Düsseldorf – Neuss

I went to bed early last night (straight after the Netherlands v Uruguay footie match) so that I could get up early and go out exploring.

I was ready to leave at 8am which gave me plenty of time. I have several routes of different lengths on my Garmin that I’ve downloaded from GPSies.com, so I decided to do a 30 miler.

The route took me through the University (Heinrich Heine Uni, Duesseldorf). I was following the track on my Garmin where I got slightly confused and almost cycled down a no-entry; I stopped on the verge to look more closely at my Garmin and a police car appeared out of the road I had almost cycled down. He had a very friendly chat but pointed out it would really not be sensible to cycle down this road as it was the slip road off the Autobahn; he recommended taking the cycle route round the corner (which was what my GPS actually wanted me to do). All very friendly, but a reminder that it’s reasonably easy in Germany to stray onto the Autobahnen as they seem to go very close to normal roads.

I then went over the impressive road bridge that I took by car on my way here.

Now I was on the western side of the Rhine the route took me southwards towards Dormagen.

The path quality was rather better on this ride than yesterday’s, with mostly asphalt or decently-laid paving bricks. This included cycling through a woodland, where I saw a lady walking a Weimaraner. We have a Weimaraner but we almost never see any in Germany – the Germans are too sensible to have such naughty doggies.

Anyway, I continued on through some rather industrial bits, wending my way through a mixture of road and cycle track, although most of the road bits had cycle paths beside them.

At one point there were a lot of barriers across the cycle path where it crosses a railway line. There had been no warning of this, and there was no obvious diversion, so I stood there dithering a while, at which point a moped came from the other direction and worked his way round the barriers, and a cyclist came from behind me and did the same. So I decided it was OK and crossed as well, having to wheel the trike as it had to do some rather sharp turns to get round the barriers.

I was following a pretty good route but it had one significant failing – it directed me down a road with a very obvious ‘no cycling’ sign. I decided it would not be wise to take that route and trail-blazed, using my Garmin, an alternative route to join up with the original one. It worked fine, including cycling through a golf course and crossing a motorway on a very high-up pedestrian/cyclist bridge.

I then cycled through a lovely area of open fields with loads of dog walkers – including one lady with two Weimaraners, including one that was just four months old! I stopped to have a chat, then continued on, joining up with the official GPX track that I had left earlier.

I was now cycling parallel to the Rhine for a bit and passed a Marina:

The water seems very blue today.

I arrived in Neuss which is a fairly large town the other side of the Rhine to Duesseldorf and got a good view across the river of the centre of Duesseldorf, which I haven’t yet actually visited.

Finally I crossed over again, on a different bridge this time. I stopped to take some photos and could really feel the bridge wobbling, which was slightly perturbing. I assume this is because of two lanes of car traffic, two tram lines and two different cycle paths…

I was now on the Rhein Radweg for a bit and passed this pirate sailing ship, although it might be almost impossible to sail against the current in the river.

I was approaching the bridge that I had crossed on my outward journey near the Uni – it’s an impressive structure

I got home after 3 hours, having done 29.5 miles. It seems my average speed was a bit higher today, perhaps because I was on quieter roads with fewer traffic lights. It was a good ride, though, and I feel like I’m beginning to know my way around.

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