Thermae 2000 Valkenburg

... br>So, that's been the last couple of weeks. I now have to wait and see how I recover, and also whether or not the insurance company feels that it is too much of a risk for me to continue on to China before heading back to Australia. I can go to the UK, since apparently there is a reciprocal pûblic health agreement there with Australia, so they wouldn't really be at risk there anyway. I have the stitches out next week, and I will no longer go to Ireland, since I have missed a week of ...

... from them over the years. Although they don't speak english and we are equally proficient at dutch, we were able to enjoy each others company and acknowledge our family connection. After heading home, we stayed up watching english movies!! with dutch subtitles of course.
After having a fantastic sleep, we had breakfast and went for a bike ride. Feeling quite dutch, we rode around the quiet streets of Boukoul and into neighbouring towns where we saw Grandma ...

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

... 7-8 minute walk, so we just walked together. His name is Yuwu and hes from China, been living in Aachen for 3 years. He speaks Chinese, English, and German. He was pretty cool and we traded emails when we parted. Maybe I will hit him up sometime to go do something, who know? (Don't get jealous Matt, I'm allowed to have friends, aren't I? :)

So I finally made it back home. Left at 8 this morning and got back at 6pm. I guess thats not ...

... 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.

... 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.

Noch drei Tage bis es endlich losgeht! Die letzten Reisevorbereitungen werden getroffen, d.h Sachen eingekauft, geguckt, ob auch wirklich alle Dokumente vorhanden sind, etc.. Da ich noch bis morgen abend arbeiten muss, wird die Zeit auch eng. Die groben Eckdaten sind: 20.10 ab Frankfurt über Doha nach KL, 10.11 ab Singapore über Doha nach Frankfurt, mit Qatar Airways. Infos gibt es auch im Blog von Philip. Mehr aus KL!!!

... is just the patty with nothing on it, and they give you peanut sauce or this chunky vegetable sweet&sour sauce to go with it, which was actually pretty good. Last night we went out to the clubs. Its amazing how bad the music is here. And the way people dance is even worse! Its ok though because it just makes me look normal compared to them. The play lists here include a ...

... small cursory road sign confirmed we had crossed into Belgium. It was an absolute pleasure to ride along the flat bike lanes attached to each and every road, a far cry from the stress and angst of riding alongside vehicle traffic in Australia, and we kept going for a good 25km or so to the town of Genk.

Genk itself was a fairly non-descript place, but when in a local supermarket we were each able to ...

... 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