koblenz

leaving Bonn was on more good totally away from the roads cycle paths through woods and parks and open countryside very picturesque, i stopped for a coffee at a rhineside takeaway stand and got chating to a german cyclist we compared and discussed bikes and biking equipment he had the rholoff Hub i was getting and a brooks saddle his was an expensive bike. he was retired at 60 and went out cycling a lot we had a good chat in his broken english,

        there was lots of bridges bombed and destroyed in the last few months of the war to stop the allies getting into germany over the rhine, ther is lots of these broken bridges just left ruined along the rhine, I cycled passed arguably the biggest one this day ludendorff with plaques and a small museum along this section of the rhine, eisenhower had said keeping this bridge intact was worth its weight in gold, but hitler managed to destroy it after executing some officers he felt were dragging their heels to blow it up allowing the allies to advance, the americans had held it open for a short while aiding there advance north west
 

I started cycling passed some ultra runners who were running the race across deutchland, I would pass them a lot over the next two days as they ran the distance of germay north to south, every time I passed a runner I thought about the race I have entered in may as these people looked absolutely shattered running in the sun!

      about ten mile outside koblenz I cycled up behind a cyclist with an irish flag dangling of the back of his bike, he was the most laden down cyclist I have ever seen, with his two panniers and back og his cycle laden he also wore a big rucksack on a mountainbike with suspension, I got chatting with him and we ended up cycling together chatting all the way into koblenz, we stopped to take pictures at the start of the city where there was ahuge statue and cable cars over the rhine to a castle, he used his phone a lot he was posting on instagram and using google maps while we cycled, and even when i bought him a few beers in town he spent most of his time head i  his phone, he was cycling home to rome in a long round about loop he hoped to rent a place to stay once he got to italy then teach english as a foreign language once there even though he couldnt speak italian yet! we had a few beers in the town center, then i watched his gear for him while he vissited some shops on the promise he would navigate our way to an irish bar using his phone when he got out, its possibly an age thing but i am rubbish at navigating the streets using google maps it takes me twice as long as the young team, and sure enough we flew round town to the irish bar with him finding it easilly using his phone we had another couple of beers here and got suck in a thunder showere the bikes getting soaked while we sheltered in the bar.

          I decidede I would be staying here for the night and had a look on my app for somewhere to stay. I have no idea where joey would end up staying that night he was mostly wild camping, but i found most of the nearest hotels too expensive, i opted for one that my phone said was 2.1miles from my current location. this was a mistake it was starting to get dark I had drank a few beers my lights were packed away due to me stripping the bike to leave it in the street the previous night, I got lost twice once away up a hill, I thought the hotel was located further up the rhinewhen I booked it, but it wasnt it was out by another river away out in the suburbs, it was ten PM when i eventually found it the barmaid was closing the bar and expecting me she gave me my room key, I ordered a beer and drank it as i was shattered I got two bottles of beer for my room which off course was up three flights of stairs! I crashed out sound asleep without drinking any of the beer from the opened bottles it had been a long day,