Familiehotel Roo Valkenburg

... 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 ...

... have only the food case on the top of the panniers which would then be easier to access for (say) cooking rice in the middle of the day. I reasoned that this could be improved further by putting the food in a box on the front if possible - I have seen loads of those over here: a simple L shaped rack that fits to the front of the bike and you can load anything you want on. This was on my goal list for the day.
Speaking of my goal list (if you skipped the ...

... took more blood and ordered yet another CT, this time of my actual stomach. When the CT showed nothing but the blood showed a higher level of infection than Tuesday, they decided to do a laproscopy. So there I was, in Belgium, in a hospital, being prepped by a Portuguese student nurse for surgery. I can't say I was overly happy... They put 3 little holes in my stomach and found that a part of my intestine was swollen. From this, they came to the conclusion that I must have some kind ...

... left Holland to avoid going to work in the mines and after experiencing the working conditions these coal miners were exposed to every day we can understand why.
On Sunday we relaxed for the day; Whitney went with Maud and Peter to ride the horse whileI stayed home with the boys and played ps3 and soccer on the trampoline. :) Renee and his wife Ricarda came over for a visit during the day and we met their son Tim. That evening we went to the ...

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

... They told us we were at the highest point in Belgium, which was somewhere in the Nature Park.

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.

Looking back that detour cost us some time, but did mean we visited Luxembourg, even if it was too dark to see it.

We can't decide exactly how to get there or what to do along the way, but we want to be in Leeuwarden tonight. Valkenburg has an old castle where they have started restoration, but it will be a really long process. We decide to stop briefly to look it over. The exploration of the Castle doesn't take long - it's been pretty much destroyed, but the more interesting thing here is the caverns. They cut ...

... shops, the street, pubs, cafes, It is nearly impossible to escape it. The picture I hope to attach to this entry is of the stairs I had to drag my luggage up and down(no elevator).....Three flights of treacherous stairs....my first near death experience... The days started out a bit rocky as I had not slept nor eaten in the past 30 hours but aside from my sleep things are making a very positive turnaround. I have met most of the other students ...

... to all that Dutch colonial imperialism in the then Dutch East Indies a few centuries ago, spotting Indonesian restuarants in the Netherlands was about as difficult as spotting druggies at a rave party. And if this particular restuarant is indicative of the others then finding a superb meal is no more difficult – even though the Dutch menu didn’t give us too many hints on exactly what we were choosing.

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.

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 ...