Once upon a time, long ago, in a land far, far away, a man and a woman who were much too old to try again at love, tried again anyway, fell in love, and got married. Their friends and family were happy, if skeptical. The optimistic couple even arranged a Cinderella-style honeymoon in Europe. "Go big, or go home" the bridegroom explained as they hiked mountains and explored castle ruins in the Alps. Their last stop was intended for rest and recuperation - a decadent bed & breakfast in the tiny village of Beilstein, on the Moselle River, in the southwestern region of Germany best known for its wine.
Spoiler alert - the crazy couple is blog writer Linda and her husband Ron. Another spoiler - we are still married!
While we were enjoying superb German hospitality over dinner, we noticed lots of couples cycling past our B&B along the paved path that follows the Moselle. They looked like us. They seemed to be having a great time. It was also obvious that most didn't have reservations for rooms or tables - they were just flowing, like the river, occasionally stopping at the "Zimmer Frei" (room available) signs that could be seen in the windows of the B&Bs and hotels.
Ron and I were staying at the Haus Lipmann, and we had a room (a beautiful corner suite) and a table (the best table in the outside courtyard, overlooking the river, the castle high on the hill just visible to me over Ron's shoulder).
But we didn't have bikes. Our hosts, David and Annja, suggested we try the bike shop around the corner. I will remember this trip as the first time I attempted to speak German, and was actually successful. We found the shop the next morning. Hmmmmm..... Any idea what THIS means?
At the time of our honeymoon, it's possible, even likely, that Google Translate existed, but it's certain that I didn't have it. At that time, I hadn't even figured out how to use my American phone in Europe! But we figured out how to find the house, press the bell, and secure two bikes for a few days!
The cycling was glorious. We rode as far as we could in every direction. It was wine festival season, and we stopped countless times to listen to oompa bands and hobnob with the local wine princesses. We would sit shoulder to shoulder with our fellow festival-goers at long wooden tables, sometimes under giant tents, but just as often out in the bright sunlight. We barely made it home before dark each evening, but it was summer, the days were long, and our supper was always waiting for us at Haus Lipmann.
But this chapter of the blog isn't really about our honeymoon or the wine princesses we met while cycling the Moselle. It is about the idea that was planted on that trip, the idea that one day we would cycle the river, from one end to the other, stopping to eat, sleep, and play.
A trip such as this was high on my list when I retired. We started bike-packing in America, and would routinely ask our fellow cyclists about their favorite trips. One of them mentioned a bike-barge river trip, where you cycle during the day, and then meet up with your barge at night. Hmmmm. Unpack once. Sleep in the same bed every night. Lots of saddle time. The only thing that had us concerned was the ship. Ron and I are not cruise people. What if we hate it? We decided it was worth a try - if we didn't like it, we just wouldn't do another.
We found a bike-barge tour along the Danube River offered by an outfit called "TripSite". We booked it for the end of a three-month stint in Germany we planned for Spring 2020. Then, a week before we were to depart, the whole world shut down almost overnight. TripSite was awesome - they refunded every dime. When the world started spinning again, we rebooked the trip.
Against this rather wordy, and probably unnecessary, preamble, it is with great pleasure that I bring you the Four-Country Tour Along the Danube 2023 a/k/a Danube Wanderlust!