Day 19 Oberhausen, Germany - When the Ferry is Closed for Repairs.....

Joan's View

The streets of Cologne were quiet when we left in the morning except for the late-night partiers returning home, and some early morning joggers/cyclists. It took some time and lots of turns to actually get out of the city of Cologne. We encountered some older, narrow barriers protecting the bike trails. Tony had to do some really strategic maneuvering to get the bike through them. I even had to help lift the front of the bike at one point. 

We found a travel company that Cara & Nick might be able to use next time they come and get a deal when they show their last name. 

Heading to our ferry, we had stop and get a bite out of the biggest strawberry that we have ever seen. Keep reading because it must be good luck to kiss a giant strawberry.

We arrived at the ferry that Tony had planned to use to get across the Rhine. Alas, it seemed super quiet there. I walked down to read the sign and a German lady explained that it was closed for repairs. It might open next week. Uh oh, time for plan B. She said there was a ferry about 15 kilometers down the Rhine. We noticed another group of 4 German cyclists' approach that were talking and studying the ferry as well. They took off along the bike path, so we started to follow them thinking that they knew where they were going. Several miles down the trail we all came to a stop at an intersection and asked them if they really were going to the ferry. The one lady spoke better English than I speak German and said that they knew the ferry, so we continued to follow them. Tony was questioning this route because it was different than what he saw on maps. Several miles later on rural trails, however, the kind lady pointed and told us that the ferry was down that road. We didn't see a ferry, but we followed their directions. They were starting to turn around. It dawned on us that they had gone out of their way to show us how to get to the ferry! Such kind people. 

We rode along the road which was in the direction of the Rhine and came upon a biergarten with a sign about a ferry. The first boat out was at 10:30, but it was now about 10:00. This ferry only transports people, bikes, strollers, etc., but no cars. As we waited, a group of about 8 guys on bikes came looking for the ferry too. They zeroed in on the biergarten, and managed to convince the beer stand guy to open so they could get some beer. Tony could have joined them, but he actually opted to stay with the bike and make sure that we got on the ferry. The ferry captain saw us waiting as soon as he docked and seemed curious about our bike. He offered to take us for free on his "test ride" to the other side of the river even though it was before 10:30. I told him that the other group of guys drinking beer were waiting too, but he motioned, "Let them drink their beer. They can go later." We got a private ferry trip and great conversation with the kind captain.

Tony deciding if he wants to join the beer drinkers.

Our favorite captain

Getting off of our private ferry.

Where the ferry dropped us off was pleasantly exactly on our scheduled route, so it was easy to navigate from there. Riding along the trail, we had another kind person encounter. This Bossmann truck drove up alongside us to ask about our bike and where we were going. He was actually holding up traffic so eventually had to drive on. We continued riding and saw that he had parked to the side a little down the road. He said they he owned a strawberry business and offered us free great tasting strawberries. He called ahead to the lady working his stand to let her know that we were coming. He spent several minutes going over the directions with us. He also said that if we were ever in the area again to contact him. We know there are kind people, but this is amazing. We rode toward the free strawberry directions and happily found the stand. The sweet lady working the stand knew who we were and gave us 2 large boxes of the amazingly fresh, hyper sweet strawberries. We mowed them down. 

Robert Bossmann 

The Bossmann strawberry stand

Yum Yum Sweet Strawberries

As we were finishing devouring our treat, this other kind couple came up to chat. The husband commented on our bike that Tony does all the work. I agreed and laughed, but the wife stuck up for me and said, "No. Look at her legs." Her comment just solidified how much I liked her in addition to her great smile. We chatted with them for quite some time because it was so fun.

Also at that same stop, we got a picture of these older folks doing some sort of dance together.

We rode for some length of time through the edge of Dusseldorf. I decided that I really like Dusseldorf because of all these super friendly people. We even managed to identify a bakery with an awesome apple tart before we left Dusseldorf.

Further along the trail (which was very bumpy today since the trail winded along lots of city streets), we rode into a small town and could see that the streets were filled with people. What was going on? Tony had to walk the bike through the crowds. Turns out there was a huge flea market. 

Safer for everyone if Tony walks the bike.

We stopped in the middle of the crowds so that I also could check out the church where a mass had just ended with another anniversary celebration. That church has a raised pulpit very similar to the one in Glandorf, OH.

Leaving that little town, we found this sweet old lady on a bench who said that I could take a picture with her.

One other very evident discovery on this trip and especially today, is how well trained so many of the dogs have been that we have encountered along the trails. An example of one today was a guy walking his dog without a leash. He used hand signal without ever looking at the dog to get the dog to the side of the trail and sit. When we passed, the owner signaled again, and they took off. Since Luna just chewed up Marla & Nick's fence, we want to acknowledge we are thinking of you, Balogs, and appreciate everything you are doing for Luna.😀

We finished our ride today with a few extra miles, but the experience was extremely fun.

Tony's Extras

We had so much fun today and the strawberries were so flavorful and tasty. The whole ride was full of turns, intersections and many traffic signals. All the stopping and starting on our tandem is tough resulting in sore legs. 

By the way, traffic signals here are set up for cars and separate ones for bicycles. Something else really cool was that there was a waterline repair in the bicycle path, so they turned the one roadway lane into a bicycle lane. This caused the roadway to be one lane, where they set up a traffic signal for the cars to wait and go through one way at a time. In the U.S.A. they would have said, "oh well bicycles, figure it out on your own." You have to love bicycle friendly countries. Tomorrow off to Munster, Germany. This is so much fun!!

 Day 18 Cologne Germany A visit to Cologne Cathedral

Tony's View

We got up this morning, finished cleaning the bicycle and making more adjustments. There is a bicycle shop across the street, and they let us borrow a pump to get the correct tire pressure. Joan got all our clothes washed up last night and they are still air drying, though slowly. I wander what they have against dryers. Very few, if any, over here. 

Off to the main attraction in Cologne. The Cathedral decision in 1164 came with the transfer of the relics of the three Maji. The construction started in 1248 and after many events it was finally completed in 1842. The tour guide brochure says the prominent twin-steepled facade with its openwork spires is visible for miles. It is the largest church facade ever built. 

The church has some very beautiful stained-glass windows. 

This stain glass window consisting of mouthblown glass panes. There are 11,263 glass panes. 

Here is a wood model of the Cathedral, that the woodworker/engineer really enjoyed.

Here are some pictures inside.

We decided to climb the 533 steps to the top of one of the spires. The sign below tells it all when you buy your tickets. Germans get right to the point.

Just what you want to do on your day off when you are giving your legs some rest. But the sites were awesome. Check out the cool bridge across the Rhine. 

On the way down, part of the way, the bells were playing. As you can guess they were extremely loud, but super cool. 

Here is a video of them playing.

We went to the cathedral treasury, which is a museum, and took a picture of the original shrine of the Maji relic. It was a cool museum with many relics and artifacts. Kind of like a miniature Vatican Muesum. 

Also, in the museum there was an excavation of an old 1st century Roman sanitary sewer. See the arched hole at the bottom. Who isn't fascinated by a sanitary sewer? 

When walking around we had to dodge people. Cologne is a very busy city with stores, shops, bars and restaurants in every direction for miles. Definitely a tourist town. They have a population of over 1 million people. Biking through all this craziness yesterday was exciting. On our way back, we saw our bicycle of the future for Joan and me. We just need a motor. We elected Wade to cycle us around, since we had to feed him so much growing up. Thanks Wade. 

Had to stop for ice cream, so I decided to go big. Maybe overdid it this time.😋😋

We headed out for dinner, then Mass. The restaurant that was beside the church was called Gertrudenhof. My Mom's name was Gertrude, so we decided to eat there. I told our kids that we are eating there, and they asked "🤣does it serve beef noodle special, awesome dippy eggs, tang, cherry delight or popcorn? ” I said, "It might, but I can't read anything on the menu 😕" Those were some of the favorites that Grandma fed them. 

At the church for Mass, the altar had the Holy Spirit right above it. That is a wonderful representation of when the Priest calls the Holy Spirit down, during the Eucharist prayer. 

Out of the big city tomorrow morning. We are expecting it to not be as hectic on Sunday early morning as it was when we came in on Friday afternoon.

Joan's Extras

Cologne is the halfway point in our travels. While I love all this exploring, I love and miss these guys in the picture even more (plus the 2 more Grandkids on the way 😀).

 Day 17 Cologne, Germany - When It Rains.......

Joan's View

We had 53 miles to ride today. Tony checked radar this morning and even though rain was forecast for most of the day, it was supposed to start around 8am. We were ready to go well before that and as we prepped to clip in and take off, it started to rain. Hmpf. It was a soft rain with breaks along the way. Most of our ride was along the Rhine with great views which made the rain easy to ignore, most of the time. We took pictures when we could to avoid having to ruin Tony's phone. We got a photo of a small-town ancient wall. 

It started to rain a little harder, so we took a break where the trail went under a bridge. While we recharged, I told Tony, "There is a waterfall coming off of the bridge" so that we could avoid it. Tony thought it would be a great idea to go under the waterfall since we were already wet. 

A waterfall on the trail

A little farther on the trail, we came to a complete stop because these guys were working on the curb. We had to wait about 10 minutes until the asphalt truck moved up enough so that we could get by. 

We tried to get a picture of our front light that looked like it gave off sparklers when it rained. OK, the timing could have been better on that one.

Our next rest area was during a break in the rain.

We continued on the trail and saw these old fortifications. Tony recognized them as soon as he saw that we were in Remagen. The Ludendorff bridge at Remagen is famous because it was the last remaining bridge over the Rhine during WWII. The Germans left it open for a long time so that their troops could get back into Germany when they retreated from France. When the time came that they wanted to blow it up, their efforts failed due to multiple reasons. In time, our troops were able to reach the bridge and gain access to German. It's a fascinating story if you want to hear the details Bridge of Remagen 1945.wmv - Bing video.

Riding through Remagen, we also got this great picture of an upscale shop. 

Another storybook castle

Riding out of Remagen, we got a picture of this beautiful castle.

About halfway into our ride, it started to rain again, and then there was a noise. Yes, we had our first flat of this trip. We somewhat took shelter under a tree on the bike trail. Tony started the whole tire changing process made even lengthier when he had to fix the air pump as well. Several people stopped to ask if we needed help. We ended up moving the bike near the end of the repair to the walking path up the hill because so many cyclists were riding past, and we were sort of blocking the narrow trail.

The rain continued sometimes a little heavier, but never any thunderstorms. We were getting really soaked and Tony once again had dirt on his water bottles for that unique gritty rain day flavor. At a point where the trail turned and we had a steep short climb, the chain jumped off the gears. Tony caught the bike on the hill, and I sort of quickly got off. We pushed the bike to a level surface. This time, the chain was wedged against the wheel. It took lots of greasy fingers, some cuss words from Tony and more dirt on me because I had to hold the bike while he unwedged the chain using a variety of methods. No pictures because it was raining.

From there we came upon a short stretch of gravel and mud puddles. Tony paused a minute or so to decide if he really wanted to take that path. Gravel and rain really do a number on Tony, the bike paniers, and the bike itself. Tony decided how much worse can it be than what we already have caked on us and the bike, so we pedaled ahead.

Our detour

The rain was steady. The riders were getting tired. The path had a closure in front of us. Tony did what he usually does when that happens - we rode around it. We kept a keen eye on what was ahead of us. About a half mile down the trail, we saw that workers were trimming trees along the paths. As we approached them, we got the clear signal to turn around, so we did. We did some surveillance around the area where the trail first closed off and decided to take the cobble stone road that ran parallel to the trail. A little more dirt and a few more miles, and we were back on the trail. 

We rode through the industrial part of Bonn along the river for a quite some time before getting close to Cologne. We were relying on the Garmin to get us to our Airbnb, but the details are so much clearer on the phone. After several U-turns in heavy Cologne city traffic, Tony got out the phone anyway. We celebrated only briefly when we found the Airbnb because we had lots to clean, including us.

Overall, we were really blessed with how this day all worked out!

Tony's Extras

This ride had so many challenges, which made it a real adventure. Rain all day, mud, gravel and, yes, bicycle challenges. I am actually very sore and tired tonight. Isn't it amazing how we seem to get flats when it is raining? The flat came from some sharp nail like object. The hole in the tire, the size of a nail, gave it away. At Ludendorff bridge at Remagen, I climbed up to the first span between the abutment and first pier and you can see how thick the concrete was where they did blow it up over land. The bravery shown by the young Americans to capture the bridge is very admirable. It just brings WWII to reality and what they went through. Much more than rain, flat tires and stuck chains. God Bless all the people who died in this terrible war.