2Hr 45Min MTB Ride in Darmstadt on July 13, 2008

Darmstadt to Alsbach to Gernsheim Loop

 

I rode basically the reverse of the loop that I did yesterday. But, the overall time was faster but almost the same distance was covered. I rode for about 2hr 45min and covered about 63km.

I headed out through the T-Mobile forest, and then followed the bike trail through the next forest down to the village of Pfungstadt. There, I found the Pfungstaedter Braeuri (local brewery)…

Pfungstaeder Braueri

Some other neat pics from Pfungstadt follow…

Cool German home in Pfungstadt

Old farm in Pfungstadt

 

Near the middle of Pfungstadt, I hung a left and went through the forest again. The forest trail was much rougher here, covered with larger stones and pine cones, as you can see in the following pic:

Rough trail

Then, the trail turned and was paved, beside a small road. As you can see in the following pics, this is the trail on the road. Note: the “weight limit” sign on the bridges Germany shows not only weight limits for trucks, but also for tanks!

Bridge Weight Limit Sign for Trucks AND Tanks!

Trail alongside road

 At the end of this trail, I hit the village of Seeheim-Jugenheim. The bike trail winds through this large village, and there are many beautiful buildings, including this church:

Church in Seeheim-Jugenheim

I was in familiar territory once again, with just a couple kms until I hit Alsbach. After crossing some open agricultural fields, I hit the village of Alsbach, and looked for the signs to the Alsbach Schloss. Note that the sign shows the climb is 1.7km long as 7%:

Signs for Alsbach Schloss

I started the climb, and you can see from the following pic that the climb  starts on a small road that winds uphill through the village:

Alsbach Climb in Village

My legs were a bit fried from yesterday, so I wasn’t able to ride nearly as hard up the climb today as yesterday. Luckily, no one else was climbing, so I didn’t get beat by anybody!

Plus, it was much cooler today. Yesterday’s climb was pretty hot, in spite of the climb moving into the shade of the forest and the valley, as can be seen in the following pic:

 

 

 

Alsbach Schloss climb - forest section

Once at the top, I took some video and pics, then started right back down.

Alsbach SchlossThe village of Alsbach is very pretty, as you can see from the following pics:Alsbach - houseAlsbach Kirche

 After leaving Alsbach, I headed due north up to Gernsheim. The first intermediate village I came to was caleld Alsbach-Haehnlein. I stopped at a Tankstelle (gas station) and drank a Coke. I didn’t have a water bottle with me, so this was my only drink of the ride. Luckily, it was pretty cool out.

Then, I made it to Gernsheim, and decided to try (once again) to find the Rhein Ferry. I FOUND IT this time! I guess if I had just followed the signs last time, I would’ve found it. The route was very pretty to get to the Rhein…

Gernsheim Colorful HomesGernsheim HomeGernsheim Building for sale

It was neat to see the Rhein Ferry in operation. I drove to the edge of the Rhein River just as the cars started loading. I took a video of the whole operation. Cars drive onto a rather small, flat boat and park in 3 lanes. Bicycles and people with strollers simply walk on. The ferry didn’t blow a horn or anything, it just left the shore and went across the other shore – which was about 100 meters. The Rhein, at this point, is about 1/3 of the size of the Ohio River, I’d estimate.

Rhein FaehreRhein RiverCafe on Rhein River near FerryRhein Harbor

Here’s one more cool restaurant/building in Gernsheim…

Cool Restaurant in Gernsheim, about 1km from Rhein River

After leaving Gernsheim, I headed back to Darmstadt, which is about 20km, and rode very hard. That’s it for today.