• distance cycled: 53.5 miles (Wesel to Arnhem)
• cumulative cycling: 832.0 miles

Most of today was on good tarmac! There was a short stretch of not-too-bad gravel around the Xantener Sees, but because this led us to a village fete with an ‘oompah’ band, this was fine.

There were also a few miles of cobbles and brick, making me joke that we’d somehow ended up in Belgium. Then Elly pointed out that ‘real’ Flanders cobbles are much worse. It may just have been my expectation but not far after Emmerich, the architecture and place-names began to look more stereotypically Dutch.

We had wanted to see where the Rhine splits into a small northern channel (the Nederrijn) and the much wider Waal. We entered what looked like a roadside cycle path – this led us to as near as we could get to the split.

At times during today, it felt as though Lev and Fidel were doing what they were made for, chewing up miles on tour. Occasional blessed tail-winds added to a feeling of being fast. Today has felt good, with happiness springing from crossing our final continental border. Good grief, we are in our 5th country! We have made it to a significant point: yee-hah! Happiness also comes from the sound and meaning of this word: Trödelmarkt

Slight fly in today’s ointment: if someone took my rain-jacket from Lev, may that person need that jacket all day and all night for a century! If it fell from Lev’s cross-bar for non-mendacious reasons,  I blow raspberries to the universe.

But we are still going, and enjoying. To make today complete: this image made me giggle: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/msnbc-pecker-chyron/

Tschuss!

All roads lead to Rees	Chirpy fellow in bathroom
crossing a border early	How Dutch countryside cyclepaths work. We like!
colourful Elly	Elly plus mammoth