August 3rd - Duisburg to Düsseldorf

Despite getting very detailed maps for Duisburg, today's ride was challenging. While we were never far off track, navigating city streets, especially the side streets, is hard. At one point, we had the map fully extended and we were all looking around for a street sign, any street sign that would indicate our location. Two cyclist had pity on us and asked us where we were going. I said Düsseldorf. They said follow us we are going there too.

They were two older people who cycled at a slower pace. Since they knew the way and didn't stop every five minutes, our average speed was two or three times higher. As we rode, I talked with them. They had ridden from the Boden See to Düsseldorf in one week. This is about 1000 km (600 miles). Their house was outside of Düsseldorf but showed us directions to a Rhine path. This path was right along the Rhine that was a welcome change from the congested streets of Duisburg.

From this point forward, the navigation was relatively easy to the Holiday Inn Express. Staying on points tonight and the next two nights. As we rode, we passed directly by a large Mercedes factory and the largest Mercedes dealership I have every seen. As we ate dinner, there were a number of Fortuna Düsseldorf (soccer of course) fans gathering and preparing for the game (buying beer). After dinner we watched Fortuna Düsseldorf's first game of the season. Last year, they advanced from the 3^rd division to the 2^nd division last year and have hopes of reaching the Bundesliga (Germany's 1^st division).

As the evening wore on, the adults were finding interesting new sore points. My right knee was sore, I'm assuming from pushing hard on the right pedal at each of our starts. S has sore thumb muscles, that were likely caused by holding the tandem up at stops. I think it is more difficult to ride half the distance in the city rather than twice the distance in the country. We should only have a couple more days of city riding and then we will be back to long distance riding.

Riding in the city also means that we have not been very close to the Rhine. Many factories are directly on the Rhine and we have been riding back roads. This means that we don't get to see the Rhine as much and can't use it as a navigation tool.

Overall we are settling into the rhythm of riding. We purchase supplies early in the morning and stop somewhere to eat lunch. Usually we can find a park bench or picnic table. Bathrooms are often hard to find. Now when we find a bathroom we all use it since we are not sure when the next one will appear. Water is another item that causes us problems. We can carry about 6 liters of water on the bike but usually use twice that amount per day. We often find small grocery stores where we can buy a few liters of water.

Talk to you tomorrow.