Day 6

Day 6 June 7, 2011

I thought the last night was bad but was nothing compared to the hot noisy room we 'rested' in Cologne. The hotel was near the railway and you couldn't leave a window open but it was a hot and humid night so we had a noisy little fan struggling to keep us cool. Needless to say neither of us was in a particular good mood this morning. We left early without “fruhstuk” preferring to drop in to the local supermarket and pick up some breakfast for on the way. After about half an hour we stopped on the water front just south of the city and had some bread and yoghurt. It felt much better than sitting in the hotel room. It was an exceptionally pleasant ride from for much of the way from Cologne to Bonn (a distance of about 35km on bike) following cycle paths along the banks of the river. There were many beautiful parks and grand buildings. One low light was an major industrial area with what appeared to be a power station (maybe nuclear). We rode straight through Bonn with neither of us feeling like a detour to the city centre.

Soon after leaving Bonn the river valley begins to narrow with the first of the famous Rhine valley castles appears after about 10km. The river has now begun to straighten and our path is also more direct with no more meanders. By mid afternoon both of us were looking forward to finding accommodation for the night. We ended up stopping at Bad Breisig at about 2.45pm having ridden around 74km in the day. After unpacking we went to the local spa baths and soaked the afternoon away. For the first time we have cooking facilities so made our own pasta and salad meal before an ice cream sitting on the river bank in the cool of the evening.