Wednesday, September 19, 2012

DAY 29: THU 20 SEP - RHEINBURG TO KLEVE

Ride: 60km; total: 1,390km
Fine and partly cloudy, a cool 6-15deg

Great buffet breakfast, the Germans know how to do breakfast that's for sure.   Got a little bit of bacon & yoghurt for lunch, and a wild apple on the way.   

We decided to cut out a big loop this morning and go straight to Xanten where there are some Roman ruins.    However the B57 road was very hard to find and we had problems with suspect signs or lack of signs all morning.  Eventually found the right road after some help from a German lady who spoke very good English.   Xanten's Roman ruins were just a hole in the ground but the Cathedral there was the best I'd seen this entire trip.  And as a bonus someone was playing a recital on the large old organ, which was fantastic.   We had lunch at a manmade lake next to a sailing club.   

The last 12km was completed fairly quickly alongside the B57.  

Kleve looked quite interesting so we decided to stay Thurs and Fri night.  We were overdue for a rest day anyway.  The first motel we called in on was booked out but the lady phoned another which had a vacancy.  It turned out to be in the mall and a family run business with a restaurant downstairs. 

We had dinner in the restaurant and both had fish and broccoli with a glass of wine; fantastic. After a quick wander around town we escaped to our room due to plummeting temp, 12deg!

A crucifix scene outside a cathedral at Xanten


Fountain sculpture at Kleve


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