Author Archives: thewintersride

Kaiserswerth to Cologne 79.69 Kms

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June 15, 2018

 Another day on the Rhine route \”Magical Mystery Tour\”.

After an excellent breakfast at the hotel we cycled through the Town of Kaiserswerth to take some photos. We spotted this stone work on the side of a building.  Kaiserswerth was a very nice historic Town with lots of small boutique shops, good restaurants and bars.

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We started of well and then it all went to hell in a hand basket when we “almost” got through Dusseldorf.

Dusseldorf was a really interesting City and clean. There were some older buildings and some funky new ones. The cycle path was easy to follow and took you through the downtown, if you wanted to go into the centre of the Old City. We didn’t so we carried on following the route.

Along the waterfront were lots of bars where you could sit and meet friends etc. It was a really nice area.

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After the waterfront area and the bars we carried along the old harbor area. When the city decided to revitalize this area it invited famous architects to design the buildings.

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Then it all went pear-shaped.  This how we eventually got out of the City.

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We made another couple of errors, and our route which should have been about 67 kms ended up being 79.9.

This is not an error it is part of the actual route. The little red bike sign directed us along this path.  An overgrown path with loaded panniers was not fun.

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We are spending two nights in Cologne. We have to get Ralf’s garmin fixed and/or the phone set up. These deviations are getting ridiculous.  Today we both said that we enjoyed the cycle routes in France more than the ones in Germany.

Although it was frustrating again today, there were some nice parts of the day. We spotted these beautiful horses taking people for a ride from the local brewery. They had a keg of beer on the back and were really enjoying themselves.

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We were also shown the way by a couple of cyclists who were heading south down the Rhine as well – credit card touring. They both had small back-packs on, which carried a change of clothes and not much else.

We knew there was going to be a bit of a deviation around Leverkussen and that is when the two cyclists helped us around the deviation and told us the way to get around the Bayer Chemical plant. One of them spoke good English and told us that if we stayed on this side of the river we would have to get around Bayer, if we crossed the river we would have to get around the Ford Plant. We knew we had to be on this side of the river for the campsite. The Bayer plant is enormous. In a straight line it was 3 kms before we passed all the gates and various entrances/exists. Approximately 37,000 people work at Bayer in Germany. We didn’t think it was a good idea to take photos of the plant.

Eventually, we spotted the twin towers of the Cologne Cathedral.  I knew we had about 6 kms to go to the campsite.

\"\"The weather was good today. Slightly overcast with a little bit of sun and for the most part a tail wind.

We are staying in the Koln City Camping Park about 6 kms from the downtown. It cost E8 per person and E4 for electricity and we pay 0.50 cents for a shower for 3 minutes. I can’t take a shower in 3 minutes, it takes me 4 minutes so I have to waste water.

It’s a nice clean campsite and the lady on reception is very helpful.

Another cyclist showed up, he is from Holland.  He was complaining about the poor signage.  He said that he hadn\’t seen one sign today directing him.  Fortunately, for him he has a gps with maps downloaded.

No windmills today.

Looking forward to a good nights sleep, although the campsite is filling up with a lot of tents and camper-vans.

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Wesel to Kaiserswerth – 66.77 kms

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June 14, 2018

Not a good start to the day. First I had an awful nights sleep, then we discovered the phone is still not working. We went to Aldi and they gave us another Sim Card, if this doesn’t connect then it is obviously the phone.

After saying our farewells to Renate we returned to the Rhine and followed the Rhine south.

I optimistically thought the signage would be good, but it didn’t turn out that way. There are three or four routes – the Pilgrims Way, which eventually heads west into France, the River route which could be the Rhine or the Ruhr or the Mosel, Eurovelo 15, 4 and 3! All of the Eurovelo routes head south along the Rhine for a while then head away in different directions.  We are supposed to follow Eurovelo Route 15.

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We tried to follow the signs for Eurovelo 15, but sometimes they disappeared all together and we were following the Pilgrim’s Route and then the River route. I figured that so long as we were heading south(ish) and had the Rhine to the right or left we were o.k.

The Rhine has always been a \”working\” river.  There was a lot of loaded boats going up and down.

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This small Town had  the remains of a wall surrounding the Town.

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There were areas where we were away from the river. Then we were directed back to it and discovered we would have to cross the river on a small ferry to get to the other side and follow the route in to Duisberg.

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An older cyclist showed us the way around the busy industrial area.   As we crossed the bridge going towards the Centre of Town we spotted this lovely old tower.

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Then we hit Duisberg. What a depressing City and DIRTY.

Our memories of Germany have always been of a clean, country. We never saw any litter or garbage on the streets. Duisberg was a pig sty! Sorry to all our family but it was so depressing.

The worst of it was there were hardly any signs directing us through the City and when we did spot one it was often covered in graffiti and you couldn’t decide which way to go.

The north of Germany is very industrialized and therefore not very pretty.  Alongside a large industrial plant and on the floodplain of the river we spotted these sheep.  They looked very funny crowded together up the small hill. No idea why they were there.

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This morning I had changed my garmin so that I could see which direction we were heading and if we were heading south I was happy. If we got turned around and headed north or west then I knew we were going in the wrong direction.

Eventually we found ourselves on the other side of the City and spotted an Aldi in the small Town of Mundelheim. By this time it was after 2:00 p.m. We had left Wesel at 10:00 a.m. – and only travelled 55 kms  our average speed today was 15 km per hour!

I went in and bought Greek salads, bananas and 2 x chocolate milk (cost E5.50 about $8.50) and when I got outside and this young woman was trying to pick-up my sexy hubby. I can’t leave him alone for a minute! Actually she was very interested in what we were carrying and where we were going. She has done some smaller trips carrying a back-pack and was interested to know whether it is easier having panniers. Ralf told her that so long as the wait was distributed evenly it was much easier than carrying anything on your back for long distances.

We eventually found our way back to the Rhine and of course to top the day off, it started to rain. We still had another 14 kms to go the centre of Dusseldorf and no idea where we would stay for the night. We were about to cycle past this small Town of Kaiserswerth and as we looked down the street, it looked very pretty. I suggested to Ralf that we blow the budget and find a hotel for the night. Neither of us enjoy setting up a tent in the rain and having to cook in the rain.

We managed to get the last room in the Kaiserswerth hotel – cost E67 (Cdn $101.) including breakfast, worth every penny.

The weather was cool to start today and once again a head wind. The sun came out and I took my windbreaker off, but I didn’t put any sun-cream on, my arms are a little red tonight. At 4:30 it was raining and the rain is supposed to stop overnight. Hopefully it will be nice day tomorrow and the scenery will improve.  Although we will be going through another big City (Dusseldorf).

Windmills: Ralf one Jacky one, both in small garden plots (allotments) Running Total Ralf 9 Jacky 5

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Rest Day in Wesel

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June 13, 2018

The weather today was very cool. I actually had to wear my long sleeved merino wool shirt and my puffy jacket while we wandered around the downtown of Wesel.

Renate’s apartment is very close to the downtown, we were able to walk everywhere.  We saw a lot of \”donkeys\” and asked in the Tourist Information office why they were located around the downtown.  She told us that the Burgermeister of Wesel is an esel – Wesel rhymes with Esel which means that the Mayor is a donkey.

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Our rest days are not always restful. We always have things to do on our rest days. Today\’s list was long: get a sim card for the phone, get maps, hopefully get garmin fixed with the European maps downloaded, washing, upload blog and get food supplies and hopefully have time to enjoy the Town.

We had a semi-successful day. We got Aldi-talk for the phone, we were able to get “paper” maps of the Rhine route at least as far as Mainz, washing was done, I was able to upload the blogs and we were also able to get food for the next few days.  We also had a nice wander around the downtown of Wesel.

Beautiful old church

We  spotted this Star of David which recognized that there was a synagogue and Jewish school on the site. Which was located behind the church

This area was bombed extensively during WW2, and this whole area was destroyed.  The City Hall was rebuilt with the same frontage as the original, and inside the Tourist Information there is a glass floor where you can see the original foundation walls.  The original building was built in 1455. It took six years to reconstruct the front of the building which was started in 2007.  The stonework is worth 3.5 million euro. I have no ideas where they found the crafts men to recreate this frontage.

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We arrived back at Renate\’s apartment and that is when things started to fall apart. 

There are strict rules on getting a sim card and data package in Europe. We filled in all of the forms to get the process moving and we got the email to say the card had been activated. However, we cannot “unlock” the sim card to continue using the phone. We are not sure if this means that our Canadian phone will not work in Europe or there is some other problem.

Renate tried to assist us, but without much luck. Tomorrow we go back to Aldi and hopefully we will have a phone for the rest of Germany and data through the rest of the countries.

Garmin continues not too download the maps that we purchased in Canada. It makes life so much easier when we have maps to follow on the garmin it helps us search for campsites, or places to eat. Paper maps will have to suffice. We can use maps.me on the ipad, but hopefully we will have the phone set up and we can use maps.me on the phone. I have a phone holder on my bike and we will be able to see that much easier than having to get the ipad out of the bag every time we need to check the route.

Although we should be able to follow the signs for Eurovelo 15 down the Rhine quite easily – I say confidently, forever the optimist.

We spent the evening chatting with family and were in bed by 10:30. An early start tomorrow as we are hoping to get to Dusseldorf.

 

West of Venray to Wesel – 85.3 kms

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June 12, 2018

Last night while we were eating our McDonalds we planned our route for today. This morning we cycled back to McDonalds for breakfast.

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It was a cool day today. We started the day wearing our windbreakers. The wind once again was in our face, but not as strong as yesterday.

We started our day following the numbers and then crossed the border into Germany. It was nice route again, very rural with lots of farmland. Once again there was no sign indicating we had crossed the border. We knew we were in Germany when we saw the sign below. Germans love to build words. This means: Road usage fee.  Renate translated it as paying to use the road for the horses.

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This area was a large training ground for horse racing.

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We noticed the area used to be an army base. However, they had converted the bunkers into holiday homes. An interesting use of building.

We arrived in a small town, Kevelar, and found an information sign, where we were able to find the road to continue our route to Wesel. A lady on a bicycle came up to us and asked where we were going and told us to avoid the main road and to follow the “field” roads. She took us to the safe route which went through the fields on a paved road. We were concerned that it would take us all around the houses, but it followed the main roads.

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Germany does not have the sign system they use red signs with bicycles on them.

When we got to the small Town of Winnedebonk, we were able to find road signs again to Wesel. We followed these signs, the road was busy however, there was a cycle path all along the side of the road.

Eventually we could see the bridge to cross the Rhine.

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Noooo, there was a sign saying no bicycles. Fortunately we saw a cyclist coming across the bridge. He directed us to go under the bridge and the cycle route was on the other side.

We found the directions to Ralf’s cousin and headed to her apartment which is very close to the centre of Town. Before going to her house we went into the town to have some lunch.

We arrived at Renate’s apartment and chatted until 10:30 p.m. Ralf struggled a little bit with his German but they managed to get by quite well. Renate speaks really quickly and I could not understand her very well.

I was a little concerned that she gave us her bedroom, we were expecting to sleep in the living room on our mattresses. However, she said that she had to go to work at 5:00 a.m. and didn’t want to disturb us.

We are meeting more of the family tomorrow.

\"\"Windmills two for Ralf one for me – running total Ralf 8 to Jacky 4

Bergeijk to West of Venray– 85.3 kms

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June 11, 2018

This is the route we followed today. Last night I found the Netherlands Cycling Routes website and planned the route, then wrote all the numbers down we needed to follow. We saw lots of cyclists out yesterday with only cue cards to follow.

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This is where we cycled?

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I think I prefer the French way – they would have signs underneath road signs at main intersections with how many kilometres to the end of your route and the next Town you were heading to.

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After breakfast of cereal and juice we headed back into Bergijk and found our first set of numbers. We seemed to be doing o.k. but then the numbers got confused (or we did) and we headed out in the wrong direction. Fortunately, today there were information boards with maps on them placed regularly throughout the route. This means we could find the number and correct our route by looking at the map as well as the numbers.

We were only misplaced three times today!!

The route was very nice once again a mix of paved cycle paths, a couple of unpaved areas and a few streets with cobblestones.

We saw horses disguised as zebras.

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We followed the route through a small town with a private house – Kastel Heese – that had its own moat. Ralf said every house should have its own moat to keep out the riff-raff. The house is open on the week-ends for tours of the house and gardens.

I wouldn’t usually comment on garbage bins, but in Holland along the cycle routes they have these bins that are designed to be used from a bike, they are cone shaped and at the height of cyclist. It seems to work as we didn’t see a lot of garbage, although around the bin some cyclists aims were not so good.

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Although it was a lovely route today, the wind was brutal. We were heading north-east and we were into the wind all day. Of course Holland is flat however, we both struggled and felt shattered by the end of the ride.

We eventually arrived in Venray at 2:30 and found a Tourist Information Centre open. The two older ladies behind the counter were more interested in chatting than assisting me. Eventually one of them turned to me, I asked if there was a campsite in the area, not too far as we have already cycled 78 kms. I can honestly say she was the most unhelpful person I have encountered at a tourist information centre. I did manage to get a map of the area we are going to cycle tomorrow, they had no maps of the City Centre and eventually she went on-line to find the route to the campsite. She was quite surprised that we didn’t have a phone that we could get all the information ourselves. She even directed me to a telephone store! I told her we would be in Germany tomorrow and would get a cell phone then. Her response “That is not very helpful now”

Venray is a nice city with lots of historical buildings, but don’t expect a lot of help from the Tourist Information office.

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We haven’t managed to find a supermarket open yet, other than the small campsite store yesterday. A lot of the stores are closed on Mondays. The market in Venray was already closing down for the day. We decided to head out to the campsite in the hopes that they would have a small shop or cafeteria or we would pass a supermarket on the way. No such luck, the camp site is a small campground with few facilities, a swimming pool, good, hot, clean showers, a small cafeteria (closed on Mondays). The campsite was called Barrier Oude de Camping and cost Euro 14.50.

Fortunately for us we had passed a McDonalds (1 km away). After setting up the tent we headed back to fill our empty tummies. Chicken filet on a bun, large fries, salad and a milkshake, I almost replenished the calories I burnt today. We might have to head there for breakfast tomorrow as we don’t have any coffee.

We will be in Wesel tomorrow and visit with Ralf’s family for a few days and then we will be joining Eurovelo 15 route down the Rhine.

Windmill spotting two to one for me Running Total Ralf 6-Jacky 3

North of Herental to Bergeijk – 66.9 kms

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June 10, 2018

We had a good breakfast and were given directions to the start of our route. Our campsite, dinner and breakfast came to the grand sum of 28 Euros about 42 dollars Cdn. We thought we had to turn left out of the gate, but the person on reception gave us other directions to pick-up the canal and follow the canal, a more scenic route.

We got terribly misplaced and realized we were heading south-east instead of north-east. We managed to find the N163 and followed the road until the Town of Kasterloo only 15 kms from our start but we had already done 25 kms! The N163 is a busy road however, it did have a cycle path along it for almost all the way. The Tourist Information office in Kasterloo was open and I was able to find the route again following the # intersection system.

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We were hoping to end our day in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Due to the wrong direction this morning and another wrong turn in the afternoon and the heat of the day (25 degrees) we found ourselves in the Town of Bergeijk, Netherlands, we had a late lunch of paninis and fries and checked out where we could find a camp site. We had not been able to get any food as most of the shops are closed on Sundays.

We did find Camping de Paal, where there is a restaurant and a supermarket, it is a large camping site, designed for families. Swimming pools water slides, petting zoo, quiet cycling areas, games areas, everything you could possible need for a weeks holiday with the kids.

We were able to buy dinner for tonight and breakfast for 15 euros from the camp supermarket. Tonight’s campsite is costing us 23 Euros for a pitch (no electricity).

European campsites have a special 3-prong plug for the power outlets. We had one last time we were cycling through Europe but not this time, we might have to buy one because they are used at every campsite. We do need power to power the garmins, phone, laptop and iPad!! The things you carry on a bicycle.

The routes today varied from on-road town routes to rural, scenic routes. We crossed into Holland without realizing we had crossed an international border. Ralf spotted another windmill, Running total 5-1 and we heard a cuckoo.

We were hoping to get to Wesel tomorrow, but it is going to be Tuesday now.

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Kampenhout to North of Herental – 57.28 kms

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June 9, 2018

After a good nights sleep we said our farewells to Sonia and Ward.

Unfortunately Garmin failed us again. Ralf had downloaded the maps of the Europe Cycle Routes but for some inexplicable reason they didn’t end up on his garmin. We tried again last night but this morning they were still not there!!

We headed out with a paper map of the cycling routes and with a rough idea of where we were going to sleep and the address of the campsite in Westerlo.

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Raymond Impanis was a world class Tour de France cyclist who came from this area. We only cycled a short distance on his route.

Belgium is infamous for its cobblestones, it you know anything about cycling you will know about the Tour of Flanders – the cobblestones are horrendous. Ward referred to them as Kinder Kopf (children’s head) rather gruesome when you think about it, but very funny. We only had to cross a couple of sections of cobblestones today, it is really tough on your hands

We were given directions to the camping store so that we could buy gas and followed a series of cycling routes to our destination of Westerlo. The camping store was called Zorro!

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We passed a giant lawnmower. I didn’t think had a thing about “giant” things like in Australia and Canada, but apparently they have “giant” lawnmowers.

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It was a lovely days ride we followed the excellent cycling routes of Belgium north-east. The routes tell you which number to follow along the route by a series of intersections. Which means if you do not know the system you may get very confused and lost. Each “route” tells you the next intersection to look for and that has a number on it. Initially it looks as though you are following route 41 but that is intersection 41 and when you get to that intersection you have to know if you are going to intersection 40 or 39, or switching to another cycle route and following 67! It sounds very complicated but so long as you know what routes you are following it makes it very easy. We saw people with cards on their bikes which only had the numbers on indicating the intersections to follow. Not the town or city they were heading for but the #s of the intersections they were going to follow.

We looked for somewhere to eat as we entered a small town. We actually smelled our lunch before we spotted the Imbiss (fast food truck). Lunch was a bratwurst on a really good bun.

We had a map to follow but eventually fell off the map and headed towards Westerlo, we passed Westerlo and found ourselves in the City of Herental. We spotted a bike shop and Ralf went in to ask about Europe maps for the garmin and where we could buy another map like the one that Sonia had given us. He directed us to a bookshop in the centre of Town and told us where a campsite was and gave us directions on how to get there. He called the campsite to reserve a spot for us.

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Our campsite is actually a Boy Scout Camp. As we arrived there were a group of guys drinking beer. This was a promising sign, although we didn’t know if they had bought it with them or if it was available. It isn’t very often you can get beer at a Boy Scout camp.

We were told there would be a spaghetti dinner and breakfast was available from 8:00a.m. While we were waiting for dinner, uploading garmins, planning tomorrows route and writing the blog we saw that there was a small bar that sold beer. The beer is made by the Boy Scouts! You have to love Belgium and Belgium beer! As we sat down for dinner the noise increased from 5 decibels to 1 million decibels, as 100 boys came in for dinner. We later discovered these were boys ranging from 8 to 14 and were in a soccer tournament for the week-end.

Surprisingly our camp-site was very quiet and we were asleep very quickly.

Ralf spotted four windmills and I spotted 1. Four to one not a good start for me and we have not passed through Holland yet.

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Brockville to Brussels

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June 7, 2018

I popped around to my neighbour\’s yesterday to give her the key to the house. Did I mention I have great neighbours. We have only been here eight weeks and my neighbours have generously said they would check on the house while we are away. Diane did mention something about selling it but I think she was joking. As I was giving Diane my key and drinking another glass of wine with her I was telling her about the taxi we had arranged to take us to the train station (only 2 kms from the house), my other neighbour Lia offered to take us to the station with our bike boxes, bags etc. This really is a lovely neighbourhood. Thank you Diane and George and Lia and John. No doubt we will have the opportunity to reciprocate their kindness when we get back and in the future.

We loaded our bikes into the back of Lia and John’s pick-up and headed to the train station in Brockville. We unloaded everything into the baggage area and then waited for the train.

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The train was running a little late (only ten minutes). The bags and bikes were loaded and we were on our way to Montreal, Dorval airport. There were a lot of people on the train heading to Montreal for the Montreal Grand Prix this week-end.

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When we arrived at the Dorval Train station we spotted the shuttle bus. I asked the driver if we could fit the bikes on the bus and he said “yes no problem”. We were at the terminal 10 minutes later.

The check in was so quick and smooth we were in shock and of course we then had to wait four and a half hours before the plane departed.

We met a lovely lady on the plane (Claudia). We chatted for a while and she has invited us to stay with her in Montreal. I think I managed to get a couple of hours sleep. The time seemed to go very quickly and before we knew it we were landing in Brussels.

The bikes were slow to arrive and at this point we still did not know if Sonia (our warmshowers host) was picking up at the airport or we were going to have to put the bikes together at the airport.

We pushed our bike boxes and baggage through customs and this woman rushed up to us and asked us if we were Jacky and Ralf. We took our bikes to her car and that is all that would fit. She told us which bus to catch to her house and off she went, with all of our worldly belongings, except passports, computer and money.

Ralf jokingly said “ Well that is the last time we see them”. When Sonia told her husband what had happened He asked “and they trusted you?”

We are different when we travel by bike, we trust in the kindness of people.

Sonia was waiting for us at the bus stop when we arrived in Kampenhout. We had coffee and some cookies and then Ralf put the bikes together. Sonia has a beautiful house and property and I enjoyed looking at her garden and chatting to her.

We had a couple of hours nap in the afternoon and when Ward got home from work we walked to the local restaurant and had a wonderful pizza and craft beer made on the property. Sonia and Ward have three children, their youngest daughter and boyfriend are the travellers and have travelled by bike to Croatia. We offered to host Sonia and Ward in Canada, but they have three children living in different parts of Europe that they spend their vacations visiting.

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Once again we had kind, generous, warm showers host.

Training Rides – Brockville

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May 2018

We went for a beautiful ride this week (mid-May). Brockville’s prevailing winds come from the west, sometimes north-west or south-west but primarily from the west. This means that if you start your ride heading west you are up against a wind. The benefit is that same wind blows you home when you are tired.

We have found a short 30kms route around the small Village of Lyn. We head west, then north, a loop around the village and then head back to Brockville along Highway 2.

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On Tuesday this week the sun was shining although the wind was a little chilly we wore our windbreakers. As we cycled along the rural roads we could see green shoots sprouting from the fields. The trees outlining the fields were full of blooms and had a heady scent of apple blossom as we passed. When we came into the Village of Lynn the Lilac blasted us with its sweet aroma. What a lovely ride – the weather is warming up, the fields are coming alive and life is good.

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Ralf has hurt his ankle and has been resting it for a week. I continue to do the training rides around Brockville. The Thousand Island Parkway is an out and back along the same route. The Parkway has an excellent cycle path which leads to Gananoque about 50 kms away. Along the river there are lots of little Islands some big enough to put a cottage on and others big enough for a couple of houses.

Sometimes you spot the strangest people trying to call home.

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We are both really enjoying living in Brockville, there are lots of things to do. Multi-cultural festival a couple of week-ends ago, lots of good things to eat and entertainment from around the world – Peru, Ukraine, India, Ireland and Holland.

Last week-end the downtown was blocked for “Street Eats” all the shops had outdoor sales and again more food and entertainment.

The other good thing is we have a Family Doctor already. Ralf called them about his ankle and was told to go to the hospital for an x-ray and then make an appointment with the Doctor for the next day to get his results and the Doctor could check the x-ray and his ankle. Amazing service. There is nothing broken and no sign of arthritis, the Doc thinks it is a strained tendon! Rest, compression bandage and advil.

This week-end we had our first warmshowers guest at our new house.  Lynda is travelling from east to west across Canada (those headwind will be tough).  She was from Auckland New Zealand and lived about 2 kms from Chris my nephews father-in-law who we stayed with at the start of our Grand Adventure Part One.

We are preparing for our trip, the bikes are cleaned and packed, the panniers are packed and ready to go. I only hope that Ralf’s ankle holds out.

Spring Bike Rides and Flights Booked

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April 22, 2018 – 30.5kms

Finally spring has arrived and I had planned a short 20 kms bike ride for today. We had Ralf’s home-made waffles for breakfast, pumped up the tires on the touring bikes and headed out.

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We followed the Brock Trail from our house to the northern end of the trail at Laurier Blvd. The trail is going to continue to the Conservation Area but at the moment that section has not been paved and was not open.

The trail was quite good, paved but a little bumpy in areas where the tree roots have edged through the pavement. There were a few areas where you had to guess which way the trail continued after the road crossing but for the most part it was easy to follow and well signed. We went under the railway and the short tunnel was thick with ice. We had to get off and walk through the tunnel.

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At one point we took the wrong route and ended up on a dead end street. Fortunately there was a lady working in her garden so we asked her where the trail carried on.

Well wouldn’t you know it she was Scottish and we ended up chatting to her and her hubby for about half an hour. Grace and James were really nice and James found us a local map of Brockville with the trail on it and gave it to us and bid us farewell.

Our second error was after heading out on Centennial Road. We were supposed to make a right turn at Reynolds Street actually it should have been Kelly Road. I for some reason was looking for Reynolds Street – which didn’t exist and we ended up going through South Augusta to Maitland almost 5 kms outside of Brockville oops. This made our short 20 km ride into a 30 km ride. It was lovely though. This area is very rural, lots of farmland and gently rolling hills

All the car drivers gave us lots of room, the sun was out and there was a light breeze. A great first ride in our new neighbourhood.

April 23, 2018

Brockville to Lyn – 33.03 Kms

 Another beautiful ride going west of Brockville and again an error in navigating making a short 20 km ride into a 33 kms ride!

Again we took the Brock Trail, this time heading west to Highway 2. 

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If you are coming to visit us on a bike, look for this sign and the trail will bring you almost to our front door.

We headed west along Highway 2 which has a cycle lane and then a nice wide shoulder. The cycle lane had already been swept of its winter debris. There were some nice rolling hills along this stretch before we headed north to the small Village of Lyn. Again, the scenery was very rural with farmland that was shedding its winter grey. The trees are barely showing any buds, very grey and stark. However, the sun and slight breeze made for a very nice ride.

Of course we took a wrong turn in Lyn, there were only two choices and we took the wrong one. We ended up north of Brockville on the busy Highway 29. This is not where I wanted to end up. However the car drivers once again gave us plenty of room. The shoulder was sporadic, when it was there it was nice and wide and fairly clean. There were a few short climbs on this route and it is well worth doing in the opposite direction (the 20 kms route) not the 33 kms.

May 9, 2018

The Flights are Booked – June 7, 2018

Finally we have settled into the house, the furniture has been delivered, the new fridge and stove are here. There have been some hiccups with the hardwood floor, which delayed the booking of the flights. I will not dwell on that as the good news is we have booked our flights to Europe.

The plan was to fly into Amsterdam and then follow the Eurovelo Route 15 from Holland to Switzerland, along the Rhine (basically EV15 in reverse).

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The best laid plans do not always work out. We are now flying into Brussels (Belgium) and cycling into Germany then following the Eurovelo Route 15 down the Rhine. The map below shows the approximate route.  We are heading to Wesel as that is where some of Ralf\’s family lives and we are hoping to visit with them for a couple of days.

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There were no direct flights from Montreal to Amsterdam.  When you have connecting flights and you are flying with bicycles you pay for each leg of the flight. We looked at getting a taxi to Toronto but the cost was almost the cost of one flight to Amsterdam.

I looked at other airports and found we could fly direct into Brussels from Montreal and return direct from Rome to Montreal for less than the original plan of flying into Amsterdam. The added bonus is that we can take the train from Brockville to Montreal airport. We both have points on our Via Preference cards (the train rewards card) and we are going on the train for free. Life is Good.

It gets even better, I sent out a few requests for Warmshowers hosts for our first night in Belgium and a very kind couple have said they could host us and pick us up from the airport. It is about 17 kms from their house. How nice is that.

Now we really need to get some biking in as we are both chunky monkeys and need to get some training. Although the first week or so is relatively flat along the Rhine, I do not want to “cycle into fitness”.