Derlon Hotel Maastricht

... section which was through a separate set of glass doors. I sat down and had a pipe while I drank my water. Shortly after this I was joined by a couple who sat across from me and struck up a conversation (I think it was Dutch). I stoked another pipe and, not knowing the protocol in a coffee shop I did what we do in the UK - if you are smoking with peeps u don't know, pass it round. Both abstained (pipes are notoriously unpopular but I hate tobacco ...

... I can still hear the cars - I keep missing sentences because of them)
It dulled over as the day went on but I kept the hammer down and even a bit of light rain couldn't stop me. Although some of the roads slowed me down (it was almost reassuring to see second rate public services again). I made only one wrong turn in Opglabeek (I missed As in what must have been very similar to yesterday's 'Eindhoven' incident (I leave it to readers to devise their own jokes ...

... that is Denmark (25% GST amongst other taxes!!!), it had some nice-looking pubs and eating places too.

On Thursday morning I said goodbye to Emil, had breakfast with Claus and Louisa, and Claus dropped me at the the train to Copenhagen. Once there I had about 3 hours to spare before I had to be at the airport for my flight to Spain, and so I stowed my luggage in lockers at the train station, found a map and went on a zooming 2-hour bolt around Copenhagen. What a wonderful city ...

During our stay in Spa we had the most scary, horrible, unpleasant experience ever in a restaurant.

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.

See more on www.bouchon-gourmand.blogspot.com

... grounds. One night last week, we had a dessert & wine picnic in "Narnia," which is a nearby path with trees on either side that curve into each other rather unnaturally, creating a sort of roof over the path. This was a rather long update! If you've made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read it all! Next weekend we go to Paris -I'm very excited about this since I can sort of speak French. Love and miss you all!! Tot ziens, (Goodbye), Kelly

... like a big deal, especially being from South Dakota....but they have had us cooped up in this city for a month now, and being able to just run aimlessly in that field was sooooo amazing! I don't know if I have ever been that excited to see that much green grass in my life :) We had the perfect Sunday afternoon, and I hope it is not the last perfect Sunday we experience here. The girls and I are hoping we can wear our "Pablo" shirts many more times before we go home :)

... 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 ...

... amazement we saw that the sign on the black iron fence above the enclosure confirmed it was indeed a ‘Tasmaanse Buidelwolf’.

Perhaps in a bid to prevent the Dutch caging us up like our presumed-extinct local friend, we decided to flee from the Netherlands entirely, though just for the rest of the day. After hiring bicycles we had barely pedalled our way out of the western edge of the town before ...

... natuurlijk een jaar lang niet zien. Ik vraag me nu al af hoe het gaat zijn als ik terugkom. Vooral naar studiekeuzes van vrienden, hoe mijn broers en zussen er gaan uitzien over een jaar, ...

Ik ben er dus volledig klaar voor. Koffer is gepakt (en ik hoop dat ik ook alles bij heb) en zit niet over de maximum limiet van het gewicht. Moet je ook kunnen: een jaar weggaan en maar 20 kg meenemen. Al zou ik het liefst met al mijn hebben en houden ...