An easy ride Home!

The intrepid cyclists were up early and rearing to go! Although Chris had said, breakfast at 07:00 hrs, our BBF knocked on his door at 06:45 hrs. 

As we had been treated to a five star hotel on our last night of this epic adventure a full English breakfast was in order.

This with fruit, coffee and orange juice should last them until they get to Monchengladbach!

Before setting off the two humans have always had a discussion about how far they can go on their bike battery. This morning they were both surprised not to see three figure numbers as usual. Alan on the lowest E-motor setting could only go 69 kilometres, Chris could do a bit better at 96! Why was this, they had both charged their batteries overnight?

We set off a little before 08:00 hrs and were soon out of Velbert onto an old railway track which had been converted into a cycle autobahn. It was downhill most of the way. Chris led as our BBF could not rely on his broken iphone to navigate by even though he had programmed the route into it.

After the hot days we had had this morning was refreshingly cool. The sun shone and there was not a cloud in the sky. On this cycle autobahn, Alan used no E-motor as the going was easy.

We were meant to turn off the cycle path, but at the point the Navi indicated, Chris could find no exit path, so we went on aways till a suitable exit was found. Now we had to go up hill quite a bit to get to Rattingen. Here both humans used power on the E-motor to get up the hills. Alan now discovered that far from being able to go a shorter distance than the initial 69 kilometres, now could go as far as 96 kilometres! Strange!!

Chris had the bit between his teeth for he seemed determined to get to Ayrshire Barracks as quickly and as early as possible. He powered on all the way to through Dusseldorf to Neuss, over 30 kilometres without stopping, before he stopped and only then, we felt, because our BBF had said he needed a Loo! They sat in a cafe and Alan explained that Chris had stated the arrival time was to be 14:30 hrs. Alan had asked for his grandsons to be at Ayrshire Barracks too and they would not get there until 14:45 hrs! For him there was no point in arriving before the welcoming committee had set up. It would spoil it all. At the pace they were going they could arrive as early as 12:30 hrs!!

Leaving the Cafe they now walked down Krefelder Strasse in Neuss rather than cycle because there were tram tracks in the road and there was a danger of a wheel getting trapped in one. Our BBF had had the misfortune of coming off his bike twice because of such tracks, once in Bielefeld in the 80's and once in Monchengladbach last year!

Once this stage had been passed we were off again at a cracking rate. There were cycle paths to follow, but there was lots of traffic on the adjacent road which did not make it fun. As we got closer to Monchengladbach Chris led us off the main road and into the country which was much more to our liking.

Chris now found, on the banks of the Niers stream, a bench and picnic table in the shade of a big tree. Here we rested and Chris produced an apple for our BBF to eat while he had a pear. They changed into their RBL shirts and though Alan was keen not to leave that location before 14:10 hrs we were off again at 13:50 hrs. Chris now went at a more leisurely pace and took us to a place where he had worked to chat to a friend who, he said was a mountain bike fan. We were made to wait outside while he went into the office, but sadly his friend was in a meeting!

There seemed to be quite a lot of traffic in the town and since it was a Friday afternoon we should not have been surprised. We finally got onto Aachener Strasse at Holt and once we had passed the Church Chris increased the pace again, which upset us a bit as we knew we would now arrive before Alan's grandsons. And so it was, they arrived after us.

The Rheindahlen Branch RBL Committee were there to greet us with champagne and small eats all which was very welcome. Speeches were made and Steve Owen the President handed over to Chris an envelope with the Branches contribution to our fund for the Poppy Appeal.

All in all we travelled on our BBF's bike 1107.16 kilometres visiting all 15 Branches of the Royal British Legion in Germany. Chris will have travelled at least 30 kilometres more since he had to cycle into Monchengladbach to catch the train at the start and insisted on cycling home again, even though transport had been offered to him. We Bears understand the reason for this. No one wants to have his E-Bike thrown into the back of a  pickup truck. 

So how much money have we raised? We can't say with any certainty yet, as Chris, who is also the treasurer will have to count up all the cash collected along the way, as well as all the donations which come to the Branch via Bank Credit and add this to the amount collected via Just Giving. 

We intend to report again when we know more.

In the meantime we would like to thank all the RBL Branches in Germany that made us feel so welcome and special. We have made new friends on this adventure. Chris gets a special thanks for putting up with us and our BBF which cannot have been easy for him. Whatever anyone says about it we enjoyed every minute of the journey and thank the Gods that it never rained.