Maastricht - Aachen: Holland's only hills - A Flanders Fling

June 14, 2017

Maastricht - Aachen: Holland's only hills

I had a miserable night in our suffocating room. But let's look at the bright side of life. We woke up to a gorgeous day - a blue sky with nary a cloud and not too hot. Yesterday we saw a bit of Maastricht on our evening stroll and again this morning we saw a bit more while looking for a cafe that might be open at 8:30. There wasn't much going on at that hour.

A view to the Maas and Maastricht on our way out of town

We would now ride through a small strip of Holland caught in between Belgium and Germany, and as far as I know the only part of Holland with any climbs worth mentioning. The countryside was lovely. Our day started with a good climb and remained hilly until we reached our hotel in the afternoon. I have an e-bike but am always reluctant to use more than the minimum of support which is level one of four levels available. So today I just shifted down and worked up the hills slowly, enjoying the feeling of accomplishment. Of course, I am not as exhaused at the end of the day as in the old days without e-support. Nor do I want to be.

Part of the time we are on the Flemish bicycle route 6a

Kids on a field trip with their teacher who didn't have a pump with him. Janos came to their rescue.

The Dutch cows weren't as muscular as their Flemish counterparts.

I was wondering when and if the hills would stop. They didn't. Aachen is probably the hilliest city I know (ok, San Francisco is hillier) and the road went up and down until we were at our hotel. We arrived in Aachen in the early afternoon and before we checked in at the hotel we had a nice lunch in a small student restaurant. We were amazed at the prices, and this time at how low they were. We paid one third as much for my delicious salad as we would have in Belgium. It felt good to be back in Germany - and not just because the food was cheaper. It's exciting when everything is new and different, but it is also a very pleasant feeling to return to familiar surroundings and to speak the language with ease.

After we checked in at our hotel, we decided we had cycled enough hills for the day and locked our bikes in the hotel garage. In the evening we set out on foot. It seemed to be a very long walk through a hilly park and I was hungry, but the walk to the quarter of town where many restaurants were located was worth it. We were spoilt for choice and could choose between Chinese, Italian, German, Balkan and many more. They all had outdoor seating and were filled with lots of people, young and old, out for a meal on this pretty evening.

Our hotel was simple, clean, quiet - and you could open the windows! Fresh air! After last night, something I valued very much.

I still haven't answered the question as to where we were now headed. The Flanders part of the fling was finished. The obvious direction to take for the time being was east to the Rhine. And then? If I had no more issues with the UTI, traveling south along the Rhine sounded like a nice idea. The plan: from Aachen to Köln and then follow the Rhine to Lake Constance. We had no idea how far that would be, but we started to look forward to this new phase of our trip, Rhine Time.

Evening meal - Janos is supposed to be taking a picture of the hot air balloon, not me.

Today's ride: 39 km (24 miles)
Total: 818 km (508 miles)

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