Once at Düsseldorf we found it relatively easy to get to Rhine pathway from hauptbahnhof - straight down Frederich-Ebert Str etc, through the old town & onto the right (east) bank of the Rhine which we then followed up-river to Köln. The route wiggled around the small boat harbour, through the suburb of Hamm, past a cemetery and parkland. At the planned town of Benrath we were advised to avoid the signposted EV15 as it turned into a dirt track so we followed the alternative route along Baumbergerweg through parkland and some light industrial estates (at one point saw a large commercial pot plant propogating site to our left and community gardens to our right) to cut off a large bend in river. In through Monheim where joined the Rheinstrasse until again turning inland to make our way around the HUGE Bayer & Bayer chemical processing complex. Finally we once more turned toward the Rhine through a wild orchard area where we stopped for our picnic lunch - lovely to have fresh heritage apples to finish our repast! Heaps of other cyclists - both day trippers and tourers - went by us as we ate and once back cycling we understood why as a small Rhine ferry terminal was just down the way.
Before we knew it we were back into an crowded urban area as we passed through Mulheim and into Köln/Cologne. Got lost a little on the outskirts due to a diversion but finally found the Hohenzollern Bridge from where we photographed the Kolner Dom and walked across it but BUSY just doesn't capture just how many people were walking across the bridge! Not much fun when negotiating with bikes! Stayed on the east side as it started to rain & we took cover at the promenade cafe right out front of the Hyatt Regency. While it absolutely hosed down, and we awaited a response to Caroline's text message to Anne, we ate a veg burger & pizza dinner under cover of a large umbrella.
We had planned to camp the night at a camping gropund just 5km out of Koln centre but Anne's friend, with whom she & Kader were staying invited us to camp in her living room seeing it had been raining. We crossed over the Deutzer Brucke and made our way through inner city neighbourhoods to the apartment, stopping to get some cold sodas to share. It was lovely meeting Rita and her daughter Ella - they were so warm and hospitable - we spent the evening talking about German politics, human rights & life in Cologne.
Sunday: After a lovely breakfast of scrambled eggs, fresh bread & museli we got away by 10-ish along a major roadway (a girdle/gurtel; kept changing its name), which was very quiet of a Sunday morning except where a flea market was underway. That finally ended at the Rhine so we were back on the route weaving in & out of industrial sites that abut the river. After passing a large harbour where ship repairs seemed to take place we turned into Wesseling where we found an icecream cafe just opening - as it was a warm day we just had to stop & enjoy a drink & eiss overlooking the fast moving river. Even on a Sunday it was busy, busy with boats of all kinds making their way up and down river.
Just beyond Wesseling we turned away from the river to get beyond the huge Shell Oil refinery but soon turned again toward the Rhine (now heading up the west side) and before we knew it we were in Bonn, which we decided din't need to be visited despite a varied history. There we cycled along the Rhine promenade past the Hilton, the grand opera house, the World Conference Centre (which makes one wonder why Chch is even bothering with building one!) and the UN Campus (focuses on sustainable development). Not far out of Bonn we crossed state borders from North Rhine Westphalia into Rhineland-Palatinate - didn't notice any difference but we were told often enough that tourists should begin or end their Rhine tour at Bonn taking in all the castles etc up to Strasbourg as it is much prettier. It was certainly the busiest section of the tour we'd faced - we were constantly weaving in & out of slow groups of day cyclists or avoiding wobbly children out cycling with their parents or dogs on long leashes!! One certainly couldn't say that the cycleways and promenades are under used on a weekend!! Many, many older people out on their e-bikes cafe hopping.
Growing weary and hungry we stopped at Remagen for a very late lunch/early dinner at a laid back cafe called Loeffel where we each had an enormous bowl of lentil curry soup. YUM! The town itself was rather lovely but chock full of tourists on the promenade hence our move further into the town. After another 13km we reached the campground - Camping-Rheineck - we had booked just out of the lovely old village of Bad Breisig. The proprietor was very friendly and helpful, showing us where the tent spaces were just behind the main block. It was a bit muddy but we had plenty of space to choose from as only one other cyclist was pitched up when we arrived. By the time we had set up & were ready to cycle 2km back into BB for waffles at least 4 other pairs of cyclists had arrived and they were well into pizza eating & beer drinking by the time we returned!
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| Bad Breisig |
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| Election time in Germany - signs & solgans everywhere. |
We ate lovely crepes back on the promenade at Bad Breisig before going for a walk around the old part of the town tucked in behind the promenade. Back at camp we chatted to a couple of young Belgians cycling back home from Roumania - lovely chaps with great English lanuage skills - one is studying in Edinburgh.
Monday: Took us a while to get away as needed to dry the fly & clean the mud bit off the tent ground sheet. At least we had our usual museli and yoghurt while we waited but missed the morning cuppa as no facilities in which to boil water. Pretty much all the other tenters/cyclists headed off before us - they usually manage 100+km days so they told us! We're happy with our 65-80km average for a couple of old girls!
We had a head wind along the left bank (west) but it was sunny and the scenery picturesque as we moved away from the industrial part of the Rhine. Kept stopping to take photos of the lovely towns & castles we could see across the other side or that we passed through. The route itself runs alongside the rail and motorway so can be noisy & distracting but the cycle path was wide with a defined pedestrian area so it was easier cycling than on Sunday despite a fairly constant flow of other cycle tourists on this section.
At Andernach we turned in as the town looked really attractive with old town walls still standing - plenty of interpretation panels (in 3 languages) to help the tourist, too. It is a popular place from which Rhein cruises begin & end so lots of tour buses lined up in the large park across the road & rail from the town. We walked through the town looking at the different squares of the old town & took a number of photos. Ate an icecream but didn't find a cafe we wanted to stop in for a cuppa.
On we went through Weiseenthurm, Urmitz and Sankt Sebastian before arriving at the outskirts of Koblenz where route diversion signs meant we got lost for a bit but saw some interesting bit of the city we may not have seen otherwise! Wonderful to see two great rivers merge as one as the Moselle flows into the Rhine here. We wandered through the old city for a bit and chose a cafe in one of the main squares in which to have lunch ...... bad choice!! Ate a crappy cheese toasty at Eiscafe Brustolon but C had great hot chocolate to go with her cheese toasty. They were out of tomato you see so had nothing else to make a veg snack tasty!! Took photos of 4 buildings - Vier Turme - originally built in the 17C but rebuilt/renovated in 1970s plus a number of other pics as the old city is very interesting. Onward we went with no time to explore more - we really weren't doing the castle/museum/gallery visiting as we did along the Loire as this trip was about travelling along the Rhine to get to Frankfurt from where we fly out.
We passed through other lovely towns - Boppard, Bad Salzig & Sankt Goar on our way to Campingplatz Loreleyblick and would have loved to have spent time in each. Castles or ruins in each town and lovely half-timbered houses. In Boppard we did stop for icecream at Lo Stivale before pushing our bikes through the old town where I saw a specialist Seba med shop (bought a travel set; produced in Bad Salzig) & Caroline bought a lovely pair of shoes in an outdoor shop to replace her worn out pair. Really good service in both shops.
On both side of the river were huge vineyards strung out up the hills - many of the hills terraced probably for centuries. Our camping spot was lovely, especially so as we had a covered seating area right next to it and the evening was a proper summer one - warm & still. The abultion block was really good, as was the dish washing & laundry area. We did our washing & while it was underway popped across the way for a delicious meal at pub Winzerhaus as got 10% discount if at the camp ground. My Mediterranes Gemüsepfannchen (zucchinni, peppers, potato) was delicious ..... yum, yum, in my tum ... followed up by waffles and hot cherries. The local rosé I accompanied the meal with was excellent, too. We highly recommend this place!
To bed in our cosy tent, satiated & ready for a good night's sleep.
[EV 15 ROUTE: Cologne to Bingen]
Tuesday: We awoke to fog but it lifted relatively quickly to ensure our last day cycling any distance in Germany was hot and sunny.
We started off late as we needed to await our clothes drying off in the drier and also for the base of the tent to dry. Overnight we had hung our washing out on lines around the covered seating area and continued our hijacking of the public space in the morning with our packing spread out & tent hung over the bikes drying. We also ate our breakfast there and were greeted with “Guten appetit” by several other campers as they passed by to the ablution block or the shop. We also talked with a few other cyclists who also were tenting and heading either north or south along the Rhine. None of us had slept particularly well due to the constant noise of trains on both banks of the Rhine and the thud-thud of the large container boats moving along the river. Lovely views but “Mein Gott” I would not like to live there! Not sure why the Lorelei is so talked about - interesting geology & legend but ..... hmmmm!
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| Misty start to the day |
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| Nice place to eat an apple. |
We ate a very tasty lunch at Heimat no.5 - lots of vege options and refreshing drinks. It was a cool, trendy cafe unlike many we had seen along the way; more like the ones we're used to in NZ.
Refreshed we headed on stopping only once more to enjoy a tasty local apple (grown in the area we'd just cycled through) whilst sitting on the river bank. And so, into a busy Mainz from where we caught the train into Frankfurt. Easy enough to begin with as the train was relatively empty but at Frankfurt airport heaps of people got on so we were unsure we'd be able to get our bikes off in the few minutes we had at Frankfurt to exit!! We did and eventually wound our way through the bustling streets to our Warmshowers host for the night & where we would leave our bikes & camping gear for the next 10 days.
[Approx. 60kms that day]
Refreshed we headed on stopping only once more to enjoy a tasty local apple (grown in the area we'd just cycled through) whilst sitting on the river bank. And so, into a busy Mainz from where we caught the train into Frankfurt. Easy enough to begin with as the train was relatively empty but at Frankfurt airport heaps of people got on so we were unsure we'd be able to get our bikes off in the few minutes we had at Frankfurt to exit!! We did and eventually wound our way through the bustling streets to our Warmshowers host for the night & where we would leave our bikes & camping gear for the next 10 days.
[Approx. 60kms that day]
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