Venlo

Bikes on trains! Never easy and it can be a right handful at times. We made it back into the Netherlands and the border town of Venlo.
Chatting last night to the German cyclists, they warned us about Deutsche Bahn (our next train was German) - how a once super-efficient service had declined dramatically. I’d also heard this from other sources, but we had great trips on DB last year and anyway, come on this is Germany!…

Well. Arriving at Basel station for our train to Düsseldorf, it started with ‘undefined delay’ and then the train starting in Zurich never left. A technical problem. I got a ‘Trip Not Possible’ text and then it was cancelled. Really busy trains and compulsory bike reservations all full, we thought we were doomed until I remembered that I’d changed plans from a later route via Cologne and those reservations were non-cancellable - we still had them. Those reservations and amazing flexibility of Interrail, we were on!

Arriving at Cologne main station pretty much at rush hour on a Friday is probably not an experience I’d rush to repeat with loaded bikes! It was hard to move on the platforms and the trains were very crowded. We eventually squeezed onto the local trains, had another couple of memorable chats with locals (yes, we must visit Münster!).

As the train pulled into Venlo; we had that ‘back in the NL’ feeling - great to be back in the most cycling friendly country in the world!

It’s not done yet… last day on the trains tomorrow.Read more