Euro Tour: Maastricht to Bonn// Being glad there aren't bears in Germany anymore

Basecamp Bonn

My phone told me that it was going to rain for the next three days so I did the whole two pairs of socks with a middle layer of sandwich bag electric taped around my legs. Sandwiched sandwich bags if you will. I’d divided my route and broken it down to stops in Aachen and Düren before arriving in Bonn. 

Here is a tip: If anyone asks where you are going, always just say the next town. If you say your final destination they freak you out by making bewildered faces and saying how far away and uphill it is as if you have never looked at map or cycled anywhere in your life ever.

I noticed the border crossing to Germany only because the cycle lanes became less amazing, still amazing by my standards but just a noticeable notch below Belgium’s. 

It rained on and off most of the day as I cycled through industrial areas, university towns, fields with sunflowers and woodlands where I was glad I’d had a conversation with a German lady from work about there not being bears in Germany anymore.

Somewhere in Erftstadt when it stopped raining enough to take a picture. Damn it.

I challenge you to cycle through woods in Germany without thinking of the Grimm Brothers' stories. I’m riding the world’s loudest bike which is good for scaring off animals but rubbish for being stealth like. For someone who says they love being in deserted rural areas, I really do rejoice at seeing an actual road after a while. It means I can stop singing my I’m not scared song. It goes like this; ‘I’m not scared. I’m not scared. I’m not scared.’ (Repeat x 26786585).

Towards Bonn the rain really started giving it. I arrived at BaseCamp Hostel Bonn which is an aircraft carrier with rooms made out of train carriages, eccentrically decorated vintage caravans, Volkswagen Transporters and tourbusses with lots of quirky touches like book exchanges in old phone boxes and mezzanine areas looking over everything. It’s like a campsite indoors so I could clean my muddy bike without being rained on even more.

I’m not enjoying the rain but I’m really enjoying when brands use the letter Ü in signs using a font that makes it look even more like a smily face. 

Read the next stage of Euro Tour: Bonn to Sankt Goar// Hating wearing waterproof trousers with every fibre of my being.

Thighs Matters Euro Tour stages:

1 Brussels to Maastricht// Realising my hatred for Hall & Oats and seeing a really old wall

2 Maastricht to Bonn// Being glad there aren't bears in Germany anymore

3 Bonn to Sankt Goar// Hating wearing waterproof trousers with every fibre of my being.

4 Sankt Goar to Mannheim// Never trusting Google Maps and very nearly dying

5 Heidleberg to Stuttgart// Going into a tour-trance & being thankful for Pierce Brosnan

6 Stuttgart to Bad Urach// Legs Day

7 Bad Urach to Ulm// Bike dancing & holding my breath through tunnels

8 Ulm to Ingolstadt// Bonking and trying on dresses 
9 Ingolstadt to Regensburg// Bike drying my hair and putting bikes on boats
10 Regensburg to Wörth an der Donau: Pimping my ride and hunting down chocolate
11 Wörth an der Donau to Passau// My last day in Germany and probably the sunburniest 
12 The Austrian bit. Not the Australian bit as autocorrect likes to think
13 Vienna to Bratislava// Five things to do that are not 'go on a stag do'
14 Bratislava to Gyor // Not checking my feast days
15 Gyor to Esztergom// Being scared of dogs and referring to my bike and I as 'we'