Day # 13 Xanten to Duisburg.

 Completed successfully by midday, the re-tyring of my buggy's wheels at the local Xanten bike repair shop--ready to tear up the track for another 500 kms. ---- hopefully.

        Leaden grey skies and occasion rain showers increasing to a steady downpour later in the day.

        For peace of mind and also practically, to avoid end of the day, with tired feet, searches for a room, I now book up accommodation in advance where possible, to a limit of three days out. So as not to jeopardize my bookings, and to make up for the day that I lost in Xanten on “tire business”, I hopped the local rail ride into Duisburg.

         For the next several days I will be in the Ruhr region of Germany—aka the heavy industrial heartland and where, like many other former industrial giants, modern industrial strategies are transforming the landscape from dirty black, to much cleaner and less polluted processes and from where Germany continues to seize manufacturing leadership.

         My accommodation tonight is at the Duisburg youth hostel that is located in part of the former famous and infamous Krupps factory site. The entire complex, instead of being bulldozed, has been converted in to a park/museum/shrine to the old industrial era. A fascinating place for school visits. The factories, blast furnaces, machinery, smoke stacks are all preserved and on display to the public.

         Tomorrow, off southwards to Dusseldorf and hopefully to view more of this major industrial region.    

Type of overnight lodging: Duisburg youth hostel
Cost of lodging: 38 E incl. dinner..