Somebody complained that there weren't enough pictures of the countryside, so here is one I took of some swans cruising by at a quiet spot on the river.
The route was much hillier than yesterday. No great big ones, just lots of steady rises. By 11am we reached the village of Sommerach and there was a gasthaus with tables outside and a beer I hadn't tasted, so we stopped for a "freshener."
The brewery was Distelhäuser and they only had a Pils on draft there. It was better than the Roth Pils and not as good as the Krautheimer Pils we'd had the day before. It was well made but lacking.
By 12:30 or so we were feeling kind of peckish so we started looking for a place for lunch. We came to the village of Mainsondheim and found a very nice gasthaus but all the outside tables were reserved or taken and there were people waiting, so we rode on. It may have been a mistake. We soon found another place and grabbed a table. Our Kesselring PIls came quite quickly (again, well made but not that interesting) but the food took forever.
Back on the trail we soon passed Marktsteft (home of Kesselring) and were supposed to cross the river at Marktbreit according to my bike map. There was a new bridge under construction but an old foot bridge beside it and you could see people crossing. But when we road up towards the bridge the road was seriously blocked -- huge chain link fences. The alternate route on the map was to stay on this side but it was along a highway marked "heavy traffic." While we were pondering what to do, a large group (20+) of cyclists headed towards the bridge and we decided to tag along in case they knew something we didn't. They didn't. They sent a few people out to investigate while the others just stood around. We started talking and when they asked us where we were headed, they said to reach Ochsenfurt there was a bike path on this side of the river. So we bade them farewell and headed for Ochsenfurt.
It turned it is was probably a good thing -- when we reached Ochsenfurt their bridge was closed as well. There were alternate routes marked but it would made for lots of backtracking.
Our optimistic goal was Würzburg -- another 80 km but the combination of hills, heat, humidity and the delay at lunch had slowed us down, so we decided to stop at Ochsenfurt -- 20 km short.
As we were riding down the main drag in the old town, I saw a hotel with a "Zimmer Frei" (rooms available) sign and this out front:
It seemed a good omen so we stopped and booked a room. Shortly we were back outside tasting the kellerbier
It is from one of the two local breweries Kauzen and again it was well made but not up to the standards of the kellerbiere around Bamberg.
We decided to walk around the town before eating and it turns out there is a bit of the old city walls that have be preserved. The area between the inner and outer walls has been converted to a playground.
When wandering we came across some outside tables for a gasthaus advertising the other local brewery, Anker Bräu but sold under the name Oechsener. We ordered the Pils and it was the same: well made but lacking in bitterness. The restaurant turned out to be Italian and we ordered a light meal to end the day. This restaurant must have been related to the one in Mainsondheim because it again took and hour to get our food,
We wandered back to the hotel and decided to have a nighcap of the Kauzen Weissbier. I don't usually drink wheat beers but this once was very, very nice: the right combination of clovey spiciness and sweatness without tasting like a banana smoother. A good way to end the day.
The tally for the day was 60km in about 4 hours. The forecast for Monday calls for a bit cooler but maybe some rain,
Location:Obere Redersgasse,Ochsenfurt,Germany
1 comment:
Yes on the beers you have had, no on cutting on cutting off Paul and Tom heads.
Post a Comment