So it was a foggy start and I wore the rain jacket and rain pants for most of the trip. I had bought a Dutch map of the area from here to the German border. It was amazingly easy to navigate with the sequence of numbered points that I easily got from the map. Most of this stretch was within view of the river and the barges gliding up and down. I was delighted to find that I was still able to ride just a little faster than the barges going up river. The bike is a heavy commuter bike although it has 24 gears. I ride very upright and quite comfortably.
Much of today's ride was on the dyke system which protects the towns along the river from the periodic floods. It also affords a lovely view of the surrounding countryside. It was a great ride beside cows, sheep and some horses; crops of corn, beans, and sugar beets; over cobbles, pavers, acorns, chestnuts avoiding slugs.
Sadly, the German signing of the Rhine path was not nearly as clear as that in the Netherlands. I took a number of wrong turns, had some backtracks and even had some long detours. It turned out to be about a 5.5 hour ride and the closest I can come to guessing the distance was 94 km. But I came into Wesel about 4:30 and picked up the 5:17 train back to Anhem. The bicycle needed its own ticket -- 3.5 euro.
Unfortunately with so much time on the bike, there was no opportunity to most of the many towns which I passed by or through. I saw a bit of Emmerich and Wesel, simply because I needed information at the train stations, but there were churches and museums which will have to wait for another time. Good to know there is always more exploring possible.
Google can't seem to get its act together, so there is only one picture for today.
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