We began our riding days in Germany’s Middle Rhine River Valley.  During our morning route talk Bill described the area as “rife” with castles.  I thought that was an odd word to use so I looked it up and the definition includes:  abundant, plentiful, numerous or abounding.  And sure enough he was right, every time we came around a bend there was a castle high up on the hillside.  Combine that with a picturesque church and a quaint village and you have a setting right out of a painting. I am sure the Europeans are very used to the castles and hardly notice them but for this American I was amazed every time.

The Rhine is crazy busy.   We were constantly passing barges traveling up and down the river.  Along with the river cruise boats were tour boats and private, pleasure boats.  There is a drought happening here in Europe and the Rhine River is being heavily impacted.  Our captain had to alter our schedule because of the lack of water in the river.  We were supposed to spend the first couple of days cycling in France but because of the low water, we had to hurry to get past some certain locks.  That put us in Germany for most of our cycling days.  The low water levels also meant that the barges were only traveling with partial loads.  In some places the river was only a few feet deep so only boats with very low draft could pass.