The Stoker's Impressions

On a tandem bicycle, the person in the front is called the Captain. He or she steers, shifts the gears and uses the brakes. The person in the rear is called the Stoker, who pedals hard, looks for bike path signs, encourages and sometimes takes photos. In our case, Ken is in the front although it is not always the case that a man is the Captain.

As Stoker, I like to do my share of the work to be fair and for the exercise. I don't enjoy the comments that I occasionally get suggesting that I am getting a free ride. That does not interest me and most Stokers feel the same. Our pedals are completely synchronized so I cannot take my feet off them without injury if Ken is pedaling. I only had one comment during this trip, unlike many in the USA, and I was actually pleasant to the man! People don't understand and think they are being very clever and hilarious!

You have most likely read in the blog that we encountered a lot of wet weather and poor bike path conditions but now, with over a week since our last look at the end of the Rhine in the North Sea, I am finally writing some of my thoughts and observations.

As we rode during this long journey, we chatted and laughed about our experiences but sometimes we rode in companionable silence, thinking and working as the miles went by. Once in a while, we would lose our way or have to decide which was the better of the many options we had, and out would come the "device" with the GPS and mapping. Mostly it would be helpful, but sometimes I would hear "Oh, you turkey"..! Then we would repair to a cafe for tea and a treat and hope there was decent wifi there. A nice respite at times.

Most Europeans have map books or paper maps they keep in a water-proof folder or clip-board on their handlebars, but many times we saw groups of them looking at signposts and consulting maps just like we did!

I think we all tend to remember the good times the best. Even on the discouraging days, I absolutely loved breathing fresh air in the countryside (with the exception of the highly industrial areas in Germany, when we had to pass them).

With rain dripping down my neck, I still enjoyed the ever-present wild flowers bordering the paths and peeking into pretty gardens and window boxes as we sped by. Some were a bit bedraggled, but then so were we!

Several times I tied some flowers to my handlebars. Ken gave me a bouquet of roses in Strasbourg and, when they finally wilted, I threw them into the Rhine and imagined them floating fast with the current and arriving before us...

Another thing I always enjoyed was the cheerful bird song. It was often hard to see them but I always heard them whether in sunshine or "singing in the rain".  I knew their plumage was keeping them warm and dry. Every village has an ancient fountain in the square, usually bedecked with flowers, and we really enjoyed Sunday mornings with church bells pealing, still hearing those in the last village as we approached the next.

Seeing wildlife was a delight, when we did, and the most numerous along the way were the Storks. They are getting ready to go to their winter homes now, but we saw them in the fields and rooftops very often. There was one large sanctuary in Germany near the river, where they were not enclosed and were free to come and go. I liked that!

Their nests are massive making them easy to spot in the towns, and their black and while feathers made them stand out in the harvested wheat fields.

We also saw several deer, peeking at us through the nearby trees or grazing in the distance. I saw one lonely hen pheasant, several partridges and we heard an owl's hoot one day. Many rabbits stopped to look at the yellow bicycle passing by and the most charming was a hedgehog with its little feet whirring like a wind-up toy as it passed in front of us and disappeared into the grass.

We even came across some interesting canines...








There were two intrepid souls swimming down the Rhine while we were there! We didn't see them but our Swiss friends kept us posted on their progress.  I cannot imagine swimming in that dangerous water with the extra-fast downstream currents and whirlpools caused by so much rain!

We stayed in B&B's and hotels because we didn't have room on the tandem for camping gear, we didn't want to tow a trailer, and we enjoy our comfort anyway! We used a variety of booking services, Bett und Bike, Airbnb, Hotels.com and Google maps, calling ahead once we knew how far we felt like riding. This was a ride, not a race and we prefer to go on our own, not with a group. We only saw 2 or 3 other tandems, they are much more popular in the US it seems. Our way is probably as expensive as a group tour, but we have the freedom that we like to stop when, where and for how long.

People have asked some specific questions like "how long did it take?". We started our ride at Oberalppass on July 4th in the Swiss Alps where the Rhine river begins as a trickle, cautiously paying attention to all those switchbacks. Our final ride to the sea was on August 11th and our total distance was 901 miles. By my reckoning and notes that I took, we rode on 30 days out of that time. Sometimes we only rode a partial day due to weather or if we reached a city early in the day where we intended to spend a couple of nights and enjoy some sights. Basel and Strasbourg had-awe inspiring history and culture and one could spend weeks there to explore, but we were on a mission. During those days, we relaxed and also did some more thorough laundry, since we did light washing each night in our hotel-room bathrooms.

We spent 2 nights in Andermatt getting the bike and ourselves ready for the ride, and were privileged to stay 2 nights south of Zurich with family members of a dear Swiss friend. We also had 2 nights on a houseboat in Utrecht while visiting another friend, and finally four days with friends in the Netherlands at the end of our ride. We were treated royally in all their homes.

I even got to see those haunting eyes of the "Girl with a Pearl Earring" again at the Mauritshuis in The Hague in the Netherlands.














To us, the people along the way were as interesting as all the cathedrals, castles, art and music. I loved observing them... from the Stoker's position, poor Ken was often too busy! Most people were smiling and friendly, even when there was a language difficulty. There were two really bad encounters which I won't go into because, overall, people could not have been nicer. The Dutch were definitely the most friendly and laughing people, and the Germans were often dour and unsmiling.. But there are always exceptions.

A delicious meal prepared by Jan!

Since we aspire to a "plant based" way of eating, it was sometimes challenging for us to find the meals we wanted to eat. Europeans love their dairy and meats! We fell into a routine of breakfasts at the B&B, which were usually lavish buffets where we could choose what we liked. We thoroughly enjoyed our picnic lunches, bought before starting off each day, when we'd stop at an appealing bench in the countryside and sometimes on a dike with a river view!

Dinners were often at Asian restaurants since they were likely to use more vegetables than some that put veggies on the plate as a garnish! Most restaurants were very willing and happy to adapt their menus to our needs, however. The markets were always filled with mountains of fabulous fresh fruit and vegetables and we enjoyed amazing vegan restaurants in two cities, Basel and Zurich (both Swiss). Their huge variety of delicious foods would even have pleased an omnivore.

So it was a great experience, thank you Ken for nudging me to try this adventure and encouraging me along the way when the conditions were not ideal! He always said that there were trains and river boats to transport us and the bike if we felt like it, but I wanted us to accomplish our goal and we did!  It was well worth the effort and we will keep our memories fresh.

We are reading the blog of two young people we know of  who are cycling from northern N. America to southern S. America. Alex and Maggie wrote "Touring together is like riding a tandem bicycle; no matter where a relationship is going, it will get you there faster". We didn't ride very fast, and we still love each other!

Thank you, family and friends, for all your support!