A very satisfying day, though somewhat curtailed in the cycling stakes by mechanical disaster.
We woke up to rain but it cleared by the time we got up and organised with sweet bread and Nutella and hazelnut coffee for breakfast. All was going well as we cycled merrily through the vineyards... And then a loud twang and Ed broke a spoke. Apparently he does have the tools to mend it, but has no spare spoke. So we wheeled him to the nearest station and popped him on the train to Cochem, a larger town which our guidebook promised has three cycle shops. Well, it does but they all close at lunchtime on a Saturday, and Ed missed them by minutes. One is open briefly tomorrow, so we very much hope they will be persuaded to fix it then.
Katy and I cycled on in a massive headwind to meet him in Cochem. It is a lovely, if somewhat touristy town. The hordes (including Dutch motorbike hordes) are apparently drawn by the ridiculously picturesque castle, a very old town, vineyards, and a mustard mill (?!). We had a lazy Mexican lunch with delicious Riesling, and then found a small campsite a little off the main drag. We wandered up to the castle which has spectacular views over the gorge, and through the town for a bit. Back at the campsite we got a little further in our exploration of weizenbeer, cooked up some veggies and couscous for supper, and then had a quick stop at the bar, which featured a darts match, and a very cute cocker spaniel pup.
I do really hope Ed's bike is fixable tomorrow but in the meantime, Cochem has proved a pretty nice place to be stranded!
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