Rhine Valley (Rheintal) Germany

[Joe_W]

I just returned from a short bike trip along the Rhine valley (Mainz - Neuss) with my wife. The bike paths are mostly quite nice. Especially the first two days offered great views (and good wine / food at vineyards). Trip lengths: 75km (Mainz - Boppard), 80km (Boppard - Koenigswinter), 102km (Koenigswinter - Neuss - my parents' place). I'd suggest shorter trips if you want to do lots of sightseeing along the way, there are castles everywhere and most of the villages are really nice.

My wife just bought a new tourer (VSF Fahrradmanufaktur, the black bike), she absolutely loves it! This was her first longer bike ride, but with the bikes she had before it would not have been much fun. The white monstrosity is my first new bike, an early 1990s Giant (that is now in need of some many new parts, maybe I'll convert it to some kind of Randonneur, I really missed having drop bars...).

[Bill]

Wow breath taking scenary Joe! You two look like you had fun. Really never knew Germany had so many nice tourist areas.

[RobAR]

"... a short bike trip..." Too short, I'll bet!
I nominate Joe for the current BT Trip Envy Award!

[Bill]

I second that!

[Joe_W]

The Rhine valley is indeed one of the most touristy areas. Full of Japanese and Americans (and others), but really worth a visit. Especially if you go to the small vineyard bistro-like-places (Strausswirtschaft). They are no real restaurants but offer a variety of small, typical dishes and excellent wine, especially in the first part of the trip. The Rheingau area is basically "home of the Riesling". We also went past Köln (Cologne), the Cathedral is worth a visit (but again: tourists...).

And indeed, it was too short. But it was our first bike tour together, you always have to test these things. If we would have been tired, there's also trains running parallel to the river and of course you can always just take a boat to the next bigger village.