“Ring when you get there,” Dad repeated Mum’s earlier instruction.
“Yes Dad.”
“Here, get yourselves something to eat on the way down,” he told me pressing a couple of notes into my hand, “we’ll talk later okay?”
“Thanks Dad.”
“Come on Gab,” Con called over, “we’ll miss the train.”
“Bye Dad, coming!”

I set off pushing the Schauff across to where the others were waiting outside of Koblenz Hauptbahnhof.

 
Of course, we could’ve got the Express down to Remagen and the Rheintal down to Koblenz to pick up the Mainz train. But Remagen station isn’t the easiest with bikes, especially all loaded up, we’d struggle to make the connection just through changing platforms – then the same at Koblenz. So Dad suggested running us to Remagen which then became Koblenz as he was going to Neuweid anyhow.

Adding Nena to the pot wasn’t too bad, the Hymer has acres of locker space so that was that. How we get back is another matter but we’ve time to sort that before Friday.

My city bike isn’t the lightest beast to start with, load it up with a couple of panniers at the back and a full basket up front and its a right behemoth! Oh you can ride it okay but pushing it through a busy railway station – well it nearly got the better of me twice before we got to the platform. Hopefully we can get them on the train without too much incident, the others weren’t having any easier a time.

“Who’s idea was this?” Nen enquired.
“You could’ve come down in the bus with the others,” Con pointed out.
“Train’s coming,” I noted looking up the track.

Its a doubledeck train down the Rhein to Mainz, not that unusual really and at least the doors are at platform height so getting bikes on is fairly easy. The train slowly pulled in at its northern terminus, we spotted the bike carriage and followed it along the platform. It was barely stopped before a flood of travellers started disembarking, by the time we reached the right door the first arriving bikes were being wheeled off.

It had been pretty full and it took several minutes before we were clear to load ourselves. Con led the way on and I followed once she’d negotiated the doorway.

“Whaaa!”

Whump! I landed on my rump, the Schauff following me and pinning me down.

“Gab! You all right?” Con asked in a panic.
“Erm,” I managed, “you’ll have to get my bike, I can’t move.”
“Let me get mine parked,” Nen suggested, “then I can help.”

Well it turned into a right caper, the girls had no idea and I ended up being rescued by a couple of other passengers. One chap managed to heave my steed upright whilst another pulled me back to my feet.

“Er thanks.”
“Are you okay?”
“Think so,” I advised rubbing my sore botty.
“Where are you ladies going?” my rescuer asked.
“We change at Bingen,” Con volunteered.
“I’ll come give you a hand, its a high platform there.”
“Thanks.”

By now our bikes had been stacked and joined by several more, everything from one of those foldy things to a couple of smart looking road bikes. Will I get to race again? Stop thinking like that Bond, its all a mistake.

“I’ll see you later,” the chap told us before heading off to claim a seat.
“Come on,” Nen chivvied, “lets get some seats.”

We headed upstairs where we scored table seats, the train was moving before we’d got settled, we’re really doing this!

 
Bingen is less than an hour away on the train and effectively marks the southern end of the Rhein Gorge. As the train follows the river passengers get a free sightseeing tour of the Gorge, castles, Lorelei, the river traffic – even trains on the opposite bank – there’s a line on either side of the river. Of course we’re regular train users but even so this is something of an adventure and we were just like any other tourists looking out of the window.

I stuffed another mini cracker in my mouth, “So how long have we got at Bingen?”
Con dug in her bag and pulled out our travel documents, “we’re due in at quarter to eleven then depart at five past.”
“Should be enough time to change platforms,” Nen mentioned.
“Don’t need to, we arrive on two and leave on one,” Con advised.
“How long is it to this Durckheim place then?”
“Two and a half hours.”
“Really?” Nen queried.
“What it says here,” Con confirmed.
“We shoulda brought some lunch.”
“Maybe there’s somewhere at Bingen?” Nena suggested.
“We don’t want to go out of the Bahnhof,” Con told us.

 
‘Die nachste halt ist Bingen, the next stop is Bingen am Rhein.’ the tannoy announced. They get a lot of international passengers on this line hence the English repeater of the announcement.

“Thats us,” I stated gathering my bag up.
“Someone's in a rush,” Con suggested.

Downstairs there had been some change of cargo, it took us a couple of minutes to sort ourselves out but we were waiting behind the two chaps with road bikes when we pulled up at Bingen.There was no sign of my earlier saviour until we got to the door when he appeared, quickly lifting each of our bikes onto the platform.

“Thanks again,” I offered.
“Have a good holiday,” he replied as he stepped back aboard moments before the doors closed again.
“Well that was useful,” Con stated.
“No kidding,” I agreed as we wheeled the bikes along the platform.
“Sugar,” Nen exclaimed, “the connections running ten minutes late.”
“You guys wait here, I’ll go get us some food.”
“Drinks too,” Con opined.
“If theres pizza I’ll have Hawaii,” Nena added.
“I’ll see what there is.”

 
I had to go out of the station to find the local equivalent of our kiosk, well not exactly but similar. Well not at all really, as its more of a bakery come minimart. Whatever, I went around collecting snacks and drinks which set me back over twenty euros!

“Come on Gab,” Nena encouraged, meeting me as I appeared on the platform to find the train waiting.
“Where’s Con?”
“Already on with the bikes,” she told me as we hurried along the platform.
“I thought it was running late.”
“Hurry up ladies,” the conductor suggested as we passed him.
“It arrived just after you left, what took so long anyhow?” Nen supplied.
I shook one of the bags, “pizza.”
“Cool!”

We’d no sooner got on board than the door warning beepers sounded and by the time we joined Con we were moving, departing on time.

“Phew, that was close.”
“We thought you were going to miss it,” Con stated.
“Thanks friend.”
“We wouldn’t’ve left you,” Nen told me. “so what’s for lunch?

 
We trundled across the northern Pfalz eating pizza, sandwiches, crisps and drinking pop. Its not the most interesting countryside, the change of passengers at each halt provided better entertainment, not that it was particularly busy. Its not a through train to Bad Durckheim, when we got to Alzey we had to change, trains and platforms, the last leg of the journey was to be on a single carriage railcar.

The last forty kilometres took another hour as there was a long connecting wait at Grünstadt.

“Should be there soon,” I offerred looking out over the featureless countryside.
“I’ll ring Anna, she said she’d meet us at the bahnhof,” Con mentioned.

 
“She said to wait at the front of the station, she’ll be about half an hour.”

Our transport crept into the bahnhof and my heart seemed to take on a more rapid rate in the excitement of the moment. Oh I know that in the big world we haven’t come far but we’ve made the journey alone and there aren’t any adults to supervise us for the next week. Is this how the great explorers felt when they set off on their travels?

We wheeled our steeds out of the station and found a wall to sit on in the shade to wait for our friend and guide.

“Anymore water?” Nen asked as we watched the various buses and odd tram come and go from the forecourt area.
“Nope,” I advised.
“I’ll go fetch some,” Con suggested, getting up.
“There was a machine on the platform,” I volunteered.
“’kay.”

 
Anna arrived with Steffi about forty minutes after our arrival.

“Hi guys!”
“You made it!” Steff added.
“We’re not useless Steff,” Nen mentioned.
“Well we nearly lost Gab,” Con told them with a chuckle.
“Not nice Thesing,” I huffed.
“Come on guys, lets get back to the campsite,” Anna suggested.
“How far is it?” I asked.
“Only about a kilometre.”
“No hills?”
“Flat as a pancake,” Steff told me as we set off.

 
We followed Anna into the Kurpark to avoid the bit of traffic on the narrow roads.

“This is nice,” Con allowed as we rode between carefully tended lawns and flower beds.
“What the heck is that?” I asked as a huge wall thing filled the horizon.
“Thats the Gradierwerk,” Anna supplied.
“Which is?”
“Something to do with making salt I think.”
“Its huge,” Nena stated as we all pulled up to take it in.
“Come on, you can sightsee tomorrow, we’re missing time in the lake.”
“Sounds good to me,” Con sparkled.

 
There was a cycle path that we followed out of the town, which took us back towards Grünstadt but after crossing the sort of bypass we continued on the bypass for a short way before picking up the familiar tepee depiction of a tent on a signpost. It might be flat but each time we stopped I had to scoot along to get going again, it might roll along nicely but getting it moving…

A couple of minutes later we rolled through the gates of the Knaus Camping Bad Durckheim.

“I’ll show you where everything is once we’ve dumped your gear,” Anna advised, “we’re just down here.”

And then there we were.

“Cool eh?” Steff suggested.

Well the Hymer its not, tent it is, one of the newer frame tents, a big central bit with bedrooms off to either side.

“Gab, you and Con are at the left back there, Nen, you’re with me on the right.”

 
Maddy Bell © 16.01.2018