2. Gün: Neuss'tan Schin op Geul'a

After a very quiet night at the Kolpinghaus in Neuss with a recurring sound as if the street sweeper was passing by outside (I thought: clean city, this Neuss), we packed our bags this morning..

In the corridor, we noticed that the extractor hood in the shared kitchen (which was right next to our room) started running with the slightest movement - forget about the street sweeper...; the extractor hood turning on with a motion sensor was new to us.

After quickly stocking up at the Turkish Supermarket, we headed towards Mönchengladbach. In Neuss, we wanted to briefly visit St. Kamillus, where perpetual adoration has been taking place recently. However, this morning there was holy mass for elementary school children, and the priest was explaining various aspects of the liturgy of the word.

We went through numerous busy streets (with very poor cycle paths) heading west. The navigation system led us through MG-Rheydt, perhaps to question our choice for the city with the best cycle paths (see yesterday's post). It's hard to put into words: tree roots; patchwork; curbs, traffic lights that don't synchronize with vehicle traffic, so you have to wait for an extra round before you can drive. Eventually, we switched to the road, the car drivers didn't mind, obviously it happens frequently for the aforementioned reasons. Allow me one last sentence: Do the planners and designers of the cycling network actually ride bicycles themselves? I doubt it - traffic turnaround, fewer cars ... excuse me, dear reader - these words make me smile, as far as Germany is concerned.

From there, we continued towards the Netherlands - how cycle paths are built, what traffic management can look like, the Netherlands shows: continuous cycle paths without curbs; underpass; green wave; well-developed - just drive to Brunssum or Heerlen and take a look, dear planners.

Now that we have cleared that up, we can focus on the further course; the landscape in the Limburg region is hilly and very charming, the places are well-maintained. There is no heavy car traffic on the German side here.

In Schin up Geul at Valkenhof we set up our quarter, in other words our tent.