Before I leave Zwolle (and my rather dull blog post) here's one I forgot.A wooden bike. I spotted this outside an apartment building near our hotel.
It looks like a heavy beast, but I didn't lift it up to check.
On the way out of Zwolle:
An interesting marine themed set of sculptures.
Another picture of boats in a canal. These were nice looking, upscale boats.
Typical flat countryside on the way. Crops include corn, wheat, barley, potatoes & hay.
Very large fields. We only saw one field being irrigated, but everything looks very green.
Here's the border with Germany. That's Steve confirming it with his Phone / GPS.
The borders are practically transparent. It would be interesting to find out what would have been here before the EEC (1957) or the EU (1993).
Just inside Germany we saw this farm with a large solar panel array on the roof. I think this is the largest array we've seen associated with a private residence.
A little further along we saw a very large array covering a number of acres of field. The array was a fixed type (ie. did not move with the sun).
From the "My Mother raised a dull child department:" I passed two signs with "Twist" (the next town) crossed out. Not thinking what this meant, I pedaled merrily along until ..... the road was completely blocked by construction. So I pedaled merrily back to this sign and saw the Detour (Umleitung auf Deutsch).
My new German word for the day.
Part of the detour was on a dirt path alongside a corn field.
A bit further along, another surprise - an oil pump jack. We saw about 4, of which 2 were operating. This was the only painted one.
Entering Meppen, crossing the Emse River:
a campsite with lots of pup tents and some canoes on the other side.
I don't know anything about this statue that was attached to the railing.
Later on, in the open plaza there are a large number of loaded touring bikes, so we aren't the only touring group in town.
I don't know where these folks are staying - they saddled up about 3:30 and may have left town.
Meppen dates back to 945, when emperor Otto the Great granted the town the rights to mint coins and collect tolls.
This is the Town Hall (Rathaus) which dates back to 1408, but has had extensive renovations since.
In general, the town did not seem that old; most of the buildings appear fairly modern.
Other buildings in the public spaces.
The is the Gymnasium Church (Roman Catholic), built from 1743 to 1746. It doesn't have the look of a building that old.
By contrast the Priory Church of Meppen looks very old. From my reading of Wikipedia there has been a building on this site from the 9th century, but the church took this form in the 13th century.
Statues at the side of the church
Close up of the tower.
We're staying in the Hotel von Euch, very modern, but possibly noisy (bell tower?). There are complimentary ear plugs in the rooms.
That's it for today. Tomorrow's ride is longer (129 km), but still quite flat.
