09.05.25 Day 3 - Stadskanaal-Oldenburg (D). LOng ride in beautiful weather

An easy start in sunny weather, no wind. Coffee at Fort Bourtange, passing into Germany. More wind toward the end again, but with more forest, you don't feel it as much.

Beautiful morning

Soon after Stadskanaal passing a 380kV line. I suppose it is the main line for power from Norway (not all Norwegians like that 😀). Surely Anton Tijdink can help me out here. In any case, given Kirchof's laws, it will cary some of the power-

380kV line in the Netherlands (it carries another voltage also)

Before crossing the border, I visited Fort Bourtange. Fort Bourtange is a fort in the village of Bourtange, Groningen, Netherlands. It was built under orders of William the Silent and completed in 1593. Its original purpose was to control the only road between Germany and the city of Groningen, which was controlled by the Spaniards during the time of the Eighty Years' War (from Wikipedia). As Naarden, it is most impressive from the air.

Fort Bourtange from the air

A bit early, but couldn't resist a coffee+ on the central square of Bourtange

Moving on along some tracks (Google), I suddenly found myself in Germany. Thought to take a picture of "my first border", but there was no sign of any kind. In fact, I like that.

Yet another wind turbine picture. Why? They are not moving - no wind. Can you see it?

No wind, the blades are just straight. When it is blowing and they turn around, the blades are bended backward.

The "knooppunten" (see yesterday's blog) sometimes lead you on less preferable alternatives. see picture. Only 2km, fortunately. Yes, also Germany had "Knotenpunkten", but not yet everywhere. Must do without from tomorrow.

Not my favourite road surface

Next time, I didn't take chance and took a slighly longer alternative. You never know how long such stretches are.

Could be beautiful, but...

Moving on, there was a nice stretch with small, good bike (and walking) lanes along the Zwischenahner Meer, 

And then the final 15km to Oldenburg, yes with quite some headwind again. It is no imagination, look at the graph from Energieopwek Nederland. The land wind increases in the afternoon, Still not at a high level, but you feel it.

A bit longer than the first two days, but doing fine so far. Staying at a simple and cheap Airbnb at the outside of Oldenburg.

Statistics:

112km, total time 8:30, active time 6:24 which gives a moving average of 17.5 km/h. 

Total 303km.