Our annual office excursion this year was on July 13th, in keeping with tradition a very hot day. Compared with last year we didn’t go nearly as far (the distance was a little less than half of the 50 km we biked last summer) and we mostly stayed away from the hills. So everyone from the office could come along, even those who hardly ever ride a bike.
Let me make some excuses for the pictures before I even begin. A LOT of the pictures are of the backs of people. There is a reason for this. I took these pictures while riding my bike and there was no way I could turn around and snap them from the other direction. I could have stopped, but we travelled a pretty fast pace and I didn’t want to have to catch up. I wasn’t at all sure the pictures would turn out and in general I’m pleased with them considering the circumstances.
I arrived at the office just before 11:00 and saw evidence of a good turnout. (Usually there are only a few bikes parked here.)
That's mine on the far right.
After some last minute adjustments we started off.
The office is only meters away from the Main River so the first thing we had to do was cross it.
When we cross the Main we leave our county and enter Kostheim which is part of Wiesbaden, but we also enter the Rheingau wine district, and strictly speaking we leave Southern Germany as the Main is considered to be the boarder between the North and the South.
On the other side of the river we were met with warning signs about not diving into the water in your car – nothing about bikes not going for a swim.
Frau L. doesn’t look like she almost never rides a bike.
So now we were really on our way along the bike path that parallels the river.
We had to go under the train bridge – the path was quite bumpy at this point which is why the picture is so out of focus – but I thought it was neat to bike under the train.
Bumpity, bump, bump (That's a red train passing over the bridge.)
The next point of interest was the Autobahn bridge, which we also biked under.
Next came the vineyards on the left, the southern most Rheingau vineyards. Rheingau is one of the thirteen wine districts in Germany, one of the smallest and most exclusive. 80% of the wine produced here is Riesling and there are some mighty fine wine growers in this area.
I wonder who planted the rose at the end of this row.
Of course, because it was so hot we had to stop for water, but we didn’t have a picnic like we did last year. We had our sights set on our goal.
We had to climb up first though and then back down.
Arriving from the back.
This was our first time here and it looked very promising.
Of course it took a while to decide what to eat and had to be discussed at length.
Oh dear, what a terrible picture of Conny! Let me try that again.
Ummm, yes, that’s a little better.
Frank insists that he doesn’t like ice-cream very much, but this was with eggnog and walnuts, two of his favorite foods, so how could he resist.
Let’s get a close-up of that in all its glory for future reference.
Of course Frank wasn’t the only one who had desert. This was mine and mighty good it was too. The sauce is made of fresh strawberries and the ice is lemon sorbet, absolutely ideal on such a hot day.
After enjoying our meal and the lively conversation for several hours, we finally left, a little heavier on our wheels. We decided to return by way of Hochheim, where we could stop for refreshments.
Of course we needed more. We were exercising!
We arrived in Hochheim and began our search for a winery.
That’s Ingrid in the front now. She was determined to find a glass of wine.
She left out no streets, but as you can see, although there were any number of wine restaurant or pubs, none of them opened until 5 pm at the earliest and it was only 3:30.
So we found an Italian ice cream parlor and all had something to drink, like iced coffee or beer, but no wine.
After that we started out on the last leg of our journey, no longer quite so energetic.
One last stop to observe some storks and take another swallow of water and our Excursion 2005 was soon over.
