The longest day of the trip but it needed to be. Check-in closes at 7pm tonight so I have plenty of time to complete those 60km but if I had stopped yesterday east of Rotterdam that might not have been the case. Today has been a real joy.
Everything came together in a celestial meeting of cycle touring, travelling, people, places, weather⦠I loved it. Even the trains joined the party after an initial reluctance to play ball at Cologne station this morning. Even that pesky wind which, for much of the past week, has been annoying me in a manner that usually only a tiresome Year 9 student can achieve came to the party and blew me along the banks of the Rhine willing me to get to Rotterdam on time.
I only wish you could have been here. It might have been easier to keep cycling and take the train from a quieter station. The plan was to arrive in Xanten β famed for its Roman ruins I Iearnt last night β then cycle over the border into The Netherlands. Or indeed Cologneβ¦.
Such a contrast after three tedious days of cycling. The Rhine has come back to me! It was an epic day in terms of length β km β but also in terms of the environment. Finally the steep-sided Rhine valley has materialised and those cliff-top castles have appeared. Enjoy the pictures and the videos as I have little energy to add much to what you can seeβ¦. In the context of a two-month cycle around Europe I can put up with a few days here and there of uninspiring or troublesome cycling but I do feel for all those people who set their heart of cycling the Canal du Midi or, more pertinently to this week, from Basel to where I am now about 20km south-west of Frankfurt.
The evening could yet turn out to be an entertaining oneβ¦. There are a lot of online bikeshops out there these days. How do you choose the best one for your needs? In this blog post, we will discuss some factors to consider when making your decision. I suppose it was because I ended up on the French side of the Rhine last night. Baselβ¦ You almost ruined my day. More later on that score.
