After a pleasant and peaceful weekend at the house of Finn, a Kolner student and teacher, I took to the road again at around 8 am on Monday morning. There had been snow over the weekend and the air remained cold, the sun refusing to break through the cloud all morning, despite my several requests. This, in combination with a knee-preserving low work rate, left me numb for the first couple of hours and I stopped off in Bonn after 20 miles or so to warm up. I found Bonn to be quite unfriendly. I was turned away from one café and in the second the waiter was colder than the morning frost until he received his tip, after which he would barely let me leave, having taken a sudden interest in everything about me. I was pleased to leave and soon found a cycle path which followed the bank of the Rhine so closely I was rarely more than a few metres from its waters.
The further south I travelled, the higher the landscape rose around me and the narrower the river became, poking through headlands and cliffs. The water also turned from the lazy, muddy brown of the slow lower river to a deep, dark grey blue and it reflected the now clear sky beautifully. I found new inspiration in my surroundings and made my way quickly to Andernach, stopping off briefly at the remains of the Ludendorff bridge at Remagen (pictured).
I had a brief lunch at Andernach before leaving through the ruined gates of some Schloss and making my way towards Koblenz. The final part of the journey was easy as I wound my way through the scenery before crossing the Mosel in plenty of time. I had a good 90 minutes spare before meeting my host for the evening, Kai, and I made my way to Deutsches Eck (“Germany Corner”) which is the nib of land at the confluence of the Rhine and the Mosel. This was marked by a number of flags and an enormous statue of Kaiser Wilhelm II astride his horse, which was all totally out of proportion to the barely detectable mixture of the two great rivers. A good sight to see, nevertheless.
I met Kai shortly afterwards and we had a good night together at a bar in the company of a certain Frankie, a patently drunk and aging man who claimed to have spent his life wandering between German cities surviving by a variety of undisclosable means. While we did not believe much of any of his anecdotes, he was good company and we enjoyed several good German beers as he spun his yarns before returning home to sleep.
Distance covered 67 miles
I met Kai shortly afterwards and we had a good night together at a bar in the company of a certain Frankie, a patently drunk and aging man who claimed to have spent his life wandering between German cities surviving by a variety of undisclosable means. While we did not believe much of any of his anecdotes, he was good company and we enjoyed several good German beers as he spun his yarns before returning home to sleep.
