Orsoy to Ilverich

The heat wave hitting Western Europe has arrived here in Germany as well.  Forecast high was 91 for today so we decided to shoot for a shorter day.  But as the saying goes: Man plans; God laughs.

When we went downstairs at the hotel for breakfast, there was no one around except one woman cleaning.  We asked about the breakfast, and she switched gears to cooking.  Other guests arrived after us.  It took a while and we weren't rolling on the bike until about 10.

Once on the bike we had a lot of navigation issues.  Although the German bike path signage is usually very good, today we were often left confused (and we were using two good bike path map books plus Google maps to pinpoint our location).  In Alt-Homberg we lost the route completely (we could see the path below us along the river, but couldn't find a way to get down there).  Although we had a few nice sections of path along the river, most of the time we were working through industrial areas.  We were generally on bike lanes rather than on the streets, but there were lots of trucks and not much scenery unless you like looking at shipping containers and large factory complexes.  Between trying to stay ahead of the increasing heat and losing our way multiple times it wasn't a day for photos.

Being well off the normal tourist route we rode through a number of working class apartment neighborhoods.  With the heat (it was over 90 when we arrived at our hotel) we also ran out of water, but passed this tiny neighborhood convenience store and were able to resupply.  

After Uerdingen we started to get out of the industrial area, and the final 10-15 km were much more pleasant.  When we arrived at our hotel (48 km for the day) a little before 3 the door was closed and there was another couple waiting outside.  I pulled up the hotel's phone number to call, and noticed he was saying the numbers in Spanish.  Turns out they are German but had lived in Spain for seven years, so we were able to converse comfortably.  When one of the hotel staff arrived to open up, she spoke Spanish too, so we were all able to carry on conversation.

Only place to eat in this village is a little restaurant on the side of a garden supply store.  Fortunately it was pretty good.