Our achievement for today was getting through Venlo. On our way south we rode out and around the very busy city, which took us most of a day. It is a major industrial and transportation hub….railway lines and super highways criss cross our track. But we came up with a plan, or as luck would have it, we would be going through on a Sunday!

When we left our BnB in Baarlo it was sprinkling with rain and there were some big dark clouds overhead…by the time we got to Venlo, the sun came out…the first good sign. In any case there was very little traffic and we went right through a major industry park…passing the Mercedes car dealerships among others.

From there it was easy again. We stopped in Grubbenvorst for groceries for dinner,

lucky that the store was open, discovered when we arrived at our hotel that the dining room was closed!

We stopped for our picnic in the sunshine in the town of Lottum, which happens to be the Rose capital of Netherlands! The fietspads were lined with rose bushes!

We found what looked to be a lovely hotel on the river through booking.com and we were not disappointed! The view across the Maas…

Oh yes, and 5 minutes after we checked in a big black cloud came over and it poured with rain!