August 27, 2012
Rain and wind but it does have a silver lining: We pass Floriade
It was raining hard and very windy when we woke. Breakfast wasn’t until 8.30am so we had plenty of time to think about what to do. One option was to stay put and have another night in Venray, probably not the most exciting place on a wet Sunday. Anyway we decided to pack up and see what it was like by breakfast time. When that came around although still raining the rain wasn’t nearly as hard so we decided to push on.
Our first target was Venlo. This particular route had been chosen because Floriade is in Venlo and we wanted to visit it. Several kilometers before Venlo we came upon it. I was amazed by the scale of the whole thing. Buses were arriving full of people, cars were arriving and the odd bicycle but because of the weather not many. A bedraggled crowd complete with Umbrellas was lining up for tickets and an equally bedraggled lot snaking their way to the entrance. We made an executive decision in an instant, Floriade was not for us today. It appears that a lot of new roading has gone in for the event including some new motorway so the poor GPS went into a flat spin and tried to send us on all sorts of strange routes including the Motorway. There are also massive warehouse type buildings all associated with the commercial part of the operation I imagine. Feeling slightly guilty we pressed on and over the Maas to Venlo itself. It was very easy to find the square and a nice café which served piping hot Minastrone Soup which really hit the spot.
On along the Maas which would have been a lovely ride on a reasonable day. Arriving at Kessel there in front of us was a Tourist Information, I couldn’t resist it. The very helpful woman pointed me in the direction of the one hotel and said to come back if it was full and she would make some phone calls for us. Of course they had no vacant rooms but she found one for us in this beautiful B and B. If you happen to be travelling in this area this is the best place you can stay the Franssen B and B www.benbfranssen.nl have a look and you will see how lovely it is. The best part of it is Ton a very keen cycle tourist, he and his wife have ridden all over Europe and have even ridden in Cuba, their aim when they retire is to ride from North cape to Gibraltar. Lucky it rained as we would have never got to stay here.
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Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 1,354 km (841 miles)
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