Landkreis Bernkastel-Wittlich

Last night we were entertained by an extended electrical storm that regularly punctuated the night sky with brilliant flashes of lightning. I love these displays of nature, and it also foreshadowed a break in the run of hot and humid days that we had been experiencing.

This morning was much cooler, the sky was overcast and the humidity was quite a lot more comfortable. It would be a good day for riding, but I was somewhat distracted by a personal problem. I was discovering life without the Internet.

It is amazing how you can take something for granted unto you no longer have it. Back home in Australia, the Internet is so easily accessible that we do not stop to think about it. Since arriving in Europe four weeks ago, I had been accessing the Internet via an eSIM that I had purchased before leaving Australia.

The advantage of such a device is that it does not require anything to be installed in your phone. It is purely a piece of software that somehow allows you to connect to the local mobile phone provider. It had been working well from the time I first set foot in Holland. And then, a couple of days ago, it stopped.

I wasted hours fiddling with my phone, resetting everything and changing every setting I could find. It still did not work. The boat did offer very limited (and extremely slow) Internet access, and I was able to contact the provider to seek help. Nothing they suggested worked. This meant that, as soon as I left the boat, I was out of contact with the world.

Today's ride was expected to be around 48 km, but for some reason, ended up being considerably longer that.

The first major highlight was the town of Piesport. It turned out to be a place that had built its fame and fortune purely on the sale and promotion of alcohol. All along the bike path was an endless succession of booths and kiosks set up to sell alcohol to the passing cyclists. It might have been called Piesport by name, but I thought it was more like Pisspot by nature. I had no desire to spend any more time there than was absolutely necessary.

We continued on our way to the town of Mehring, which was where the boat was due to be moored. Unfortunately we could not find the boat, and spent a lot of time riding from one of the town to the other looking for the familiar sight of the MS Olympia.

Eventually we did see our boat as it passed under the big bridge, and then followed it to the mooring place. Dinner this evening took the form of a BBQ on the top deck of the boat. They really had put a lot of work into getting everything ready, so it was unfortunate that it came to a premature end when heavy rain started.

It was a much cooler night, which greatly aided sleeping.Read more