Bonn to Chorweiler. 22th May 2023.

• Mileage today: 35 miles
• Total mileage: 694 miles
• Disasters: No cheap hotels in Cologne and shower trauma…

We had a good night’s sleep in our funky design hotel room. For £50 it was a bargin. We were feeling lazy today so paid for the hotel breakfast, which was good. Considered stopping another night but the rate was £150 now.

Before leaving I had a fiddle with Sarah’s front break. I think I’ve improved it so it should work till the end of the trip now. If it fails catastrophically & Sarah ends up in the Rhine I may be under investigation 😬

Todays route was mostly industrial with some nice parks thrown in.

No wonder the German economy is faring better than ours – they do stuff and make stuff.

We stopped in Cologne for lunch. The cathedral is stunning and big ! Would have stopped the night but couldn’t find a reasonably priced hotel with bike storage. The cheapest we found that would look after our bikes was €250 for the night ☹️ …so at that price we peddled on.

Ended up at a small campsite near Chorweiler. Lovely pitch but the showers are lacking for two reasons…

1. Control is a nightmare – the difference between freezing and striping your skin with steam could be measured on an atomic scale.

2. There were no shower doors or curtains. You’re just standing there freshening your bits while blokes are wandering by with their washing up ! Good job they’d eaten else I could have put them off their wurst !

Needless to say I didn’t use both shower tokens !