Such a wonderful day. My body felt recharged, great weather, and even better scenery. Life on a bike had become a routine. I expect to be pedaling for at least six hours and don’t even feel much effort even during many of the climbs now.
The day started in Sensheim. I was on the road a bit later than planned at 9:30 AM. The plan was to make it to Wertheim and join with the German D9 cycle route and abandon the Rhine and intermediate fields.
The scenery changed once I climbed some of the hills. I was once again separated from the traffic. I passed through a number of small towns. Many of the roads I followed I likely wouldn’t be able to follow the U.S. equivalent due to No Trespassing signs. I was smiling ear to ear the whole day.
One of the shops I passed had a marionette display.
I followed roads some good, others horrendous. My least favorite surface prior to today was cracked asphalt as it tends to be difficult to predict and endless. Today I discovered something worse: cobblestone that hasn’t been maintained for at least a hundred years. It was on the big descent of the day and I’m pretty sure I left half my brake pads behind.
Wertheim was a wonderful little town. I would return.
I meandered my way upstream from the town to the campground and setup for the evening. A mask was required which I spent a solid ten minutes trying to find in my dwindling organization. It was next to my eye drops.
I spent the evening eating a BBQ burger and talking to the server who was taking a break from his job at an American company in HR.