Bastion Maastricht

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 ...

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

... 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>

... while a handful of Dutch boys hover in the corner watching us. These boys, along with 95% of the Dutch males we've seen, wear their hair spiked up with dollops of gel -circa 1990's. It's pretty funny. Sometimes during the week we venture to the local bakery for some hot chocolate and pastries, sometimes to the small grocery store for Stroopwaffels (the BEST dessert invention ever. I will buy some for everyone.), and sometimes we walk around the ...

... field is located on the Belgium border, so we had some fun taking pictures of us standing on the Belgium and The Netherlands border at the same time. On our way home, we also saw a gas station, and Kelsey and I got very excited because gas stations are few and far between in this country. We keep finding little things that remind us of home, and it is a great feeling when we stumble upon them :) Another first I experienced was seeing a field. To many, this may not ...

... the Roman ruins there. We quickly register at the Best Western (it now has rooms open) and take off for Maastricht. Oh, an interesting note - the accent is different in this area of Netherlands. We are at the southern tip of a slender finger of Netherlands that projects down from it's south east corner - it is surrounded by Germany and Belgium and the closest centers are in ...

... a state monument). So tomorrow, we'll be walking around the city centre across the river from our hotel as well as visiting some museums and galleries to learn more about the history. We learned too late that we should've read up on what we could do in this city prior to arriving as brochures and suggested tour itineraries cost 2 Euros each! You've got to pay to be a tourist...amazing! More info on this city at: www.maastricht.nl/maastricht/show/id=51 692

... edge of the town centre there were a number of different animal statues set around the bottom of an old concrete enclosure. After coming across a dog-like creature with a striped back, we jokingly pronounced it to be a Tasmanian Tiger, looking up at us in recognition of spotting two of his own. Despite the uncanny resemblance we dismissed it as something more European, like a fox or a wolf or something, until with ...

Dit is de start van een nieuw leven! Een jaar lang weg uit de omgeving die voor mij gedurende 18 jaar zo bekend is geworden. Die bekende omgeving ga ik nu verlaten en ga nieuwe horizonten opzoeken. Spannend? Eng? Ik denk een beetje van beiden. Maar dat wil niet zeggen dat ik het niet meer zie zitten.<br><br>De laatste dagen zijn hier wel wat vreemd geweest, de dag komt ook zo dichtbij. Afscheidsfeestje is geweest voor vrienden en familie. Want ik ga ...