Amy: It has been a few days and a few Km's since we last had internet access. We are in Trier Germany and have ridden over 400 Km's on our bikes so far. I think my legs have forgiven me as they have not been sore since we took a day off, tired but not sore. From Koblenz we rode about 60 Km's to Cochem and stopped off to do a side trip to Burg Eltz castle. This is suppose to be Germany's best preserved castle. It was about a 30 minute hike to get to the castle but it was a beautiful walk and a nice change from riding. It was up hill though of course. The castle was certainly a highlight. You must take a guided tour of the castle as they don't let people wander through on their own. We waited about 20 minutes to get an English tour. We started out in an Armoury type room and I managed to snap a few photos before we were told that photos were not allowed. The tour included several rooms including the Knights room, kitchen, bedroom and child's room. The rooms all had original furniture as it was obviously built in the room (the door ways were too small to move it in) It was very cool and we wished we could have spent a night in there exploring. We arrived in Cochem late and had to set up in the rain. First rain of the trip. It rained quite hard over night but we got up and got moving early. We had to check out shoes in the morning to make sure none of the creepy yellow lizzards got into them. Didn't get a picture of them though. We did a little touring of Cochem and left town around noonish. We rode to Bullay, about 50 K and found a campground. Here we finally did real laundry. It was quite exciting. Patti wasn't quite as stinky any more. They had the cheapest food ever at this campground so we stocked up on a few things and had a great supper at the restaurant. I had a local beer of course. From Bullay we rode to Wolf, about 50 K and set up camp again. ( lots of camping). I had my first wine here, it was made at a vineyard directly across the river from where we were. It was a little sweet for me but nice to sample some local fare. We had passed through miles and miles of vineyards on todays ride. One area is said to have over 6 million vines, Patti thinks it is more like 6 gajillion. From Wolfe we rode a grueling 70 K to Issel and found a campground near a grocery store. We used our stove for the first time. 2 thumbs up on the noodles we bought, 2 thumbs down on the hot chocolate. Turns out it was Cocoa and not hot chocolate, happens when you can't read German. From Issel it was a short 20 K ride to Trier. Trier is an amazing city, it is the oldest city in Germany and has much Roman history. There are several World Heritage sites here so we spent today site seeing. Can't call it a rest day as it seems we did lots of riding and climbing up stairs. It was all worth it though and I will upload some pictures from the past few days. Patti and I have both enjoyed reading all your comments so please keep them up.
Later.....
