Bikepacking - Cologne
Cologne
The first day of bikepacking from Essen was a trip in itself. Lack of sleep, the first goodbyes, a lot of rain, and a broken bike.
I remember that I waking up and starting to bike before sunrise; it was a bit cold but, not something in particular bad. The famous euro velo 15 road was easy to follow for about 50 km. But after a food stop, tragedy struck. The derailleur on my bike broke, the path that I was intended to take was closed, my mobile data ran out and rain was pouring, you name it.
So there I was, pushing my bike on the side of a highway, trying to buy a data card in Aldi, and figuring out how to get to my first host in Cologne. To be honest, I felt as bad as I could, but life finds it’s balances pretty fast sometimes.
A guy (Mustafa) help me and my bike get to the closest train station by car, people helped me carry my bike up the train since I had no energy left, and when I arrived to my host I was received with a warm shower and some food. All I wanted was for that day to be over.
With my still broken bike, I moved to my second host (Chris), who had also done bikepacking, he explain me that there was probably no way to fix what happen until the next day. So I improvised a little bit. Chris took me to the city center and showed me around: The cathedral, the Christmas market, the Rhine, and to finish the night, we went to see a local football match of the local team.
The next day, things were resolved naturally. I got a new piece for my bike, took it to a repair shop, waited around, and jumped into a train to the next town. But this was not the end of Cologne.
I recently went back, for a different reason, after what seems like a lifetime, and saw one of my friends from Essen, Chris, the Cathedral, and the Rhine again… I had no idea how impactful Cologne was going to be for the rest of my life, and how that place now hold memories from two different lives. I still think abut it a lot, and wonder if life will take me to that city ever again.
Will I have to go back?