Author: bethstapleton0201@gmail.com

Today we biked along the Rhine River Gorge. The basic run along the Rhine river was a flat (260 ft) 20 mile ride to our lunch at a local winery. We decided to add a 6.2 mile (807 ft) “Castle View” climb as well before lunch. It was a nice climb starting around 6% grade and ending up around a 12% grade. Beth did fine with the e-bike going up. It was a little unnerving coming back down the same grade. The view we had was actually from above the castle.

In the afternoon we sat on the sun deck as we cruised the river gorge to Lahnstein.  This was the part of the Rhine river that has many hilltop castles and towns right on the river.

Tonight we will be doing a tour of a castle in Lahnstein. Das ist gud.

This morning we were shuttled up to Hamacher Schloss so we could ride downhill through the vineyards of the German Weinstrasse. After a brief stop for a glass of wine at a local winery ,we rode onto Speyer (with Leigh from NJ/FL ) where our ship was. We will be cruising on the ship this afternoon  and going by Nierstein Germany where Julia’s family live.

As we passsed Nierstein, Julia, Todd, Maya and Max where on the shore waving to us. The captain gave us his binoculars and then blasted the horn. So cool.

Today we did a loop ride to and from the ship near Strasbourg. We went out with the first group of the day and three of us (Beth, me and Aaron from Utah) in that group chose the longer ride of 31 miles ( 750 feet of elevation).  We were eventually passed  by the second group (the Peloton always catches the breakaway group).  It was a relaxing pace for us through the corn fields.

This afternoon we did a short tour of Strasbourg. There are homes that are 400-500 years old there. The cathedral, which took 400 years to be built, was finished around 1500. Strasbourg flipped back and forth between Germany and France. It was not bombed out during the war because the allies knew it would go back to France after the war.

Today we biked through the towns and vineyards of the Alsace region in France (21 miles 1368 ft of elevation). Nice ride today and Beth is flying up the hills on her e-bike. We finished the ride with a wine tasting .  Pinot Gris and dry Reisling are our new found favorite white wines.

FYI. Our ship has 150 guests and over 40 are part of our Backroads biking group. The wheelhouse actually gets lowered so it can fit under the bridges.  We also having been going though many locks as we navigate northward.

Tonight we will end up in Strasbourg.

We said our farewell to Julia’s family on Sunday. We had a relaxing breakfast in Nierstein center. It’s a beautiful village with pastel painted homes and narrow streets. They hope to have Matt and Liz visit someday.

We took the train to Basel but did not have reserved seats. I thought we were going to have to stand for the whole 3.5 hour ride but we eventualy got seats once some of the reserved seat rider got off at their stops. We then got off at Basel Bad which was in Germany instead of Basel SBB which would have been the next stop after crossing the river into Switzerland. After a little confusion, we took Bus 30 to Basel SBB and called it a day after a quiet dinner.

Today we met the group of backroads riders who will be with us for this week. We did a 14 mile ride  (alot of downhill) in the Black Forest of Germany and then stopped for lunch. There was a cool bike rack (see below) that they made with old grape vines. Those Germans are so clever (no surprise as they did invent the Sham Wow!)

 

We finished with an easy 24 mile ride to the  ship in Basel, Switzerland. The hardest part of riding is trying to follow our route on their Garmin GPS. At one point both our GPS had different instructions (ugh).

Last night we went to Mainz wine market which is an outdoor festival. There were kiosks for wine tasting and others for food. All drinks are served in wine glasses that you return at the end of your night.  A very mellow evening.

In the morning we visited the Mainz town center which had a huge outdoor market selling fruits, vegetables, flowers and food. Many people bring blankets and spend the afternoon having a picnic lunch with wine spritzers. We met Julia’s cousin there. We also visited Julia’s friend Anka who has a famous ice cream shop (N’eis) in Mainz along the Rhine river.

We had dinner in Nierstein with Todd, Julia, Maya, Max, Nina (Julia’s sister)  and Nina’s boyfriend Franc at a nice courtyard restaurant. We had some some special fermented wine (federweisser) that is only available during this time of year for a few weeks. We learned that this side of the Rhine river is almost only wine drinkers (and vineyards) while the other side is mainly beer drinkers.

Tomorrow we take the train to Basel Switzerland.  Auf Weidersehen.

We arrived in Frankfurt and after a short nap we made our way over to “Old town Frankfurt”  for a quick look around.  We went inside the St Bartholomew cathedral and crossed over the Eisenberg Steg bridge to have a traditional Frankfurt dinner of schnitzel in green sauce and  a glass of “apfelwein” at a relaxing biergarten.

The next day Todd and Julia picked us up and took us to Nierstein. We will be staying at one  at her uncle Manfred ‘s properties he has renovated (below).  The house is across the street from Julia’ s mom and sister Nina.  Todd gave us a tour of another house next door that is being renovated which is where they will eventually stay once it’s complete.

We had a nice tour of Nierstein and Oppenheim off of the Rhine river. All the homes looked very well kept wherever we went and had  that old German town look.  Tonight we will be heading into Mainz for some more local cuisine.

Apologies to anyone following this for ending so abruptly.  We spent Sunday on base with Matt.  He had a few errands to run so we picked him up around 9am and headed for the BX.  I think everyone had the same plan as the place was packed.  We then found a quiet spot behind the bleachers for our one last attempt at fattening Matt up.  We brought him KFC and had a really nice picnic lunch then headed to church.  Since arriving at Lackland Matt was attending the “CP” or contemporary Protestant service.  I could completely understand the appeal for the fun, upbeat, musical service.  They asked the recent grads to stand while the rest of the congregation cheered!  Such a proud moment.

We are so proud of our Airman! Matthew knew this was the right decision for him and he embraced his basic training experience.

 

We had another great day with Matt.  The weather couldn’t have been nicer.  We picked Matt up at Lackland Air Force Base at 9:00am and came back to our Airbnb house.  We had planned to meet family at the Pearl Brewery at noon for lunch and decided to take the river walk to get there.  Unfortunately Scott and Kathy weren’t able to come so the 3 of us explored San Antonio together.

 

The Pearl is a great area with restaurants, shops, live music and lots of families having fun.

We had lunch at the Boiler Room restaurant and then explored the area.

We walked back along the River Walk into the more touristy areas and saw many Airman with their families.  During the walk we were approached many times by people congratulating Matt on his graduation and thanking him for his service.  We also did the same for other Airman.

The walk was really beautiful and the weather was clear.  This interesting section had huge fish that would light up at night but even during the day there were amazing!

On our way back we stopped off to visit the Alamo.  Tom and I have been there before but this was Matt’s first visit.

We had a great Mexican dinner at Rosarios before Matt needed to be back at the base.  Tomorrow is our last day with our Airman 🙁

 

Today was Matt’s official graduation from BMT and swearing in as an Airman.  We were joined by his Aunt Kathy and cousins Drew and Xander from Austin.

Unfortunately because of all of the recent rain the usual graduation parade was cancelled so they held smaller parade events in each of the squadrons.  The event was held in the atrium which was like an underground garage so the lighting wasn’t great and it was a challenge to identify Matt among the crowd.  In fact we were taking pictures of another Airman for much of the event.  Xander tapped Matt out so he could join us.

Although it was abbreviated the ceremony was really very nice.  The Airman were sworn in and recited the Airman’s Creed.  They also sang the Air Force song.

After the ceremony we were give a tour of the dorms and got to inspect the hospital corners and rolled/folded clothes.  Matt’s room never looked so orderly.

 

Finally free of the base after 7 1/2 weeks we headed to San Antonio.  We stopped at our Airbnb house so Matt could open his graduation and birthday cards.

Our objective for the next few days is to fatten Matt up since he’s lost quite a bit of weight so we headed to a BBQ restaurant.  Most BBQ restaurants are real dives but have great food and this one was exactly that.  Great food but no ambiance.  We sat on damp picnic tables but really enjoyed the food.

After resting a bit we headed out to a Burger place nearby.  They have great music, fun graphics and really good food.

When we returned to the mini mall on the base many of the other Airman congratulated Matt.  They all knew he just graduated because he was wearing his “blues”.