Left Atlanta Friday evening, Sept 8, and flew into Düsseldorf airport arriving early Saturday morning, Sept 9. This was one day earlier than the scheduled start of the bike tour but gave me an extra day to adjust to the six hour time change and get oriented to new surroundings. Three fellow riders, 2014 Coaster Todd, Jim and Kathy from Minneapolis, were on the same Delta flight. Jim had made arrangements for a shuttle to our hotel as he and his wife had bought their own bicycles in boxes. We came outside into a cold light rain with our luggage. Will this become an enduring theme? We were unable to locate the expected shuttle despite numerous phone calls and moves of luggage including heavy and bulky bike boxes. So, we secured another van that neatly accommodated four passengers and luggage. We found the Best Western motel after a drive of about an hour south in a suburb southeast of Cologne.
We busied ourselves the remainder of the day greeting old and meeting new friends. It turned out that almost all the riders made provision to arrive early. Some traveled a bit to Paris, Lisbon and Cologne before congregating in Troisdorf.
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