Going for a bike ride auf der Weinstrasse

The next day (this would be the 18th, I think), was a relax-a-day for me. Eric had students to teach, and I wasn´t leaving for Renate´s house until the next morning.

So I went for a bike ride. I took Eric´s bike, and took it on the train out to Neustadt, a small city that is central to the Weinstrasse (wine road) of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. If you think that´s a mouthful for a state name, the German name is somewhat better: Rheinland-Pfalz, or Pfalz for short. (Pronounced "Pfaults" more-or-less.)

There are numerous marked driving, cycling, and walking trails marked in the wine country in this area. I picked one and rode, taking a few pics along the way:



Along the way, there are some displays of old wine presses and such:



Also some odd art work:


At the end of my ride, I stopped for a treat:


I returned to Eric´s abode, wrote up some more blog entries, and eventually rode into Mannheim for dinner at Heller´s, a vegetarian restaurant.

Bright and early the next morning I was on my way by train to visit my aunt Renate. This was relatively uneventful -- we went to visit my other aunt Angela, talked about the usual family stuff, as well as her porcelain collection (she collects Frankenthaler porcelain, very early European manufacture. Here´s an example. I was with her just two days:



Oh, Bear was there too.

Renate took a picture of me in full gear. When I get a copy, I´ll stick a scan of it here.

On the morning of the 21st, I trained back to Ludwigshafen, and Eric and I set off for Paris.