Day 12; Gau Odernheim - Aachen/Gemmenich, (BE); July 30, 2003 (Wednesday)

At 7:30 I had breakfast prepared and soon I was on the way. One thing I forgot to mention about that house. Those guest rooms had bath tabs! I have not seen one for almost two weeks. That was fantastic. Normally you do not event think about it.

Well, let's continue. Wind and cold, lots of clouds. It will rain. It is quite hard plus constant ups and downs, bloody annoying. No wonder they put all those windmills on tops. They must know that it is windy region.

I keep changing the plan, I know I have to catch the train today. Originally I wanted to ride till Bingen (about 50 km), from where I can get a train to Köln. When I saw the weather today I was not so sure any more.

For the time being I keep moving until I reach any bigger town with train station. It is strange, when you leave in a city all your life you take things like stations that they always exist everywhere. And now I have to look for one...

I get to Wörrstadt (12 km). The only train I catch here is to Mainz, a bit like going back, but anyway I will be faster. I am lucky I have to wait only about 10 minutes.

From Mainz I catch 9:52 train to Koblenz. Later I will have to find out about more options. I was thinking about going by train all the way to Brussels, but was given crazy route via Luxemburg! Maybe it would not be a bad idea to see Luxemburg, but no, I had time constraint. That would be too much of a re-route. Plus the ticket to would cost a fortune. They had only Euro Express type of train which are rip-offs and I would have to pay dearly for the bike.

I find myself on the train to Köln and then to Aachen. I am at German-Belgium border in Aachen at 15:00. Outside of the station I find city map and am looking for the camping. Yes, there is one :-). So let's go. On the way I pass nice looking restaurant where I have great schnitzel in mushroom sauce for €9! You would pay more for food at McDonald's.

At the end of the day I was happy with all those trains despite all the changes. I am leaving Germany which really started to play on my nerves.

I cycle through Aachen, border city between Germany, Belgium and Holland. Last climb in Germany, on the other side of the hill is already Belgium. But it is not so bad. I am going through nice area with lots of trees, it is some sort of park here. Finally I am getting there.

Few minutes later I am at the camping (€9) in Gemmenich(already on the other side of the border). This one is strange, there are lots of old caravans without wheels and looks to me that people live there permanently. But who cares, it is an official camping.

On Monday I should reach England!

Distance: 23 km by bike; 170 by train
Average speed: no average today.