Listen very carefully: if you happen to have a visit to Duisburg on your bucket list, delete it right now!
We slept well last night and awoke reluctantly. Fuelled with breakfast I oiled the chains and we weaved our way out of Düsseldorf in fine and sunny, but fresh conditions. A perfect cycling day. We cleared the waterfront, then outskirts, then aimed towards Duisburg following the river. The industrialisation of the area hit home as massive factories loomed on the skyline including the mighty Krupp and Thyssen steel works. Then everything slowed down as we entered the city. Roadworks hampered progress, signage virtually disappeared and where signs were seen they were unhelpful and ambiguous. The place was a dump and not like any other German city we've seen. In fact it's like a Turkish enclave in parts, with such a high proportion of ethnic Turks making up the local population. To think that we were originally planning on stopping here! The best part about Duisburg is definitely the road out! In fact that's not quite right; the best bit we found was on the waterfront on the very edge of town as we were leaving : the first place for a coffee and cake we'd seen in 40km! Topped up, we continued the journey gradually leaving the industry behind but seeing precious little places to stop. A breakfast cheese roll, a nectarine, biscuits, and a banana sustained us at various stops until a beer garden beckoned 2km short of our destination. Cycling was easy today as its dead flat and the day was wonderfully warm, but because it's flat, and because little of today's moving time is walking round town pushing bikes, it means that we've been pedalling relentlessly for 5.1/4 hours. But the hotel here is a good one (should be at €119) and we had a fine meal sitting out in the town square. We have also worked out the route for our unplanned Arnhem to Utrecht day and downloaded maps to cover it on the iPhone (ViewRanger app). It's a good job we did too, because the Garmin has now stopped displaying even the Europe base map!!
86.0 km; 16.3 kph avg; 5:15 moving time; 164m ascent
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