Off to the local bakery first up, then it's towards Bonn today. Following the route out of Koblenz, I head over the Moselle River before going through some industrial areas and turning towards the Rhine again. At one stage I go through a beautiful wooded area with trees hanging over the path providing a great shade cover ... if only this could last ... it lasted all of 80 metres!
The path out of Koblenz is ordinary. It's all bitumen but uneven and potholed - I'd rather be on the compacted gravel! I also had the nervousness of my spoke breaking two days ago. This roadway wasn't helping.
I travel through a few small villages and back streets which is a nice change away from the river itself. As I get nearer to Andernach the pathways seem to be improving. The city of Andernach itself is quite a tidy town! It has walled fortifications that are very prominent as you ride through the streets and bike paths.
As I look across the Rhine I see more terraced vineyards stepping down to the small villages sitting on the banks of the Rhine. The weather, which looked threatening early, has made way for a cloudy but warm day. On my side of the river, I pass large palatial homes ... kind of mini castles. I linger near their main gates hoping someone takes pity on a lone traveller, and invites me in for high tea (or the German equivalent)! No one does ... but I don't care ... I don't ... really ...
For the past two days I've seen train lines on both sides of the Rhine - they are very active with freight and commuter trains ... it's rare to have a few spare minutes not seeing a train hurtling along.
At Bad Breisig I look across the water to its sister (or brother) city, Bad Honningen (I think Bad means Bath!) I see a massive campingplatz full of mobile homes and some caravans ... I see no tents! Rain is on its way after today, and it looks like accompany me on my ride for the next few days. Hopefully, it's warm rain! This does put paid to camping for the next few days, and more nights in a hotel which is not what I planned on. "Soft" I hear you say ... correct!
The next town on my morning ride is Sinzig, about 25 km from my destination of Bonn. The ride was supposed to miss the town altogether however work on the path has meant a detour into the village. As I make my way onwards I hear a ping and clanging! I know the sound, another spoke. I've read blogs and books from other cyclists who've travelled around the world; and few, if any, mentioned a broken spoke! I've had two in three days. I head to a nearby bike shop - a great guy who has a spoke but can't fit me in ... he's down staff with COVID and has a backlog of work. I've certainly noticed much more mask-wearing in this region than anywhere else on my trip. I'm unsure if it's a local COVID wave, or if this Federated State just has tighter restrictions. In my six or so days in Switzerland, I saw one (yes one) person wearing a mask.
I knew the routine. Train station, 500 metres away, and 20 minutes to Bonn. On the platform, I meet a local, Frank. Frank is on 3 3-week holiday from his job at an international insurance giant who he's been with for 20 years. He's on his way into Bonn to sort out a credit card issue with his bank and we meet while both trying to secure a ticket for our bikes! Both Switzerland and Germany need to sort this out. It is the most convoluted process ever ... Frank agrees, and two railway employees agree. Say no more.
The train arrived and while we had tickets for ourselves, we couldn't get the bike ticket machine (yes, there is a separate one for bikes!) to issue bike tickets. So aboard we both jumped hoping for leniency from any Ticket Inspector. Frank spoke excellent English and had been to Brisbane where I live - we had an instant connection. Frank said that he would explain the ticket problem to the Inspector ... I found out that Frank was also a lawyer so that gave me great confidence that I might stay out of jail. Our Ticket Inspector never arrived and we got off the train knowing that we beat the system ... we both acted like school kids with our fist pumps! I know ... small things ...
Frank offered to take me to a bike shop that he knows, so off we go. On arrival he got into an obvious argument with a mechanic ... it was in German ... however, the tone and hand waving told me this wasn't good. Apparently, they had a week's backlog of work, and visitor or no visitor to the great country of Germany, and who was on a tight deadline, was going to jump the queue. Fortunately, the technician was overridden by the owner whose daughter had been to Australia and now worked for a German radio station.
The owner noted that I probably had too much weight on my rear ... I think he meant the bike! I agreed - my bike was a hybrid, not necessarily built for loads. However I'd travelled almost 1000 km this trip, and a 160km shake down to before I left Australia, and thought I'd be ok. The best solution was to put a stronger wheel on ... more spokes and a different configuration - however, the bike shop owner said that he'd had some on backorder for 2 weeks already. Not an option.
Back to finish the last 25 km into Bonn tomorrow morning then the remainder of the day is a rest day - my third in 17 days on the bike.
Postscript (always wanted to use that word): I finished the remainder of the ride from Sinzig and back in Bonn the next morning by 10am - time for ice cream!
Thanks for reading.
I'm
doing this ride to raise funds for Blue Dragon Children's Foundation.
I'm self-supported so all donations go directly to Blue Dragon. If you
can give please do at ...
https://au-bluedragon.givecloud.co/fundraisers/pedalling-for-a-purpose.
Alternatively, go to Blue Dragon's website at bluedragon.org
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