After breakfast with the gluten free bread and gluten free granola we had a restful morning in our room. Late morning we ventured out into the heat and walked round some of the remains of the towns fortifications and to look at the marina. There was lots of impressive yachts but I am not sure they were impressive enough to be owned by multimillionaires. The most impressive one was called Dutch Falcon and a Google search confirmed it is a new super yaght but didn't reveal how much it would cost. Beyond the marina we could see barges, laden with cargo, on the Hollands Diep presumably coming and going from Europoort. The large white windmill that overlooks the harbour is now a private residence. What an impressive building to live in. I imagine there is a ... read more

Our longest day today at 61 miles and heading north west all day. There were light rain showers all morning but not too bad. There was a mixture of woodland and farms with large fields of crops. We passed through Limberg?? Which looked like a very pretty town. We crossed the Maas River using a small ferry that was only big enough for people and bikes. The owner told us to go inside as it was wet. This actually meant stand under the tiny canopy. Soon after leaving the hotel we left Germany for the Netherlands and criss crossed the border a few times and also passed through Belgium. Yoghurt break was in a church yard at Rotem and lunch was sat on a bench next to a canal. Both were quite quick stops as we ... read more

We were up early and had breakfast before our short journey to the railway station. (1.7 miles) Once we were in place on Platform 12 I went off to Rewe to buy lunch. When the train arrived we had plenty of time to get the bikes into their spaces and ourselves upstairs to our seats. We had bought our ticket about a month ago as we realised that if we didn't there might not be bike spaces left. It wasn't the same train as we had seen yesterday, it was newer and quite plush. It had come from the Czech Republic and was going to Cologne by a very indirect route. We had to wear ppf face masks on board. This is the only place we have had to wear them, although many people are wearing ... read more

Breakfast was in an enormous dining room at a table for twelve with two place settings at one end. Just off the dining room was a very elaborate sun room overlooking the garden below. All very ornate with carved wood. On the wall of the dining room were two portraits of a man and a woman, previous occupants of the house in a bygone era perhaps. Breakfast was typical German food of cheese and ham and a boiled egg each. No cereal or fruit today. A quick trip to Aldi for lunch and then we were on our way. A mixture of wide open crop land and shaded forests. Very scenic and very hot. We saw the first vine yards of the trip today late on in the journey. More climbing today than on other days, ... read more

The Rewe supermarket was right next door to the hotel so it was quick and easy to buy picnic goodies. The first part of our journey was very much through forests but then we were out into more open farmland. In the first half of our journey there were lots of ups and downs with a couple of them being more serious than any so far on this trip. After one climb we were rewarded with a long downhill that suddenly ended abruptly with barriers blocking the road and we could see that there was no bridge across the river. Fortunately, the men pointed to the other side of the road and we could see a rough path. We had to wheel the bikes down a steep banking, across a very small stream and up the ... read more