Continuing down the Maas (more or less), from Beesel to Blitterswijck

We spent last night at the Pension 't Hoes va Neske in Beesel.  It was more like being houseguests of a favorite aunt and uncle than like staying in a B&B.  We were warmly received on arrival and had a cozy room upstairs with balcony (great place to sit, and so useful for drying the laundry).

We were the only guests for the night.  Breakfast was the usual large spread we see in hotels.  They even provided bottled juices and bags so we could pack a lunch to take with us.  We only took the juice and chocolate bars.

The driveway had a Trabant, which was a car manufactured in the former East Germany.  The body is mostly made of plastic.  Naturally we had to talk about the car, and about old cars in general.  

Due to some road construction we had a little trouble finding our way out of town and back on the bike route.  After a few km we took a ferry across the river to Kessel.  Mostly bikes and a couple of token cars.

About an hour later we were crossing on another ferry.

  There was a long forested section on unpaved paths through national parks.  Fietspad is a bike path.

Around 2 we rolled into Arcen, a cute town full of tourists.  Found a great bakery for pieces of a traditional local cake, vlaai.  With guidance from our server I made multiple attempts to pronounce it correctly, but was never more than close.  Dutch is a very difficult language.  Good thing pretty much everyone we've encountered speaks English.

We crossed on another ferry at Broekhuizen.  Here are cyclists on the other side waiting.

After an easy 48 km of riding we arrived at our destination for today.  Blitterswijck, is a tidy small village.  After cleaning up we walked to the river for a beer at a restaurant right by the ferry.  You can see the small bike and pedestrian ferry in the background.  

Then we walked back into the village to an Italian place for excellent pasta and gnocchi frito.  The latter is a dish we've only seen before in Northern Italy and we couldn't pass up the chance to enjoy it again.