- Crossing into the historically industrial Germany. This area has passed between Germany and France many times. It also features in a the sad history of the “Wars of Religion” and “the 30 years War”. The combination of which left villages barren, poor, and depopulated.
- Today, this is a combination of city, hills, valleys, rivers, and deep wood. Not just the wars marked this place, but the occupation post WWII and immigration. This area is often different from most of Germany.
- The terrain and roads are excellent for biking. The weather is cool to biting... even in the summer.
Facts:
Distance: 45.43 mi
Time: 5:06 / Moving Time: 3:45
Avg Speed: 8.9 mph / Avg Moving Speed: 12.1 mph / Max Speed: 31.4 mph
Elevation Gain: 1,617 ft
Elevation Loss: 1778 ft
Min Elevation: 717 ft
Max Elevation: 1,226 ft
Weather - 60-70's Northern Euro Cool and Sunny not warm.
Climbs - Two. Not horrible.
Difficulty - 5 Distance and a couple hills
Scale:
0 = 25 miles around San Francisco with the marin headlands climb.
10 = Next to the last day of a hell week in the military with a few hours of sleep.
Hotel - Hotel Astra Nice place. Little loud from the street, but maybe the best you’ll find at the price point.
Comments:
A. This
is a nice mostly rural section of riding. It could be hard if the road
didn’t follow a valley for a while. There were a couple of climbs. It’s
pretty before the city starts.
B. Between Landstuhl and Kaiserslautern it’s all American Military stripmall services. Bleak.
C. It’s
a tale of two rides between A and B above. If you combine the first
half of this leg and the second of yesterday, you have a very fine ride.
Well worth returning to.
Facts:
Distance: 52.37 mi
Time: 6:41 / Moving Time: 4:58
Avg Speed: 7.8 mph / Avg Moving Speed: 10.5 mph / Max Speed: 35.2 mph
Elevation Gain: 3,806 ft
Elevation Loss: 3,468 ft
Min Elevation: 619 ft
Max Elevation: 1,213 ft
Weather - 70's Northern Euro Cool and Sunny not warm.
Climbs - All day. 400-700 ft at a time. Hard.
Difficulty - 8. Climbs, Distance, Time. One of the hardest days of the trip.
Scale:
0 = 25 miles around San Francisco with the marin headlands climb.
10 = Next to the last day of a hell week in the military with a few hours of sleep.
Hotel - Sengscheider Hof - Outstanding non-chain German hotel.Outstanding food and service. Nice, almost resort, feel to the courtyard and building. You could spend a pleasant afternoon resting here. Probably the best hotel I stayed at in Germany... or the trip.
Comments:
A. Very difficult day. One of the hardest of the trip. 52 miles with 4 climbs going from 600 ft to 1200 ft.
B. The
GPS took me all over the place. Of the 52 miles, 20 where in the right
direction. Once you figure that out, it’s pretty disappointing...
Thankfully, I had the day to burn, but now I’ve got to focus on making
Frankfurt with enough time to box the bike.
C. I
was a complete over-cooked noodle by the hotel in Niederwürzbach...
only to find a full hotel, waning light, cold air coming, and the
nearest bed 10-15 km’s away. Dang. That was painful.
D. This was a lovely place to ride. Surprised me to find such an area in between the industrial and military parts of Germany. This rolls through rural hills tuck off the side of main corridor running from Saarland to France. Very nice.
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