Windeck: Oct 2011

OCT 2011 BIKE TRIP #2 WINDECK

The Autumn colors are about at their peak, we still have a few days of Oct vacation left, so we decide to go for a quick 2 day bike trip. The town of Windeck looks doable - about 60 km away with bike routes along the way.

The first day is our “getting lost” day - countless times we lose the trail until we finally ditch the directions we’ve been trying to follow and use the GPS. Once we got out of the Bonn and suburb area we found some great back roads and trails. The weather was unusually warm - much warmer than the trip a few days ago and we continually stripped layers off as we traveled. We didn’t plan in the getting lost time, but still arrived at the hotel with daylight around 5:00. Dinner was just down the road at a quaint inn where the portions were enormous and the beer was good for 2 hungry bicyclists!

We left the next morning to take a different route home, armed with better images from Google Maps on the iPad we hope not to get lost so much. Hmmm... the first half hour we’re already lost trying to find the main river trail... but it’s better from then. The river trail from Windeck to Eitdorf is a winding trail all along the river with great views of the country and no ups and downs, so it’s an easy start to the day. Leaving Eitdorf we get into the hill country and the rest of the day is ups and downs - walking up the steep ups and coasting down the downs... There was some light drizzle, but no major rain and the countryside is blazing with gold, amber, red, and orange colors of Fall. Near Wellesburg we see off to the side of the road some life-size welded metallic giraffes and ride over to investigate. There we see all the animals of Africa - lions, rhinos, ostriches, crocodiles, and more. We found out that this company buys these sculptures and also other arts and crafts from Africa - giving the Africans fair prices and invests some of their profits back into the African communities.

We finally get to Koingswinter and fly down a 5 km, 8% grade hill, down to the Rhine river - what a ride! The ferry takes us across the river and it’s an easy ride home from there.