Day # 30 Oppenheim to Worms.

Meal reservation for a VIP!!

          Stepped out of our very hospitable and comfortable hotel, fortified by an excellent breakfast at 8.15am, into a much different type day than the previous couple. Very cool & dry morning at 13C and sunny. Confident that we had a very manageable 25 kms ahead of us, we quickly realized that the Google Maps recommendation of a walking route on highway # R9 was a death trap due to vehicle speeds and heavy 16 wheeler truck traffic. Navigation plan B (no plan C) then swung into action, as we deviated to left and right on cycle tracks doubling as farm vehicle access routes to the miles of vineyards that extended down from the hill sides towards the Rhine River. The inevitable riverside cement factories and refineries repeatedly threw us off our most direct course to Worms. Net effect of these detours was to add significant extra distance so that the walking totalled today 34.5kms.

             For those of my readers that enjoy a nice German wine, let me assure you that the 2012 grape harvest of the Rhine land, consisting of perhaps millions of acres, is in the process of being picked by large automated harvesting machines and small armies of immigrant farm labourers.

            Politicos and journalists refer to Germany as the ‘engine’ of Europe. Let me say, that from my observation as a ‘3 miles per hour tourist’ passing through, that this is 100% the case. The whole country seems to throb with the sounds of industry and building, trains rumbling by, or the drone of the large barges ploughing up and down the river, all provide evidence of a very powerful economy at work. Whether all this German wealth creation is enough to support Greece, Spain et al remains to be seen. 

37 kms. walked today per Google Maps. (longest walk so far).
 Cumulative kms. walked: 573.9
Type of overnight lodging: Youth hostel.
Cost of lodging: 25E