Day 10 - Friday, June 3, 2011 - Kohlscheid to Bad Godesberg - Trip 116.05 kms Time 7:07:15
I heard Tina arrive on her Harley at 6:30 AM but decided I would have a lie in as I had asked for b'fast at 8:00 AM. Did a bit of sorting before going down to b'fast. No one else around except for the cleaning lady, Tina and myself. Tina had already prepared a ham omelette for me, It was swimming in grease - typical German cuisine - I ate the whole thing as I didn't want to offend her. There was also cheese, cold cuts, juice, tea, fresh from the oven hot buns, jams, etc. I quickly finished my b'fast and went back up to my room to finish packing my panniers as I wanted to get as early a start as possible. I wanted to get to Bonn - Bad Godesbert and I had a feeling it was going to be over 100 kms.
After paying 48 € for my room and b'fast Tina presented me with my beer coaster from yesterday with 2 marks on it which meant I owed her for 2 beers. This is the German custom for keeping tabs on how many drinks one has consumed. Tina helped carry my panniers out to the garage where my bike had been locked up for the night. I removed the broken pump bracket which I kept catching on my inner thigh, loaded my panniers and set off for Duren at 8:50 AM. My GPS had calculated a distance of 31 kms but by the time I got there I had done 40 + kms including one very serious climb. I thought I was going to have to get off at one point and start pushing my bike up the hill. By this time it was getting quite hot and I had worked up quite a lather. It seems there is never a direct route with the GPS. Its always zig zagging through all the back/side streets.
I stopped at a gas station (they seemed to be the only places open where one could get a cold drink and a snack) and downed a bottle of Gatorade. I also bought a brotchen with mozarella cheese, tomato, lettuce and some other unrecognizable ingredient. It all tasted quite good although the brotchen was a bit crusty. I stopped at a 2nd gas station, again for a cold drink. This time they had provided nice comfy garden chairs in the shade so I was able to sit and have a pleasant break. This time I took my empty bottle inside and was given a .60€ refund. I had just tossed my Gatorade bottle in the trash bin at the previous stop!!!
On the outskirts of Bonn I stopped at a fresh fruit stand and bought 2 large oranges and ate one on the spot. Boy was it ever refreshing. I also sampled a cherry and a strawberry. Both were very tasty. For some reason fruit always seems to taste so much better after cycling in the hot sun all day.
I didn't fancy staying in a hotel in Bonn so kept on going hoping to find something more reasonable in Bad Godesberg which I was more familiar with having lived and worked there for 7.5 years. The first hotel I tried was fully booked for a bridge tournament. It was suggested I try the Park Hotel just around the corner. It was 80 € for a single room with b'fast. No amount of haggling could get her to lower the price. It was getting rather late, 6:00 PM, so I decided I had to pay the price. When I asked about storing my bicycle I was told I could bring it into the hotel. What a struggle I had getting it up the front steps and through the glass doors. The receptionist finally came to my aid and held the door open for me. After removing my panniers I was able to store my bike in a storage room just opposite the reception area. Once settled in I went downstairs to the reception to ask about Wi-Fi service. I was told it would cost 4.95/hour for the Internet. I decided to go and get something to eat and update my journal while waiting. I found a Bavarian restaurant just around the corner and although I had to wait for quite some time before getting any service I did manage to get a nice cold frosty beer and a Chicken Cordon Bleu dish which was nothing to rave about but I was so hungry it didn't really matter.
Must get an early night's rest as it's off to Koblenz bright and early tomorrow.
Cheers, Roly
Because I had no Internet service I thought I would be clever and type this up in NotePad then just cut and paste it into my Blog. No way. Notepad is a .txt document and my Blog is HTML. Tried to cut and paste and save my document in Word but that didn't work either. Anybody have any clever ideas about how to prepare an HTML draft???
I heard Tina arrive on her Harley at 6:30 AM but decided I would have a lie in as I had asked for b'fast at 8:00 AM. Did a bit of sorting before going down to b'fast. No one else around except for the cleaning lady, Tina and myself. Tina had already prepared a ham omelette for me, It was swimming in grease - typical German cuisine - I ate the whole thing as I didn't want to offend her. There was also cheese, cold cuts, juice, tea, fresh from the oven hot buns, jams, etc. I quickly finished my b'fast and went back up to my room to finish packing my panniers as I wanted to get as early a start as possible. I wanted to get to Bonn - Bad Godesbert and I had a feeling it was going to be over 100 kms.
After paying 48 € for my room and b'fast Tina presented me with my beer coaster from yesterday with 2 marks on it which meant I owed her for 2 beers. This is the German custom for keeping tabs on how many drinks one has consumed. Tina helped carry my panniers out to the garage where my bike had been locked up for the night. I removed the broken pump bracket which I kept catching on my inner thigh, loaded my panniers and set off for Duren at 8:50 AM. My GPS had calculated a distance of 31 kms but by the time I got there I had done 40 + kms including one very serious climb. I thought I was going to have to get off at one point and start pushing my bike up the hill. By this time it was getting quite hot and I had worked up quite a lather. It seems there is never a direct route with the GPS. Its always zig zagging through all the back/side streets.
I stopped at a gas station (they seemed to be the only places open where one could get a cold drink and a snack) and downed a bottle of Gatorade. I also bought a brotchen with mozarella cheese, tomato, lettuce and some other unrecognizable ingredient. It all tasted quite good although the brotchen was a bit crusty. I stopped at a 2nd gas station, again for a cold drink. This time they had provided nice comfy garden chairs in the shade so I was able to sit and have a pleasant break. This time I took my empty bottle inside and was given a .60€ refund. I had just tossed my Gatorade bottle in the trash bin at the previous stop!!!
On the outskirts of Bonn I stopped at a fresh fruit stand and bought 2 large oranges and ate one on the spot. Boy was it ever refreshing. I also sampled a cherry and a strawberry. Both were very tasty. For some reason fruit always seems to taste so much better after cycling in the hot sun all day.
I didn't fancy staying in a hotel in Bonn so kept on going hoping to find something more reasonable in Bad Godesberg which I was more familiar with having lived and worked there for 7.5 years. The first hotel I tried was fully booked for a bridge tournament. It was suggested I try the Park Hotel just around the corner. It was 80 € for a single room with b'fast. No amount of haggling could get her to lower the price. It was getting rather late, 6:00 PM, so I decided I had to pay the price. When I asked about storing my bicycle I was told I could bring it into the hotel. What a struggle I had getting it up the front steps and through the glass doors. The receptionist finally came to my aid and held the door open for me. After removing my panniers I was able to store my bike in a storage room just opposite the reception area. Once settled in I went downstairs to the reception to ask about Wi-Fi service. I was told it would cost 4.95/hour for the Internet. I decided to go and get something to eat and update my journal while waiting. I found a Bavarian restaurant just around the corner and although I had to wait for quite some time before getting any service I did manage to get a nice cold frosty beer and a Chicken Cordon Bleu dish which was nothing to rave about but I was so hungry it didn't really matter.
Must get an early night's rest as it's off to Koblenz bright and early tomorrow.
Cheers, Roly
Because I had no Internet service I thought I would be clever and type this up in NotePad then just cut and paste it into my Blog. No way. Notepad is a .txt document and my Blog is HTML. Tried to cut and paste and save my document in Word but that didn't work either. Anybody have any clever ideas about how to prepare an HTML draft???
Hi Roly
ReplyDeleteGreat blogs. Thanks
Bike`d Berlin Koblenz in 1955,Bonn-Koblenz some nice hills.
If you have OPEN OFFICE.org You can save any document as HTML.
Have fun & be safe Heinz
Boy, Jägermeister and Bitburger beer (on the sign behind Tina). Doesn't get much better than that.
ReplyDeleteDon't understand why you couldn't copy the text out of your Notepad file and paste it into the blog–should have worked. BTW OpenOffice is free and available at http://download.openoffice.org/
Tony