Hotel Botticelli Maastricht

... legal prac here in Belgium and must now stay longer to complete that. I will be here for at least another week and a half. I am so happy this happened in Belgium, though, where the health system is efficient and friendly (if not always brilliant at explaining things), where I could at least speak the language, and had friends to support and visit me (thanks for the phone call today too Guy!), and not somewhere else along the road up to now, where, despite speaking the language a bit ...

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

After popping into and out of Germany, we were now back in Belgium. It was beginning to get a bit dark, and we still had at least 200 miles left to drive.

Gaz's motor was struggling, and threatening to overheat, so we stopped to let it cool down.

With the vehicles all decorated with stickers, we attracted a bit of attention, and a Belgian couple took our ...

... in the center. Taking a necessary ATM break in the main train station, I also noted that even the station was beautiful-complete with large stained windows to let in light and bright paintings on the walls. A walk to the main square confirmed my suspicions-this place is purdy! Old fashioned buildings line the cobblestoned streets, and the main square was hopping with people. There was a large market set up and the ...

We set off towards Maastricht as we were heading in that direction towards Germany and Poland. By the time we arrived at our campsite in Valkenburg the weather was just starting to turn. We set up camp and decided to spend the next day in Maastricht as we knew it was going to be a rainy day. We got the train into town and by the time we got into town it was truly miserable. Rain! I've never seen anything like it we had to take instant refuge in a ...

... a man was playing the harp, and I was in heaven. We spent quite a bit of time just sitting on the steps, taking pictures, and talking about how we couldn't believe where we were! I really wish I could package up a little bit of the beauty for each of you and send it to you via snail mail! Next we took the metro to Musee d'Orsay. Another beautiful museum with too much beauty to believe! I found the statues particularly beautiful! Then we took the metro to the area around ...

BLOG PART 5 5th of September 2007 The last overseas anecdotes of the Guerin family's holiday in Europe. The big event for September will be Camilla's 40th birthday on the 19th. Only three weeks to go - but no time to panic as there is still enough time for a decent holiday. We are presently in the Netherlands and have really enjoyed it. The kids loved the Batavia replica (you no doubt remember the one that bumped into the Abrolhos Islands off W.A. in 1629 ...

It was my birthday and I was twenty eight years old! Hurrah!! To allow me some enjoyment in the day Peter took me to Maastricht in the car and bought me lunch. We toured around the city, marvelling at the beautiful buildings and clean streets. There is a huge church in the centre of the city where there are garden filled with lavender and fat, nectar collecting bees. Maastrict is medieavel and has ...

... 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 ...

... je moest het maar iets nodig hebben en het thuis hebben laten liggen.

Maar zo, ik vertrek! Ik ga genieten van mijn jaar in het buitenland, aan het strand, tussen de palmbomen, de blauwe zee. Zoals ik het opnoem lijkt het wel een droomvakantie. Maar vergeet niet: de nieuwe taal, nieuwe mensen, nieuwe gewoonten, nieuwe omgeving, ... Hier lijkt het een avontuur dat ik absoluut niet wil vergeten.

Later meer.

Groetjes Stefanie