Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Along German rivers

Our first - short - European tour: we took a (crowded) train to Roermond. There the tributary river Rur (in Dutch: Roer) flows into the Meuse. We followed it upstream to Dürenb in the north-Eifel. From there we rode to Bonn, a nice city on the Rhine river. We visited the Art Museum there, where we more or less discovered August Macke.This expressionist painter was born in Bonn and died in the first year of WW I as a soldier in the German army at the age of 27. In spite of his short life he left us a great number of beautiful paintings. We also paid a visit to his home, which has been turned into a nice museum dedicated to his life and work.
Aftyer Bonn we rode into the Eifel to the historic little town of Ahrweiler, then to Koblenz, where Moesel and Rhine merge. Again a nice historic city with a nice art museum (Ludwig). A bit south of Koblenz the river Lahn flows into the Rhine. The ride up this Lahn was very beautiful. After three days we left this river to cross over two the Eder river. This river flows into the Fulda river, which passes through Kassel. There we visited Die Neue Galerie and continued along the Fulda to the place where it flows into the river Weser. Somewhere along this river we experienced a traditional meal: when we entered a restaurant (Fährhaus) we were so lucky to be on the night that there was a 'Schlachtbuffet'. Heaps of all kinds of meat and "all you can eat". Great.
The next day we already left the Weser, turned west and followed Europa Radweg 1 towards the Netherlands. There was a strong headwind and rainy days were forecasted.  Three days later, still dry, we got on a train in Winterswijk (the first Dutch town on the border) and travelled back to Breda. On the way from Breda station to our house (3k) we got wet by a heavy rain shower ;-).

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