Heidelberg to Worms to Nierstein to Mainz

11 June Heidelberg to Worms

We had not had any problems resulting from the floods on the Neckar River, but our ride guide, Gottfrief, advised us that the Rhine more difficult, with many sections of bike route still closed.
Because of this, and particularly the potentially tricky route through Mannheim, we were all to ride together today to Worms.
Tracey decided this would be a good day to have a break from the bike and stay on the boat, having already ridden that section on our earlier trip.
The ride went well enough, with some of the stronger riders taking turns to man intersections to keep everyone on track.
After a beer by the river in Worms the two of us  rode into town and had a look around.

12 June Worms to Nierstein
We initially formed part of the very slow convoy of 60 riders following Gottfried. Unfortunately fairly early in the ride one of the riders, Anne, collided with a bollard and was taken to hospital. Gottfried also left the group. We are happy to do our own navigation, so when the large group stopped for coffee at a small river-side cafe, we decided to go on ahead on our own.
Finding shortly after a delightful little bakery/ cafe where we had coffee and cake.
Riding on we arrived at Oppenheim for lunch in the beautiful town square.
The cafe owner served our coffee in a special bicycle mug.
We were interested in doing a tour of the Oppenheim cellars, a 40km long labyrinth of underground passages and storage rooms.
The next scheduled tour was to late for us as we had to get to the boat in time for a special vineyard tour and dinner.
Once some of our fellow passengers turned up we enquired and found that an English tour could be arranged immediately for a group of at least 8.
After the tour, which was quite interesting, we rode the short distance to Nierstein.
For the vineyard tour we were driven around in trailers (loaded with plenty of wine) towed by tractors, stopping for a snack (a huge piece of sausage and bread) and also visiting a tower with panoramic views. The tour finished back in town for dinner consisting of more sausage and bread.
Dinner on the Patria each night was surprisingly good, so this was not the culinary highlight of the week. A group of us filled up on ice cream on the way back to the boat.

13 June Nierstein to Mainz

The ride from Nierstein to Mainz was to be quite short, so a small group of us followed an alternative route devised by Peter Harper.
Unfortunately one of the group, Cherry, feel and hurt her shin just a few hundred metres from the boat and turned back.
The route consisted of a 30km loop then the ride along the river to Mainz. It was a very good ride over scenic gently rolling hills and passed the tower on the hill before the descent back into Nierstein.
On the river section towards Mainz we came to a flooded section of bike path. When we asked a local cyclist for directions he happily led us most of the way to Mainz.
After a while Peter decided to take the lead. Tracey followed him while Pat stayed back with David and Lyn. When the two in front were about 200m away Pat decided he might as well catch them. In answer to Tracey's comment "we've lost two", Peter's reply was "it's only the first three over the line that counts". Some fast riding followed, with the final sprint to the boat, although causing some alarm to pedestrians and slower riders, ending safely.