Well it has been very difficult to find accommodation this week, but we were able to stay in this same hotel here in Düren. We will not be going any further on the Rur. At this point we just want to get to the Vennbahn where we have cycled before and there are no cars! We are very tired of the ‘cities’ here in Germany that we have had to negotiate our way through. They seem way busier with cars, roads and traffic in general! I guess we have been spoiled in the Netherlands. Also, there is a major holiday here in Germany on Tuesday and the kids are out of school for the week. So we have changed our plan. We will be taking the train from here to Aachen where the Vennbahn begins. Today we decided to take the opportunity to cycle down to the train station to check on 1) the route to the station entrance, 2) elevator to platform in working order, 3) that the RE1 train to AACHEN Rothe Erde station has a level platform to easily roll the bikes on/off, 4) Finding which train cars have the bicycle icon on the door which is the only space on the train for the bicycles.

We don’t need to actually go into the city as our route starts in the suburbs right outside of the Rothe Erde station.

Meanwhile we have pre booked all our accommodation along the way as far as St.Vith a week from now, which was a bit of challenge because of the holiday which we didn’t find out about until Sylvia told us a few days ago.

The staff here at the hotel have been very helpful and will print our train tickets for us tomorrow morning. You can never have enough info when it comes to getting on trains with bicycles!