Afro Headquarters

This journey begins August 29th, in the very heart of Rome, and spans many many kilometers across Europe, the french call it a “randonnée” but whatever you want to call it, the word you find can not truly describe “the Rhine Valley Incident.”

Aug. 29th

At 11:30 Alex and I made our way to the main station (Roma Termini) purchased bike passes and at 12:30 we started our journey towards Basel. We took 4 trains to Domodossola, and used the last day on our rail passes to do so. Domodossola is an Italian city near the Swiss/Italian border, it was here that we arrived at 23:30, set up our beds on the platform and set the alarm for 5:00 so we could get up, buy tickets and catch a train at 6:00, and then went to bed.

Aug. 30th

At 3:00 we were awoken by a conductor asking us where we were headed, when we said Basel, he told us to hop on the train and that we could buy the tickets from him. We quickly packed our gear and hopped onto the train. This train took us from Domodossola in Italy to Brig in Switzerland. From Brig we took a train to Bern and then finally a train to Basel. In Basel all the stores were closed as it was a Sunday, so we had to settle for buying our food at the expensive Coop inside the train station. We then headed out of the station and got on our bikes to find the Rhine River. We started to follow the river north until we came to a spot where we couldn’t go any further, the Rhine was to our left and in front of us, and to the right was a canal. As we are turning around to go back an Austrian gentleman starts talking to us, asking where we are going and where we have been? He then tells us that the monument we are standing beside marks the meeting point of the French, German and Swiss borders. We take a closer look at the monument and see that the countries’ three flags are painted on the side. We then back track and cross to the otherside of the canal and meet up with the trail that runs alongside the river. We are going at a steady pace on the dirt road, but we are slowed though whenever there is a town or a bridge over the Rhine. Going through one area takes about 2 hours, although we did stop for a short break, and takes us away from the river side. We ride past an amusement park before finally getting back onto a path that takes us to the Rhine. As the road turns from gravel to pavement, I look down only to find that my rear wheel is flat. With two spare tubes on hand we don’t bother patching the punctured tube, we replace it as quicly as possible and head out again. As the sun sets it is still a ways toKehl (the city we wanted to get to that day). We rode down the dirt path in the dark, with our bike lights to guide us, at every junction we had to stop and look for signs to point us in the right direction. We finally reach Kehl around 23:00 and ask for directions to the train station. We have a plan for going to the train station, we will look up a train that leaves early in the morning, go to the platform where the train departs from and sleep on the platform while pretending to be waiting for that train. Once we get to the station we see a train to Munich at 7:00 on track 4. We go set up our beds and set the alarm for 6:30.

Aug. 31st

We wake up wit hthe alarm and quickly pack our things, then as a train arrives at 6:50 we walk out of the station wit hthe other passengers. We found a super market inside a mall and purchased provisions for the day. We ate our breakfast on a bench that looked over a town square. With the sun shinning down on us and warming our sore and tired muscles, we decided it was time to head out. Getting out of Kehl was no easy task as we travelled down several paths that turned out to be deadends. After about 3 hours we were only 20km away from Kehl. At this point we moved from the dirt path to a paved road that followed the Rhine. On the pavement we were able to make up for lost time and with my sore knees getting better after I adjusted the hight of my seat, making up lost time was a top priority as we didn’t want to bike in the dark again. The Rhine was curving easterly, so we took a short cut along a fairly main road, we passed through several small towns and hoped we could make it to a town with a campsite before 22:00. As it grew dark we found ourselves on a one lane road, with forest on either side. We were following signs to Daxlanden and hoping we would find a place to sleep once we got there. At the edge of a nature reserve we stopped to look at a map, but it only showed the reserve and a few streets on the otherside. We biked through the reserve and found ourselves in the suburb of DAxlanden. At a bus/metro station we looked at a map of the entire area and discovered we were in Karlsruhle, the half-way mark of our journey. In a broken attempt to head north out of the city we stopped for a break to figure out where we were. In just the few minutes of sitting there I almost fell asleep. At this time we discussed whether or not we should continue biking or just take a train from Karlsruhle to Cologne. We decided to take a train and for the third time in three nights we headed towards the train station, but for only the second time in those three nights we intended on taking a train. It was around 23:30 and all the ticket booths were closed, but there were ticket vending machines where we were able to buy train tickets. Our first train didn’t leave until 3:30 so we carried our stuff up to the platform, set up our beds and went to sleep.

Sept. 1st

We woke up and caught our first train no problem, but unknown to us was that in Heidelbourg the train seperated and only half of the train kept going to Mainz. So at the Heidelbourg station, Alex tells me we have to get off, and we rush to get outside onto the platform then as we are running down the platform the part of the train we want to be on leaves without us. To tired to be angry we check the schedule to find that there is another train we can catch and then make a transfer to another train that will eventually get us to Mainz. We get on the train and it is only a 15 minute ride to the next station (Mannheim). Above the door there is a map of other regional trains that travel in the area which is of great help to us when we get to the stop, get off and look at the schedule, and find that if we get back on the same train and go two more stops we can catch a train in 5mins that goes to Mainz. So we get back on the train and head to Ludwighaven. We get off and need to find platform 2, we follow signs that point straight ahead for platform 2 and follow them to a dead end. At this moment we are panicking, we have no time to catch our next train and only know that we need to go up to the tracks abouve us but don’t know how to do so. We climb on our bikes and begin to ride down the platform, then we find an entrance to the station and inside, stairs and an escalator going up to platform 2, we ride our bikes into the station and right up to the bottom of the escalator. As we ago up the escalator the train pulls into the station and as we get our bikes on board the dorrs close behind us. It is about an hour long journey to Mainz and we have some time to relax on the train. We arrive in Mainz at 7:00 and our train to Cologne doesn’t leave until 7:24, but on the schedule it doesn’t show that the train to Cologne can take bikes, so Alex runs to the info/ticket booth to see if we can take our bikes on the train. He is back in a flash and says that yes we can take our bikes. We get on the train and enjoy the 4 hour ride to Cologne. As the train is a regional one it is stopping at all the small stops on it’s way to Cologne HBF and at Cologne South we get off because it is closest to Alex’s new place. We cycle along the streets of Cologne and eventually we are in the suburb of Huerth. We get turned around slightly but an old man shows us where we are on a map and we find Alex’s new place no problem. Sore and tired we take the rest of the day off and relax.

The preceding events have been transcribed from a journal of unknown origin. What has become of the two protaginists is also unkown. All that is known is that the Rhine Valley Incident will go down as one of the most peculiar and awe insipiring incidents of our time.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 5:09 pm and is filed under Europe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.