Cruising through a tunnel of green beside the Main River today, sweating through my shirt, I was drawn to look at my handlebar bag, my hands on the brake hoods; the view shared over the past seven weeks with rivers, canals, forests and farmer’s fields, medieval villages, sidewalk cafes, biergartens, castles, feeling the shudder of eight hundred year old cobbles, hearing the noon cacophony of churches, harmonizing across the river. So many days. That view moving through time, this place. And now it comes to an end.

We’ve been through this breaking-away process for adventures on the continents, the mountains, deserts, the plains, an ocean. This tour of European rivers has been mellow by comparison, but the feeling is the same; there is a hole in the world. It won’t be filled by any time period, any experience, again.

Everything unfolds new on bicycle tour, every turn in the trail offers a new look at a chunk of Earth you’ve never seen, smelled, felt the air of; never even in a dream.

As I write this the Six o’clock church bells begin to ring out across city and village, echoeing down streets of stone and glass. I will miss them.

There are so many, churches, cathedrals, monasteries and public religious professions of the dominant faith(s), but a relative few seem to attend services. There is something a bit, not sad, but empty, about a very few people in a huge cathedral listening to a beautiful Bach piece on a powerful organ. (I will post an audio when I’ve had an opportunity to edit it).

We’ve had little rain, but even that was refreshing, except for the night we were camping. The last couple of weeks have been very hot for Germany and the afternoon cycling was a bit tiring. But, thanks to Claire’s efforts, we always had a cool shower waiting, a cold drink for her and a “gross bier” for me.

Our Warm Showers hosts Marcus and Verena. Just in her belly is a baby due to arrive by stork in September. We will be kept informed! They are special. Very special, and you will hear more from them.

We (I hope Claire will post from her journal) will post more from this trip, more pictures, a video or two, some audio files, more stories, when we have time and internet. I will, like our other trips, redo the posts into a read-from-the-top page, telling the story from beginning to end. We hope you have enjoyed the posts. For now, if you have missed any of the many posts, you can go back to the beginning by scrolling through the posts, and clicking on the links to move forward or back in time.

Again soon,
Bob and Claire