Duisberg to Maurick

Funny, the tone of the marketing about the Booking.com/AirBnB apartment that we were in was all friendly, lovely, but then when you get there, there's big long lists of "don't do this, don't do that, we'll charge penalties for x, y, z." Also in order to cook, we had to move the microwave away (it was on top of the stove) and plug it in.

I was hopeful that we were going to have good weather, based on last nights forecast, but no, rain from around 9 to around 11. Ugh. Overall it would have been better had we just stayed in the apartment till 11. We ended up biking till the heavy rain came in, then took shelter under the overhang for a customs station (we were in the pier area). When it seemed like it was raining a little less, we biked on a little more, the target being a cafe. However, it turned out it was closed, so we took cover under the entry to a parking area. We were pretty wet, and COLD - I put on my windpants, and changed to my wool shirt. Then the cafe opened, and we had some hot milk and cocoa. Then finally we took off when the rain and stopped. Lots of stopping and going and figuring out directions. The bike trail is pretty much not marked at all, you just have to figure it out. We eventually got up on the dikes, and it was insanely windy, we were fighting wind for a long time. Instead of following exactly the Rhine path, we decided to just go straight to Xanten. It was along a major, busy road, but there was a nice separated bike path, so it worked out fine, and save us some biking.

Xanten itself is really a sweet little town, a great change from Duisberg (which was a bit of a dump). Zero grafitti, zero garbage, a beautiful open courtyard next to the cathedral. Really a nice town.

The bed and breakfast we're in (Am Meerturm) as just a "bed" now, no breakfast available. The owner is very friendly and outgoing, the room is a little small but really nice and new, very well decorated.

We rested a while, then had some dinner which was pretty cruddy. We both had schnitzel, but they were very thin, and mostly just breading. If you take the breading off (which I did) you get something that is literally as thick as a slice of bologna. Totally not worth it. I don't think that the schnitzel used to be quite this thin. My best luck has been at kebab places, where I can get a plate of just meat. Or cooking for myself.

Tomorrow is, unfortunately, supposed to be rainy again! Hopefully it'll be nice enough to go to the Roman museum that's just a few steps from this bed and breakfast. Apparently they've reconstructed a whole Roman town. And for after that, we have a booking in Emmerich.

Went out again a bit, Peter wanted to play clarinet. It was pretty dead though - this town shuts down pretty early.

First on the agenda today was to go to the huge Roman museum/reproduced Roman city that's very close by. Apparently there was a Roman city right next next to Xanten, and it was the largest Roman city in Germany, after Koln. Peter wasn't very excited about it, he ended up reading in his kindle a lot. Huge reproduced ampitheater with displays about the gladiators. The place was HUGE, mostly just lawn but lots of city walls and towers, a villa, and then the museum. Wish we had brought our bikes in, but I didn't think it was allowed, turns out it was.

There was an insane amount of personal working the museum, compared to how many visitors there were. Every single little room had at least 1, and sometimes two employees. I could see that people were doing busy work (like this lady at the gift shop straightening brochures), to give themselves something to do. It seemed pretty boring. I was mistaken AGAIN for a Dutch person. That's the third time. It's something about the way that I'm speaking German now.

In the museum were some school groups from Holland, speaking Dutch. The Dutch seem pretty different from the Germany - they were taller, and mostly slender. Maybe they were from an elite school or something. Germans (and probably Austrians too) in general have gotten a lot heavier than when I was visiting as a teenager. It'll be interesting to get to the Netherlands (tomorrow!) and see how they're doing.

The ride itself was a little stressful. The weather forcast had changed AGAIN from no rain to scattered showers, so I wanted to just push through, to get to the hotel I booked in Emmerich before it rained. It turned out that there was no sustained rain, just some scattered droplets, but remembering yesterday (heavy rain, we had to stop a lot to seek shelter) I was anxious to avoid more rain exposure, and was always looking for where we might be able to take shelter if it started pouring, which it looked like it could do soon.

We took shortcuts where we could, also a fair bit of the path was right next to a road - a nice separated path, but still next to a road. Also some of the path was on top of a dike. Overall the wind wasn't nearly as bad as yesterday, but there was still some.

Interesting old nuclear power plant on the way! It cost 4 billion dollars (in 1970's dollars), but was never put into production. It's the second one I've seen, the first was along the Danube. Now it's an amusement park! We biked a little bit towards it but didn't actually go in. It looked frankly a little creepy.

Into town in Emmerich (across the longest suspension bridge in Germany). Emmerich is not as nice as I thought it would be. I had been noticing that outide of Xanten, things were looking tidier and neater, no graffii, etc. I was thinking it was because we were close to Holland, and things were better kept there. So I thought Emmerich, being so close to Holland, would be really clean, etc. But no, it's a dingy town, not very attractive. The hotel itself is really nice though, the room is super clean and new, has a balcony, etc. Also right next to an Aldi, we stocked up a bit there, Peter got a huge container of quark, at the whole thing, along with a croissant and a kilo of peaches.

We rested in the room a while, then walked around town. There was a fair taking place, carnival attractions, selling cotton candy, kettle corn, etc. Later we went to a kebab place - the only one so far that's only had chicken kebag, not beef. I had the meat portion, it was quite large, couldn't even eat it.

Another windy and kind of rainy day (not horribly rainy though), packed with experiences.

A decent breakfast buffet at the hotel, I had 4 eggs and some of the cold cuts, as well as some milk. Biking out of town, we stopped at the Euroshop to pick up a small towel, because the hostel we're going to doesn't offer towels. (BTW the hostel turned out to be a really rotten deal, or else Holland is way, way more expensive than Germany).

Then biking along roads and along dikes. The biking paths here are outstanding, of course, very nice and wide. Lots and lots of sheep. It was windy most of the time, but mostly NOT from a head-wind, rather a side wind, so it wasn't that bad. We had to take 2 ferries, our intermediate goal was Castle Doornenburg, which was more or less on the way.

We got into the Netherlands, and stopped at a cafe, for Peter to get a celebration "new country" treat - he had cake and hot cocoa, and I had hot milk.

Our immediate impressions of the Netherlands - people are much, much friendlier, and also happier. They talk more with each other, they say hello to us along the trail. I almost had more conversations today with people than the whole time we were in Germany. Granted, we went to a medieval/viking re-enactment festival at Castle Doornenburg, that's where I had most of the conversations.

Also the Dutch are much, much taller than Germans. And more slender, and I really can't avoid the impression that they seem happier.

We talked to one guy at length at the festival, he's a former cobblestone layer guy who now makes Viking era furniture - combination chest/bench things. He happily spoke the whole time in English.

Then spoke to another lady (a teacher) who was working on a rabbit fur while talking, she makes things with them and sells them. She was talking a bit about all the anti-meat propaganda. You really do see MUCH more signage in restaurants, about vegan choices. Even at McDonalds, the vegan/fish choices are much more prominent than in the US - I'd say even more prominent here than the beef choices.

Then into the castle courtyard. The festival extended there, with lots of kid-friendly things like juggling equipment, stilts, unicycles, little animal shaped carts that could be pushed around, a bubble machine, etc.

Overall, really enjoyed the castle - even though we didn't actually go INTO the castle, because it turned out that we had tickets only for the festival, and not actually entering the castle. And it turns out that the castle was totally destroyed in WWII, and was rebuilt! So not original at all. It sure looks original, though.

After that there was a long bike ride through the wind (usually not a head wind, but still) on top of dikes. Our hostel was up a long hill, and not central - tough at the end of the day. It's okay, but probably not the best deal.

We rested a bit. I would have been happy to just stay in the hostel, frankly, maybe buy some food at the grocery store, but Peter wanted to go into down, so we did. Overall, it's cleaner and nicer than some of the German cities we've been to. The countryside is definitely very well tended, but in Arnhem we did see grafitti, etc. Anyway - the main thing we noticed was how very empty and deserted things were! I don't know why. Maybe a combination of the heavy winds, also the European Championship soccer game was happening and I think Holland was playing, maybe people stayed home for it.

We went looking for a restaurant, and many were closed. Ended up at Burger King, I got 4 hamburger patties (no discount for just the patties, but at least I got them) and Peter got some cheeseburgers.

Then biked up the hill (again!) stopping at a park so Peter could play clarinet.

Whew. Long day. Packed with experiences.

Decent breakfast buffet here at the hostel, but people were pretty quiet, a lot of singles eating breakfast with us. I had a LOT of hard boiled eggs with butter, also some of the cold cuts and hot milk.

Then, to the open air musuem that's just about 5 minutes bike ride away. This is absolutely my favorite type of museum. They're transplanted dozens and dozens of homes and farm buildings - even a full dairy factory - from their original location to here, with furnishings and decor and tools, and usually some good explanations. There was a tram you could get on and ride about, it made a circuit around the whole museum grounds (which were huge). I took loads of pictures, some very interesting ones of buildings, furnishings, etc. Peter had a small meal in the restaurant, which didn't have a lot of options. I skipped it.

On the way home, we stopped at the Co-op grocery, which - turns out - does NOT accept credit cards, so I tried paying with my debit card, and had no luck. I hope that doesn't mean the debit card doesn't work, because I need to get some cash.

What else about the museum...it's really all in the pictures, very interesting and multi-functional furniture, people were very friendly and open, would initiate conversation. The more I interact with the Dutch, the more I think ... what is wrong with the Germans? They were really totally different, very set apart and almost never (never?) in my experience, initiated a greeting. Completely different across the border.

Had a long talk with a Canadian guy (I heard him speaking English with his kids). He's on a sabbatical year here in Arnhem, his 2 kids are at an international school here. He studies animal science (nutrition or something?). He said they're talking about slaughtering 30% of the livestock here, because ??? Something about the soil? It sounded like a disaster, he didn't go that far and didn't seem to express much of an opinion on it. He said there's MULTIPLE vegan political parties - their main political position is basically - do not eat meat.

One thing that really confused me is there little cabinet beds - they were so short! The first few I saw, I thought - oh, these are the children's beds. But then I never saw any longer ones! Then I went into one of the houses where there was someone there, and I asked him. He said - they slept sitting up! Very strange, but I guess it's true.

Dutch sounds so much like English! So many times, when I first heard someone speaking, it sounded like they were speaking English, then they say a few more words and you realize...no. I often understood what they were saying, mostly. German helps a tremendous amount. I can kind of, halfway, read things.

Breakfast at the StayOkay hostel, this time I was able to chat with a lady. She's dutch, from not too far away but comes here for a little break from routine.

The bike ride was fine. We're not really following the track anymore, there's SO many bike paths that we're just kind of winging it, with Google maps and OSMAnd only sometimes.

Stopped at Castle Doorwerth, and wandered around it, had a little snack and enjoyed ourselves, even though it was closed Mondays! So we couldn't go inside, but I don't necessarily think that was a bad thing, wandering around the outside was good enough. The attachment for Peter's drybag pulled out - the part that I sewed up held, but the other side tore out. So we attached it with just a cord, and hope it holds.

Nothing all that exciting to note about the bike ride, except lots and lots of fruit trees! We bought a basket of plums from a roadside stand, and saw loads and loads of fruit stands and orchards.

We got to our Warm Showers host around 3.15, they're a family (Sanne, Elian, boys Kobe and I forgot younger one's name). Very friendly and welcoming indeed, we sat with them at their outside table, had some cherries (Sanne and Kobe are picking cherries at an orchard nearby), and chatted for a long time before Peter and I went out for a little walk around town.

Elian started his own company, he manufactures bike parts. Mostly related to specialty bikes such as the cargo transport bikes. He just came back from a convention in Frankfurt, EuroBike or something. He started the company maybe 10 years ago, didn't make money for 5 years, started it in his parents back yard. He does a lot with CAD programs, he also bought a CNC machine for the parts.

Sanne is super sweet, she made dinner (roast potatoes with cheese, some vegan meatballs, green beans, and a salad of home-grown radishes and cucumbers). They have a dog and three chickens, that apparently lay eggs sometimes.

Conversation at the table filled with legos with Sanne and Kobe (the 13 year old) - Kobe is really eager to talk and discuss, he complains about his English but it's not too bad. He goes to a dual language school, is very interested in history and the European Union.

AND - Sanne made arrangements with the farmer she picks cherries for, we will go pick with him tomorrow, with Kobe, the older son! It'll be interesting. I wonder how/if we'll get paid? I've never been paid for farm work before.