BOPPARD - TRIER - SAARBURG

Thursday 10th

I was awake early; it would have been nice to sleep longer but I was fully awake so - despite the rain (which had started just after midnight when I was finishing off yesterday's blog) - I set off for a walk around the neighbourhood.

Already life was stirring and traffic was moving quickly going off to places further afield and some locals were walking into town on the other side of the railway line.

One woman gestured to my umbrella and seemed somewhat concerned. We stopped and I said I only speak English but she pointed and muttered something and I heard the word 'kaput' - we all know what that means! I smiled and nodded but I think she thought I was mad. My umbrellas are always 'kaput' but they still work OK 😄.

It was only light rain and I enjoyed the lovely half-timbered buildings.

By the time I got back, the boys were stirring and breakfast was ready downstairs, so THAT got them going. David's eyes popped out of his head at the spread and he wolfed down a bowl of cereal, a tub of yoghurt and two croissants laden with Nutella!

We set off into the town armed with wet weather gear; we had until 10:30 to check-out.

Boppard is located on a horseshoe bend of the Rhine River and is regarded as one of the Rhine's prettiest towns not least because its riverfront and historic centre aren't split by the rail line (we are staying in a less old part of town on the non-river side of the railway).

It is indeed gorgeously pretty - lovely buildings with wooden gables, some draped with creepers and, of course, pretty window boxes of geraniums.

We did the two main sights, walking along the river as we explored. The hills were draped in a light mist.

The Roman garrison Bodobrica was established here in the 4th century and there are still remains of the high stone walls and defence towers.

We went into a couple of old beautiful churches. One is the Gothic Karmeliterkirche which has
baroque altars, intricately carved choir stalls, ancient tombstones, lovely stained-glass windows and several beautiful Madonnas.

We had coffee at a bakerei and watched the comings and goings of the locals.

After checking out from our accommodation, we figured out how to buy our tickets from the machine at the station; there is a great system here where up to 5 people can travel after 9 a.m. on a Länder ticket for about the price of a single ticket so we made a big saving by making the right selections on the machine.

Our train to Trier had a transfer at Koblenz where the Rhine joins the Moselle River. My Friend and I enjoyed seeing the towns we'd passed when we cycled along the Moselle about 3 or 4 years ago.

It was still pretty bleak-looking by the time we picked up our rental bikes at the station at Trier and walked into the town centre to the radgarage to store our suitcases (which were strapped on top of our bikes - it must have looked very funny!). The guy there was very sweet (I had insisted on squeezing the 3 big bags into one space - they were afterall mostly empty except for a set of clean clothes for when we return in 3 weeks) and he charged us only 45€ instead of the 105€ he was entitled to - which we were pretty pleased about!

The light rain continued as we walked through the famous 2nd century Roman city gate, Porta Nigra. We sheltered here and ate our sandwiches (by now it was 3 p.m.) before pushing the bikes through the old town centre and the market there.

We could see hills lined thickly with trees in the not-too-far distance and made a good guess that the river would be somewhere near there and once we had left the pedestrian traffic behind, we climbed aboard the fully-laden bikes and set off for Saarburg a bit over 30 kms away.

The radweg (bike path) along the river was in 'pretty good nick' and there was lots of cycling traffic - and it had stopped raining! We passed one couple fixing a puncture and enjoyed that it wasn't us until about 10 kms along we had one too. This was at Konz which marks where we had to turn east away from the Moselle to ride along the Saar River.

Actually, it was quite funny (?) because we knew we had to make sure we cycled on the right-hand side of the Saar and were watching carefully for the signs but where we stopped and met a large cycling group, we realised that we were starting along the left side and that we would need to return half a km back to the last track intersection for the bridge to take us across.

My Friend (1) insisted on patching the tube which was a highly unsuccessful endeavour and we were given a tube by a nice guy riding past in the big group who obviously took pity on our poor repair efforts.

Unfortunately the second repair didn't last long either; it was a slow leak so we resorted to pumping furiously about 4 more times over the last 10 or so kilometres and we were relieved to see Erika and Knud's boat, Linquenda, after we rounded the last bend before Saarburg. Hooray, we had arrived and it was wonderful to see them!

We had a lovely meal - after the rules of the boat had been explained - no shoes, no running (highly unlikely in MY case!), watch for certain wood sections that have been repaired and remain vulnerable to damage, how to use the bathroom faculties, etc. - and we drank too much.

After dinner, we enjoyed a promenade along the river before the last light of the day disappeared for good (it was now about 9 p.m.), watched My Friend (1) collapse in a heap, talked some more and then I too needed to go to bed.

The boys are in the bunk room tucked up in two wooden bunk beds and I have the seat-come-bed in the wheelhouse. The distant snores I could hear during the night made me very pleased for my snug bed.