Into Holland

Although not actually into Holland until lunchtime, it all looked Dutch today. The plentiful local clay & lack of any building stone, has led to brick houses, clay pantile roofs, & brick pavior cycle paths. Neat little villages are linked by cycle paths along dykes, overlooking fields of horses & cows. They are quite adventurous with new enterprises though, as we also saw kangaroos & llamas! We knew we were in Holland proper when the football supporting flags changed to orange. We camped at a lovely wooded site N. of Arnhem in an area of country houses & parks. Arnhem is understandably mostly post war, but the Station is a new colourful modern design. We took a photograph of the Station bikepark. There must have been at least a thousand bikes!

Our main reason for visiting Arnhem was to see the 'Bridge too Far'. Now called the 'John D Frost Bridge' after the commander of the only battalion of the First Airborne Division to reach the bridge in the attack of September 1944 - they held the bridge for 3 days waiting for the reinforcements that never arrived, & suffered enormous losses against a much larger German force. The photos of the complete devastation are on display. Every building around the bridge was destroyed. They only surrendered when they ran out of ammunition.

On our way W., we visitied a Dutch war grave site. All the hundreds of beautifully tended graves were very young soldiers, killed around the 11th of May 1940, when the German Army overwhelmed the Netherlands, on their way to France. We camped in beautiful woods at Doorn near Utrecht, with red squirrels & Greater Spotted Woodpeckers in the nearby trees.

We are now heading for Leiden to stay with friends & explore the Amsterdam area.

Fussball Fever....

We popped into Bonn to use the internet, opposite the station - where the helpful owner allowed our bikes inside the shop for security. Nearby is Gilde's Bookshop. Starved of reading material since Spain, we fell on their English section. Eventually common sense prevailed & we restricted ourselves to 1 book each, & a map of Holland. Football fever has hit Germany, with everyone flying flags, eagerly anticipating kick-off at 6.oopm between Croatia & Germany. We watched the match on a big screen in the Camp restaurant. Its a close game, & the Ref gets very stressy towards the end, waving yellow & red cards at anyone who catches his eye. Croatia win 2-1, deflating our fellow diners.

As we approach Koln, there are fine views of the twin-spired cathedral, as we pass close along the river front. There is a lot of high-rise flat & office development here, & its is busy with tourist boats, including one shaped as a whale called, you've guessed, Moby Dick. N. of the city is heavily industrialised, including acres of Ford motor plants along by the railway. We crossed to the other bank to peaceful meadows, where the Rhein dam is full of rabbit warrens, & bunnies run across the cycle path. We camp at a Rhein-side site, & watch Barnacle Geese with their goslings, & fellow campers with an impressive array of fishing rods catching nothing.

Duisberg & Dusseldorf merge into a huge conurbation. In the densely populated inner city areas where there are snooker halls & kebab shops, the Turkish red flag outdid the German flag in size & number, as football fever mounts. We eventually emerge into flat open country, & camp in a huge lakeside site. The young German cyclist in the next tent confirmed that this is the largest site in Europe. His tent was a genuine American Vietnam War tent in mint condition. He encouraged us to visit Xanten as it is full of Roman remains. We had hoped to follow his advice the next morning, but there was only a very limited Sunday service on the foot ferry, so this will have to wait for another time.

Middle Rhein....

The path through Mainz was excellent, taking us under sandstone & iron bridges, passed a tall ship & a wonderfully aromatic huge Nescafe processing plant, then finally through acres of allotments & orchards.

At Bingen the whole of the large waterfront was taken over by their equivalent of the Chelsea Flower Show - on until October if you fancy a visit. We camped right opposite the famous Loreley Rocks, where it is fascinating to watch the pilot tugs pull enormous barges through this treacherous section. Just around the corner, we pass through St Goar, very busy with cruise boats. From here we can see 3 castles, & the rest of the day brings us views of all shapes & sizes of 'schlosses' set in very steep vineyards.

At Koblenz, we suddenly notice the river flowing the 'wrong' way & realise we have turned up the River Moselle. This is the point, therefore, for us to cross the arched Roman bridge & regain the Rhein path. As we enter Remagen, we recognise immediately the remains of the famous Luddendorf railway bridge. This was used by the first complete American infantry batallion to cross the Rhein in March 1945, showing great enterprise & bravery - it was subsequently destroyed 10 days later during the fighting, but a significant strategic step had been made. We camped at the site right by the bridge, where we had had a family holiday 5 years ago. We chose a different plot this time, remembering our tent flooding in a summer thunderstorm on the last occasion!

A bit of culture....

We paid a flying visit to Speyer, a World Heritage site due to its fine Cathedral, Churches & town gates. The spires were visible for miles. Worms was also impressive, with its red sandstone Cathedral (Dom) & ancient fountain. They appeared to be launching a spaceship from the city centre, but it turned out to be white sheeted scaffold enclosing an enormous tower under repair. The majority of Worms centre is postwar, so it must have been badly damaged in WW2.

We met 2 very friendly German touring cyclists on their way home to Koblenz. They had an excellent detailed map, & so helped guide us through a muddy diversion, & to find a campsite, on the waters edge just short of Mainz. This was the first of many sites where the electrical connection points are 5 foot above ground to escape flood damage.

Mind the gap....!!!

We shopped for lunch in Kehl market the next morning. The cheese stall man told us the piece we selected was made by Bavarian Monks. As we left the outskirts of town, a hare overtook us on the verge. We followed the Rhein on top of the dam on the E. bank. At last there were large barges to watch, mostly carrying sand & gravel. In the quieter waters edge there were lots of swans & tufted ducks. We reached the bridge we hoped to cross to the French campsite, but found it was a retactable bridge, fully & permanently retracted! We took the nearest car ferry, which was fine until we reached the opposite bank, where the ramp was under 6 inches of filthy water. We were glad we had transferred our sleeping bags to the higher rear panniers.

We carry on the W. bank the next day (now both banks are in Germany), on a smooth tarmac cycle path through beech woods, glimpsing deer. Because the path is so good here, it is used by all sorts of cyclists, including tandems with the front part recumbent, recumbents operated by hand pedals, & a wheelchair tandem like the one Josie Dew cycled round Britain raising money for charity.

Good weather for ducks....

For the first time in weeks we had to pack up a wet tent in the morning drizzle. We kept to the German side of the Rhein as it had been such a good route thus far, but we were soon plunged into woods, & then a bike 'No-Entry' sign blocked our way. We ignored this (as we usually do), but were soon up to our pedals in mud, as they were logging.

Ten wasted miles later, after going round in circles, we gave up on Germany, taking a car-ferry to France, & soon were on a lovely clean tarmac towpath on the Rhein-Rhone Canal taking us easily to Strasbourg. We stopped to let a Mallard marshall her 9(!) tiddly-tiny ducklings across the path into the Rhein, then crossed back into Germany to camp at Kehl.

Towns with a past.....

On our way to Colmar, we passed through Neuf Brisach. An enormous ditch surrounded thick octagonal walls, they really didn't want visitors in the days of old Alsace. In 1951 however, French N Brisach & German Breisach were the first European towns to sign a Common Market Agreement, leading to todays EU. What were they thinking of!!!?

Entering woods on the Cycle Route, we were going in the opposite direction to a large enthusiastic group of teenagers taking part in a cross-country running & cycle relay race. Unscathed, we reached Colmar. Many medieval timber-framed houses & public buildings remain. There is also an area referred to twee-ly as 'Little Venice', where a few canals surround the old Fish Market. The steep tiled roofs & gable fronts to the houses lining the canals, we thought, were more reminiscent of Amsterdam then Venice.

There was enough time left in the afternoon to follow a town trail around Breisach. In contrast here, most of the old buildings were destroyed in 1945 by American troops shelling across the Rhein.

Downhill all the way from here.....?

We now choose to cross the Rhine into Germany & follow the E. bank, as on this side there is an unsurfaced but excellent cycle path right along the waters edge, separated by beech & oak woods from any development. No large vessels use this part of the Rhein, as there are electricity generating barrages across. A few yachts tack passed, & rather unsettlingly, a German Army Unit is practising with amphibious vehicles.

We camp in an orchard in the village of Hochstetten. A pair of Greater Spotted Woodpeckers pick ants off an ash tree trunk by our tent. We are stayinfg here 2 nights as tomorrow we are to cycle across the bridge at nearby Breisach to reach the French town of Colmar, another of those 'Thousand Places to see before you die'.

We are blogging in the local library for free!!!

Last of the Lakes....

We cycled the S. shore of Bodensee, & then lake Untersee, our 12th & final Swiss lake. The water was very busy with yachts & dinghys. The cycle route took us alongside the railway, passed many village stations, & over innumerable level crossings. We saw more touring cyclists today than we have seen in our entire lives! There were also herds of Roller-Bladers & Nordic-Walkers of all ages.

The Rhein-side campsite near Schaffhausen has lawns down to the waters edge. We breakfasted next morning beside some hopeful looking ducks, & watched early morning scullers pulling hard against the very strong current. Only a few miles from here we had magnificent views from a fortified village over the Rheinfalls, where 600cu.m/sec of water pours over enomous boulders in a white frenzy.

The cycle path now took us through villages of timber frame houses. In one of these the Rolls-Royce Appreciation Society of Switzerland was meeting, & showing a fine collection of vintage cars. We camp at Zurzach. The 2 Dutch touring cyclists on the next pitch are cycling to Rome from Maastricht, & give us directions to our next campsite N. of Basel. We found this most useful at the end of the following day, as Basel was a mares nest. An attractive old town, with fountains, murals & trams, but complicated by roadworks & some enormous football event they were hosting. Eventually we found our way to the recommended site in the French village of Huningue. The dutch touring cyclist here was also cycling to Rome!

Oops, there goes another country.....!!!

Along the S. shore of Walensee, through 2 specially made bike tunnels, very steep inclines (the Swiss don't do hairpins for bikes), then an easy valley floor to Sargens & a short hop to the Rhine. Here there are some WWII gun emplacements. We cross over into Liechenstein at its souternmost border at 11:10am, follow the Rhine Dam Cycle Path, with a small diversion to whizz round the village of Ruggel. At 12:40pm we pass out of the N. border into Austria. After 2 hours, which included a lunch stop, we are through Austria & back into Switzerland near the Bodensee.

The Rhine had seeped through the dyke as it approaches Bodensee, & flooded the cycle path. An elderly Swiss lady cyclist turned back with us, saying she'd never seen it that bad, & helped us find a dry route around. Soon we happened upon an immaculate campsite on the S. shore at Altenrhein & had a good nights sleep after 69miles of rather warm cycling in 3 countries!

Lake Lucerne to Walensee....

Our journey continues back through Lucerne on Cycle Route 9, N.E. to the top of the Zugesee. At the improbably named lakeside town of Zug, we lose our way in roadworks, but the local postman on scooter with trailer leads the way to open countryside. We then head E., passed another small lake, gaining height most of the way, on forest tracks up the side of the tumbling Lorse River. Now into a magnificent high valley of traditional farms, it was a very hot day &, panting from a very steep climb, we saw a mirage. In the middle of nowhere, there were tables & chairs outside a barn, & a farmers wife selling ice-cold beer through a hatch. The local Eichof beers didn't touch the sides going down. Not much further on we camped at a farm in the tiny village of Bennau. We share a small field with 2 Christmas trees & 3 empty caravans, with a view of the valley & ski-lift in the foreground.

Raised at 5.30am by the Church bell opposite the farm, we had an early start. Not far down the road, we passed an enormous ski-jump, snow -blowers & chairlifts, with cows grazing under - it must look so different in the snow. We cross 2 lakes by road bridges, including the E. end of Lake Zurich. We camped in a wooded site at the W. end of the Walensee, right on the waters edge. There we met 2 Canadian touring cyclists, who had started from Barcelona. The lake is full to bursting with snow-melt, rivers tumbling in from the mountains carrying loads of driftwood. There is a magnificent waterfall opposite, & a village with access only by water.

Wanderweg....

Leaving the bikes at the camp for the day, we walked up Pilatus Mountain following well-marked footpaths (Wanderwegs). through decidous woods with myrtleberry bushes under, then across alpine meadows straight from the 'Sound of Music' poster, with acres of marsh cotton, purple orchids & enormous buttercups. We pass wooden ski lodges closed up for the summer, decorated with antique wooden skis.

At 1,430 metres, just under the snowline, we picnic with a view of the end of the chairlift & the start of the very steep cable car to the summit. This is as far as we can manage today, but hope to return someday to take the rack-railway up the other side. On the way back down, we take a slightly different route, passing through a traditional farmyard, with herds of goats with tinkling bells, & some reindeer. As it is midweek, we have the mountain to ourselves, just a few nordic walkers & mountain-bikers.