It was an overcast day and I was too early to go into any museums now and I didn't want to leave Silver alone so I decided to keep heading towards Neuss and the home of Rainer and Maren Kaulen who had been so wonderful to me 18 days ago.
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| I headed down toward the river and even there, the supports of the buildings were beautifully built. |
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| This area of the Rhine is the beginning of lots of industry. |
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| My plan is not to stay near the industrialized sections but to veer away toward the bicycle path along Highway 9. |
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| I was able to take this bicycle-pedestrian bridge over a side section of the Rhine in the Neiler Hafen.. As I cycled from the river through Niehl and toward Nippes, I found that I was following another couple on bicycles pulling trailers. I followed them for a while until we all couldn't find anymore bicycle signs near a series of railroad tracks. The French couple had a map and I had the GPS and using both, we were able to figure our way out of the train area. Later in a small town, I thought we should go to the left and they went right. I stopped and verified the direction with a German man and found that I was correct. The French couple had to turn around and eventually were behind me and I translated to them that we had to go this way for 1 km until we would see a big tree and then we would have to go right. Now I was leading. But as we went through the streets, they eventually disappeared down a side street and I never saw them again. Maybe they needed some groceries. I made it out of the small town and then was in the countryside when it started to drizzle and I landed up putting on and taking off my rain gear twice. I also hurt my arm when my bicycle hit the side bar of some bicycle gates on the pathway. I was busy unwrapping a candy to eat and was riding with one hand. I hoped that the arm wasn't broken. It really hurt! Later in a small town, I met up with a small group of male cyclists heading to Neuss but after a while I decided to keep going along Highway 9 and they must have continued along the industrial part of the Rhine because I did not see them again also. |
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| As I approached Neuss, I could see some of the tree damage from a very
bad storm that they had almost 2 weeks ago just after I had taken the
train to Lake Constance (Bodenzee). I was thankful that Maren had helped
me get the train ticket to go because if I had decided to bicycle south
from here, I would have been caught in that same storm. In this section, the whole bicycle path is covered by branches and I had to go out on the road for a distance to go around all of it. |
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| It looked like a tornado had gone through the area. |
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| Past Dormagen and before Uedesheim, The Rhine River and Highway 9 come close to each other and I was able to get my last photo of the mighty Rhine River under a dark,dreary sky. |
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| I came to the city of Neuss just before lunch time. I was lost for a little while because some of the bicycle paths were still closed because of the bad storm but finally my GPS helped me locate Meertal Street. Just as I bicycled to the address, maren came home on her bicycle and greeted me with a big hug. Rainer was home because yesterday was a holiday called Corpus Christie so he took today, Friday, off to make it a long weekend. Nils has his girlfriend, Laura over for a visit for a few days as she will leave soon to be an exchange student in New Jersey, USA for a year. Lukas was at school and had an art project to do this weekendand Silja would be leaving this afternoon for a weekend of camping. it will be her first time sleeping in a tent away from home. |
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| Maren's best friend, Anje came over with art supplies for Lukas to use. She is a high school Math and German teacher who has 2 daughters, aged 11 and 9. Her daughter has been friends with Silja since they were toddlers. Anje's mother was born in the Netherlands, so Anje and I talked Dutch with each other for a while. It felt great to use my Dutch again. After lunch, I had a nap and I couldn't believe how tired I was. |
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| In the afternoon, Rainer and Lukas were going to go out for a run and I said that I wanted a before and after photo. |
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| Lots of sweat! |
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| In the evening, Maren showed me photos of Nils 18th birthday party and Rainer's BIG 50th birthday party. The backyard party turned out great with the weather cooperating perfectly. This candy was made with a photo of the 3 children holding a big 50. I had prayed for all Maren's plans to turn out and my prayers were answered. I thanked the Lord tat night for a safe and enjoyable trip of 18 days and over 900 km. along the Rhine River in Germany. The weather had been fantastic and He had sent angels to help me day after day. |
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