GERMAN RIVERS: Germserheim to Worms

For the record, Germans pronounce the name of our destination with a "V", not a "W".


Worms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, situated on the Upper Rhine about 60 kilometres (40 mi) south-southwest of Frankfurt-am-Main. It had some 80,000 inhabitants as of 2013.

A pre-Roman foundation, Worms was the capital of the kingdom of the Burgundians in the early 5th century and hence the scene of the medieval legends referring to this period, notably the first part of the Nibelungenlied. Worms was a Roman Catholic bishopric since at least 614, and an important palatinate of Charlemagne. Worms Cathedral is one of the Imperial Cathedrals and among the finest examples of Romanesque architecture in Germany. Worms prospered in the High Middle Ages as an Imperial Free City. Among more than a hundred Imperial Diets held at Worms, the Diet of 1521 (commonly known as the Diet of Worms) ended with the Edict of Worms in which Martin Luther was declared a heretic. Today, the city is an industrial centre and is famed as the origin of Liebfraumilch wine. Other industries include chemicals and metal goods.

The forecast was for rain all day and we weren't let down. A drizzle at the start turned into fairly steady rain all day.  Most of the time it wasn't "blinding" but when we came out of the cafe in Speyer (after cappuccino and cheese cake) it was raining pretty hard.  We had detoured going into town (looking for the cathedral, cappuccino and a toilet).  We achieved the last two of these objectives.

Getting out of Speyer, and other spots along the part, were difficult to navigate.  I think we ended up with 87 km instead of the advertised 78 because we were lost so much of the time.  The worst parts, and there were  quite a few  of these, were when  the trail turned to gravel - or mud. It reminded us of the DATES tour of England in 2007 although I think there were more paths with gravel and mud here than in England.  Our bikes and clothes were incredibly "dirty", if that's the word. (see photo of my shoe covers and below).

When we finally arrived at the fancy hotel - after 6 or more hours of riding in the muck and rain - we didn't want to enter and drip on their floors. But they said it was ok. We were tired and hungry )no lunch).  I did an initial bike cleaning while Brenda took a shower and we tried to get some of the muck off our clothes.  (When in England, we found a product at bike stores called "Muck Off".  We surely need some of that here.)

Eventually we got somewhat decent, went to the organizational meeting for tomorrow's events and had a great dinner at the hotel. Tomorrow it's supposedly sunny, but it's an off day for us. We'll do laundry, although we doubt our jackets will ever come clean.  And we'll work on the bikes. Most need brake pads. In wet weather, particularly if you ride in gravel and mud, the muck that gets on the brakes can wear out the pads in a day or two. Under normal conditions, they'll last for months.

So we've ridden up the Rhine for three days now and have rarely seen the river and what we've seen is less than impressive.  We've seen no castles. Today we saw an oil refinery.  BFD, we can see these in Texas any day - and not in the rain on a bicycle. It's bound to get better.