Hot industry

Leaving Köln, we continue our tour of German industry. First up today we have the Ford body and assembly factory, located about 10km north of the city centre. It’s been running there since the 1930s, when it produced the Model A. Today the former engine building plant has been converted to an EV battery assembly line.

While definitely not as large as the BASF facility in Ludwigshafen (the perimeter of which we toured a week or more ago), the Ford factory spans nearly 6 hectares, on two sides of the road (and, of course, along the river), has at least 24 gates, has three dedicated trams stops, and keeps us away from the river for about 5km.

After a very weird detour in the small village of Worringen – the detour takes us on a complete circuit of the town and deposits us back at the start, so we still have to find our way along yet another dug up main road in a small village – we encounter a large INEOS facility located right on the river’s edge.

We’re happy to see back of industry as we cycle towards the refreshing sight of Zons – a little oasis of a medieval town in the midst of all this unattractive industry. Zons makes the perfect lunch stop, halfway on our rather hot trip to Dusseldorf.

At Zons we cross to the right bank of the river by ferry – an actual running, reliable ferry – and then make a leisurely trip all the way to Dusseldorf.

Today Europe has been sweltering. France apparently had its hottest day ever. There are awful and dire stories about people dying from heat related illnesses and drowning, and the effects on wildlife, particularly baby birds in nests. On the few cycle touring forums I haunt, older people are fussing about how to handle riding in the heat.

We are lucky today. Our ride has been mostly near water, mostly sheltered. We arrive in Dusseldorf hot, but not overly so. What’s been helpful is freezing our water bottles. While I’m sure ice-cold water is not any more hydrating than lukewarm, it certainly is easier to drink! We check into our carefully selected air conditioned apartment-hotel, where the kind manager has kindly turned on the air conditioner in our room

Dusseldorf is a city with great energy. The cobbled streets of the old town are lined with bars, restaurants, eis cafés and, in contrast with so many of the smaller places we’ve visited, is bustling with people, many of whom appear to be locals. There seems to be a large Latin American presence, with lots of Argentinian-style restaurants and, because Argentina is playing World Cup tonight, people dressed up in the blue and white supporting their team.

We eat at a shared table in a Mexican restaurant and then make our way to the Rhine Tower for a post-dinner drink and gawk at the view. The tower has a revolving restaurant, and diners revolve around us as we sit on our high bar chairs watching the unchanging view south towards power plants and wind turbines. (The rest of the view is pretty good but the power plants dominate.)

In other news, I have a hitch-hiker! This little fellow will be travelling with me all the way back to Melbourne, where he will take up residence with a little boy who is very new to this world. Meet Little-Wes.

Stats for today:

• Distance: 55.84km
• Climb: 162m
• Average speed: 15.4km/h
• Average temperature: 31C
• Moving time: 3:37:10
• See our ride on Strava

The beer picture

At the end of a day’s ride, our tradition is to enjoy a beer, and to photograph it for posterity. Today’s beer picture was taken at a restaurant/bar relatively close to the water in Dusseldorf. Our order was taken by a seemingly-surly seemingly-German man, who later turned out to be an immigrant who had fled, as he called it “Yugoslavia” and made a new life here. He spoke of family scattered all over the world, including Sydney. The Rhine Tower is just visible in the background.

Along the way today:

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