A short day with the unexpected pleasure of discovering Papenburg. Before that, though, there was a 1,000-year-old lime tree in Heede to see – propped up and garlanded with barrier tape, but nonetheless green and still flowering in abundance. A pleasant ride thereafter, with a coffee stop in the commercial outskirts that had hollowed out Rhede centre.

Looking at the map beforehand, I had a flashback re the Meyer Werft – shipyard (wharf?) – on the Ems in Papenburg and an article in a German lesson years ago about the shipbuilder. Their current line is cruise ships. Since Papenburg is quite definitely inland, it boggles the mind to think of a newly built ship leaving the shipyard and shimmying its way to the sea.

The industrial outskirts didn’t prepare me for the centre of Papenburg. It’s delightful. Instead of a Hauptstraße it has a Hauptkanal just like a Dutch town. (Harlingen came to mind, but it’s years since I was there.) Since we are staying here for two nights, it couldn’t be better.