Gravel to Gerolstein
September 25 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C
When I set off, it was cool, only seven degrees or so. Still, no problem, I was soon climbing up a hill that warmed me up. The hill road took me into a woodland that soon turned into a dark, coniferous forest. As the path went downhill, the temperature plummeted down to only two degrees, and I was getting quite chilly, with my summer clothing. Normally, I am happy to be in the woods, especially as they were particularly beautiful with the low sunshine shining through the moss-clad trees, but today I was happy to leave them behind and warm up in the sunshine as I went out into the open.
I cycled through Lissendorf, where we had once stayed many years ago, sharing a garden with a forensic scientist back from identifying victims in Bosnia and trying to get some peace in the countryside here. I joined the Kyll Radweg, following the river and railway along the valley to Junkerath. I am always struck by how these little Eifel villages always have apparently thriving small industrial estates full of small factories and engineering workshops making things. Perhaps the German economy is not as broken as the papers would have us believe.
On leaving Junkerath, the route went through the middle of Landal Wirftal. That involved cycling up an astonishingly steep road, which was only possible by a combination of the lowest gear, standing on my pedals and zig-zagging across the road. When I left the part, I continued to go up for quite a long way, until I was at 600 m height with spectacular views all around.
I then went through another dark forest. This time, it wasn't cold, but it was a very technical path; narrow, damp, and with great big knobbly roots across the path. It would have been challenging on my mountain bike, and I even had to get off and walk a few metres.
After that, I passed a small white chapel on top of a hill, which seems to be very typical of the Eifel and it was then mostly downhill into Gerolstein. As I went downhill, there was a clang, and the cap of my thermos flask overtook me , rolling down the hill. Apparently, it had not been done up tight and had worked itself loose.
Once there, I went to the Lidl and got some lunch, which I took to the nearby riverside park to eat.
The cycle path out of Gerolstein was closed due to roadworks, but fortunately that was only a short (albeit steep) diversion. It was less fortunate for a large lorry coming the other way which had decided not to believe the road closed signs and got itself thoroughly stuck.
After Gerolstein, it was only ten kilometres to get back to Hillesheim, albeit over a large hill. On top of the hill, a wind turbine had had its blades removed, and they were sitting on the ground. You would have thought they this was temporary, but they had been there long enough to accumulate some graffiti.
When I got back, there were 65 kilometres on the clock and about a thousand height metres. My Gavere had passed its test in the hills with flying colours.Read more
Short but sweet
September 24 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
It was a cool start, only ten degrees, but the hills soon warmed me up. The route was 30 km and I have discovered that I cycle at about 16 kph round here, so I estimated about two hours cycling, which turned out to be about right.
Once I had climbed out of Hillesheim, the route followed an old railway line. Various signals and levers for changing points were left in place for my entertainment. I was just thinking that the easy cycling along new tarmac was all very well, but not really very exciting, when my route dived off across a field track (or what was once a track, a few decades ago) which was the very opposite of smooth and required quite some concentration. After a kilometre or so, that came to an end, and I headed off up a gravelly farm track (a perfect surface) going up a very long (3 km) hill. Its average gradient was only 4%, but it was up to 10% in parts.
I was now heading west, along the top of my loop, through nice forest. At one place, I saw a deer with small antlers, not far away.
The track came out in Lissendorf and then I headed east across the fields in the direction of Hillesheim. After a few kilometres of that, I veered off to the right and found another hill to ascend. This was on tarmac (albeit old and broken up). To my left was a hedge, or at least I thought so until I looked closer. It turned out to be an old sunken way, at least five metres below the surrounding area, all grown over with trees and shrubs and quite impassable. It went on for a considerable distance. Amazing that this ancient landscape element has not been filled in by the farmer.
By then, I was almost back at the cottage, so it was just a short ride before I was back, in time for coffee.Read more
Vulkaaneifel gravel ride
September 22 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
Hillesheim is on the border of the chalk Eifel, where I cycled yesterday, and the Vulcaaneifel, where I went today. Both the landscape and the flora are very different. The first few kilometres, I was still on chalk, following the little stream that flows next to our cottage down until it reached a larger river, the Kyll. As soon as I was over the little bridge spanning that, the landscape changed. Most noticeably, the hills were bigger and steeper. I seemed to spend all my time going up 8 to 10% slopes, only to lose the height I had gained almost immediately. The landscape was also notably more open with big fields and less in the way of hedges and copses. Kestrels, buzards and red kite circle around, looking for prey,
At one such point, apparently in the middle of nowhere and with only a footpath leading to it, there was a small hut with a large 'infopunkt' flag next to it. I diverted from my route to take a look. To my surprise, it was a small museum, with Roman artifacts. The Romans had built some burial monuments there and the huge stone eagle head outside was a small part of one. There was a large semi-circular stone bench next to the eagle head. It was from a different site, but they had placed it there so that walkers could sit and look at the view. Inside the hut there were more artifacts, drawings showing what the complete objects would have looked like and lots of texts explaining it all (in German and Braille).
I was doubly lucky to find the museum as a nearby road that I travelled along had been closed. It is always difficult to know what do to on a bike with a road closed sign. Mostly roadworks are perfectly passable with a mountain or gravel bike, but sometimes it means retracing your steps for some kilometres. In this case, it was no problem, it was a bit rough but perfectly passable.
The Romans site was more or less at the furthest point, and the steep hills meant that the ride was taking longer than planned, so it was time to stop taking photos and head along the route back towards Hillesheim.Read more
City walls
September 22 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C
The city walls of Hillesheim are impressive and freely accessible. They feature a witches tower, where apparently women were locked up before being executed. There are walkways along the tops, so you can go along and see the views.Read more
Day 1
September 21 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
Within a few minutes of leaving Hillesheim, I passed a field full of Colchicum, autumn crocuses. What could be a better start to my gravel ride? It was the first time that I had taken my gravel bike into a hilly area, so I was intrigued as to how it would perform. Komoot promised me 630 height meters of climbing and a 'hard' route. Shortly afterwards, I left the asphalt and started going along an farm track. I had cycled along a lot of this sort of route with my mountain bike and was curious as to how my gravel bike would cope, with its relatively narrow tyres and no suspension at all. In short, it did surprisingly well. I did need to dismount once, for a very steep downhill where broad tyres and preferably a dropper post would have been necessary, but aside from that it did remarkably well. The farm track led towards a castle in the distance, Burg Kerpen. When I got close, the road was closed, so I had to divert through the castle grounds. It was good to see it up close, but at the penalty of having to carry my bike up a long flight of stairs. After going a little further, I joined the Ahr cycle path, which took me to the famous Dreimülen waterfall. Although the waterfall itself is man-made, the spectacular Crataneuron moss growing out from it is a purely natural. The chalk-rich water comes through its leaves, forming chalk deposits and so the waterfall grows outwards with the outer layer being living moss. A couple of tourists asked me to take their photo standing in front of it, so in return they took mine. They were rather disappointed to hear that I hadn't cycled all the way from Holland. I said that maybe I would do it one day, so they said that I should do it 'soon'. I guess looking at my grey hairs they thought that I should not wait too long. The stream leaving the waterfall had a nice patch of Mimulus guttatus (monkeyflower) with large yellow flowers. I think I last saw that in the Yorkshire Dales. Then onward along more delightful farm and forest tracks, interspersed with sections of asphalted cycle paths and the occasional short section of road. There were not many signs of last summer's drought, maybe it was not so bad here. There was one stream which was completely dried up. It had both a little bridge crossing it and a ford, neither of which were necessary today. Some juniper trees had astonishingly abundant berries, apparently they don't mind the heat so much. After the waterfall, the track headed north towards Uxheim, over a modern metal bridge spanning the entrance to a monstrous chalk quarry. Then up a long hill and over the top towards Dollllendorf. The Lampertstal did not have many flowers at this time of year; the odd Campanula, a few yellow composites and the odd Scabious and Knapweed as well as a scattering of Colchicums. I popped into my favorite patch of woodland on the south side of the valley to appreciate the huge old beech multiple stemmed trees. In the spring there are lots of orchids growing there, but nothing to be seen now. Then the track dropped down into the valley itself before heading up (uphill again) towards the end of the valley, where it came out in Alendorf. The route that I was following circled back on itself, and it was soon clear that that was because that was the only way to cycle up the steep track to the top of the Kalvarienberg. At 525m, the hill was the highest point in the surroundings, so there were impressive 360 degrees views. After that literal high point, my route took me back south again, towards Lissendorf and then finally back along a fast straight gravel cycle path, slightly downhill and with the wind behind me, back towards Hillesheim. I had expected to do the 51 km in 3 hours, but the difficulty of the route and the many photo stops meant that it took 3/4 hour longer than planned. It also turned out to be 810 high meters. In any case, a great start to the week.Read more
