Almelo, the Netherlands to Osnabruck, Germany

Without exaggeration, the Van der Valk Theaterhotel Almelo served the best breakfast buffet I have ever seen. Besides a large array of breads, pastries, fruits, meats, cheeses, an egg station and so on, there was a fresh orange squeezing machine and even a honeycomb! Enjoying this breakfast was a perfect way to start the day, and then I headed out, leaving Diana to enjoy Almelo and area while I headed towards the German border.

I was making good time and it was a lovely morning for cycling.

However, as I was passing through Denekamp, the final Dutch town before the border, I was cycling past the Sint Nicolaas church and came down a curb I had not judged well. Actually, it was not a significant drop, but it was enough to bounce the pannier into the wheel and snap spokes. Dammit.

The bike shops in Denekamp seemed to be closed on Mondays when I searched on Google, but across the border I saw shops open in Nordhorn, about 8 kilometres away. I fixed up the pannier and the spokes such that I figured I could do another 8 kilometres. So, I headed across the border . . .

. . . and with that I had biked across the Netherlands in less than two and a half days!

But, my prospects for getting through much of Germany were definitely in jeopardy if I could not get the wheel fixed. 

My first stop went very poorly. Evidently, English is not as widespread in Germany as it is in the Netherlands and neither man I talked to at the bike shop seemed to speak any English. Really, I did not feel lack of English (or, more accurately, my lack of German) needed to be an issue--it seemed fairly obvious when looking at my wheel what was wrong and that I needed it fixed. But, for whatever reason, they seemed unwilling to help, and the second man in fact sounded and appeared to be getting angry! 

So, I carried on another three kilometres to City Bike. 

Here, I found a much more helpful man, who even spoke a little English. He was happy to help me out and was able to tell me in English to go get a coffee and come back in one hour. Perfect!

There was a McDonald's across the street, so I got coffee and an early lunch and relaxed for an hour.

Thankfully, when I returned an hour later my bike was as good as new, and all for a very reasonable 20 euro. The man asked if I would give him a good review on Google which of course I was happy to do. 

Shortly after 12:00 I was on the road again, and for over ten kilometres I rode along a canal and it was quite idyllic, although the road was not paved the whole way.

The canal took me past an air force base, and then by a nuclear power plant, before I rejoined more stereotypical rural roads that often included bike paths. In Canada in similar places there would not be bike paths at all, but I must say the quality of the German infrastructure is definitely inferior to that I rode on in the Netherlands. 

I stopped in a town called Recke to buy more water and an orange soda, and then carried on into Osnabruck, arriving at the hotel just before 16:57, and just a few minutes before Diana got there by train. The visit to the bike shop had involved a small detour, and in all I rode 115 kilometres from Almelo to Osnabruck.

I must admit, I had never heard of Osnabruck before planning this trip, but it is a pretty cool place! We really enjoyed exploring!

To end our evening, we took a seat under one of the umbrellas below and enjoyed drinks and brie . . .

. . . with Marienkirche behind us . . .

. . . and the old city hall next to it.

We have seen this elsewhere in Europe, too, but in places in Osnabruck we ran into these small plaques on the sidewalk that commemorate people who died in the Holocaust, I believe outside of the places they used to live. They are quite potent. In this case, they appear to memorialize a family that included two four year olds.