I actually had a great night’s sleep at the Cologne Downtown Hostel. I was up at 5am, showered, and spent the early hours doing the blog and photos from the previous day. At 7am I went out to the local ‘Backeri’ for breakfast of several small baguettes with ham and cheese, washed down with ‘kaffee’. I had agreed to meet the building janitor at 8:45am to unlock my bike. Within minutes the bike was loaded, and I wheeled away back into the main marktplatz area headed for one last gaze in wonder at the mighty Cologne Cathedral.
There was no real hurry today. I expected about 70k. The weather was overcast but expected to be clear, but a ferocious wind was blowing, fortunately into my back for most of the way today. It was hard to take a final look back on Cologne. Something good and decent had registered with my heart for Cologne. However, I turned and peddled away in the direction of Dusseldorf along the left hand side of the river.
The path was mostly fine, the scenery changed dramatically and often. This is the heavy industrial area of the German Ruhr, so there are long stretches of heavy industry lining both sides of the river. There were however, lovely farms and market gardens as well. There was never a moment where I lost interest in what I was passing by. The path mostly hugged the river, but occasionally it would wind into local suburbia or through and around large industrial sites. At these times especially it was important to concentrate on the occasional small signs that pointed the cyclist in the correct direction.
Every now and then I would lose the sign, maybe from day-dreaming, and I would find myself completely disoriented. I always though used the river, which I knew was somewhere to my right hand side. If I felt that I was way off the track, I would zigzag back through streets and lanes in the direction of the river, which inevitably brought me back to the path.
I covered the early kilometers quickly and easily. What did catch me by surprise were the signs showing that Dusseldorf was much closer than I had calculated. I was looking at a 50k day instead of 70k, but which in the end totaled almost 60k for reasons I will come to. At the tiny hamlet of Zons, I noticed the sign post to Dusseldorf ‘15k’ was pointing me to the Zons Ferry, which had just come from the other side. I couldn’t believe that Dusseldorf was so close, but I was skeptical about having to cross, when my Hostel for the night was actually on Dusseldorf’s left bank.
I sailed through, ignoring the ferry, choosing to keep on the left side. However, within barely a kilometer, the path had turned to mud, seriously thick and sloppy mud which made the bike terribly unstable. I persevered for another kilometer of this, eventually having to walk the bike because it was too unstable to ride. Mud was everywhere.
At that moment, the thought of the ferry was very inviting! I turned around, taking my chances on the right hand side. The crossing was lovely, There is something enjoyable about the tiny ferries, and the experience. I was off again, picking up a very decent bitumen pathway that enabled the bike to cruise nicely again. The sights of the Rhine were spectacular. I assumed it would be a simple glide now into Dusseldorf. The path became a suburban road through housing areas, and was now very poorly signed. I was able to pass by the famous Schloss Mickeln, which confirmed I was still on the right road, but once I got rolling from taking the photo, I just got horribly lost.
Somewhere I missed a small sign. I found myself away from sight of the river entirely. I picked up signs to ‘Stadtmitte’ thinking that was pointing me to the centre of Dusseldorf, but in fact it only took me miles inland into very busy city outskirts and busy suburbia, with traffic, buses, trams and trains all crazily crisscrossing each other. I was horribly disoriented, and feeling I was in deep trouble. I attempted to ask people. Many people are not gifted to give good directions – one girl could not point me to the Rhine, another women couldn’t even understand me when I simply said ‘Rhine?’, and repeatedly. She gave up on me. To another I asked ‘which way to Dusseldorf?’ to which he replied ’you are in Dusseldorf’ in his broken English. I gave up.
I kept riding, and kept responding to the ‘Stadtmitte’ signs which seemed to change oddly the amount of kilometers to the ‘city centre (I was later told it means ‘centre’ but there are many of them, basically each major suburb has one – I was following many of them – no wonder I got myself miles inland away from the Rhine.
I finally stopped with a cyclist at a red light. ‘Which way to the Rhine’ I enquired. ‘Straight ahead’ was his bemused reply. All too easy. I rode several kilometers through busy and bustling traffic, until eventually I managed to dash and dart through an industrial waterfront zone and on to my favourite track – the Rhine bikeway! It was then a lovely final few kilometers run into Dusseldorf, the river bending and winding in large curves, with hundreds of sheep grazing in paddocks along the river, and a golf course built in one of the large bends.
The view of the city of Dusseldorf was spellbinding, the large modern buildings, the three beautiful bridges with spans as long as the Sydney Harbour bridge back home. It is a big river. I wound my way up the bikeway spiral onto the first massive bridge, which must have been longer than a kilometer across, the wind so strong to my back that the bike rolled at 20kph all the way across the bridge without any need to pedal.
The Dusseldorf Youth Hostel was easily located at the very end of the bridge, right where I anticipated it to be. Large, modern and highly organized and efficient, it was a pleasure to get to my room and clean up. The room is lovely, cable TV, two beds and a large bathroom. The weather outside being extremely unpleasant due to the wind, I decided to stay ‘in’ and relax, just perhaps walking a block to a German restaurant for dinner.
As I write, I am sitting at a desk at a window with good views to the street. The day was a superb day, many experiences, beautiful sights, helpful people, and a deep sense of accomplishment to have been able to do what I have done since leaving Frankfurt airport some 6 days ago.
I will post the blog before going to dinner. The plan is to have breakfast at 7am, and be on the bike just after dawn at 8am. I am expecting a 90k day tomorrow, with the path being just as tricky as today. Tomorrow is my final full day on German soil. I have loved Germany. Tomorrow I am riding to Wesel to prepare for my final assault on Arnham the following day. As I write, Julie is already in the air flying to Amsterdam, and will be in the Arnham vicinity by tomorrow evening.
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