Reasons why I like cycling in Germany #273: I leave a bland city-centre hotel where the lingua franca is International English and set off to find my parallel cycling universe. And there it is, only a couple of blocks away. Infrastructure, signs, considerate drivers and – above all – the confidence that this will not all disappear in the next couple of miles.

I started off on the scenic route – a compensation to myself for shelving my original plans. Even though I’ve cycled in this region before, it was still pleasant and felt novel – uppy-downy with some wooded paths. I even ended up on the 100 Schlösser Route, which was ironic since it was in order to escape that route that I’d come to Germany! The day was grey and damp – so damp that the moisture coalesced and fell as light rain in the early afternoon. Thank goodness for leaves: the beech trees glowed orange even in the dull light. At my lunch stop (which seemed to materialise at the right moment since it was only 25 minutes before it closed) I realised that I wasn’t even half way to Rheine. Fortunately the second half was more direct, clinging to the Ibbenbürener Aa, crossing the Mittellandkanal and following the Dortmund-Ems canal towards Rheine. (With an Umleitung, of course. There are always Umleitungen or Omleidingen beside canals.)

I kept to the main road coming into Rheine; there was a cycle lane and the weather didn’t encourage me to dawdle. One has a very different perspective cycling on the more usual thoroughfares rather than threading a way in via railway sidings, allotments and streams. You can see how main-road stores with car parks are eating away at town centres. Heigh ho: times change.

It was nice not to eat in the hotel but to walk through the town to find a restaurant that took my fancy and watch cyclists’ red lights glide across the square while sipping my Grauburgunder.