I was pleasantly surprised yesterday afternoon when I rolled across the massive bridge that spans the beautiful Rhine River. I was booked into the Dusseldorf Youth Hostel. I imagined it to be like all other Youth Hostels in which I have stayed on other occasions – an old rambling building, teeming with rowdy young people travelling overseas. As I rolled off the bridge, the very modern and very impressive Dusseldorf Youth Hostel was the very first building at the exit of the bridge. It was large, very modern and clearly very professionally managed.
I parked the bike on the street and walked in. It was clean, large open spaces, a restaurant, a massive below ground car park, and its own café that, like every other café in Germany it seems, also sold alcohol. I was handed a key to the basement ‘bike garage’ where the bike was safely stored for the night. The room was very close to the reception. It was large, with a just as large modern bathroom. I had my own desk with a nice view to the front street. It was luxury for a muddy, touring cyclist.
I walked to a local hotel for dinner. None of the staff could speak English. The menu was in German. The prices always seem quite reasonable compared to Australia. I pointed to a dish that had a few words I could understand. The waiter smiled and said a few broken English words to the affect ‘ah, Dusseldorf speciality’. The key word I didn’t understand was ‘kalpleber’ (or something like that) which I found out later to be ‘calf liver’. It was probably better to know later than before!
The new day was still dark when I sat for breakfast at 7am in the enormous dining area of the Dusseldorf Youth Hostel. The food was excellent – muesli and yogurt, scrambled eggs, and two crispy rolls with meats and cheese were about as much as I could fit, all finished with two cups of coffee. It was all in the price of about 50Euro. It was more like 8:30am on a windy, cold, bleak looking day that I lazily made my way back over the beautiful bridge into the marktplatz area of Dusseldorf for a quick look around before I crossed back again to pick up the bikeway to the north.
Dusseldorf was bombed and severely destroyed during WW2. Nothing original stood. The marktplatz area was basically unremarkable, except for the market itself which teemed with beautiful fruit and vegetable stalls, and open butcher shops. It was worth a photo. I crossed back over the Rhine on one of the three massive bridges, and headed out of Dusseldorf, glad I had been but now happy to get on my way.
The bikeway was a pleasure to ride for most of the day. Today was probably my best and most enjoyable riding day. When the path was good, it was very good, but it also presented its very bad parts where the track turns to mud and requires total concentration not to slip over. In a day like today it almost seems too difficult to describe because there were so many variations. Leaving Dusseldorf there were lovely paddocks with sheep that lined the river. The path was basically very well signed, although there were numerous times when I lost the signs, and ended up winding through backstreets, and had to just ‘head for the river’ and hope for the best.
Although the industrial areas were frequent, so too were the forests, the farms and the beautiful villages along the way. I crossed a lot of slippery railway tracks. The weather stayed cool all day, but I was pushed along by a strong breeze coming from behind. Whenever the track turned with the curves in the river, it was almost unpleasant. I felt sorry for locals riding their bikes in the other direction. Even though in this part of the Rhine the urban areas are almost continuous, the bikeway very often was through a narrow ribbon of green area closer to the river that gave the impression of lovely parkland.
The miles started to add up. There were lots of long open stretches which were superb for really pushing the bike hard and fast. All morning I watched the average speed grow from next to nothing from idling around Dusseldorf, to almost 20kph by end of day. For many of these open ‘highway’ stretches, I could easily maintain 28-32kph which, considering the load of the bike, was a really good workout.
It was just on 1pm when I came into the small riverside village of Orsay. It was a quiet community, a sleepy hollow that had a very small backerei. It was time for coffee and sandwich. I ordered the coffee, but went for a large pastry with raspberry topping. The lady indicated ever so graciously “could I have it ‘to go’ because it was 1:05pm and it was time to close the shop, at 1pm! By the time she made the coffee, she took pity on me and asked if I wanted to sit inside while they cleaned up in preparation to close. She was actually quite lovely, but also keen to get home. I assume they open early.
I rolled out of town for the final segment on the run to Wesel. It was already well into the 60’s for distance so far, with about another 20k to go. The total was 85k at end of day, a very solid day but the most enjoyable. The bikeway hugged the river for a while. There were lovely farms on both sides of the bikeway, the sights always glorious. However, the road was then blocked, with a detour pushing me back through swampy farmland and bush that was on a muddy, wet track for about 5k. The road twisted and turned repeatedly as it wound around paddocks, but visibility was almost entirely blocked due to heavy trees, making me at times very concerned that I was just getting horribly lost. At one point there were thousands of ducks in the paddocks, which must bring the farmers great joy, but they were delightful to the eye, and took off in their thousands as I approached.
I caught sight of a church steeple, than other signs of civilization, which confirmed for me that I wasn’t lost but in fact finding my way back on track at the township of Rheinberg, the signs of which I had been following for some 20k except for the muddy farmland detour. I’ve never done cyclecross, but there has been a lot of it on this trip, which I must say I enjoy the challenge of it but the bike looks rather inglorious being covered in so much caked mud.
Having passed through Rheinberg, it was a 20k fast finish all the way to the bridge that crossed the Rhine into Wesel. It was farmland all the way. The track was wide and mostly quite straight. I could sit the bike easily, without effort at 28-32kph for this final hit-out of the day. I was thinking that it is quite amazing to ride through what I have ridden today, and finish feeling as fresh as I did at the beginning of the day. It is not all flat either – there are numerous pinches of tough gradients which all add to the day being a very good workout.
I was determined not to get lost. I had made a hand-drawn map to find the ‘Pension Offizierskasino’. The small photo on the web made the place look very intriguing. It was out of the main township, but price often determines the choice! The traffic was quite busy as I exited the massive bridge (the Germans are great bridge builders), and with a last look at the map, I managed to find it without looking again.
I must say it was a bit off-putting. The building was only a century old, multi-storeyed and very run down. It reminded me of the house on the original ‘Adams Family’ TV show, expecting bats to fly out at any moment. It also looked deserted. It was set in large grounds. There were workmen doing some renovation work at the rear, and then I noticed the sign that said they take bookings from 4pm. It was now about 2:30pm.
I walked rather gingerly around the building, wondering if I had made the wrong call, and found a side door that was also locked but had an intercom. I expected someone to answer and say ‘you rang’ in a deep, slow voice. However, the voice was feminine and gracious, greeting me in German, but when I said I had a reservation she said in excellent English ‘oh, hang on a minute’. The very large wooden door eventually opened.
She was very nice, apologetic because she was not ‘ready’ for me, expecting me at 4pm. She was Ukrainian, and as soon as she realized I was Australian she said “Oh we are very happy with your Prime Minister for standing up to Putin for us. Putin is a terrible man, and your Prime Minister is very high in our respect for the way he has been brave and strong’. This was about the third sentence uttered since she greeted me at the door. I said ‘Well, I know Mr Abbott personally, and I speak with him frequently, so I will tell him what you have just said’. When I asked if I could take a photo to show him, she said in horror ‘No, you have caught me without my make-up!’ We laughed and agreed to do it later when she was ‘made up’.
She took me to my room. The place was derelict some ten years ago when she purchased it. It is barely half restored but it is magnificent. It was apparently Headquarters for the German military prior to WW2, and was occupied by English Officers during that latter part of the war – apparently Wesel was completely destroyed by bombing except for this place which was known to bomber command to have English officers in residence. I’m yet to explore that story. Perhaps they were POW’s.
My room is the one restored bedroom and it is basically the loft area on the top floor. The bathroom is next door which is neat and very modern. The place is large inside, tall ceilings with timber stairs and balustrades. It feels a little creepy in the building on my own, but my room is my palace and I feel quite secure in the room.
Incredibly, there is no wi-fi, but the lady gave me a computer cable – the room is hard wired for the internet! I walked to town tonight for dinner. I will enjoy exploring it a bit more in the morning on my way out. I met some US Service people (young people) who are in Germany for the US military, searching for lost WW2 aircraft and gliders, and the remains of missing airmen. Amazing that after all this time, this can still be underway. They were most fascinated by my travels, as am I!
When tomorrow dawns, it will be my final day on German soil. Tomorrow I head to Arnham, just over the border into Holland. Arnham was the focus for one of the few great Allied disaster campaigns of WW2. Months after D-Day, the Allies attempted to land thousands of paratroopers over Arnham, which also depended on them taking the 4 major bridges across the rivers between Belgium and Arnham, the bridge over the Rhine at Arnham being the final and crucial bridge. This plan would have opened a ‘highway’ for the final push of American and British Armies from France all the way to Germany. But it all went wrong – they were not aware that the crack German Panzer Corps had sought refuge in the forests around Arnham. The paratroopers landed on top. They failed to take the final bridge. There were massive Allied casualties and loss of POW’s. It was an embarrassing disaster for General Montgomery.
This is all depicted in the classic movie “A Bridge Too Far”. I will be at that bridge over the Rhine by tomorrow afternoon. Today has been a superb day. I enjoyed every moment. I am fit and well. I am riding very well, and enjoying the many challenges that each day presents.
From my lovely loft bedroom in the quaint Pension Offizierskasino in the attractive Rhine River town of Wesel, I send my love.
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