11 Rhine river. From The North Sea by Amsterdam to the border of Switzerland and in to France

Startingpoint: Sandvort in The Netherlands.

Along river Rhine, Rheinradweg. 30 from Basel in Switseland I turned west into Muhlhausen and France.

Ending point: Some km west of Muhlhausen/Muhlhouse. Along the Rhein-Rhone canal.

Then I tok the TGV-train to Paris and airplane home to Oslo.

15. - 23 sept 2013

Here is my bike, Sølve, and me, ready for departure. At the North Sea coast, by Zandvoort nearby Haarlem. I biked to the coast from Shippol airport. I arrived at Shippol by plane 13.00. From this place it will only be sweetwater along the biketrails.

The trip lasted to more than 1000 km, but almost with no hill climbing.
This was the lowestmost point at the trip. A pumping station by Haarlemmer Polder.
4 m below the sea level. The highest point of the trip was west of Mulhouse in France.

Speed-dumps for bikes. Fantastic conditions for bicycles in

Netherland.

With regulary distances there was Canal Guard Houses. They got a quai with a boat with blue emergency flash-ligths on.

It was a sunday evening with a cold breeze and from the windows there was a warm lightning. And it smelled roasted pork.

I was tired after a 50-year celebration in Oslo, last night. And it started to rain, so I cheked in to a expencive hotel in Utrecht. I wasen't the only bicyklist in town..... The railwaystation was across the street som there was "some" bikes there......

Here I am biking along the rever Waal, witch is the main outlet of river Rhine.

The river outlet is in Rotterdam. Mostly I biked on top of the flood dikes, with a nice wiew to the river.

I did not notice the border crossing between Netherland and Germany, but suddenly I met Angela Merkel with here crooked smile. There was posters all over, onsy days before the election.

A big hall or something. Green lightened in Duisburg. Early morning the 3'd day. After a night in tent by the riverbank.

Heavy industry in the sunrise. By Dusseldorf. There is a lot of big chemical factorys, other industry and ports along The Lower Rhine.

An old ironbridge. With nails. Crossing Rhine outside Dusseldorf.

It would have been quicker to drive a Ford at the autobahn......

Here I was passing 2 km with "Ford-werke"

The germans have lovely gardens, and like to have small statues and gnomes in them. Outside Cologne there was a garden center selling animals of plastic in normal size.
I would like to bay a sheep and bring home, but it would be a promlem at the bike.

At the end of the 3 day, found a nice Gasthof in the small town Urlitz. I got a cheap and good meal with beer, and jolly company with the locals.
And the next morning I continued along the river. Here I am at the meetingpoint for the two rivers Mosel and Rhine. There was a lot of cruiseships there.

But I was empressed of the landscape along Mittel.Rhein. For a long distance I was following

the ship J.H.Dunant owned by the Nederlandse Rote Kruis. (the dutch Red Cross)

One keep a little faster speed then the ships upstream, but with small resting stops one followed alongside

By Lorelei the current in the Rhine is very hard, and there was a traffic control for the ships.

The ship traffic at river Rhine was enormus. Often one may see 10 riverships at a time.

All kind of ships. Car-carriers, oilwessels, some with sand, grain, containers....

This is the famous Lorelei-cliff.

Passing the Taunus-hills

A small fortress on a small island in the Rhine.

Crossing the river by ferry

Some sweet grapes gave me extra speed.

It was most green grapes, witch not give green wine, - I think.

I found a cheap, but nice hotel in Worms. This is the cathedral. It was in Worms Martin Luther nearly got executed by the "Reichtag" and where he prounced the famous words: "here I stand, and can't do nothing else" (correct english ?)