Bike Ride along the Rhine - All Image Descriptions

A bike ride from Mainz to Freiburg back via the Alsace. Then to Cologne by ship, and finally home to Dortmund by bicycle again.

Day	Course	km	Time
1st Day	From Mainz to Mannheim.	88	5:26
2nd Day	From there on to Sondernheim (City of Germersheim).	85	4:41
3rd Day	Next on to Gambsheim (in France).	106	5:24
4th Day	From there on it was just a short trip to Strasbourg.	27	1:33
5th Day	The next aim was Breisach.	93	4:34
6th Day	From there we made a day trip to Freiburg (without baggage).	54	2:37
7th Day	Breakdown Day: From Breisach via Colmar to Scherwiller.	65	-
8th Day	Rest day in Scherwiller.	-	-
9th Day	Slightly hilly ride to Dossenheim-sur-Zinsel.	103	5:22
10th Day	Hilly ride towards Lauterbourg.	113	5:42
11th Day	A smooth ride to Worms.	136	6:17
12th Day	Exhausted we retourned to Mainz.	54	2:37
13th Day	From Mainz to Cologne we took a ferry.	ca 190	ca 11:20
14th Day	On the ride to Dortmund the sun was shining again.	125	6:46

Our main maps were Rhein-Radweg 2 and Radatlas Elsass from the bikeline series by Esterbauer. The The German National Tourist Board also offers information on the “Rhine Cycle Route” (including a map).

	Dortmund Hbf This is the departure in Dortmund, heading for Mainz to meet Andreas there.
	Ready for the Ride We had a somewhat late start.
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	Cathedral of Worms Nice cathedral, Dom St. Peter zu Worms.
	Looks Like a Castle
	Autobahn-Brücke A freeway was crossing the bike path on this bridge, if I remember correctly.
	Directions
	Industries at the River Rhine
	Mannheim
	Speyer This foto was taken from a bridge across the Rhine.
	Car-free city-centre
	Sondernheim We contemplated not continuing the ride because of rain in the morning... and we arrived all wet in Gambsheim in the evening.
	Container Terminal
	River Meadow? The idyllic cycle path along the river...
	Strasbourg
	Coypu
	Tram
	Petite France This is “Grand' Rue”. There is a nice Panoramic Photo of Strasbourg in Wikipedia.
	Ride Along a Canal
	Boat Tasman-21
	Wooden Bridge
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	Freiburg
	Freiburger Münster There is detailed information (in German) on this Cathedral in Wikipedia.
	Schloßbergturm This 30 meter tower was build in 2002. It stands 433 meters above sea level. From its upper platform I have taken the two preceding photos.
	Breisach
	Colmar
	Cyclists
	Cooking Dinner
	Ortenbourg On our rest day in Scherwiller I went on a hike to this castle.
	Ortenbourg II
	Directions for Hiking
	The Castle\'s Dog
	View From the Castle
	Inside the Castle I
	Inside the Castle II
	Wild Looks
	Plans of the Castle
	Ramstein and Ortenbourg
	Some Hills
	Alsacian Language “Bi uns rede m'r au Elsassisch” would be “Bei uns wird auch Elsassisch gesprochen” in Standard German, meaning they also speak the Alsacian dialect of German in this supermarket (and not just French).
	Memorial for a Battle The 3rd Württemberg bataillon of riflemen for its brave comrades who fell in the 1870 - 1871 campaign against France. Interestingly this memorial stands in France since the German defeat in World War I (1918).
	Information on the Battlefield
	Workers’ Bicycles
	Niebelungenbrücke Worms
	Biker’s Rest
	A Day on a Ship Because of many stops this ship needed nearly 12 hours to bring us to Cologne, but it was a nice tour and we could not have made the same distance by bicycle in one day.
	Rhine km 498 (Mainz) This is Rhine Kilometre 498. According to Wikipedia (and well believable) counting starts from the lake Bodensee.
	Außenspiegel Just like cars our ship has exterior rear-view mirrors (Außenspiegel).
	Cheers for our Ship
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	A Castle Castles, castles, castles...
	A Cargo Ship
	A Castle Hotel
	A Cargo Train
	Rhone Princess This ship's name is not a typo: the Rhône is another major river in Europe.
	Loreley What is so special about this rock?
	The Sun Deck
	Nuclear Power Plant I am against this...
	Train and Ship
	Cheers Andi!
	New Passengers
	A Dark Fortress Addendum in 2013, after closer inspection on a bike ride: this must be a bridge head of the Bridge at Remage, which was intensely fought over and eventually destroyed in World War II. Today there is a peace museum inside the towers on the left (opposite) side of the Rhine.
	City of Bonn
	Cologne
	Cologne Skyline
	Leverkusen
	River Ruhr ...in Hattingen (almost at home).