Hotel Landgoed Schoutenhof Epen

... boy on the bus and asked him if the bus was going where I needed to go. He said that he was also going where I was going (Ponttor) and that he could show me which bus to get on. It was funny, cause when I asked him that he answered and I immediately knew that German was not his native tongue. I guess perhaps my ear for German has become more refined after all.. Well we were going to have to wait 11 minutes for the next bus, and it is only ...

... and got a few things checked off of the list: Met with the rental guy and looked at the apartment and took some pictures of the apartment, then went to the bank and finished my damage deposit account and set it up so my rent will automatically be paid on the last day of every month.

I decided that I won't be able to go to Oktoberfest, at least not in Munich this year, anyway. I will try to go to another festival somewhere ...

... br>2. hang up my flyers advertising my excellent proofreading skills (trying to make a little money on the side)
3. make a copy of my new apartment key for landlord
and and and...

WHEW!! all of this stuff has to get done sometime, I guess. I am just glad things are finally starting to come together, or at least they will have a little more by tomorrow night.

Going to bed for now!

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 ...

... on.

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.
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.

... beautiful, and you can see lots of pictures of it on my gallery:

www.juliesours.com/gall ery

We saw lots of old churches from the 1500s and a castle/fort, which is in the pictures.

Also yesterday I signed the lease for my new apartment! Nil came with me and basically did all of the talking, and I am very grateful for that, because it would have been difficult to do by myself, signing ...

... it would not be very interesting for my first day, so I observed an 8th grade German class. They were reading and discussing a story. At the beginning of the class, the teacher had all of the students stand up and say good morning all together, and I think this is pretty typical. Nil says that she has all of her students stand up when she enters the room.

I am in the teacher’s lounge now drinking coffee and eating ...

We 'trundled down past Maastricht towards Germany. The deviations were big ones but we still were able to make good time! The scenery was worth the deviations though. We past by some wonderful little towns and river gorges. Very nice bit of countryside. Will have to return there sometime, God willing!

... coherence in one foreign tongue, for me at any rate, so this was enough to make my ears bleed. While I´m talking to the people in my corner of the bar, in the background the problem of where I´m going to stay, my problem, has become the property of a conference of locals. Someone phones a more local campsite, but they´re full of horsey people. In the meantime, my glass is continually being refilled, but never quite to the top, always just ´a little top up ...

... blonde named Stephanie sucked down beers like a vacuum. Once, she was suddenly sitting with, not a beer glass, but a foot-tall German stein of beer. I was so excited to see a German stein of beer in Germany. That's like seeing chop-sticks in China. The only thing Stephanie liked almost as much as drinking herself, was to see other people drink. She made use of the soon-to-be-closed bar's alcohol reserves to intoxicate her friends. Wilma hadn't been making me pay ...