Sept 19 2014  Fri  We were having dinner at Da Vitos in the rosengarten and there were 3 swans swimming in the fountain.  By the time dinner was over they had moved to the lawn and were heading toward their sleeping quarters along the river.  They were walking in single file following a white duck.

Sept 15 2014 Mon   We said goodbye to Hildigard, our pension owner and rode towards Schweinfurt.  As usual J wanted to take an alternative route.  So she ended up making a 45k ride a 56k ride back to Bad Kissingen.  This is the end of another ride and will take a few days off before the women from Mt Shasta show up on Saturday.

On the 18th we had lunch with Rob and Tanya.  Rob is Steve Bonnett's nephew who just happens to live in Bk.  They had some vacation and were taking care of Tanyas Mother's house in Wittershausen, a small village about 7k from Bk.  J and I rode out there and we had bacon cheese burgers with BBQed veggies.  I hadn't had a hamburger in a while and they tasted good.  They are expecting a child in early Dec.

Hildegard and Johanna

Rob and Tanya.  

Sept 14 2014 Sun  We rode back to Volkach and looked for the fest there but it was a one day thing.   That didn't stop us from having 3 glasses of federweissen between us.   So we rode on to Nordheim to check on the fest there.  It was busier today then yesterday but still not like a true fest.  We tasted a couple of different reds and bought a bottle  from Ramon Sauer winery.  Then J wanted to take the ferry across the Main to Escherndorf.  Not much happening there so we rode to Astheim.  There we saw a sign for the quince trail, something J had been looking for.  Evidently In Germany people use quince in various things.  She took the trail, about 2 k and took lots of pics for her sister.   After that we rode to Volkach again and had some federweissen oddly enough.  Then we rode back to
Wipfeld.   At dinner we met a couple that were motor sailing from Basel Switzerland to Bamberg.  They said there are not a lot of places to park for the night and it's hard to get Diesel, a couple of thing I didn't think would be a problem.

A hundredwasser style house on the way to Volkach

Crossing the Main at Farr

If you're not the lead horse the view doesn't change.  An anatomically correct metal sculpture in the Marketplatz in Volkach

Another federweissen in festless Volkach

Start of the quince trail

Variety of quince

Another type of quince

Quince orchard

Sept 13 2014 Sat.  We left Dettelbach and rode the Main trail to Volkach passing thru Summerach and Nordheim.  They were having a fest in Volkach and we got there just in time for the start.  The wine princesses pour buckets of grapes  into a press and a big man works the press and makes grape juice.  The princesses then pour juice to the gathered throngs.  There was the band and traditional dancers.  So we sat and watched and had federweissen and some blatz.  After an hr or so we rode to Nordheim because J wanted to see the wine fest that was starting there.  They a big tent and the local wineries were selling their wares.  It was more of a trade show then a normal fest where you go up to a stand and get the wine or beer you want.  There wasn't any beer there either.  But there was plenty of food.  We had a glass of wine from one of the wineries and then rode back to Volkach to continue with their fest.   About 1700 we rode to Wipfeld to our reserved room at a pension.  Because of all the fests going on findind a room was very hard.  J called 6 different hotels in different villages before we found one and it was 11k from the fests.  After dinner in Wipfeld we were walking around the village at dark and we saw some bikers talking to our pension owner looking for rooms.  That always makes me nervous that we will end up that way some night the way J wants to keep riding.

J riding thru the gate at Summerach

The Rathaus at Summerach with the beautiful flowers.

A raft of people floating down the Main.  This section of the Main is bypassed by canal.  There's too many sharp bends for the 130 meter boats to pass thru safely.  But it's good for rafting.  This similar to the party boats on the Isar only these have motors and are pushed back upstream instead of being disassembled and rebuilt back at the starting point.

The start of the fest in Volkach

The fest tent in Nordheim.  Not a lot of people yet.  It was about 1400

When we got back to Volkach a new band was starting.  They really sounded good for being mostly brass.  

J slugging down some federweissen

Sept 12 2014 Prichsenstadt to Dettelbach   We woke up in the morning and it was raining hard.  I talked J into staying another night and not being stupid enough to start riding in a hard rain. Unfortunately the hotel was booked for the night so out into the rain we went.   Off to Wiesentheid where we saw the Grafen von Schonboon castle and rode thru the current gardens.   In the 1600's the gardens were in the baroque style but in the 1800' the plowed it all up and made it more park like   Then to Ruedenhausen and on to Castell.   The Counts of Castell have some the largest vineyards in Germany and own one of the biggest banks.   The back of the castle is a wine shop.  We rode on thru the vineyards in a good rainstorm to the village of Iphofen.  It has some beautiful gates and towers.  It is the home to a very large Knauf factory and Knauf has a museum there that had a show on witches.  J wanted to see it.  She had a witch in her family.  But we were soaking wet and the museum wanted us to remove our rainclothes and not drip on everything.  We decided to go on to Mainbernheim, which as a beautiful village with a largely intact outer wall.  J said there was a lebkuchen baker there and she wanted some but we couldn't find it.  Mainbernheim is also the home of Beren Schmidt,  maker of gummy bears.  We want to come back to Mainbernheim and Iphofen and spend more time in each village.
We rode on to Dettelbach where we had a room reserved at the Zum Engle.  After dinner we walked thru the dark deserted streets in the old town and it felt like walking in the time of Dickens without the  Fagan kids to pick your pocket.

Our Hotel Adler

Schloss Schoenborn in Wiesentheid.  Wiesentheid had their own witch problem and had some trails in 1615.

Marien Saeule

Schloss Rudenhausen

The schloss Castell with the Schlosspark in the foreground

Schloss Castell.  The head Castell built this castle because the one on the hill wasn't comfortable enough for his family to live in.  

The village of Castell on our way out

The outer gate at Iphofen

The inner gate at Iphofen.  There was moat between the outer gate and the inner gate along with a drawbridge.

The hole above the inner gate was to throw hot pitch down on the attackers

Iphofen Marketplatz

Leaving Iphofen by another gate

Main street in Mainbernheim

Part of the wall around Mainbernheim

Wall and towers around Mainbernheim

Sept 11 2014 Volkach to Prichsenstadt.    When we got up for breakfast it was raining and had been most of the night.  I whined about riding in the rain but by the time breakfast was over it had quit.  As you know whining can fall on deaf ears.  We rode thru Frankenwinheim and on to Gerolzhofen.  That towns claim to fame was they killed 262 witches in olden days.  Then while riding over hill and dale we went by a small chapel dedicated to St Gertrude, parton saint of travelers, gardeners and cats.  J lit a candle for Lief Voeltz,  a Mt Shasta friend that is having a battle with leukemia.  On to Oberschwarzach and the to our destination Handthal.  Handthal, the village, is pretty much a road with houses, weinguts and hotels on each side.  And it turned out it was closed.  We were going to have a glass of wine but nothing was open except the wine bar Stoolberg which was a long uphill ride.

We rode back to oberschwarzach and on to Prichsenstadt.  There I cajoled J into having a glass of wine and some kochkase.  So we stopped at the Hotel Storch, which had a beer garden open, and we lunched.  I then managed to talk her into calling it a day and getting a room.  That's hard to do at 1500.  She wants to ride till dark.  The Storch was full but we got a room at the Hotel Adler.

spectres in the mist

A bike trail in every direction.

The chapel dedicated to St. Gertrude

There was a stone scupture of Christ on the Cross but it got stolen in the 50's

Lighting a candle for Lief

Cycling thru the farmland

Schloss Stollburg, the remaining turret of the castle built in 1151 and destroyed in the 30 years war in 1525

Wine bar Stollburg

gate  and tower into Prichsenstadt.

Main street of the old town of Prichsenstadt.

Gate at the other end of town of Prichsenstadt

Sept 10 2104 Wed.  Caught a train to Wurzburz yesterday and got a room at the Stadt Mainz.  We met Bobi and Heini at the Burgerspital for dinner and Heini's birthday.  After dinner J and I rode down to the Alte Main Brucke and had a couple of wines.  That was to set us up for the ensuing ride.

Around the Bahnhof or the Marketplatz in every town are signs that give direction and mileage to other villages in the vicinity.   This ride we are going to have a village we want  to go but not a specific route.  We started off at the Bahnhof, in Wurzburg, rode about a k and lost the trail.  We finally asked a jogger and he set us right again.  We rode thru Estenfeld, heading toward Kurnach but somehow we missed it.   We went thru Seligenstadt and saw the sign for Kurnach but it was in the wrong direction.  We went towards Prosselheim but missed it also it.  We ended up at Vogelsburg, a monastery overlooking the Main River towns of Nordheim, Volkach, Eschendorf and the big bend that the Main make in this area.  The Monastery was closed due to renovating.  We rode down the hill to Astheim and across the bridge to Volkach.   We got a room at the Hotel Kreuzer, in Volkach, then walked up to the Hinterhoefle for federweisse and brotzeit.  It was such a charming place we went back and had dinner.

Looking down into Nordheim and Escherndorf.  Not many pics on this route which was mostly up on the plateau and consisted of fields of corn and vegetables 

Federweisse and Brotzeit at the Hinterhoefle.  The federweisse goes down like kool aid.  We usually have 2 at each sitting.  It comes in red or white.    It's only around for a month or so at the Harvest time.

Sept 7th 2014 Sun.  About noon J and I rode down to the Saline Fest at the Otto Bismark Castle.  We had a couple of 1/2 liters of beer and a brat.  There was a band playing good German marching music.  After the fest we rode back up to the house and got ready for the Gala at the Regentenbau, a concert hall in the Kurgarten.  Unfortunately we didn't get any pics of the hall.

Noon on Sunday at the fest.

The band

The band at a break and getting a brat

obligatory picture of part of Mac and a beer

Sept 5 2014 Fri. Wurzburg.  We are staying at the Stadt Mainz.  It has air pillows also.  Johanna likes the people that run it and it's near the downtown and the Marketplatz.  The breakfasts are good with a large assortment of cheeses, good rolls, smoked salmon, schinken, homemade jellies and jams and some cake for dessert.   And the bike parking is on the ground floor.  The other place we had in Wurzburg the bike parking was down 2 floors on a circular staircase.  Today we are just riding to Gemunden and then catching the train back to Bad Kissingen.   This weekend there is a fest in BK and Felix is going to be in town.   These pics are the previous night at the Alte Main Brucke

At the wine selling end of the Alte Main Brucke looking toward the Dom and Domstrasse

Johanna having a glass of wine in the evening on the Alte Main Brucke

They weren't only on the bridge.  This is the promenade downstream of the bridge.  

The lights on the Festung in the night

The bridge after dark.  The crowd didn't seem to diminish by the time we left at 2130