Between Bingen and Koblenz

Is there a better flow than one that you experience at a river? After this day I can hardly imagine it. Everything fitted together. The weather remained dry until the late afternoon, the cycle paths from Bingen via Koblenz into the direction of Cologne were in good condition, and my little folding bike almost wheeled by itself. On top of that I had an ideal travel companion with Kai from Cologne, who I first met shortly after Bingen.

Short distance

The Lorelei

We drove about the same speed and had a lot of conversation topics. Like that hours were flying and almost as if by itself we made kilometers. I can warmly put to your heart especially the Rhine Gorge between Bingen and Koblenz if you ever want to do a cycling trip. There is a reason that this section with all its castles and the Lorelei belongs to the UNESCO World Heritage.

Length of a stage of the Tour de France

Thunderstorm behind Bonn

In Remagen Kai’s and my way separated. From there on I cycled all by myself. And still I felt quite fresh. At 5 p.m., after 135 kilometers, I reached Bonn. Now the ambition grabbed me. The prospect of meeting my family and sleeping in my own bed freed the last powers. In this last section, however, I had to deal with a lot of water coming from above. Almost in the dark I passed the cathedral of Cologne, 20 minutes later I stood in front of my own door. Out of breath, but happy. The day’s summary: almost twelve hours on the road, 186 kilometers. Some of the stages of the Tour de France aren’t longer than that.

Everything for the children of Thulosirubari

Cologne at nightfall

And I definitely feel that now. After the calorie stores are replenished, I only want to go to bed. On the eighth day of “School up! River down!” I also cracked the 1000-kilometer-mark. As a reminder, every kilometer I drive brings money to the “School up!” fund, with which we finance the reconstruction of the school destroyed by the earthquake in 2015 in the small Nepalese mountain village of Thulosirubari. More than 500 children from the mountain region are already looking forward to finally being able to get out of their provisional corrugated-sheet classrooms. If the flow leaves me, I simply think of these children. And keep rolling.

P.S. If you want to support my donation trip and don’t know exactly how it works, just click here.

It’s melting away

200 meters as the crow flies away from my desk, nothing less than the future of the planet is negotiated. Until Friday representatives from around the world are debating at the World Conference Center Bonn on a new climate agreement. It is to be adopted at the global climate talks in Paris, which will begin in late November. Once again the negotiations are long and tough. The solidarity with the states that are already feeling the effects of climate change is within limits. In most cases economy beats ecology. But the clock is ticking. With only a few exceptions, glaciers are melting worldwide. Glacier Works, an organization founded by US mountaineer David Breashears in 2007, has impressively documented how far for instance the glaciers around Mount Everest have retreated during the past decades. Now the Dalai Lama has pointed to the consequences of climate change for his Tibetan homeland.

The Third Pole

“This blue planet is our only home and Tibet is its roof. As vital as the Arctic and Antarctic, it is the Third Pole”, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhists says in a video message (see below) from exile in India. “The Tibetan Plateau needs to be protected, not just for Tibetans but for the environmental health and sustainability of the entire world.”

The 80-year-old emphasizes that he wants people to understand his words not as a political message, but as a humanitarian.

Drinking water for more than one billion people

Even Chinese scientists have been warning for a long time about the effects of climate change on the glaciers in Tibet. The average temperature on the more than 4,000 meter high plateau has increased by 1.3 degrees Celsius over the past five decades and thus significantly faster than the global average. The Tibetan glaciers are the source of water in rivers that support about 1.3 billion people in Asia. Against this background, the Dalai Lama appeals to the young generation of the 21st century to become more engaged in protecting the planet – thus also fighting for the environment in the Himalayas, especially in Tibet. Will his message be heard by the negotiators here in Bonn and later in Paris? That would not be bad.