March 29, 2009: Tom Takes Helga to Duisberg

I got up at 10:00, or actually what was 11:00 thanks to daylight savings time. It was nice to sleep in for once. I had a coffee and a nice little breakfast before packing up Helga’s panniers with food, water, warm clothes and a bag of gummy bears and heading out.

 

I wanted to go west from Ratingen to Kaiserswerth then north to Duisberg and loop back through Lintorf to Ratingen, this would have been around 40km or so, a nice distance to cover on a 1960’s era three speed. The weather was being nice and I cruised along the road-side bike path for 15km or so just enjoying myself. I reached a fork in the road and decided to take the more exciting looking path, the dirt one. It ended up skirting all the way around Düsseldorf International Airport. This was ok though because I got to take a break and watch the planes fly close above my head on their way to the runway.

 

I passed the airport and went into an affluent neighborhood filled with boulevards teeming with tulips. I took a seat in a nice park and enjoyed a water and gummy bear break. From there I went to Kaiserswerth, along the cobblestone streets, beside the castle and along the Rhein River. After a long while of biking I made it to Duisberg, at least the outskirts of Duisberg, and took a seat in a café at the local horse riding school. I had a small lunch ruined only by the fact that I was an idiot and put lemon in my tea with my milk.

 

After that I got nice and lost, for about two hours. It was not the bad kind of lost though, the weather was nice and I was exploring! I ended up in Duisberg Süd. I found the most significant landmark of Duisberg Süd, a small white mausoleum; I took a picture and continued on.

 

I found a bus stop that had the name of the train station near my house on it as the final destination and played Hansel and Gretel following the bus stops back to my house. I finally was home! My journey ended up being about 60km and 5 hours. Helga more lumbers then zooms along, but she got the job done. I made a great dinner for 6 even though it was just me here and saved the rest for lunches. I typed up some blog, watched a movie and hit the hay.