another relaxing day, almost

• distance cycled: 9.9 miles (into and around Koblenz)
• cumulative cycling: 639.5 miles

Late rise, followed by a leisurely unladen cycle into Koblenz. A look at the Deutsches Eck, a corner of Land at the confluence of the Rhine and Mosel. Unfortunately, the sculptor had clearly never even seen a photo of our esteemed former first minister – or if s/he had, certainly wasn’t a realist.

Lunch involved salad, large amounts of chips and the inevitable wasps, followed by a visit to the Romanticum: a museum about the attraction of this stretch of the Rhine. I seem to recall tweeting something sarcastic about one of the exhibits but I can’t find it in my twitstream. Does that mean I didn’t tweet, I did tweet but it’s been deleted, the iPhone Twitter interface is crap or I’m just incompetent? My money’s on the latter two.

Anyway, the Romanticum is mostly about how people have visualised and expressed the beauty of this region, and a little bit about modern life and farming vines and goats. Nothing about the huge US army base at Ingelheim, or modern urban life. I’d also love me to know more about the Rhine’s history as a border between Rheinland-Pfalz and Hesse (here), and between Rheinland-Pfalz and Baden-Württemberg (further upstream). My knowledge of German history is very patchy. For example, I think that Prussia was originally a north-eastern state, mostly on or beyond the current border with Poland. So how did it come to control Koblenz and this region in the far west?

I had a moment of panic when I couldn’t find my wallet  Fortunately, it had merely dropped under my chair, rather than having been dipped or left in the now-closed Romanticum. I am hugely grateful to the woman who pointed out that I’d dropped it.

Anyway, after the Romanticum, it was time to rehydrate, drinking Fritz-Kola and enjoying children enjoying a fountain. It almost made me feel broody! However the train-ride our to somewhere near our hotel disabused me of that as a wee girl had tantrums at her long-suffering mother. I’m so glad I can’t reproduce!

Unfortunately, neither can Lev now. Either something snapped or some low-life has removed his dangling tail-light. In any case, my bike has been emasculated! Tschuss!

You must emerge into Germany arse-first!	view from the cable-car. It doesn’t look anything like Alex Salmond!
view from the cable-car	view from the cable-car
view from the cable-car	view from the cable-car
view from the cable-car	giraffe in the Romanticum
Silhouette in the Romanticum	Elly the the captain’s chair
Fritz-Kola and Brötchen