Six Wheels In Germany – July 2017 (Month 40)

Cycling this month

This month I didn’t cycle as much as normal, whereas Klaus had a very impressive month’s total 1533.83km. As you can see from the screenshot of my rides below, I only managed 733.32!

And this is where I rode:

Local velomobile meet

There are more and more Velomobiles making their home in our part of the Niederrhein and one day Johannes who lives in Vorst sent round a message to various Velomobile owners saying if they wanted to meet at his house for a beer after work we should come along.

In the end it was a good gathering with Johannes, Klaus and I, Jochen, Stefan (with the Celeste DF), Liegender_Robert (with his green DF) and Andreas who rides a Go-One Evo R.

3 Wheels 4 France

3Wheels4France is a 3 week velomobile tour around France. No, I didn’t take part – I am nowhere near fast enough and good at hill climbing to ride with the 21 chaps who set off – but Klaus and I decided to wave them off from Trier one Sunday morning in July.

We drove to Trier, had lunch there and visited the Porta Nigra, as well as having a short walk along the Mosel.

We then drove to Igel where we checked into our hotel.

Igel was where the campsite for the Velomobilists was, and our hotel was next to the notable local landmark, the Igeler Säule, a Roman Monument.

After checking in we headed to the campsite in Igel where they were staying the night before. It would be a chance to see some friends again and have a relaxing chat whilst they arrived ready for the off the next morning.

There were many familiar faces and some new ones. Lots of shiny velomobiles with a very strong bias towards the DF.

At 18:00 there was a rider’s meeting about the event.

Klaus and I went back to the hotel at this point for our evening meal, agreeing to meet everyone at 9am the next morning for the off. It was lovely to walk alongside the peaceful Mosel.

Hajo’s wife was also staying at the hotel so we breakfasted together the next morning and then walked together to the campsite to discover… almost everyone had already left at least an hour before!

Hajo and Daniel Fenn had stayed behind to see us so we chatted to them before waving them off.

The tour has been extremely well organised by Josef (Jupp), who Klaus and I breakfasted with in Berlin a month or so ago. He had also arranged for there to be a Broom Wagon which even included a spare velomobile, a DF.

If you want to read about the tour there is a website http://3wheels4france.eu/ and a very long thread in the Velomobilforum with pictures from the tour.

Visiting Luxembourg

We knew we would be finished with the 3Wheels4France crew by 9am so decided as we were right on the border with Luxembourg to visit it – I had never been there. My godfather, who I had not seen since I was 4 years old but with whom I had been in contact since the death of my father, lives in Luxembourg and offered for us to visit and for him to show us around and his wife Clara to cook us an Italian lunch (she is Italian).

We gratefully accepted these invitations and had a really lovely day with Stephen and Clara.

First of all, after the obligatory cup of tea for me and proper Italian coffee for Klaus, Stephen took us on a tour in the car to see the major sights of Luxembourg which include of course many European institutions where he had his career as a translator.

Our lunch was very tasty with Italian specialities and finished off by a Luxembourg cake

We then went into Luxembourg again and walked around some of the main parts.

It’s a very interesting city as it is well fortified and built on very steep hills beside two rivers.

The Grand Duke’s palace is right amongst the shopping streets.

We had a final cuppa before heading home. Klaus took this photo of me with Stephen and Clara and their cat too!

It was a busy but really enjoyable weekend, but it felt very odd travelling for such a long time in the car. We would have both preferred to go by bike!

Events this month

This will be a short blog post as not that much has happened this month really. Work does rather cut into my cycling time!

I moved into the new office at work and my boss had a birthday so all the staff members were invited for some Bratwurst and rolls and cake one afternoon.

I was impressed by this cupcake which was almost Celeste colour!

Cakes this month

Talking of cakes, here are the cakes and I and my chums have enjoyed this month.

I hope to write a bit more next month – life in Germany continues to be great, but there are not so many new things to talk about!

One comment

  1. Very nice stories, pictures and especially pics from all the cakes!! If you ever pass by in Venray, feel free to come eat some apple pie.

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