Fwd: Day 14 - Zell Germany - 67 kms The Band Marches On !

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Subject: Day 14 - Zell Germany - 67 kms The Band Marches On !
From: michael litchfield <m_litchfield@hotmail.com>
To: litchy1@codey.blogger.com
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The morning literally started with a bang when H fell out of bed (see previous story) and got even louder when the towns band took to marching through the streets with various dignatories to celebrate the regions wine festival.

After the previous days dramas it was with a degree of trepidation ( and 3 patched tubes) that we farewelled Reumagen picking up the Moselle once again.

The almost warm weather had cyclists out in their hundreds, family groups, touring groups and often just Mums and Dads taking in this wonderful scenery - with cafes along the way it resembled the Warby trail on heat !

A busy Berkenstal - Kues provided the first castle along the Moselle , it appeared everyone in Germany was here and trying to fit into the towns riverside carpark.

Lunch was taken a little further along the route with H settling only for cake and coffee because it was all he could understand on the menu.

At the 50 km mark disaster struck once again - ANOTHER PUNCTURE ! This time the rear wheel and my 4th in 24 hours !

With H in front and i suspected half way to Switzerland i started unpacking the bike before H eventually returned with an obvious expletive exclamation !

This time the culprit was a sliver of wire - it is amazing that with brand new tyres I seem to be picking up everything while H with his bald front tyres is having no problems at all !

The rest of our days ride was mainly uneventful passing many German so called caravan parks in fact just parking places for thousands of motorhomes often parked bedside the river with their sattelite dishes and occupants indoors watching TV ....

H was at his diplomatic best when passing cyclists without a bell ( `I didn't have room on the bike`!) Yelling `ring - ring as he approached - on one occasion though the group scattered in all directions leaving an irate H to zig zag through them waving his fist in true H style !

We arrived Zell on the Moselle checked into our hotel and after H had watched the Giro d`Italia walked its historic streets eating some beaut German sausages and laughing about our individual trying to get out of the hotel where we both could not find the button to open the door ....tomorrow more rain this time heavy -!