We forgot to move the alarm clock, so up at 6 am it is. We finish up the last fruit and porridge, take care of some administration and then start packing. No stress, our starting point Münster is only a three hour drive away so we want to leave in the early afternoon and have plenty of time.
I get out my stash of plastic resealable bags and start going through my ‘to take’ lists from top to bottom. The small front bags are for ‘other stuff’ that we might need during the day (light gloves, sun screen, snacks) whereas the general clothes items etc. go in the bigger bags on the back of the bike. When I weight everything that will go on the bike, I get to about 14 kgs, including camera stuff but excluding the water I will be carrying as well. All in all a light load, I think.
Bags in the trunk, bikes on the back of the car and off to Münster. We drive through the Ruhr area again (we were here two weeks ago on the way to Wesel) but this time traffic sucks. So many highways, but each one has a traffic jam. The GPS sends us over the local roads to avoid the traffic, but even these are full of cars. We get the unexpected opportunity to admire a local landmark when standing in a long line before a crossroads.
When we finally escape the congestion area we drive through country we will also be touring by bike. Looks promising: green fields and woods, pretty flat. We’ve pre-selected a long term parking spot but the first one we try is closed in the weekends (a problem because we’ll want to pick up the car Saturday in a week) and the next one has a broken down ticket machine. We improvise and park the car in a university neighboorhood. Bikes off, bags out, load up and cycle to our hotel in the town center.
Febe writes 