All you loyal readers of my post on Mozart’s Così fan tutte in Freiberg might recall that in Germany there are “numerous place names ending in -berg (= mountain or hill) or -burg (= castle),” and for us poor foreigners it can sometimes be tricky to remember which is which. As I pointed out in Read More …
While cycling along the left bank of the Main River, near the town of Bürgstadt, I came across this assemblage which looked at first glance like a Rube Goldberg Machine. All sorts of tanks, towers and conveyer belts were creaking and cranking up and down in all directions, some dripping Read More …
Here is a typical scene along the Main River downstream from Wertheim. The things in the foreground that look like big mushrooms are actually moorings that the river barges can tie onto if they want to stop here for the night. On my bicycle tour in 2004, I stayed overnight Read More …
This street, which is called Mainkai, runs directly along the left bank of the Main River in the town of Marktheidenfeld. On this street there are several small hotels, pensions and restaurants. The name Marktheidenfeld means (or looks like it means) ‘Market-Heathen-Field’, although it has probably been at least a Read More …
The historic Old Town of Lohr is on the right bank of the Main River. It’s a good place to stop for lunch or a drink, or just to have a look around. One of the more fascinating little museums in this part of Germany is the School Museum on Read More …
At the northern edge of the town of Lohr we cross the 50th parallel of north latitude. There is a red line painted across the bicycle route at this point, with the number 50. Next to the bicycle route, the local chapter of the Social Democratic Party has set up Read More …
Gemünden is a town of some ten thousand people, located 42 kilometers downstream from Würzburg on the Main Valley Bicycle Route. Two smaller rivers, the Sinn and the Fränkische Saale, flow into the Main at Gemünden. I have cycled through Gemünden three times so far, once along the Main River Read More …
Würzburg is very nearly in the middle of the five-hundred-kilometer Main Valley Bicycle Route (Maintal Radweg). From here you can cycle 246 km upstream to Bayreuth via Ochsenfurt (top sign in the photo) or 243 km downstream to Mainz by way of Zellingen (bottom sign). The middle sign points to Read More …
As a fan of both operas and cycling, I of course wanted to see the show Orphée et Eurydice à bicyclette (Orpheus and Eurydice on bicycles) that was playing in Paris at the Lucernaire in January 2018. This “musical fantasy” was written by Pierre Lericq, who also performed it along Read More …
Nancy has a small self-service on-street bicycle rental system called vélOstan’lib, with 29 stations, 250 bicycles and 560 docking points. These numbers have not changed since 2015, so either they haven’t expanded the system since then or (more likely) they have neglected to update the numbers on their website. The Read More …