Today’s game was to see how close to the Dutch border I could get using DB trains. I bought myself a day rover ticket, which allowed use of any train in Germany until 0300 the next day, with the exception of Express trains.
An early breakfast and I was ready to leave the hotel for the 0831 train to Koblenz. Raining again of course.
It was a short ride to the station and I’d already loaded the route onto the GPS. What I forgot to do though was set the rain lock, which stops the touch sensitive screen being sent crazy in heavy rain. So there were a few frantic minutes of searching for somewhere where I could dry the screen and sort out.
I arrived at the station in plenty of time and had no trouble finding a bike space on the train. I could always have folded the bike as well if needed.
Because I’d done my homework, I knew lots of people got caught out by not buying a ticket for the bike. I could have avoided this if I folded it, but for €6 extra It was worth not having to bother with unloading all the gear each time. So I was very smug when a gang of inspectors appeared, the lead inspector scanned my phone – silence ! Then a stream of German words I couldn’t quite catch. In my best German I explained I couldn’t speak German. “Your ticket is not valid this early – you cannot travel before 0900” I was expecting “ for you Tommy zee war is over” next, followed by incarceration in a DB Trains prison cell, but instead I got a very kindly “it’s alright” and a smile ! Clearly this inspector needed to go on a refresher course, she wasn’t upholding DB’s reputation .
I’d hoped for nice views of the river, but for a lot of the time the train was well away from it. When I did catch glimpses I could see that the paths were quite muddy in places with the water level really close to them. In one place there were ducks swimming on the path where it was totally submerged, not a good sign ! I could possibly have ridden a lot of it, as long as the levels didn’t get any higher, but I knew being in a valley any forced detours could be difficult.There also appeared to be a thin cycle path along the main road, but that wouldn’t have made for pleasant cycling.
Passing a caravan park, many of the caravans had been moved and dragged up to higher ground, where they were parked in a long line along the main road. I guess memories of the dramatic floods two years ago haven’t faded and with the flood warnings predicting similar levels were possible with further prolonged heavy rain it was good to be careful.
A quick change in Koblenz and I was on the slow train to Oberhausen, which stopped at Duisburg my next changeover point. This got me within 100km of Nijmegen. Too much for what would be left of the day, so I planned one further train to Xanten, which left a more manageable 50km, with options to bail out earlier if needed. The Oberhausen train which had been relatively empty filled up as it headed West across Germany, to the point it was totally packed, with aisles clogged with people and bags, and the poor Brompton hidden behind them all. Fortunately for me, it emptied out at Dusseldorf Flughäfen one stop before mine.
By the time I got to Duisburg, I needed to attend to a call of nature. After searching the station, I found the loos, where you had to pay a euro to “spend a penny” . The dilemma though was what to do with the bike ? Even if I’d wanted to lock it, there was nothing to lock it too. Fortunately with a Brompton that’s less of a problem, a quick fold and bike and bags were in. Being unisex, it was all cubicles, so required a little bit of manoeuvring to fit in ! It was a relief when it did !
After that a short wait and a train to Xanten. All that remained was to cycle towards the Netherlands and find a hotel.
It started off well, nice cycle paths and dry weather.
In fact it was fine, until as usual in the last 5km the heavens opened. That didn’t help me in finding my hotel for the night, so I have had to take some special medicine to chill out after a very wet 30 mins.
Tomorrow Utrecht (hopefully)
Steady Pedals 