Today mother nature decided to turn her fan on us all day. It would've been a great day for sailing if you're in to that. Unfortunately we were mere land lubbers beating to windward. (Not sure if that expression is being used correctly but their is a lively tent discussion about it).

We biked up the Moselle to Igels and then crossed the border into Luxembourg.

Once we hit Luxembourg we made a b line for Luxembourg City. Turns out once you leave a river valley, the terrain turns out to be a little more hilly. We spent a lot of time climbing up and down.

Luxembourg City is up on a hill and so we spent the last part of our journey pumping up a road to make it into the city.

The campsite is about 8 km south of the city and we entered from the north so we entered through the commercial part of the city which looks very new age.

We then crossed a bridge which over looked the old part of town down in the valley, which we will go explore tomorrow. We tried to find the city center to grab some beer (we've been told by our Opa we had to try some).

We found a small bar and ordered 3 beers. No offense to Germany but they were the best beers we've had all trip. That being said, we've been ordering very cheap beer so that maybe a factor.

Nate was very proud that he was able to order in French (the national language here) and then asked for the check. The waiter came out with another round of beers... Mark and Matt are not sure if Nate actually asked for the check and the waiter didn't understand, or Nate asked for more).

Afterwords when went to our campsite and grabbed some dinner at a local grocery store. We're back in the land of the expensive here so back to just spaghetti and sauce.

Nate had to do some work and met us back at the camp. We're planning a long day of tours and exploring tomorrow (there is a lot to do here!) and should have some good stories from tomorrow.

Also: we are close to the airport so hopefully they don't fly planes after midnight.

Today was supposed to be another day of heat so we got on the road by 9 to make it to our campsite before the sun got up.

We did the first 70km non-stop and so don't have many photos. All we have is a picture of a bridge they are building over the Mosel. It looks like it's going to be massive.

The ride was pretty uneventful. There weren't many people going our way since its both up hill and up wind. Mainly we past locals who were out for a leisurely bike ride. A ton of retired people ride bikes here. They all have these e-bikes which makes it a lot easier for them to go far distances. Sometimes we wish we had the same setup.

The scenery was beautiful wine country followed by small old fashion towns followed by more wine country with a couple castles. It was a very scenic ride.

We made a small stop in Bernkastle for groceries and then made out way in the heat to a campsite about 11 km up the road. The sign said the site was full but we figured that was just for motor homes (since they are very popular around here) and went to go inquire. Turns out a motorcycle crew had shown up that day and were prepping for some party, so it was back on the road for us.

The next campsite was only 15km up the road but it was around 3:00pm and getting really hot. A hot wind had also picked up from the west and was funneling down the valley (we have been told to expect more of this). That last 30 mins was a bear and we were very happy to arrive, set up camp, drink beer, and shower!

We ended up in Neumagen-Dhron. It's our last night in Germany as we head to Luxembourg City tomorrow. We also have a rest day planned in Luxembourg City so we are all looking forward to that!

Also, small pop culture reference. The washing machines here go up to 11.

Disclaimer: I spelled Moselle wrong in yesterday's blog post. It's "Moselle" and not "Mosel." Sorry!

First, a missed story from yesterday. We picked up a really cheap carton (yes carton, not bottle) of wine. However, having no wine glasses we had to get creative. We had some 1.5 liter plastic bottles, and the engineer/frat star in Nate flourished. Cutting the bottle in three parts, we had a two "wine" glasses. One from the bottom third of the bottle, and one from the top of the bottle flipped upside down in the center third for support. It's obvious that he's been out of the frat for awhile, because he was only able to make two and not three.

Today was the middle, and easiest day of our 5 day trek to Luxembourg. We turned west, away from our nice downhill on the Rhein, and began our trek up the Moselle. (To be fair, it's actually fairly flat, but you can think we're doing quite a bit of up.) We biked for 50km or so without stopping, and made it all the way to our planned stopped, Cochem, by noon. We stopped at a grocery store, picked up some dinner/breakfast, and then biked another 10km to a campsite just up the river.

The campsite turned out to be really nice. Just across the river is a small castle that looks like it hasn't been renovated at all. However, you can still pay to go up the tower, during which we all wondered if the integrity of the building had been tested in awhile, and saw some nice views from the top.

To get to the castle, we had to take a ferry, so we setup camp and walked over to the ferry to cross the river. The ferry dropped us off in a nice little town, the was reminiscent of medieval times, and we all moaned and groaned as we made are way to the top.

A nice Dutchman was on the top, and chatted with us for awhile. He was on "holiday" for four weeks, and spending his time looking up and down the Moselle. He was also an amateur photographer, and so was nice enough to take pictures of all of us.

After we explored the castle for awhile, we sat down at the restaurant for a local wine (apparently this valley is famous for its wine.) The wine was good, and expensive, so we didn't buy anything else and headed back down to the ferry and headed back to camp.

Luckily, at camp we had coupons for free wine at the camp restaurant, so we went their to get our glass of wine. While having the wine we met a Belgian man that was staying in the campsite for 9 months. He got talking to us about our trip, and told us about a week long party in Ghent that we should go to. We think we can make a day or two of the party, and will probably go check it out.

After drinks at the restaurant, we went to cook dinner. While cooking we ran into a guy from New Zealand that was biking down the Moselle. He was biking with his brothers family, and was a funny relaxing guy to talk with.

It's starting to cool now, and hopefully we can leave the fly off the tent tonight. Tomorrow we have an 80km or so day up the Moselle. Just 2 more days to Luxembourg City and a day of rest.

Today, on our bike tour from Bingen down the Rhein to Koblenz, we hit the 1000 mile point on our trip. One nice thing about using the imperial system is that we get to celebrate both the 1000 kilometer point and the 1000 mile point when biking just about anywhere outside of the states.

Our day was actually rather short, only 75km, and the biking was about as easy as it gets, going along the Rhein. No major navigation issues, as we just had to follow the Rhein all day, and we would normal hit around 30km/hr when we hit long flat sections of the trail.

The entire day today was marked with Castles. For the entire day, one or more castles were visible. Everything from old run down medieval looking castles to very modern/Disney looking castles. They were quite beautiful to look at as we were biking.

We stopped about with around 20km left for s beer garden. Matt and Mark both got the traditional bikers drink, a Pilsner mixed with sprite so you don't get too drunk and can keep biking. Nate, on the other hand, wanted to maximize alcohol content per euro spent, so just went for a regular beer.

We stopped at a beer garden in Boppart, and sat along the river side watching many bikers we had passed pass us back, and discussing how we really hadn't seen a bridge across the Rhein for miles. Every 20km or there was a ferry across the river that you could take across. We're guessing that we biked around 50km in between bridges. As we sat watching the ferry driver go back and forth we marveled at his skill docking the ferry on both sides. That being said, if that's all you did all day everyday, you'd probably get pretty good at it too.

After our stops for drinks, we quickly finished the rest of our bike into Koblenz. We did not know this, but Koblenz is a very touristy town. There are lots of castles here, and a gondola to take tourists across the river from one castle to another. There is also a monument with a long history that can be seen in the cover photo here. The monument is at the corner of the Rhein and Mosel rivers. It was originally a monument to the German king. However, it was damaged by an artillery shell during WWII. After the war, the French took it down, but then it was put back up to celebrate German unification after the destruction of the Berlin Wall. Today, parts of the Berlin Wall are put behind the statue, and all the flags of the German states are flown around the statue. The EU flag is also flown, and for reasons we can't figure the American flag is also flown. We all gave it a hardy salute though.

It's getting hot here again, and we're once again sweating in our tent trying to fall asleep. Hopefully it will cool off soon. Tomorrow should be an even shorter day as we start up the Mosel to Luxembourg City. Three more days of biking and we should be there!

Today was a very long day on the bike. 161km, or just over 100 miles. We've now done that. And hopefully won't have to do it again.

We knew we had a long day coming, so left the campsite outside of Heidelberg promptly at 9:00am. We followed the Neckar River west to Mannheim, where we biked north along the east side of the Rhein. (After about thirty minutes of figuring out how to cross the Rhein, and where the bike route actually went.)

About 10 minutes after crossing the Rhein, trying to make up for lost time, we ran into a river. Turns out, the bike route has a ferry.

So we waited on the shore for the ferry to come across the river, carrying another group of bike tourists in the other direction, and paid 50 cents for the ferry. Thirty minutes later, we were back on the road heading down the Rhein towards Worms.

At Worms we crossed the Rhein back to the West side, and headed due North up to Mainz. The trip was beautiful, through lots of small towns. On the way, we stopped at a bakery, and everyone ordered at least 3 different pastries to eat (we had a small breakfast.) Needless to say, it was delicious.

After the bakery, we were just crushing kilometers. Nate absolutely killed the day, leading for the entire 100 miles. The entire day felt as if we were biking into the wind, and although I'm sure that's not true, it felt like it.

We finally rolled into our finally city (Bingen) at 5pm, and went into city to get dinner and breakfast at the local grocery store. Nate, much to his delight, found a 5L keg for 7 euros, so we rigged that to Matt's bike. Not only was it cheap, it was also cold!!! True to the theme of the trip, he made Matt carry it back to camp.

On the way back to camp, we heard someone say "Keg on a bike, nice!" Whoa, someone was speaking English! We stopped and talked to this guy for a little bit. He was from Pennsylvania, living in Bingen and working near buy. He was a chatty fellow, and was very happy to talk English with some people for awhile instead of German. After chatting with him for 10 minutes or so, we said goodbyes, and biked back to camp. Along the way, we got a ton of looks and comments from people pointing at Matt's mini keg, and when we arrived at camp a cheer rose from a bunch of Germans hanging out at the front. I would of loved to understand what they were saying.

After paying for the campsite, we cooked dinner, drank beer, and took showers. We talked with another U.S. group bike touring (they had traveled around 10km today) but they left because there is no WiFi here. There are a few other bike tourers here, including one guy from France that talked too us for a little while, and a loud family next to us.

Tomorrow should be a much shorter day. Only 80km north up the Rhein, then we start heading up to Luxembourg City. We're told this route is beautiful, so we're looking forward to it. We also plan tomorrow to find a beer garden to stop at and get Radler's, and beer mixed with Sprite for bikers, so they can drink and keep biking. For now, however, we're all just hoping for a long nights sleep.