3 countries in
one day !
What did Forest
Gump say ? “Life is like a box of
chocolates….”. You never know what is
going to happen. And that really was
true today. I woke up in a pleasant
camp site in Belgium, expecting to go only a short way down the road and I
would be in Germany. So once I had
breakfasted and said my farewells, off I went.
And not 30 minutes down the road I came to a ferry across a small river,
which was a bit of a surprise, but then when I got to the other side, I found I
was in the Netherlands !!! No signs,
nothing – But suddenly all the car’s registration plates were Dutch !! Could have knocked me over with a feather,
because I wasn’t expecting either a ferry or the Netherlands !
So for the next
couple of hours I drove through the Netherlands ! Nothing very exciting – it seems there is a
little piece of the Netherlands that pushes up between Belgium and Germany, and
I was in it ! Drove through lots of
agricultural areas – In fact, everywhere was agriculture of some kind or
another. I forgot to mention yesterday
that eastern France and Belgium seemed to grow a LOT of cabbages. They were everywhere, all day. And today that continued into Holland – Lots
of cabbages !! They must like them over
here. Saw a few kites / buzzards
whatever today – tried to get some pics but when I turned round and came back
slowly, they flew away very quickly.
Then after 2
hours in the Netherlands, I turned a corner and there was another ferry !! Once again, totally unexpected, and it was
across the Rhine. While I was waiting
for the ferry I noticed on a hill across the river a big hotel / castle – And
it looked VERY like the one we had stayed in a few years ago when a bunch of us
came to the German F1 GP at the Nurburgring.
We were supposed to helicopter it from the hotel to the ‘Ring, but some
terrorist threats put a stop to that and we had to have a one hour coach ride
instead. Anyway, it looked very similar.
So caught the
ferry across the Rhine, and suddenly all
the number plates on the cars were German – Must be in Germany then !! No signs
once again, but at least I could read a few of the signs, and say please and
thank you !!
From then on I
would my way through the German countryside, once again staying off the main
highways. This meant I was going through
a lot of little towns, but as they got increasingly “German” as I headed across
the country south of Cologne, at least they were interesting. At the end we
were getting into some low mountains and it was a fun drive through the
forested countryside.
At about 4.30 I
found a campsite marked and ended up in quite a big one on the side of a lake
complex. Lots of people here stay for
the summer as there are water activities and organized things for the
kids. But I got a nice quiet spot up the
back, went for a bike ride for half an hour or so round the lake, then cooked
my sausages for supper to go with my last bottle of Chilean Merlot ! Very pleasant spot, and the sun even came out
in the evening in contrast to the mainly overcast day.
Not sure where I will get to tomorrow. I am expecting Denmark, but after today I
will not be surprised if I find a bit of Russia or even outer Mongolia in the
way first ! You just never
know what you are
going to find !! Love it..
Rest of the photos are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0309BelgiumHollandAndGermany?authkey=Gv1sRgCJmn6M6Cp8KsGg
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