburg.

in Mannhiem, the Borg made an appearance, carried out some group assimilations and probings, then left...

attack of the telegraph poles...

there was a festival in Mannhiem, and it took ages to wheel the bike through the pulsing sweating throngs...

I met this dude down the side of the Rhine. He basically has opted out of society, and was travelling up from Southern Spain and making his money by playing music on a flute he made himself. His dog was all over me and was called Liza, and rides around in the front of his bike, which can be seen in the background next to his tent. He also put a drop of oil on the chain for me, and it´s done wonders. (He was a bit of a space-cadet to be honest...)

Funny place name, also one for you Owen..!!! Notice the British place it´s twinned with..? Didn´t you live there..?

mad fountain in Mannhiem. I met a couple from London here, and the bloke was giving it loads about the FA Final, and I had a hard time convincing him I was a blue... and then rubbing it in again..!

Down the Rhine, this day was a cracker and really hot, so I dumped the bike for awhile and took off my trainers and socks and had a good soak for awhile... just what the doctor ordered...

loading the bike onto yet another barge to cross a river... it´s sometimes nessecary to make these crossings two or three times a day, depending on how the paths are laid out...

the bike is holding up well...

another random block in the road... everyday something like this crops up at some point, some more difficult than others to get around or through. All good fun tho..!

just come off another ferry and getting help from a German couple.

poppy field

Wild flowers in the reserve.

Part of the Rhine that is a nature reserve is absolutely gorgeous. There were huge eagles, hares, pheasants, all sorts of different birds and cuckoos, and the path took me right through the lot of it. With the sun shinning down aswell it was a cracker.

The path suddenly deteriorated so fast, I found myself stuck in really thick clay. This stuff was so difficult to remove, I had to eventually call at someones farm and try to blast it away with water but it done nothing, so it was back to using a stick for about an hour. It was like glue...

a large type of Heron I think... so much wildlife in this part of the Rhine.


mad radar dishes from out of no-where...

Mosel to Mainz

interior of a church I stumbled into in Mainz. It was a really impressive place with paintings over most of the walls and ceilings.

Couldn´t work out if this was a bloke or a lass..? Damn big organ tho...

there´s no escaping the games indus... ;) I´d love to hear John Vattic in German...

Detail of the ceiling of the church in Mainz.

Mainz old town... a really good selection of beer houses here, and I tried my first black beer... :)

Knobi Bon Bon...

Mainz Dom.

At the top of the climb and knackered...

As we´d taken the wrong river, we had our work cut out first thing to get from the Mosel Valley up and over to the Rhine. It was a big climb that took us one hour just to get to the top, then we had to get across which was about 25ks, then we had to regain lost ground and get to Mainz... my legs were like jelly at the top but the ride down was class..!!! We ended up in a beautiful gorge that led into the Rhine again and it was good to see it..!!!

Cologne to Koblenz via the Rhine

this was German Corner, were Eberhard and I were too busy chatting about the WWII and instead of following the Rhine, we ended up 50ks down the Mosel..!!! It was a really nice region tho, with vineyards over almost sheer cliffs. Even mistakes turn out well..! You can see the Rhine going in the other direction, around the back of the monument.

I didn´t get this ladies name, but we had a good laugh at the campsite bar in Bad Briesig on the Rhine. I got some good advice about the trip down to Constance and also some free drink and good solid German food.

this was a marker of how high the flood waters have reached on the MOSEL river. The reason we were on the Mosel was that we took the wrong bloody river (!!!) at a place called Deutscher Eck, German Corner.

this was Eberhard, which means "strong boar" apparently. he was 70 years old and totally commited to cycling. two weeks prior he completed a marathon cycle, then the next day embarked on cycing around Germany and was on his final leg to Munich when I teamed up with him as we were going the same way. He had some stories to tell, one of them being his serving in the army at the same place as Elvis. Also when I meet him again in Munich, I can have a copy of a photo of the two of them in the German base..! Also, he has a copy of a track Elvis recorded of a German song he used to hear the troops singing on the march. Good stuff..!
Anyway, we´ve parted ways for now until I reach Munich, but it´s easier for me as I had a really hard time keeping up with him... 70 YEARS OLD!!

on the campsite, there was a convention of all these old Citoren cars, and the next day as I continued down the Rhine, loads of them kept driving up to the meeting... proper enthusiasts...

in my tent, which is large, but my feet still stick out the end...

Cycling down the Rhine with a break in the weather, I decided to chill out for an hour and ate some fresh bread and olives I´d brought from a market in the main square in Bonn...

again...

I´ll say no more...