Day 101: Bonn to Merkenich (beyond Koln)

August 28, 2012

The quiet camping spot, and knowledge that we had been able to charge all our electronics, gave us a good start on a new day down the Rhine. We got one last look at Drachenburg Palace. A double check of the guide book confirms that the palace was built in 1879, and so is a bit of an imposter. Drachenfels, on the other hand, is the ruin of a castle built in 1147. It was demolished in 1634, to keep it out of the hands of the Swedes. Apparently they wanted to turn it into an Ikea.

We made no attempt to go in to Bonn, just passing by it on the waterfront. The main feature of the waterfront for us was a lot of tour boats, and many many transport vans for old folks jamming the streets. It was an affair in which youth and elderly got together for an activity, in this case a boat cruise. The youth all had on red tee shirts. It was admirable, but a fight for us to get through.

The rest of Bonn, such as we saw it, was equally undistinguished, and we were soon past it and on the way to Cologne (Koln). Before Koln is Wesseling. My “cartoon map” of the middle Rhine is tourist oriented and tries to make everything look interesting. That means, for example, the McDonalds in Andernach (and surrounding yucchy area) has no chance of being shown on the map. However, for Wesseling the map had no option but to picture smoke stacks and refineries. It was remarkable, being it was on a massive scale. I tried to convince Dodie that this was worthy of note, like a cathedral, because it is a large and difficult thing to build. She was having none of it, branding Wesseling “ugly and smelly”!

Koln started out sort of where Wesseling left off, esthetically speaking, with many concrete and steel buildings along the water. In these buildings worked businessmen, who could be seen at the few outdoor cafes, in white shirts and ties.

Though concrete and steel buildings are not our favourite type, we were pleased about one of them. It housed the Lindt museum of chocolate! Actually, approaching as we did from along the river, we did not immediately see the museum, but the large attached chocolate café. That stopped us dead in our tracks, and we tried out the Sacher Torte, hot chocolate, another torte, and cold drinking chocolate. To be honest, while these treats were ok, we (the world travellers now), have tasted better. Still, they provided fuel (even if expensive) for pushing on into Koln.

Koln must have been very heavily damaged in the war, because we found very little in terms of an old city. On the other hand, the cathedral is insane. It towers over everything, and can be seen as the main thing on the city skyline. Close up, it truly is impressive.

I waited with the bikes while Dodie went inside, and this gave me time to consider the façade as carefully as I could. Yet as long as I stood there, I could not form a mental image or plan of the whole side that was facing me. There is just too much in terms of ornamentation and statues and arches and arches on arches to grasp. Heavens, whoever made the first design sketches for this thing must have had a lot of papyrus, or whatever! (On the other hand, they had a lot of time to work it out – construction started in 1248 and finished in 1880! There is a shopping street that kicks off from the cathedral, that looked interesting (to me anyway) beause it is somewhat narrow, and jammed with stores and people. Dodie lured me away from it by pointed out a sign that lead to the old city (Altstadt). This turned out to be a cruel hoax, because as mentioned there really is no altstadt.

So we trailed out of town and back along the Rhine. That is, however, until we hit the Ford plant. As mentioned before, Ford has a surprisingly strong presence in Germany. This plant certainly gave that impression. It went on a long time and had at least 24 entry gates.

We finally could return to the river side, our sights now on Holland, but wondering what Dusseldorf would first throw at us. Of course, before we could find out it was time to quit. We came to what looked much like a camping, with the requisite number of slummy looking semi-permanent trailers lying around, but could see no office or registration place. We did spot one lonely cyclist with a tent up and went over to learn the drill from him. Soon we had paid “Ma and Pa” in a nearby trailer a negotiated 10 euros, and set up our tent right by the Rhine, in an open spot, and with an actual picnic table. It is from that table, with yesterday’s charged batteries, that I am writing this. Just to my right, a long coal boat is churning up the Rhine. The wind has dropped, and our stove (short of fuel or not) has cranked out “5 minute Spaghetti Bolognese”. Great!

The Rhine looks plain, heading towards Bonn

Lots of bike traffic to look out for in Bonn

Part of the chocolate cafe menu. Tap water was 2.40, no kidding!

But we did get this souvenir (didn't last long!)

Koln cathedral - somewhere they are supposed to have bones of the Magi

Koln cathedral - the sword and the cross feature prominently at the entrance - disturbing.

Koln cathedral - some statues are quite weird

4711 is the address of this building, we think. 4711 was Dodie's mom's favourite perfume.

Cologne water store beside the cathedral

This store sells serious home coffee machines and coffee packets to go with them

A quick snap through the coffee machine store window. Too heavy to carry home!

Hey Avi and Violet, how about this wading fountain in downtown Koln?

Last look at Koln cathedral (in case you have not seen enough shots of it)

Today's ride: 76 km (47 miles)
Total: 5,079 km (3,154 miles)

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