Hotel Tummers Valkenburg

... but it got a conversation started. They spoke excellent English and we talked about things from his house being repossessed, to my adventure, to her climbing (which was of note because she was in a wheelchair).
After 40 minutes or so I said goodbye and headed off as I needed to get back and make my bed before my room-mate went to bed if poss to avoid disturbing her. It was now about 830 and I decided I could take a few more photos on the ...

... a massive downpour which I barely got out of. This actually made me hopeful as I thought it might be blowing itself out - and so it proved.
Thus it was about 10.15am under clearing skies and some bright sunshine that I headed out of Valkenswaard, armed with a map... I still had some trouble finding the right road but I managed to get on to it with the help of a woman and her snarling dogs. :-) I was at the Belgian border in short order and had my first ...

... 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 ...

... old house, and a few other local sights. We stopped by the stables and said hello to Maud's horse as well as riding past the kids' schools. It was quite sunny so we stopped for lunch at a cafe and ate outdoors looking at the river. I let Hugo choose what I should eat and so I experienced 'Frikandel' - a kind of deep fried sausage. I asked what was in it but they refused to tell me until after I ate it. Suffice to say I felt as if I could get home at a brisk ...

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 morning Maren's parents came to pick us up and take us to Aachen. Originally I had no intention of seeing this city, but now that I have I'm glad I did. We started out by visiting Maren's sister and her boyfriend, who live there. I tried my best to just be a fly on the wall while making small attempts to decipher the conversation. Once in a while I could tell what they were talking about, though I didn't let on too much that I could. If I did then I knew Maren would want me to try ...

... people over the age of 12. While that might've ruined the Griswald's European vacation, it was just fine for the Rawitches, Kantors and Dworkins. We had a place on the lake and we took advantage of what it had to offer. For some of us, that was massages. For Stephen, it was a massage and then a visit to the sauna, where entire families of Germans ran around naked amongst French families, frolicking like medieval times. Stephen enjoyed this experience and as he put it, he was ...

... 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 ...