Originally Posted by
wstephenson
Yes, dedicated bike trails. I was on Eurovelo 15 which runs the entire length of the Rhine from source to sea. I mostly rode the
5th stage of EV15 except I started at Mainz, before Bingen, and came off it at Remagen, where I have family nearby, instead of through to Cologne.
Between the ubiquitous Cobble-Lock paving, cracked asphalt, wet leaves, the headwind and my load it was hard work to go over 15mph. It was fun keeping up with the barge traffic which doesn't go much faster - I paced the container barge you can see threading
(Rick Steves, Youtube) the dangerous Loreley bends in the second photo for about an hour.
After Koblenz it was getting dark and starting to rain and blow in my face even harder. Due to high water levels, flooded spots and darkness I didn't want to ride within 2 feet of a very large and fast flowing river with no barrier so I rode a different bike trail alongside the state road from about Bad Breisig (km 126) onwards, got horribly lost in various dark rainy suburbs trying to find the Linz ferry to the other side of the river, my Garmin was driving me crazy trying to route me back to a premeditated watery grave, and I broke an arm off my glasses trying to wipe them to see where I was going! It took 1 1/2 hours to cover the last 10km which turned into 25. I was very glad to eventually make it to my destination!
I guess we’re in danger of turning this thread into a travelogue, but I just wanted to quickly add that I was lucky enough to ride a portion of this route last summer between Bonn and Koblenz as part of a bike and barge tour. What a fantastic bike route to have available to you, and how cool that you could ride it on your Multitrack! I was very impressed with how well used the bike path is. We were rarely not meeting other riders or being passed by them. Also impressive to me was the number of bike tourers we encountered. I also found those interlocking pavers/cobbles to be my least favorite riding surface, but I found the path to be very well maintained relative to some I’ve ridden in my area. Thanks for sharing the photos of your ride. Makes me want to return.