No use getting up early today. The Guttenburg Museum doesn't open until 9:00 am, and it is first thing on our agenda. Showers, conversations with other campers, breakfast and back across the Rhine into Mainz to the museum. We didn't think we would be in the museum long, and we were right. But for the time we spent, we were very pleased. On display are three Guttenburg Bibles, each open to a different page to illustrate the features of the first books to be printed using a printing press. We studied these books under glass and pondered their importance in history, then visited the other portions of the museum, but we kept coming back to the vault to look at the bibles. As we learned more about printing in the other parts of the museum, we needed to go back to look at the first books again. As Spock would say, "Fascinating!".
Next on our agenda, we needed to find a camping chair for Sally. Her back was causing her great discomfort. Sitting on the ground or hard benches with no back support was aggravating her spine. We had gotten a store name from the desk at the campground. It took a little GPS work along with asking people on the street to find the store, a small REI type shop. They had just the chair we needed, back support but folds up small for packing.
Back at the campsite we quickly packed up and got on our way. We only had a shade over 20 miles to go, but it was already nearly 11:00 am and the temperature was predicted to reach 91° today.
We stayed on the right side of the river, rolling through small towns, often riding right on the river bank.
We arrived at our campground about 2:00 pm, set up the tent, and rode into town for lunch. We found an Asian restaurant that was huge, a buffet, and totally empty. They gave us lunch prices even though we were 15 minutes late. We filled up on vegetable dishes. An hour later we walked out, quite satiated. We decided to tour the town, looking for Drosselgasse street, the supposedly most amazing area of town. We headed up the side of the town and soon were on a cobblestone street steeply climbing up the vineyard clad hills, high above the Rhine. Sally was leaving me in the dust, moving higher and higher, her spiffy e-bike helping her up the grade. She stopped, deciding we were possibly going the wrong way. I arrived, dripping in sweat. It was 90° out. Not the best time to tackle a steep hill in the sun. We reversed course and coasted back into town. A little more cruising the town and we found Drosselgasse street, a very narrow, totally German themed street, reminiscent of Mont St. Michele.
By now we were toasted. We returned to the campsite, donned our swimming suits and submerged ourselves in the pool next door. It felt so good to drop our body temperatures.
After swimming, we lay around the tent area blogging and Face-booking before succumbing to sleep.
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