23/10/24
It was always going to be a late start, but we awoke early with the children. Sounds we definitely aren’t used to! We turned ourselves out at around 8 and had a quick mug of coffee with Ulli. Tim was already at work in his room.
Having eaten entirely too much Liebcuchen the night before we eschewed breakfast for now and got the bikes reloaded by around 10am to set off into Köln and find the route on the other side of the river. We did however stop briefly at an Aldi Süd. They’re absolutely everywhere and offer good value, often organic and with easy to see vegan labels. This is probably just for marketing, Tim was likely right to say it was just to jack up the prices, but it suits us.
The other side of the river was really pretty. Quiet cycle paths, right on the edge of the river. It felt like we were in a fancy part of town. Often scores of pollarded lime trees for the residents to walk under, which they did regularly. The number of people that we saw all day was a constant surprise.
Just before the next town we spotted a sign that said “Nirvan”, Jonathan’s middle name. It was another Persian restaurant alas not even slightly vegan but still very cool!
Our next stop was Bonn. We didn’t know it was coming really and thought of it as just another town. But Bonn was a popular tourist market town in the area so we decided to have lunch there, under the shadow of Beethoven who happened to be born there, probably a good deal to do with its popularity.
We left Bonn back on the west side of the river. The Rhein valley was narrowing and with that we were sadly going to be squeezed by the roads and tracks that run down either side. Looking down the map, it seemed this state of affairs would last a while.
It was easy going to Remagen, where we wanted to wild camp tonight. We hadn’t managed to do so once so far on account of the highly populated regions we’d been cycling through. We’d also read online how strict the laws were in Germany, while you can bivvy anywhere you want without penalty, erecting a shelter will make you a camper. On top of that they also have the nature reserves previously mentioned and differentiate between the open landscape and the forest. The latter being a far greater offence as they fear fires. Not really a risk at the end of October but we aren’t really near many forests anyway.
Passing our backup campground we began to see what we’d seen on the satellite map, lines of young pine trees being grown. This wasn’t where we’d wanted to camp but upon looking it seemed actually quite viable. There were some other trees growing to one side with nice patches of grass. It was an hour before sunset began so we hid ourselves and the bikes behind the trees and had dinner while we waited. This was a big pot of hummus and bread. Followed by peanut butter and jam with bread.
It began to get chillier so we wrapped up in our coats and as it got to sundown set up the tent amongst the trees. The path had got very quiet fortunately and we felt fairly sure we wouldn’t be discovered. Pleased to be having an early night we went to sleep listening to the sounds of the leaves falling on tent and the roar of the occasional ship on the Rhein, a mere 10 metres from us.
Surly They Won't Make It 