I left Nordhorn on Saturday and drove to Münster to do some laundry and enjoy the pretty city. I went there plenty of times when I lived in Nordhorn and always liked it. After a night in Münster I drove to Krefeld Linn to do the last social call this trip. And the award for the last night in Germany goes to: Ernzen on the border to Luxemburg.
Münster
Saturday was my first laundry day on the road. It seems I have about 10 days worth of clean undies and t-shirts. For emergencies I do have some hand wash detergent with me too. I have never used a laundromat before, but it was simple enough and I managed without problems.
In addition to washing my clothes I also went for a beer in the Pinkus Müller brewery and just biked around the city. The beer was as good as I remembered as was the city pretty. In the morning I decided that I needed some exercise (and a shower) and went for a swim in the open-air swimming pool close to where I parked for the night. The shower in Naranja works just fine, but for a guy my size it’s still a bit cramped. Also, showering empties the fresh water tank and fills the gray water tank pretty fast. If I can find a good alternative, I’ll normally take it gladly.
Krefeld Linn
I had never been to Krefeld and had never even heard of the historical part of the town Linn before. Timo and Jenny, a Finnish/Venezuelan couple I know from my times in Nordhorn now live there. Jenny sent me a message after seeing the Facebook post about my plans and it was pretty much on the route I had thought about taking so I decided to stop there for a bit.
I know some of the Ruhr area quite well since I lived for some time in Bochum in 2008-2009. There’s a lot of industry and the area is not really famous for pretty cities. That was my expectation about Linn as well, but it really took me by surprise. It’s a really nice historical part of Krefeld that has a castle and beautiful old buildings.
Teufelsschlucht (Devil’s gorge)
Before I left Linn Timo showed me some pictures about a pretty place they’d been to some time ago that was more or less on my way. So I decided to drive to Ernzen on the Luxemburg border. I got there around nine in the evening and slept on the parking lot of the sight. The name of the place: Teufelsschlucht (Devil’s gorge) somehow rang a bell but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. During the two hour drive I realized what it was. There’s something quite similarly named close to Jyväskylä too: Hitonhauta (Devil’s grave). And the scenery has much in common too.
To beat the heavier rain I took a small hike very early in the morning. Unfortunately the drizzle and the lack of light made the photos a bit grainy.
Moving on to France
I’m about to head south through Luxemburg to France now. This will all be very new to me. I haven’t really been to France except for the airports in Paris. I’ll try to get at least to Auxerre today. The Park4night app shows a nice camping area there. I may go on a bit further too, we’ll see.