Amsterdam

It's Kay's birthday so it's off early by train to the city. It's foggy so very atmospheric walking along the many canals. We make a few purchases at a flea market, eat bagels and cream cheese, walk through a flower market then join a foodie tour. Frites, lots of cheeses, herrings (hmm), apple pancake, coffee, and flavoured liqueur - chocolate, ginger, lemon. aniseed are just 4 we try of the 85 available. The centre of town is closed to cars but there are bikes and trams going in all directions to watch out for.
Amsterdam is the trading centre for all Europeans produce so there's a huge variety of very cheap flowers, fruit and veg, coffee beans etc. Marihuana seeds can be legally sold and smoked openly - its a distinctive smell as we walk around for hours. Unfortunately tourists are no longer included in this liberality so Kay can't revisit her hippie days.....

Hoorn

It's morning rush hour and it's raining. Its cosy on the couch watching a constant stream of people on big upright bikes going to school and work. None have helmets, all have jackets and some hold an umbrella or hands.
Ian braves the wrong side of the road with 'our' car and Kay yelps quietly. It's very scary this first time. We find a great secondhand shop and spend about $80 on 2 warm jackets, 2 pairs pants, 1 skirt, 1 jumper, 6 tops, 2 scarves and a bag to supplement our minimalist cycling wardrobe. Wow, Kay will be back for another look next week.
Next day to the market, the supermarket, the phone shop and the wool shop and we're feeling very settled.

Cologne to Hoorn

Rested and well fed, we continue north on Tuesday. It rains. We train it to düsseldorf where it's freezing. Kay spits the dummy but good humour is restored with nutella and banana on rice cakes and a warm cafe. (Ian has curry and rice, grrrr). We couchsurf with a wonderful lady and her 2 year old daughter, who does family day care - in English - so she can work from home.
We wake to more rain and make decisions to forget the rest of Germany as the forecast is horrible for a few days. Emails, internet and phone calls sort it out and we catch a train or 3 to Netherlands.
We warmshower Wednesday night with a French lady and enjoy franglais aperitif, food and conversation. Magnifique.
3 more trains and a little cycling and we are at our destination of Hoorn. We have swapped our house with
Carla and Hans and it's an amazing feeling to meet them just before they leave for the airport and know that they will soon be in torquay. We cook dinner, drink Australian and South African wine and love being in our beautiful new 3 storey Dutch home.
Consider joining home link if you plan to travel, it's amazing (and let us know so we can refer you and get discounted membership!)

Manheim/Kerpen

Ingrid and Ruediger look after us very well. We go on excursions to Cologne, the beautiful Mosel River area (the vineyards are on such steep slopes that they have elevators to transport people and grapes up and down), and Trier, the oldest German city at 2000+ years.
We also take ourselves to the Lindt chocolate museum, watch runners, skaters and recumbent cyclists in a triathalon, and find warm ski gloves at a flea market. And learn to navigate another excellent train system.

Bonn to Cologne

40, 1200
Today is lovely. The sun is out, the path is smooth and flat and the ride along the river is short.
We arrive in Cologne for lunch then navigate the trains to our home for the next week 25km west. Ingrid and Ruediger stayed with us though a home swap website earlier this year, so now they return the favour.

Weißenthurm to Bonn

60, 1160
It's very cold and foggy this morning. The barges and villages slowly emerge from the river mist, but the trees glow yellow and red with autumn colours. We thaw out over our mid-morning cappuccino and it turns into a beautiful day.
This part of the Rhine is very popular - there's a string of caravan parks, lots of what we assume are summer houses, and a constant stream of cyclists in both directions.
Tonight we are staying with Warm Showers people, the bike riding equivalent of couch-surfing. They are from The Netherlands so Ian gets out the maps for the next bit while Kay has an early night.

Bacharach to Weißenthurm

45, total 1100
More of the same today but it's cold so we take a riverboat for 25km in the middle of the day. It's very relaxing floating by all the castles. The Rhine is very much a working river, with the barges carrying all sorts of imports and exports. The barge captain has his quarters at the stern, with his car perched on the back.
We've discovered that America's favourite travel writer is Rick Steves, so check out his books if you are planning a trip OS. We wondered why so many yanks were staying at last nights tiny village but yes, it was recommended and no they didn't know each other!