Not much to say about today’s ride. It was long and hot but not difficult. It was following the Rhine although very little of it was along the Rhine like the past few days. We did cross the Rhine 5 times but once to the other side we were mostly away from the river. In fact, most of today was in cities. Bicycling in the cities is challenging due to all the traffic and the multiple changes in direction as you maneuver through the city. There are bike lanes and bike paths for most of our route but evidently, the German word for bike path must be one of those words that has multiple meanings. Based on observation I would suggest that it must also mean; parking lot, construction zone, delivery parking, dog park, motor scooter fast lane, new mother greeting area with strollers, etc. So, it the cities we not only have to figure out the complicated route but have to dodge the traffic and the obstacles in the bike lanes. When we get out of the city normally we have long stretches of bike paths but today those were very short.
I suspect there will be a lot of tired people today, not so much because of the route although it was longer than normal. No one has been able to sleep the last two days because of the heat. The small ovens that they called rooms at our last hotel were awful. Unfortunately, today’s hotel is worse. Not only does it not have air conditioning but the rooms do not have fans either. The only good news is that it is supposed to be about 5 to 10 degrees cooler tonight than last night. It should get down to the mid 70s by midnight.
Tomorrow we are in a Holiday Inn so it should have air conditioning and maybe everyone can get caught up on their sleep Tomorrow is also quite a bit shorter than today.
