We left our hotel in Koblenz just before 11am and did a quick stop to pick up lunch and were on our way. It was easy to navigate out of the city and we were cruising alongside the river in no time.

It had rained overnight and was much cooler today. We both felt full of energy today, either because of our rest day or because it wasn’t so hot, and we zoomed along at about 20 kms/hr.

It was overcast all day, but the scenery was still stunning with more castles in the hills. The route followed the river for most of the day and it was quite pleasant.

We stopped at the first camping place after 45 kms, but decided to keep riding. We stopped at the next camping place at 55 kms, but it had just started to rain. The thought of sitting around all afternoon and trying to cook under our small shelter didn’t appeal.

The campgrounds here are not like NZ campgrounds. At home, all campgrounds have a common area you can sit out of the weather, and a fully functional kitchen with cooking facilities. Here, most places have nothing like that, not even a shelter. They are more set up for camper vans than tents, despite a lot of cycle tourers. I would have thought all the Germans that travel to NZ and stay at our campgrounds might have brought some of that information back and implemented it here. But alas, no.

We ended up cycling 70kms to the town of Bonn, and also the birthplace of Beethoven. We stopped at the first hotel that was easily accessible by bike and were done for the day. Except we needed food.

There was a Vietnamese restaurant across the road so we headed there, not wanting to venture too far as we were tired. I’ve always said never eat asian food in Europe, as it’s always awful. I should have listened to my advice, as it was disgusting. Not sure what they do to it, but they must adapt it to European taste buds. Everything just seemed to taste like sweet chilli sauce.

We were so hungry, we ate it anyway, but never again. Then when we went to pay, they said cash only. Mike handed some notes and then they got grumpy because it wasn’t the correct amount. The fumbled around looking for change between two of them, then dumped it on the counter like it was our fault. What a horrible place, they insist on cash then get grumpy because we don’t have change. Never again!

I should have stuck to my previous vow of only eating schnitzel in Germany, but at the end of the day we’re just so tired our judgement is always impaired.

I’m also getting a bit anxious about the next few days. People have been saying how industrial it is, and the route is awful with the signs hard to follow, and ending up on main roads with trucks. Apparently it’s pretty bad from here, through the major cities of Cologne, Dusseldorf and Duisburg. But if we can keep up our 70km days we should be in Holland in a couple of days, cycling along wonderful flat cycle paths, completely off the road.