For this post, rather than writing a whole load of text, let the images tell the story. I

‘ll try to position in them in the right order, so for our tandem journey Tuesday May 2-Wednesday May 3, follow the pictures and the captions, and we’ll hope to raise a smile.

Only in Germany. This was the decoration in the gents loo of the hotel where we stayed in Wesel, taking refuge from the rain and getting the tubes sorted. Ladies judging one’s length. Ho-not-very-ho.
We were hungry, and at the wonderful Deichklause campsite in Werden hour hostess/site owner (in the picture at the back) ordered for us, at Jutta’s suggestion, a Family pizza. The size of a football field!!
Of which much was left after dinner. But no worries, it’s all getting consumed.
Thought it might be of interest to show our tent, here from the outside at the Deichklause campsite.
… and here from the inside. A relatively cheap tent from Decathlon, but possily the best-designed I’ve ever enjoyed using.
Our hostess. The sweetest lady, who tragically lost first her husband 20 years ago and then her second partner earlier this year. She is daughter of the campsite’s founder, and grew up in the house at the entrance. As a long-standing family business very German and very, very welcoming and warm.very
Our hostess showing us a lovingly curated photoalbum of the devastating floods of June 2021 which swamped the campsite and, for the first time in her life (she was raised here and took the site over from her father on his death) flooded the owners’ house too. Climate change, and shape of things to come.
German cycling tracks, here along the Rhine dykes, not quite as brilliant as in the Neetherlands, but compared to the wretched state of cycle paths in the UK, heaven on earth.
The industrrial Rhineside in spring, with a lot of rapeseed.
A big river.
And gorgeous spring colours through the forests of the Ruhrgebiet.