I am writing this in a restaurant that is next to a small lake. A bit further along is our tent, right next to the beach. The sort of place where you can’t not swim. So we swam, for a short while.

So this is where we are. But how did we get here? I need to dig into my memory and the first thing that comes to mind is the Lorelei. Lorelei is a woman who – as I remember from my primary school- sat atop a rock combing her golden hair in such a bewitching manner that enchanted sailors crashed their ships. According to google there are different versions of the story. For instance that she threw herself into the Rhine in despair over a faithless lover then arose as a siren who bewitched sailors.

Actually, there is more to say about the second day in Mainz, when we met Adnan. He gave us an alternative tour of Mainz, starting with the roof of his student accommodation (secret: we weren’t supposed to be there. It felt like a Bruce Willis film.).

In the evening we went out for flammkuchen, which is like an ultra thin crust pizza.

The Rhine cycle path started off terribly, with lots of industry and noisy roads but this was soon forgotten when we found ourselves in places like this:

That night we camped across the river from the Lorelei rock. She had the night off and all ships got through without incident.

Yes, David, there are a lot more ships on the Rhine than on the Danube and the Main, some really big barges, a lot with the Dutch flag. The seem to be less hydro-dams and associated locks on the Rhine compared to the Danube.

Onwards.

We got to Koblenz, where the Mosel flows into the Rhine.

More importantly it is the site where Graham once went on holiday with his parents. He can’t remember all that much but it involves under-age drinking with strangers. We spent a bit of time walking around town and it is pleasant enough.

From a cycling point of view it was a slow day, mostly because the path was very bumpy (in unexpected places). Slowly but surely we reached the campsite near Bad Breisig. On arrival we discovered that this has featured in the Guardian as one of the top ten European campsites that can be reached by public transport. All a bit random, those judgments, but there were some lovely views of wooded hills all around. We had a very nice time there. It always helps to have a space where people can sit together at a table and be protected from the rain (although this was not relevant). We had our food with 2 Canadian women who live in Rotterdam and who just got a visa to stay for a year, and a Dutch couple. It turned out that one of the Canadian women attends the same course as the Dutch man, so they knew each other by sight. Such coincidence. Later we were joined by a group of Germans. Of course the others brought up Brexit at the earliest opportunity and it highlighted yet again that these international get-togethers will be a less natural occurrence.

The night was super cold and everything was soaking wet this morning, even though there had not been a drop of rain.