Читать книгу The Rhine Cycle Route. From source to sea through Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands онлайн

9 страница из 56

The route continues to Bonn, past the Bundeshaus (where the West German parliament sat 1949–99) and Beethoven’s birthplace, then on to Köln (Cologne), which with over one million inhabitants is the largest city en route and site of the world’s second tallest cathedral spire. Then past Düsseldorf and through industrial Duisburg, which produces half of all German steel and is Europe’s largest inland port. For most of the way through this area, the river is followed, avoiding much of the intensive industrial development. Continuing through wide open flat agricultural land into the Netherlands, the river starts dividing to eventually reach the North Sea by way of five different channels. Our route follows one of these, the Lek, cycling on top of flood dykes with intensively farmed polders (drained land), lower than the river and reclaimed over many centuries, lining the river’s course. At Kinderdijk there are 19 surviving windmills of the type used to drain this land. The last great city is Rotterdam, rebuilt hurriedly after destruction in the Second World War and now being rebuilt again with much stunning modern architecture. On the opposite bank, between Rotterdam and the North Sea is Europoort, which was the world’s busiest port until overtaken by Shanghai in 2004.