Amrath Hotel Max Heerlen

Well, I'm back again and so much has happened since I last wrote - enough to turn my trip very nearly on its head...<br><br>I'm in Belgium now and back on an AZERTY keyboard, so this is difficult to type, but here goes: After leaving Sara's place in Aarhus, Denmark, last Wednesday, Claus and I spent the morning wandering through Aarhus in the rain, looking at a church and hunting for the town hall. We then headed to Odense, also in Denmark. On the way, we stopped for a traditional ...

(Steve)<br> <br>Before heading off on our trip, I contacted some of our relatives in Holland and they invited us to spend a few nights with them. So whilst in the Netherlands we stayed with two families and were treated very well, enjoying home cooked meals, fantastic dutch beer and good company. We first travelled to Boukoul to stay with Peter, Ingeborg (Dad's cousin) and their family Maud(14), Hugo(12) and Twan(10).<br>Arriving in Roermond late in the ...

During our stay in Spa we had the most scary, horrible, unpleasant experience ever in a restaurant.<br><br>The restaurant to avoid is "Le Bouchon Gourmand", the owner does not hesitate to insult customers, lock them into the restaurant if there is a dispute on the bill, and claim more money than is due. <br><br>See more on www.bouchon-gourmand.blogspot.com

... bad, but considering everything I did today, it was a long day.<br><br>Coming up the stairs I met our neighbor lady, Rosvitta. She is a talker, but very nice. She's the lady that cooked that traditional German dinner a couple weeks ago. I told her all about my day, and she was happy for me and kept telling me how my time here is just going to fly. She also said that if I ever get homesick I can always come back here to my family. That was ...

... so it won't cost so much to get there. I am focusing on having enough money for food, electricity, rent, and a mattress, and Oktoberfest isn't really high up on the list of priorities right now. I will be so excited and relieved when I get everything settled and can really focus on integrating myself and learning German!!<br><br>Also I am concerned with the safety at the Oktoberfest.. with hundreds of thousands of people grouped in a ...

... They told us we were at the highest point in Belgium, which was somewhere in the Nature Park.<br><br>We decided to call it a day for the roadbook, and make a detour to just get into Luxembourg for fuel, and to make sure we 'did' all the countries.<br><br>Looking back that detour cost us some time, but did mean we visited Luxembourg, even if it was too dark to see it.<br>

... on.<br><br>We stopped at one point, because the roadbook wasn't very clear, at which point Gaz and Charlotte came up behind us. They had been left behind by the V8s, as they were in a Series vehicle, so we said we'd stick with them.<br>At this point, Kieran noticed a strange noise from our engine, which was duly investigated by James. It was diagnosed as the fan belt tensioning pulley. But we didn't do anything about it at the time.<br>

In Heerlan we check out the Best Western (Gary says it is the best bargain there) but it is full. At the clerk's suggestion, we try the Golden Tulip in town. Ha! It seems to say it is a Golden Tulip (a reasonable good chain) but it's not... it is affiliated with them, but this may be the worst room in the worst hotel of the trip. But everyone is tired and cranky, so we grab the rooms and head out to eat. We stop at ...

... it was still only about a third of the steps for Hustle up the Hancock ;) The view was amazing... we could see the entire city spread out before us. I love climbing buildings and getting bird's eye views. We then had to walk DOWN all 510 steps and were just in time for the tour, but they didn't have enough tour guides, so we went to watch a video on the church instead. It is just so impressive to think how anyone built a massive structure like that with ...

(Originally published at http://www.troysgonewalkabout.com)<br>< br>The slight morning drizzle did not hamper us from exploring the centre of Maastricht, and it felt nice to be amongst the local goings-on in the busy market square. But, although we were enjoying being in the midst of life on the other side of the world from where we were born and raised, Amber and I soon got a surprise reminder of home. In a park on ...