Essen to Koln - Day 65

Date: October 22nd, 2009
Distance: 98km
Country: Germany
Song of the Day: Just Wait - Blues Traveler

Said goodbye to my hosts and headed out. It was really cool of them to let me stay. I hope they know how much I appreciated it.

Getting out of town was a bit of a pain. I should have looked up the address of where I was. Oh well. I finally figured it out with the help of a handy information post. Once out of town I was going along a bunch of really pretty country. Woodlands, where the leaves are turning and falling off. Hills with big rivers flowing through the valleys. Quite a change from the farmlands I had been going though.

Ten K south of Essen though, I started running into some climbs. Over big, steep hills. Since I haven't done too many hills recently. These really took it out of me. It was the first time in about three countries since I had used anything but my biggest chainring. Still the scenery was beautiful.

I did get lost around Velpin though. This is where the GPS would have come in handy. The major country highways I can find. It is all the little routes in the cities and towns that get me lost. I did find my way eventually, but it took a while.

From there I rode through the town of Neandertal. Yep, that Neanderthal. That is one thing about cycle touring, you end up going through all these weird little places. Frankly, until I saw the name on the sign I never thought about where the name for that hominid actually came from. Well, now I know.

By the end of the day I was quite excited to get back to the Rhine. It has a weird beauty to it. Sure it is a nice scenic river. But there are also these giant factories and chemical plants along it. It is a strange mixture of farmland, riverbank and industry.

Just north of Koln, I met another cyclist named Kai. He was coming back from his job, but was nice enough to ride along with me for a bit and give me some directions into Koln. While we were cycling, I told him about my tour. He mentioned that he was interested in doing something similar, but hadn't yet found the right traveling companion. Best of luck on that.

I took the bridge across the river right into town. Koln is a very interesting place. The cathedral there is quite impressive. The stone has turned almost black, which actually goes pretty well with its neo-gothic styling. I wish I had more time to look around the city, but it was getting dark, and I really had to find someplace to sleep. On my way back across the bridge, I noticed that people had put thousands of locks onto the railing. I don't know if that is a protest or an art project? Anyone got a clue?

I thought about staying at a hostel. The one in Koln is amazing. It is huge, basically a hotel. The guy at the front desk was pretty snooty though. Plus they wanted 28 euro for a bed. No thanks. I went down the road a bit and got a camping site for just 10 euro.

Once I had the tent up, it was time to find some food. I needed groceries again. So I headed. back across. the river to a suburb. I found a store that was still open and picked up supplies for breakfast and more bread for sandwiches. Plus cheap chocolate bars, for energy during the day.

Then it was off to find some dinner. I was looking for some nice greasy wurst. But I didn't see any. Instead I wandered into a nice Italian place. Run by actual Italians, go figure. I ordered a pepperoni pizza because it was amazingly cheap. Turns out, that meant just peppers on the pizza. I was hoping for a little meat on it. Oh well, the pizza was still great.

-Dravis