Longer cheats

So continuing on by bus and bike and whatever vehicle is going my way, I stopped at a Lingen to look for a Dutch-English-Dutch dictionary. Only finding a Dutch-German-Dutch phrase book, I at least learned how to ask for a Dutch-English-Dutch dictionary in Dutch. I took yet another city bus from Lingen to Nordhorn, which I knew from my trusty map was on the Dutch border. Finding a bookstore in plain sight, I was about to try out my feeble Dutch phrase, when the lady behind the counter asked if she could help me - in German! I cautiously asked if she spoke German, in German, and she said "Natürlich" and they didn't have a Dutch-English-Dutch dictionary but she did have a map and at least I learned that Nordhorn is still on the German side of the border ;-)
(Note to self: forget the phrase "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?")

After locating tourist information and finding the route to Holland is (would you believe) along a peaceful canal, I rolled over the (non-existent) border to Denekamp, home of the best-hidden Tourist Information Office in Europe. Denekamp is under construction, and with only enough Dutch to get myself a Nederlands-Engels-Nederlands boek, it took a German tourist to help me trespass my way to the VVV, where they don't have free local maps, but did have good (Englis) instructions to the next town. One city bus later, I found the quaint village of Oldenzaal, where I spent an hour tracking down a hardware store to replace the tarp I dropped somewhere en route. In Dutch. (Everybody here speaks English, but at least they don't mind if you practice Dutch on them.)

By this time (5PM) I was hungry and tired and decided to get off the bike/city bus loop and try the Dutch train. It was the milk run to Deventor, which gave me enough time to count up bus tickets and discover it would have been cheaper (but less fun) to take the train.

Allen aan boord!