“The fear of dying is what kept us alive. You have to learn to embrace fear”.
These words of wisdom came from two of the riding crew who between them have spent more time flying than Bob Dylan. The side benefit of riding with two pilots with tens of thousands of hours of flying between them is that they have an acute eye for the weather. Apparently tomorrow we are going to be wet and cold.
However, before then.
Today was all about bike familiarisation as 4 of the 5 in the group were riding hire bikes and the first 10 km was all about seat and handle bar adjustment.
Riding the Mosel and you are in serious German wine country. A lot of big barges straining their way up river to remind you of the industrial importance of the area and plenty of portly elderly Germans riding electric bikes down river to remind you that just around the corner is the option that you’ll probably be taking in the not too far future . Electric bikes.
The ride from Trier to Bernkastel is FLAT. And yet despite this it still took us over 6 hours to do the 64km. Yes in part because that included a 2 hour lunch but also because there was plenty to see and the weather was amendable to a slow pace. As was consuming 2 large beers over lunch. Never mind the food that came with it.
The route .
The gang.
As you look at the photo left to right.
Todd - hails from Ohio but resides in South Dakota and is involved in property construction (you can buy a 1,400 square foot house in South Dakota for USD$ 200,000)
Nick - aka thelaeman, aka “gap year boy”
Russ.K - retired United Airline pilot of immense standing and previous gang rider when Thelaeman was riding from Spain to Norway last year. Russ has an attention to detail that surpasses a Swiss watchmaker and a personality of warmth and generosity.
Lynn - world traveller and retired Alaskan bush pilot . This is the guy you want in the cockpit when your seaplane starts to misbehave. Sensibly Lynn is now in a partnership with an Aussie lady.
Eddie.B - also a previous gang rider with Thelaeman, Eddie once worked at Adobe but now resides in Valencia with his lovely wife, Heather and delightful son TJ.. Just because they can.
Average age of the clan is well north of 55. But since when did age matter ? Never once you’re over 50 !
The Mosel is home to your amount of vineyards and river cruise boats.
The ride from Trier to Bernkastel hugs the rivers edge and aside from being flat affords the rider a great deal of views of this type.
All paths in this part of the world lead only to one destination. Vineyards.
This could be the first long distance cycle ride where I actually gain weight . After a compulsory 25 km stop for “Caffe and Kuchen” lunch then involved the thickest pork steak I think I have ever eaten, fries, a meaningless salad and 2 pints of beer.
Post lunch it was easy to see why one member of the party thought a snooze in a random field with this view was appropriate.
Bernkastel-Keus is an old town. A very old town indeed and affording views you’d see most days elsewhere. Or not.
It’s centre only dates back to 3000 BC . It’s also our home for the night .
Facts of the day
If you consume more calories than you burn you’ll add weight.
Riding at 20kph for 64 km does not burn enough calories to out weigh a German cake, pork steak, plate of fries, 4 beers, half a pizza and 4 glasses of red.
95% of aircraft crashes are pilot error and in some opinions the recent Boeing 737 Max crashes could have had the risk of a fatal outcome mitigated by proper training .
If society is going to collapse and an uprising occur then one commodity that will be in demand is ammunition.