Weekend bike ride along the scenic Rhine

I biked 70 km yesterday (gestern, auf Deutsch) from Bonn to Koblenz. The ride was beautiful. Pics will be delayed because to save room/weight we only brought one camera. The Rhein (Rhine) is beautiful, lush and green. We biked by fields of wheat and baled hay, as well as through small old towns. The old towns here all seem to have an Altstadt (old city) with a fortified outer wall and tower. Each records the height of past floodings of the Rhein, with notable high-years including so recently as 1995.

We explored the Altstadt of a town named Remagen (Reh-MAH-gen), where I was chided by an old German lady for dragging "deine Jacke an die (auf dem?) Erd" (along the ground) and I had two espressos and a plateful of gnocchi. Germans seem to go crazy with desserts. There are a lot of ice cream cafes (Eis Cafe) where you can buy any of at least 30 variants on dessert, many dripping with fresh fruit or nuts or covered in delicious chocolate sauce. We took a break for some ice cream at such a place in the Altstadt of Andernach, and then went down by the Rhein to rest and stretch out.

The path along the Rhein also drew us up abreast of a nuclear power plant. I feel like a similar path in the states would not do that.

Including breaks, the trip took 9 hours from Bonn to Koblenz itself. Then we had a ferry crossing and had to haul our bikes up about 4 flights of stairs to cross a bridge. Post-bridge we had a long haul uphill to our youth hostel, in a fortress atop the hill. The walk was very steep and probably took about half an hour. The view at sunset was great, and after some confusion about my reservation, we ate food, I had a glass of wine, we showered and slept.

I have to say, I hate the fortress. Passionately. The walk up sucked, and we almost have to bike back down. And the bed folded completely around me so that the middle of my back hurt as well as everything else that was hurting anyway.

LESSON LEARNED:
If you decide to spend a day biking, fork over the extra money to stay someplace
a) nice (where nice == decent/comfy beds and free internet. Or, just the former)
and
b) NOT at the top of a hill

Today we groggily got up, crankily went to Koblenz proper to see a monument that Napolean erected preemptively for his "Victory against the Russians", which the Russians came back to and wrote on it "Seen and approved" (all in french). Pretty hilarious.

Then (regional) train to Bonn to return bikes and region train to Koeln. Thankfully, our hostel seems pretty hip and has free wireless. I love them.

However, regional trains are awful. Maybe they're more awful on days when Germany will be playing a very important game in the Eurocup. I don't know.

Observation about trains in Germany: NO AIR CONDITIONING. How do people ride these all the time without dying?!?!

:P Now I am exhausted and want to take a long nap. I think I will get a Koelsch since I'm in Koeln (where Koelsch is made). This was the reason for the Riesling in Koblenz, since Koblenz ==  the confluence of the Mosel and Rhein rivers, and I like Rieslings from the Mosel region.

I leave in two days. I am ready for my bed and shower and going to the gym again.