Another repeat ride – although I only remembered the middle section after Blomberg. Long gentle uphills and downhills amongst open fields with wooded hills in the background. The lack of hedgerows and the presence of trees mark it out as “not England”. I enjoyed the hills, even though I had to walk up one: it’s good to know that my legs and lungs are up to it, and it’s really satisfying to be rewarded with some easy freewheeling kilometres.

Sometimes I try to translate into England the places where we stop for Kaffee and Kuchen; today was “Greggs in a Bargain Booze warehouse on a busy crossroads”. And it was fine.

From last time I know how interesting Lemgo is, but we arrived too late for me to walk around. (My goodness, but we are slow!) It was a Hansa town on the intersection of two trading routes, so it has some fine merchants’ houses and a magnificent Rathaus, along with yet another Weser Renaissance castle – Schloss Brake – that I photographed and will never get to see the inside of.

A route we have cycled before but I didn’t recognise everything. The truncated railway bridge in Hameln and the Weser looked familiar, but this time we passed right in front of Hämelschenburg (which made me wonder which wrong turning I’d taken the previous time to miss it). Sadly we passed it in the rain and with no chance of stopping.

As for the rest of the ride – uppy-downy and pleasant. The sun came out in Bad Pyrmont and I was able to admire a bit of Jugendstil. The heydays of spa towns seem to have passed by; hotels looked grand from the outside, but missing letters and peeling paint suggest they find business hard. The once-smart hotel where we stopped for coffee – right opposite the Kurpark – looked downright shabby inside.

And now in Lüdge in another hotel that might be finding business hard with so many more options open to travellers. We are the only guests and the only diners – and our meal was delicious.

Before we left the Weser, there was a national emergency alert practice. Sirens started sounding and then one mobile starting buzzing madly. Had I not been aware of the practice alert in the UK on Sunday, I would have been totally perplexed. (My own Bakelite mobile received notification of the UK one beforehand, but it was far too underpowered to receive the alert itself.) With the news of Russian drones over Poland in the last couple of days, I had been wondering about world affairs – so this alert was slightly unsettling. I do hope WWIII doesn’t start while I’m on holiday! But, on the plus side, I guess I could be said to have my “emergency grab bag” (actually two panniers and a bar bag) all ready, plus some nice clean clothes for the end of the world.

And it may happen sooner for me than I think. I can’t cope with German numbers any more! Twice so far I’ve been knocked down by prices being fired at me. I just stand there bewildered while somebody repeats “vierundzwanzigfünfundzneunzig” or something – and I can’t work it out any more!