Well you were left with us collapsed in a youth hostel in Duisburg, since then we’ve had 2 nights in Dusseldorf with intermittent wifi dropping out hence the lack of blog update.

We slept well at the youth hostel as it is attached to a sports arena mainly sports people stay there and clearly they were as tired as we were so no noisy nights as I recall the youth hostels of my youth!Hubby woke me and said we need to get going and get out of this town, clearly Duisburg was a place not to stay a minute longer in. I dragged myself out of bed I felt so tired ,threw my stuff in my bags and went down for breakfast, it was 630am breakfast didnt even start till 7am, hubby had woken me up at 530am thinking it was 630am, not impressed!

We set off with instructions to access the Rhine River path which actually unbelievably worked. Signs were terrible not even mentioning where we were going we ended up on a path to Krefeld which was not where we were wanting to go to, the village we wanted  to get to Serm didnot even appear on a signpost ever.. I was totally disorientated maybe  something to do with being woken at 530am, eventually I convinced hubby which direction to go by getting him to climb the dyke and see which way the Rhine was flowing I should have done that an hour before!

Lunch was sitting out in the Kaiserwerth quaint market place, I went for the asparagus again the 1/2kg option, probably could have been very healthy apart from the mountains of  hollandaise sauce it came draped in.Although the sun was shining the wind was quite chilly I admired the stoicism of everyone sitting outside, in Oz we’d be huddled behind cafe blinds with heaters on, however I admit people were wearing coats half of Perth dont even own a coat!Hubby enjoyed an alkohol frei beer quite a selection out here and they appear on all the drinks menu.

Amazingly we arrived in Dusseldorf without incident and found our hotel easily,  a miracle since not one signpost mentioned Dusseldorf they just said town centre…. hello locals  tourists visiting which town centre are we referring to…. Dusseldorf proved to be a vibrant cosmopolitan city with beautiful squares, coffee shops and lovely river frontage. Our short supposedly 31kms journey took 45kms going around in circles it was a wonder we didnt get dizzy. Bikes were tucked up on arrival in an underground garage for a days rest and recuperation shame the same couldnt be said for the owners.

Day 9 was spent firstly trying to find a Dr to administer my allergy injections, an interesting experience, eventually 4 Drs later we were directed to an Allergy Dr who would give me them to me, I know bad idea embarking on allergy desentization treatment when youre going travelling for 4 months but I actually thought by now it would be 1 jab every 3 months.We won’t mention how much it cost for 2 injections…

The rest of the day was doing our sight seeing and catching up on our veggies, plenty of thai,and  korean food to indulge in vegetables again.I also found a chai latte served as well as in Oz, yum. I did try and gatecrash the Administration of Dusseldorf restaurant as they had their lunch menu outside so we tried to enter thinking it was a separate cafe , luckily security thought it was funny as were directed out of the building.

Highlight was catching up with my english god daughter who just happened to be working in Dusseldorf when we were passing through. We went to a local Indian restaurant The Taj Mahal the owner was a cross between a Bollywood star breaking into song occasionally and Fawlty Towers you want more rice and he’d put it on the table before you’d said yes.Great food and huge tea pots for us tea lovers.

Accomodation was at a premium with the World Trade Fair on but we were lucky to get Best Western Savoy for 2 nights for 208 euros on Booking.com

Room with kettle, & bar fridge

Great breakfast with normal muesli and yoghurt on offer

Great location surrounded by reasonable restaurants

We left Dusseldorf rugged up in our rain gear even managed to squeeze my feet into those wet suit bootees fully, it was drizzling but threatening worse. Signs were reasonable today but Id also made copious notes from the guide book which is written from the source of the Rhine to the Hoek of Holland so everything has to be reversed when he turns left we turn right, no chance Ill be getting dementia working this all out.

A wonderful mix of escaping industrial Germany including breathing in all those wonderful fumes, the Bayern chemical factory, 5 kms of the Ford factory and plenty of steel works and sewage plants combined with glorious green countryside.We stopped at Rhine Hotels for coffee and lunch, the first one was like an old hunting hotel complete with stuffed bear at Urdenbach and friendly manager. Lunch was about 8kms out of Cologne right next to the Rhine a bargain at 6 euros each for goulash and sauerkraut and spuds !Again we hadnt done our research and Cologne was pretty full as Cologne versus Mainz soccer match is on a sell out match plus a few other things. We ended up having to spend more on accomodation than normal but luckily lunch was cheap so we are still in budget.

Enjoyed sights of  Cologne especially the cathedral not changed much since I hitchhiked here with my sister many years ago my mode of travel has gone up in the world ,bike instead of thumb!

Time to choose my pillow for the night…

Hotel Santo 0221 91 39770

Can get good deals on Booking.com

Dagobert Strasse 22-26

Good location

Bar fridge, garagebike parking, sound proofed rooms, reverse cycle heat/cool