I learned something then that I will pass on now. At the reception desk there was a sign stating that the hotel could charge the room in any of three or four different currencies. The clerk automatically charged us in dollars. When I got home and was checking out all the charges on our ATM and looking at the exchange rate, I realized that the hotel had used a vastly inflated rate. I will always insist in the future that I be charged in euros so we get the best rate. In fact, I found that the CapitalOne rate was exactly equal to the official rate of exchange--no tacked on surcharges.
It was raining when we started and very cold. As the day progressed we got colder and colder. Luckily we found a Chinese restaurant that was open and was willing to serve two soaking bikers, even to the extent of letting us dry out some of our clothes on their heater. It turned out that the owner was a Vietnamese who grew up in the Mekong Delta during the American involvement in that war. He had a very favorable opinion of Americans--the soldiers had been very nice to him. He was one of many who escaped by boat and by sheer coincidence his boat was picked up by a German ship. So ended up there. An amazing stroke of luck for him, he believed. We really enjoyed talking with him, but had to put in some more kilometers before the end of the day, so we bundled up in our dry rain suits and coats and resumed our journey. The
river valley sides--really steep sides--were covered with vineyards. When we neared a town we would see the most beautiful gardens planted along the bikepath. They were so bountiful, we were amazed.We finally stopped in Freiberg am Neckar, found a so-so hotel, ordered a cheese plate and bread and some wine which we ate in our room. (ODO = 41 km)
The next day we continued north in cold, overcast weather. We stopped for a cappuccino at a hotel along the route. The proprietor suggested that we stop in Bad Wimpfen which he said was quite nice. So that's what we set our sights on. Late in the afternoon it started raining again. It was so cold that we already had all our rain gear on so we just pedaled on! We found an outstanding hotel garni Klosterkeller with an attached
Thai restaurant. It was right in the old part of town. We had a room up three flights of stairs that was just delightful. It had a separate sitting area in a bay window that was really a treat. We had dinner in the restaurant that was scrumptious. We found a real treat in this place, so much that we decided that we would stay an extra day to see more of the town and to dry out. (ODO = 58 km)It was very refreshing to take a day off from biking. With the weather so nasty, we were not enjoying the biking at all. That night we had dinner in a Swabian restaurant that specialized in maltauschens. They were very good.
The next day we collected our bikes and after loading our panniers, I discovered that I had a flat tire! That was the only flat we had on the whole trip. After replacing the tube I attempted to adjust my front brake calipers as the pads had started rubbing on the tire. Arg! I snapped off the adjusting screw, the consequence of which was that I no longer could apply my front brakes. We decided to forge on hoping that we could get that fixed in Heidelberg. It was no fun heading down a hill, even a small one, with no front brake and about forty pounds of gear over the back wheel. On every downslope I mentally calculated which side I would fall toward should I need to bail out. (Luckily that was never necessary.)
In the afternoon the radweg led us down to a ferry crossing of the river. At the crossing there was a sign. "No ferry today." We went to a restaurant just down the road a little to get something warm to eat and drink. The waitress spoke some English and informed us that the only way to get to our next stop, Eberbach, was to take the train which ran every hour. She said that the highway was too dangerous because there was nowhere except the road for bikes to ride. We warmed up and dried out somewhat and rode up to the train station. As we were studying the schedule we realized that we could just go on a few more kilometers and be in Heidelberg! Needless to say that is what we did. We even found the hotel we had stayed at 26 days ago. The same room was even available! We were thrilled to say the least. (ODO = 38 km, cumulative = 962 km)
That night Linda suggested that we call American Airlines and see if we could change our reservations to fly home earlier. The forecast was for more bad weather and frankly we were ready to come home. There was no problem (or charge) to book a non-stop flight back to Dallas the day after the next, October 21st. The next day the receptionist at the hotel was so nice. She called the Deutsche Bahn and made reservations for us on a high speed train to Frankfurt for that afternoon, complete with reservations for each of our bikes in a special car. Once in Frankfurt we found a bikepath that took us down to the small town of Kelsterbach where we had reserved a room. The hotel was the worst one we stayed in the whole trip, but it's one important feature was that in the morning we could ride directly to the airport. We had picked up some food at a store and ate it in our room and shared a bottle of wine. (ODO = 20 km, grand total = 982 km)
The next morning, out the door of the hotel just as it was getting light enough to see and be seen, we pedaled the 7 or 8 kilometers to the airport, purchased two shipping boxes at an Information kiosk, dismantled the bikes, packed them up, and checked in. We held our breaths as the clerk checked us in and came around to put luggage tags on the boxes. Then he told us we could go to the gate--he didn't charge us anything for the bikes! That made the onerous charge in Dallas seem a little less so. We had a completely non-eventful flight home. The flight was so empty that we even got two seats by a window the day of the flight.
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