On the left you see a map of my trip, every color representing a traveling goal or traveling day. Start and finish: Erlecom (marked '0').
Every trip's destination is marked on the map with a number; click it to directly go there.
Summary
Tuesday July 7, 134 km:
Erlecom (NL) - Düsseldorf (D), visiting Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.
Red way on the map to destination '1a'.
Düsseldorf (D) - Dormagen (D), visiting camp site Stand-Terrasse.
Red way on the map to destination '1b'.
Wednesday July 8, 64 km:
Dormagen (D) - Bonn (D), visiting Art museum Bonn.
Green way on the map to destination '2a'.
Bonn - Nürburg, visiting Nürburgring Nordschleife.
Green way on the map to destination '2b'.
Nürburg - Altenahr, visiting camp site Altenahr.
Green way on the map to destination '2c'.
Thursday July 9, 261 km:
Altenahr (D) - Mechernich (D), visiting Bruder Feldkapelle.
Orange way on the map to destination '3a'.
Mechernich (D) - Limburg an der Lahn (D), visiting Dom.
Orange way on the map to destination '3b'.
Friday July 10, 172 km:
Limburg an der Lahn (D) - Frankfurt am Main (D), visiting Schirn Kunsthalle.
Grey way on the map to destination '4a'.
Frankfurt am Main (D) - bike meeting Großostheim (D).
Grey way on the map to destination '4b'.
Saturday July 11, 0 km:
Bike meeting Großostheim (D).
Sunday July 10, 398 km:
Großostheim (D) - Erlecom (NL), home sweet home.
Pink way on the map to a destination '0'.
Total: 1,029 km.
Tuesday July 7: like the previous two years I wanted to combine riding the CBX with visits to some interesting museums, ánd partying at a bike meeting. Quite contrasting goals but previous trips proved it's a nice mix.
At 08.30h I headed for my favorite German highway, the A57 direction Cologne.
One and a half hour later I arrived at my first destination: Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (Düsseldorf). I wanted to visit the exposition called 'Miró, Malerei als Poesie' ('Miró, Painting as Poetry'). Joan Miró (1893-1983) is one of the most important artist of the twentiest century.
He is well known for his playful, almost naive style.
During his life he was inspired by both poets and fellow artists like Jackson Pollock, as you can see in this painting.
It was quite striking how much security this museum had: next to almost every painting a guard was posting. I wasn't allowed to take pictures either, so no more images of Miró nor of Malevich, Picasso, Klee, Mondriaan, Léger or Giacommetti, who were also present. Their work, that is.
In the afternoon I rode to camp site Strand Terrasse in Dormagen, south of Düsseldorf. It's a nice and quiet place next to the river Rhine. It was windy and warm, I cooked a firm meal (see air makes hungry) and drank a nice Erdinger.
The camp site had some scary inhabitants. I mean: who puts a porcelain doll in his awning...?
In the evening I made a long walk along the shore.
Wednesday July 8: I left Dormagen at 08.30h to visit Kunstmuseum Bonn. This museum focuses on German art after WW II.
Of course all the 'big boys' were there, like Joseph Beuys' performance 'Iphigénie' (Frankfurt, 1969). Back in those days very renewing, and still quite disturbing: I loved it.
Somewhat more actual: Andreas Gursky's photo 'Chicago Board of Trade II' (1999).
Right now you experience the immense limitation of the computersceen compared to 'the real thing', as it is 111.8 by 62 inch, picturing hundreds of excited stock brokers, acting like ants.
Here a zoom of the picture's center. Just to give an impression of the details. I spent half an hour at just this one picture, which made the guards quite nervous.
Then there was a solo exhibition from Frank Auerbach (Berlin 1931). He was influenced by Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon, of whom I'm a big fan. Auerbachs paintings tend to become three dimensional due to the thick layer of paint.
But I liked his self portraits better; this one is from 1958.
After visiting the museum I headed for the Nürburgring.
Confucius (551-479 B.C.) already knew: 'The road itself is your destination'. And my favorite German secundary road is the B257. Perfect asphalt, beautiful winding roads.
If you see these warning signs you know: two gears down and revs up!
There wasn't too much going on, and the weather wasn't too cooperative either. Still: always worth while visiting this famous race track.
About 16.30h I arrived at bike hotel Am Tunnel. I didn't know this hotel and wanted to spend the evening and night there. No one was present which did not surpise me: I read on their website that visitors could check in at 17.00h.
About 17.15h I tried to call the owner: no answer. Then I texted the owner: still no answer. About 18.00h I called again: they were in Holland! That annoyed me a bit, as you can imagine. Well, the owner did not: he told me 'everyone has appointments some time'.
And I thought they were running a hotel. Stupid me. Very bad first impression. And my last as well!
So I rode to the camp site at Altenahr and put up my tent. It rained all night. That is a very familiar experience so not really an issue.
Thursday July 9: my campering neighbours invited me for coffee; for whatever reason they felt sorry for me. It can't be my sleeping facility, can it?
My good friend and former collegue Peter Smeets recommended me to visit the Bruder Klaus Feldkapelle, in Mechernich. It's a private chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas of Flüe, a.k.a. Brother Klaus. It was designed by the famous Swiss architect Peter Zumthor.
I parked the bike about 1,300 meter from the chapel and walked my way up. Quite a sporty activity, at such a sunny and warm day, wearing my leather outfit and luggage.
It's a very popular spot for tourists (like me) so I was lucky to enjoy it alone for a quarter of an hour. A perfect way to not only see but experience the tranquillity of its interior. This is the view to the triangular door, from the inside.
It's quite a narrow space with rough structures on the wall. Vertical lines lead to an open space on top. Hard to describe, even harder to take the right pictures.
After a quarter of an hour the meditative experience ended abrupt as a horde of tourists entered the chapel. And the men started questioning me about my bike; they'd seen it at the parking lot. That's what you call 'reality kicking in'.
I continued my trip to Limburg an der Lahn. It started raining again, and it refused to stop, even for a moment.
As I arrived at Limburg an der Lahn the sun reappeared. I put up my tent at the local camp site and managed to dry my soaked suit (as I refused to put on my rain suit, for unknown reasons).
Limburg an der Lahn has a famous 1100 year old kathedral (or 'Dom', in German). It has no less than seven towers and a beautiful gothic interior.
Still: I wasn't overwhelmed, as I have seen a lot of beautiful churches in my life. I'm certainly more into modern art.
Back on the camp site – in the middle you see the Dom – I cooked a meal ...
... and sat at the river reading my book. The atmosphere matched the content.
Friday July 10: again neighbours made me a nice cup of coffee. And it didn't even rain overnight! It was a cold night though, due to the cloudless sky, so the coffee was very welcome.
On this very hot day I rode to the center of Frankfurt, to visit Schirn Kunsthalle. And squeezed my stuff in the lockers.
Doug Aitken gave me the best art I'd seen this week. I was just blown away, hypnotized, by his spectacular film and sound works, and watched them over and over again.
I cancelled my plan to visit another museum in Frankfurt because I knew no artwork could surpass this experience.
So I headed for Großostheim, where a bike meeting was about to start. I'd never been there before but I liked the pictures from last years meeting.
On my way I stopped for a little refuelling, as a six cylinder is quite thirsty. This time the locals were not only interested in my bike but, sadly enough, in my other possessions as wel: my digital camera was stolen, as were all my pictures from the trip up till that moment.
So all the pictures above were from other trips, or from the internet, except for the both from Strand Terrasse which I made with my cellphone.
Oh well, then use my cellphone. It does the trick.
So I reached Großostheim at about 4h in the afternoon. I put up my tent and drank a nice beer which they serve, German-style, in a one liter jar. As it was over 30 degrees Celcius, it tasted real good.
It didn't take long for the first burn-outs were seen, heared, and smelled. They had a special arena for that, called a 'Brenn Platte'.
I met a group of seven German friends, and we got along real good.
Further textual information is superfluous.
We visited the huge marquee, though not for very long as I didn't feel that well because I'd been stung by mean little flies.
The next morning I wasn't the only one not feeling too good.
Move your mouse over the picture to see about all the movement in half an hour.
My feet and ankles were swollen by the bites.
I think the little bloodsucking bastards that got me are called Blandford flies.
Anyway. I went to a local swimming pool with 'my' group to get some sun. And some beer. Afterwards we had a nice dinner at a Yugoslavian restaurant.
From left to right: Harry, Danny, me, Marco, 'Schmock', Manuela, Suse and Frank.
Then here was the usual bike-talking ...
... and photographing ...
... and some group posing ...
... and, well. ;)
Some tires were smoked ...
... some rims got scratched ...
... and I accepted the offer to ride a Gas Gas trial bike. A nice new experience, and more tiring than I thought.
Afterwards we went into the marquee to have some desinfecting beers ...
... celebrate Franks birthday ...
... enjoy the band, and have fun.
Sunday July 10. Fortunately I was sober (and I think wise) enough to take a cab to a local hotel. My stings were getting infected and I wanted to get a decent shower and some wound desinfection; things you're not likely to find at a camp site.
In the morning I returned to the camp site and packed up my stuff. My feet hardly fit in the boots.
Continuous rain escorted me home.
It was a shorter trip then usual but certainly worthwhile!
