Aachen - Bedburg: powered by wind - A Flanders Fling

June 15, 2017

Aachen - Bedburg: powered by wind

It wasn't an eventful day. But it was hot. After Aachen the hills stopped. We rode through quiet towns, empty streets. It was a holiday, Corpus Christi, and hardly anyone was about.

Perhaps a boring picture, but it was such an enjoyable ride through a pleasant park to start the day.

Around noon we were in Jülich and stopped for a bite to eat.

Jülich's landmark is the Witch Tower (Hexenturm), a city gate and remnant of the medieval city fortifications.

Corpus Christi Day, known as Fronleichnam in Germany, is celebrated by Roman Catholics in honor of the Eucharist. On this day, a church service is attended where the sacrament is blessed and then taken around the city by priests and other church followers in a monstrance, usually under a baldachin.

The Jülich Citadel was at one time part of the fortified city. Following a fire in 1547, Jülich was rebuilt as an ideal city in the Renaissance style. It was one of the first bastioned fortresses to be built from scratch outside of Italy.

After Jülich it was very green to both sides of the road, sugar beet crops I believe, and we had a slight downhill until we reached our destination - with a tailwind! We zoomed along. Bedburg was about halfway between Aachen and the Rhine, we would have liked to do a few more kilometers but there didn't seem to be much in the way of accommodations on our further route. Bedburg did sound like a place to sleep, though. We arrived in the early afternoon. It was a quiet little place and in the evening we found a nice pizzeria, nothing fancy, but that was all we wanted, a simple meal.

A road with no cars is even better than a bike path. Utopia.

Today's ride: 49 km (30 miles)
Total: 867 km (538 miles)

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