Bonn to Duiseberg

From one large city to another.

We checked out of the hotel around noon. Breakfast was 18 euros (highest we've seen by far!) at the hotel we were at, so we decided to find a grocery store. So, back to downtown - old town Bonn. There was some kind of athletic fair starting up in one of the main squares.

Peter hasn't been able to find any public pianos to play here, in contrast to France, where there were quite a few.

We checked out the bookstore Thalia. It was absolutely HUGE, and also had multiple large areas where people could just hang out and read. You can tell that Germans are big travelers, the travel section took up a big part of one wall. There was an extended section on bike touring as well, would have been interesting to go through it in depth.

Thought about going to the Beethoven museum, but then didn't. We couldn't find Peter's strap for his luggage, searched for it a bit, then ended up using some cords that I had - thank goodness I came prepared.

For almost the whole stretch (about 36k) the bike trails were absolutely beautiful, along the river, oftentimes there were little sandy or stony beaches. Peter and I played 20 questions quite a few times. We did get off track a bit in the middle, right around a big chemical factory (a lot of those here, it was Evonik, previously we were biking by many, many chemical production facilities from BASF)

Some canoes/kayaks floating down the river today, that's been a first. I don't think they'll be able to go back upstream, the current is too strong.

On the way to the AirBnB that I booked for tonight, we went through a section of really beautiful, stately homes. The street that we're on (Bonner Strasse) has a really strange construction project on it. It's a really wide road, but seems almost completely blocked off and deserted, there's huge holes in the street. Luckily there's a grocery very close by (Rewe), we got some food there, I was able to cook some beef again, tasted great. The apartment itself is decent, decorated in a really strange style (lots and lots of zebra stripes). It has a balcony overlooking a green space, which is great.

After a rest we went to the old town, which doesn't seem old at all. It was absolutely insanely crowded. Just packed. Went to the cathedral for just a bit (there was a mass) and then walked a bit, and sat at a cafe for a bit. Watched a girl pay 5 Euros for an automated robotic vending machine for cotton candy, where the machine forms it into flower shapes, very interesting.

Then home. The crowds were a little bit lighter, so easier to bike.

Across the courtyard was a big party happening, a bunch of teenagers.

Today we had a slow morning in the apartment, because it was raining (heavy thunder and lightning, very close by, late last night).

I colored my hair, with the package I got the other day from DM, downtown. Did some planning. Peter was excited about trying Warmshowers again, so he found one that might worked and we contacted them (it ended up not working out).

We were planning on attending the 10 am mass at the big cathedral, but it was raining pretty steadily. So, we delayed going out until around noon. Went to the chocolate museum (very crowded, pretty good, the manufacturing part was interesting, lots of very woke content about climate change, etc - and in a chocolate museum? I think they're trying to distract from how unhealthy their product is). Peter had some crepes and I had some tea in the museum cafe, right next to the river, very nice.

Then we were trying to figure out what to do, until we went to the 5 pm mass at the cathedral. We were thinking about the Gestapo museum, but decided to just walk around downtown. There were again a HUGE number of people, many dressed with either the Georgia flag (red and white) or the Spanish flag (yellow and red). Just loads of these people, milling around, sometimes singing. I guess the game is actually taking place here in Cologne. Otherwise, why would they be here?

Peter took out his clarinet and began to play, right across from the cathedral. I encouraged him to put out the case, and see if he could earn anything, but he didn't want to. One lady stopped and looked at him, and was about to take out her purse, then looked questioningly - where could she put the money? I ended up talking to her a bit, she said she has a grandchild who plays the clarinet. She is sick of soccer nonsense, she said her husband does nothing but watch soccer on TV. She also said, "they should just give everyone a soccer ball". I didn't quite understand that one, maybe it makes more sense in German.

I went and got a meat portion at a kebab place, they were absolutely HOPPING. Very busy, about 8 people behind the counter, moving as fast as they could to service everyone.

Then into the cathedral, for the service. I haven't been to a Catholic service for quite a while, but I remember a lot of it. It was a pretty sparse crowd, mostly older peple. I think soccer (and woke politics) is the new religion here.

Then home. Peter is the lead, he picks up on directions pretty well. I ask if he wants to use the map, and he always says no.

Early this morning - like 8.30 am or so - we got a knock on the door. The first time I ignored it, but the second time I asked who it was, and they replied that they were from a building company come to ... do something like break down the walls? I didn't quite understand. We opened the door, and there were 2 guys in builder clothing. They said they were there do do something in the bathroom - I could have sworn they said something like tear down the wall, but I could be mistaken. I told them that this was an AirBnB, and that we'd be out by 10.30. And we were actually gone way before that. That was an encounter, though! Not a very well managed stay on the part of the host. Actually it wasn't AirBnB, it was on Booking.com, I specifically searched for a place with a kitchen. The place was fine, we cooked a few meals there (hamburger meat and scrambled eggs). I thought a lot about how could have remodeled it to be a lot more efficient in space usage. There's really a lot that could have been done, including updating the balcony, you could have had a whole second living room out there.

Our first stop was a bike repair place. Peter had something break on his seat post, and after that the seat could spin around, and wasn't stable. I found a bike shop online, and we biked straight there. It was a great shop, the repair guy took off the seat, replaced the post, and did all that for 22 euros, including the labor, plus apparently one of the screws had sheared and they had to finagle it. Anyway, I was very happy that the repair went so well, it could have gone differently.

We rode by the Ford plant, north of Cologne, then a lot of shipping areas, and then another chemical area (Bayer). Lots of industry.. We're now in the town of Dormagen. We had originally hoped to do a WarmShowers stay here, but that fell through, and we're staying at a small modest hotel, very large room but also a little bit dated. Everything works though, there's even a little sitting area.

We walked through town, there's a mall there, and also a library which had a piano, Peter enjoyed playing that, and I read in the magazine Spiegel, at the library. They had a big Pride display, with the latest woke insanity exported from the US.

Then to a Donner place, for a meat plate for me (wasn't that great, I think they douse it with vegetable oil) and Peter got a Thai dish inside the mall. We sat down and ate at one of the tables next to the Thai place, which apparently belonged to this cafe inside the mall, because after leaving us alone for about 20 minutes, a lady from the cafe came over and agressively asked us what we'd like to order. I got it immediately, and said, 'Oh, we're not allowed to eat here?" Then we cleared out that area, and moved to some other chairs, not far away, that looked more generic, like they weren't part of a cafe or anything. We continued eating there for a while, until a lady from some store next to it rapped sharply on the glass, and motioned us to go away! We started to pack up AGAIN, and then the lady came out (why? we were already leaving) and complained about having to clean up after people, and said that the OTHER people sitting in the chairs next to us were customers of theirs.

Very odd and kind of unpleasant experience.

We're giving it another try with WarmShowers for tomorrow. In any case, we're headed to the town of Kaiserwerth, and if we get no response we'll just find a hotel there.

Headed to the Kaiserwerth today, just north of Dusseldorf, to the Warmshowers host that Peter found. Unfortunately it was the rainiest day yet. We hung out under a couple bridges, a few trees, and still got soaked. And this is after staying in the hotel till 10.30, as it was raining in the morning as well.

The town of Zons was nice, very close by, it's a complete little walled city. You can't walk on the town walls though. There was a guy at the entrance who was very helpful, he was probably the mayor or something, he knew everything.

Then we tried going to the Schloss Benrath, supposed to be a really nice palace. It was very disappointing though, we biked through the rain to get there (very poorly marked too, I had to have my phone out the entire time), the entrance was very hard to find, it was relatively expensive too (15 euros), and I couldn't even pay to go in with cash OR credit card! I would have to go to a silly, non-functioning website to buy tickets. The guy who worked there was very apologetic, said that he has no control over it and wished it were different.

At that point I was so annoyed we just went to a cafe associated with the palace, and hung out for a while (I had hot milk which is my go-to now, Peter had hot cocoa) until the rain stopped (for just a short while before it started up again).

What else... it was a long, rainy, cold slog. Dusseldorf has a European Championship soccer game tonight, there were huge amounts of security people out.

Arrived at our Warm Showers host. Friendly guy, has a lot of degrees including PhD in urban planning and MBA. Now is working for a company selling fans and ventilators. Really nice apartment, very well decorated. He's heading out tonight for a dance class, and will be back late. Peter and I went out and had quick dinner out.

Tomorrow the weather will be cruddy again, most of the day. We'll just power through, get to Duiseberg, and hopefully be able to get into our Booking.com apartment early.

Had some good conversation last night with our Warm Showers host, he's very informed about the history of the area, has taken a lot of bike tours in Europe. Turns out he has 2 daughters that live in Dennmark, the youngest 28 and another older one. The boyfriend of the older one is a digital nomad, and so she was trying very hard to get a job as a digital nomad as well, to accompany him, and seems to have found one, after a lot of work. The online searching and applying didn't do anything for her, but she met someone in person that offered her a job.

The younger has just broken up with a boyfriend, they had a business together so doubly hard.

Kaiserwerth is a very nice little town north of Dussel. It's pretty chic, people seem wealthy. Lots of fancy shops.

This morning biked north to Duisberg. We went to the "tiger and turtle" which is a strange outdoor sculpture which looks exactly like a roller coaster. But it's not actually a roller coaster, you can walk on it (except for the loops). Interesting, but they sure took up a lot of land and a prime hilltop for it.

Then into the city of Duisberg. Peter had been looking up Warm Showers hosts here, and one of the hosts here had in her profile, "Duisberg is known as the armpit of Germany, but we will show you the nice side", or something to that effect. Anyway it really does kind of seem like the armpit of Germany. Very depressed, lots of unemployed looking people around, lots of immigrants, lots people people drinking outside. Many empty storefronts. There was a nice mall that we walked around.

We were hoping to get into the apartment (from Booking.com) early but no such luck, even though it was raining. We hung out for a few hours in a really nice cafe and had a meal, and cocoa/hot milk, while it rained outside. Then it started raining AGAIN as we headed to the apartment, where we hung out just in front of the overhang for about 45 minutes. They never responded to our query about early check-in.

The apartment is fine, I bought some ground beef and made some hamburger patties, very tasty after all the ham and cheese type foods I've had.

After a rest, we walked around the downtown area again, and found a really nice looking mall, walked around that a bit.

Tomorrow to Xanten, it'll be one of the longer distances (around 50 k) that we've done. There's actually an famous old industrial park in in Duisberg that I'd really like to see, but it would add an extra 16k to the trip, and I don't want to push it. So, we'll probably just head to Xanten as soon as the rain stops (it's supposed to rain tomorrow morning).