The Emsland Route is as sinuous as the river itself: the 20km-via-main-road from Lingen to Meppen doubled in length via the Radweg – but nonetheless it took us most of the day. Goodness knows how we will cope with the slightly longer distance tomorrow!

The day was bookended with Rathäuser:

and filled with lots of green. Very pleasant cycling – and even the short rain burst was serendipitous, for we sheltered beneath an information board on a road named Am Kraftwerk. This was once the site of a peat-fired power station – 50 years of producing electricity until it was decommissioned in 1974. Just west of Geeste is a big moor/fen area – the source of the peat. From satellite photos you can see the long empty strips where it has been torn from the land. There’s also crude oil production and an oil refinery around Lingen, which came as a surprise after so much pedalling between arable fields and trees full of singing birds.

Meppen is interesting as the place where the River Hase joins the Ems while the Dortmund-Ems-Kanal plays gooseberry. I’m becoming rather fond of the Ems (in my sightline at this very moment) and rather regret that I shan’t be following it to the sea.

Once again, we have a touch screen for the room lights plus some motion-sensitive ones. Why make illumination so complex?