After a nighttime of cruising and going through locks, we're docked in Bamberg ready for a fun bike tour. It's cold!
Out of 55 guests, only 3 of us intrepid souls selected this .. 15-mi./18-km. tour. Two seventy+ year-old's and a 20-something girl from Virginia here in Germany staying with her boyfriend, who has a Fulbright scholarship in Stuttgart. Filling out our group is our local tour guide, she's in her 40's, and the ship's fitness instructor (Milos) who's from Croatia, he's 32. We bike through several parts of Bamberg that we haven't seen yet and several we have.
Here's the iconic town hall that you saw in an earlier post ..
And .. Bamberg's 'little Venice' ..
The tour guide gave us several opportunities for bathroom breaks on the tour. Yay! since it lasted for .. 4-hours! We rode along the Main River and passed through several small towns, Bischberg, Trosdorf, Viereth, and stopped for a group picture at Dippach :
The tree in the church's courtyard still has streamers leftover from their May Day celebration!
On to Eltmann we rode, changing from gear 3 -to- 4 -to- 5 -to- 4 and ... Eltmann was in sight .. yay! Here's their town crest :
We crossed the bridge over the Main to get to our ship.
Yay! We made it! Whoa .. 15-mi. on hard bike seats leaves you with a sore bottom! But .. the sights and camaraderie made it all worthwhile! What a workout for this 72-year-old! Yikes! It was time for lunch.
Appetizers were : buffalo chicken wings, shrimp cocktail, potato cake, bell pepper tartar.
Main dish : pork ragout, mushrooms, vichy carrots,sauteed spring onions, 'rosti' potatoes
After lunch we crashed in our stateroom, watching the ship cruise in the afternoon.
Mainberg Castle came into view. It was built in 1245.
We were almost to Schweinfurt, my residence in 1959-65. I've come 'full-circle'. Now to see it from the river. What a treat. As a 12-year-old in photography class I walked to the old town to take pictures of the church and of the river Main.
We entered the lock in Schweinfurt :
Not very much room between the concrete walls!
It was time for another fabulous dinner.
Appetizer was : 'beef carpaccio' - thinly sliced prime beef, lime hollandaise, tomato salsa, pesto sauce cress, parmesan, potato crisp.
Main course : herb crusted pork tenderloin, porcini sauce, broccoli, baby carrot, potato mousseline.
Dessert was : 'Griesflammerie' - semolina mousse, forest berry ragout, vanilla ice cream.
What a fun day! The bike ride was 'massive' for both of us. Sore bottoms! Great scenery though. We hadn't tried a bike ride on previous cruises. We needed to try one. I think we'll stick to walking tours the rest of the cruise!
On to Wurzburg and the city tour tomorrow.
Take care, Jan & Joe
No more bike rides!?!? Good for you trying it out! I'm sure you are sore from all that riding! You're taking photos of all your meals like Salli and Ohmoni!
ReplyDelete