When we pulled the drapes open this morning we found a very dreary day. It had rained overnight and it was still coming down as we went to breakfast. Apparently, unbeknown to the Chief Navigator, the Tour Secretary had already decided that we were catching the train for this 60km jaunt. Although Greg hummed and hawed (yes, this is the correct word, not a spelling error!) for a while, he didn’t take too much convincing as he also didn’t fancy a cold and wet day in the saddle. Once it starts raining in these parts it tends to cool down very quickly.
Wendy went across the road to the main railway station straight after breakfast and got our tickets, one for each of us and one each for the bikes. We could take any train on the day and they left every hour, about 20 past. Don’t we love German Rail efficiency. We decided that the 10:19am one suited us best so we had a cuppa in the room for morning tea, checked out and wheeled our bikes about 200m to the station. A lift took us to platform 2 with a 15 minute wait for our train. A nice neon sign showed that our train was next on platform 2. A little after the scheduled time a train pulled up and we got on a carriage which had a bicycle sign on it, along with a local gent with a bike who asked us where we were going. We told him and he quickly said that we were on the wrong train. After he’d gone over it in his head again he confirmed that this train was not going to Vechta. So we quickly turned our bikes around on the train and wheeled them out onto the platform not long before the train pulled away. Lucky for us there was no steps or height difference between the train and the platform so it was easy to get on off again with loaded bikes.
We could have sworn that the platform sign showed ours was the next train. When we checked the sign again it was but just then it changed from our train to the one we had just got off. Greg quickly went over to the door of the carriage we’d been in and thanked the gent who had just saved us a lot of mucking around. We worked it out that we could have reached our destination but in a roundabout manner. We have found the locals very helpful in Germany.
In fact our train was running late and we waited another 10 minutes or so for it to arrive. After checking it twice we got on. The journey was smooth and comfortable and the only thing we really saw were fields of corn. It was pretty wet in places, vindicating the Tour Secretary’s decision to catch the train.
We arrived at Vechta later than anticipated (12:40pm) but that was good as check-in was at 1pm. We took our time wheeling the bikes the 400m to the hotel and had our room keys very quickly as Wendy had done the online check in yesterday. Before unpacking, Greg had a cuppa tea, while Wendy unpacked and had lunch, Greg had his on the train.
After a rest, we hit the streets of Vechta, well, only the Main Street. We set off in a northerly direction stopping every so often and when we reached the edge of town, we returned. We spotted a possible venue for dinner so checked it out on the way past. Back in the room, while Greg showered, Wendy blogged. We then walked the 400m to Happy Wok, and had two very delicious and filling meals. We had very slow walk home.
There endeth another day on tour.
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