August 5 – Düsseldorf to Köln

Today was a difficult day for a number of . First the weather has been warmer reaching the upper 80s. While we have been doing in the range of 30 miles the past days today we traveled in the range of 60 km (40 miles). I'm not sure because my cycle computer was not properly mounted and was not registering the distance traveled for an unknown period of time.

We have also had annoying tire problems. The tires we are running on the tandem are relatively small (28c for the cyclists in the audience). In order to have them withstand the weight of two people and our junk we have to pump them up to about 100 psi. On Tuesday (the 5^th) we were riding and I noticed a weird bump on my front tire. I made a mental note to investigate when we arrived at our hotel (Holiday Inn Express again). When we were about 10 kilometers from our hotel, the other tandem started making a weird whacking noise. After about 30 seconds of the whacking noise a loud bang was heard and suddenly the rear tire was flat. I immediately knew that we had blown out the sidewall of the tire. A flat tire is not a big problem but a destroyed tire is a problem, especially if you don't have a spare which we didn't. Luckily my years of reading cycling magazines had prepared me for this moment. I heard that you could patch a blown tire with a piece cardboard. The cover of a cycling map was sacrificed in the name of forward progress. After inserting the cardboard around the tube in the area of the blown sidewall, we pumped up the tire and were back in business. While we were getting back on the bike I noticed a wear spot rear tire of my tandem. That combined with the strange bump on my front tire, resolved me to replace all the tires on the tandem and get a spare.

We rolled into Köln (Colgne) and stopped in a main square area to find out if there was a cycling store in the area. I was accosted by a animals rights activist but I was ready. After about a one minute speech in German, I replied, in English, that I didn't have any idea what she said and wondered if she knew if there was a cycling store in the area. Befuddled she walked away. I need to try this with German while back home.

I found somebody who knew of a store right on our way. Right as we were leaving, a lady fell off a bench and rolled to the ground face first. Her friends tried to put her back in the bench but she was rather large and they struggled with the task. On the bike ride to the store I explained to Sarah that she was not hurt but rather was drunk. So drunk that she could not control herself anymore. Nice conversation.

We arrive at the bike store that was very well stocked but with less than friendly staff. I really wanted to talk to a sales person but they were way too busy to help anybody. I did find four new tires and a foldable tire just in case. After being belittled by the cashier (she does this to all the customers), we were on our way to the hotel only a few kms away.

The hotel was nice enough but didn't have a great place to store our bikes. There was some area behind the hotel that was enclosed by a 6 foot fence and had a gate. This would have to suffice. I locked the tandems to a fence and closed the gate behind me. When I met up with the rest of the family, I could not find the room keys and realized I must have put them down when I was locking the bikes. I went inside and asked for the keys to the fence.

“Yah the keys must be here somewhere” was the reply from the clerk. Visions of lifting two tandems over a 6 foot fence suddenly flashed through my brain. After a few minutes of looking she informed me that she didn't have a key and this was reserved for the maintenance people.

“Will the maintenance people be here in the morning?” I asked.

“No” The clerk replied.

“How will we get the bikes out in the morning?” My questioning continued.

“We can access that space through the conference room”

“Can I look for my keys now?”

“No the room is full with a business conference”

“When will it be done?”

“Eight PM”

“OK. Can you make me another room key?”

“Yes”

All this time, people are waiting to get to our room and take a shower. This was quite an impositions for our family. A shower feels really good after seven hours of cycling in the hot sun. I'm sure is was quite an imposition for the other people in the lobby. A family of four smells quite nasty after seven hours of cycling in the hot sun.

I was hoping to swap the tires before going to bed but the lack of a key and on-going business conference makes this impossible. The best part of the conversation with the clerk, was that it continually shifted from English to German. I guess I was frustrated with her poor English and she was likely frustrated with my poor German. Each of us was trying to shift the conversation to the language we thought would work best. Likely if I spoke English and she spoke German we would have the best luck since it is easier to understand a language than it is to speak it. Instead I spoke German and she spoke English... the worst of both worlds.

That evening I spent most of my time trying to find accommodations. We are riding through a tourist area and approaching a weekend. That combination made finding accommodations difficult. After three hours I had a line on a couple place but nothing solid.