Luxemburg, Belgium, Netherlands… End.

23.07.2013

This morning we slept really long. We got out of the best just around 11. And before we got on the street it was already 12. Luxemburg was on our list today. Exploring a whole country… well, at least the capitol… and it was already 12. Great.

Approximately 100 km and 2 hours later we reached finally the capitol of Luxemburg, Luxemburg. :)
We found very quickly a parking place. The ticked machine said that we have to pay 2 Euro per hour. But just till 6pm. We inserted 6 Euro and could have stayed there until next morning 8 am. But for us was it enough to stay until the evening.

We started to walk into the city center, to the next tourist information. Inge told us the way… was trying at least. But she failed and we couldn’t really find the tourist information and ended up in a shopping information. It’s almost the same, but only for shops. If the tourist wants to leave his money in Luxemburg and don’t know exactly in which stores he can spend it, they will help him. (No joke.) But they could tell us as well where we can find the real tourist information. :) It was just around the corner.

So we went in and asked for the information which we needed… what we can and need to see in the city. There are some things you need to see. On top of the list was the casemate, the plaice and the boulevard.
It was a hot day for Europe and we went first of all into the next ice cream cafe and ordered an ice cream. That was a great idea. We felt straight better. :) Especially because in the other countries, which we visited, where no proper ice cream shops.

After that refreshment we went to the casemate. But they was closing at 5pm already and it was already half past 4. Luckily is Luxemburg not that big and we reached the casemate already after 10 minutes walking. Buying postcards and passing the plaice already included. :)
The lady at the ticket shop told us that they have open until 5:30pm. Like that we had still 45 minutes to see it. What a luck. The entrance fee was 3 Euro. The prices here are already ok again in Luxemburg.

And we went down in the aisles of the casemate. Basically the same like the Siege tunnels in Gibraltar. A bit different, of course and the canons are a bit smaller. :)
All the time was a young lady close to us. Obviously also a tourist. She had a look here and made a picture there. And doesn’t matter where we was, she was also there. (I am sure not in purpose.) Finally I asked her if she would like to have a picture with her also on it. I know that problem as photographer, that you’re never on the picture. :) Of course she wanted it. I made a picture of her in the casemate and we got into a conversation.
Her name was Amelia and she was from Washington DC (USA). She was traveling already since 13 month, in Europe and Asia. It was the second last day of her trip.
We explored the rest of the casemate together and continued our chat. Where we all come from and what we do and such things.

But we didn’t finished our chat, after we was done with the casemate. We understood really good with Amelia and wanted to spend some more time with her. So we went in the next best cafe and were drinking together. I think we sat there until 7pm, till Amelia had to leave. She had to call urgently with her family.
We spend a bit more time in the cafe, to write our postcards. Actually was Paris the big target and I can’t see postcards anymore. But the circumstances that we travel through more countries brings us to the point that we need to write more postcards. At least for 2 special receiver. One is little Lotta, which got from everywhere a postcard :) and the other is Anna… who got from almost everywhere a postcard :)

As this was also gone, we went back to the car. Again through the city center.
Here, on a place in the middle of the city, we got our 3rd live concert. An orchestra was playing cover songs of famous songs. We was listening to 2-3 of them and moved on. It become dark slowly and we had to get out of the city.
The kangaroo was still standing safely there. Like always. The good kangaroo. :)
The target of the day tomorrow was Liege in Belgium. I wanted to go Brussels, but that was too far away from the route. So, Liege.
I told Inge where to lead us and she was showing us the way out of Luxemburg. And then we had to find a place to sleep again. But before we found a petrol station in Luxemburg. The petrol here was really cheap. 1,38 Euro per liter is rarely cheap on our journey. We had no other choice then to fill up the kangaroo. :)
And then we had do find a place for the night. But it wasn’t that easy today. We was in Belgium already when we finally turned into a forest path and parked there. Even wild animal was observing us, as I could see on its shining eyes in the glow of my torch. :)

24.07.2013

The night ended suddenly at 6am. A thunderstorm was approaching and erupted above our kangaroo. The rain was falling loudly on the roof. We couldn’t see the lightning’s through the non-transparent windows, but the thunder did his job well. It sounded like it was partly direct above us. But a small thunderstorm couldn’t shock us after the night in Andorra. Our only worry was that the forest path will become soft and we will stuck in the morning. Well, we would find it out in the morning… and continued sleeping.

I woke up a bit after again, because I was freezing. Wou… we are back in middle Europe. I tuck myself up and felt asleep again.
At 10am was my alarm clock ringing. We was both not in mood to get up. I switched off the alarm clock and we slept on.
Till I woke up finally half past 12. I still didn’t felt well rested, then we will not see Liege anymore and would just pass Belgium.
But before we finally really started was it 1 already again.

It was still 150km till Liege, a bigger city in Belgium. On the way we stopped … of course… at Mc Donalds and Carefour. But we minimized our internet consumption and was eating quick 2 cheeseburger and used the toilet. At 4pm we was finally in Liege.
The city welcomed us with its industrial side. From there we got strait in the large construction site of the city, which also prevent that we got to our parking place. We had to follow the roadwork’s and went then in direction to the city center and took the next free parking. Into the city center wasn’t it luckily so far anymore.

We went to the first best church, to see at least something of the city. The cathedral was not bad. But we are now a bit spoiled of all the great churches and cathedrals which we saw already before. So, this holly temple couldn’t impress is so much anymore. :)
After the culture trip we went to the shopping street of the city. A normal shopping street with shops and cafes. But somehow the whole city couldn’t impress me. Somehow it appeared grey and depressing. Probably it was also because of the weather. But also the buildings are pale. Souvenir shops are also rare. In a paper shop we could find at least some postcards, which we wrote in the next best cafe and left them in the next postbox. That was Liege. Back to the car and quick leaving here… before we get depressed.

To our next target, Maastricht in Netherlands, was it just 40km. So we watched out for a nice parking for the night in a forest. It was just 10 km from Liege.
When we arrived we realized that it is a kind of natural preserve. With a pond full of ducks and geese, a cafe and a big parking. A great place for the night.
It was still very early and we had a look around. We still had a lot of old bread, with which we made the day of the geese and ducks. The cafe didn’t had internet. :( So we decided to park at the end of the parking and to convert our babe.
I could write a bit and to maybe finish an article again. I haven’t published anything since days. And tomorrow we will visit The Netherlands and then is our trip over already.

24.07.2013

A last time but one we was rebuilding the Kangaroo this morning and the get ready for the day. Maastricht was the target of the day. A city in the south of The Netherlands. It was not very far anymore from our sleeping place. Just around 40km. Not even half an hour later we was in Maastricht. Just the oriantation wasn’t that easy… we was circling 2 times (even with Inge) before we found finally the way to the car park.

2,30 Euro per hour was worth for me today to pay, before we have also stress with finding a parking.
Direct in front of the church we found the first church. The cloister was interesting and the treasury we didn’t visit (also because of the entrance fee).

After this piece of culture we went to the city center… to the next tourist information. We got a city map and went off. The map was not very useful and we was following, like mostly, just our nose. The city center of Maastricht is really beautiful. Small, friendly buildings and a lot of shops and people.
We found after a few minutes the town hall square with more shops.  A souvenir shop was also there. It was the first shop we visited. To get some nice souvenirs from Holland… I remembered in the last days a few more people to which I would like to bring a souvenir. But our space is unfortunately very rare. Also I need to bring it all to Cyprus. So, the shopping ended a bit miserable. But the shop was cool. A real general store :)

After we went further through the city and the shops. I could really get a buying frenzy, if I would have the money and the space. :) We saw some shops which had really interesting and innovative things. I can’t remember single things, but it was all very handy things.
After a few hundred meter we got again to a place, at one end with 2 churches. The St.-Johannes-Church and the St.-Servatius-Basilica. The Johannes church looks a bit strange, because it have a red tower.
2 artists painted a 3D painting on the floor of the place in front of the churches. This kind of painting you need to see from a special angular, for sure from a higher point. This time from the tower of the Johannes church.

So we went to visit this chapel as well and to crawl up the tower. The church itself was empty. With the expectation of a few chairs, a speakers desk and an information desk, on which 2 old woman were sitting. They were also selling tickets for the tower. 2,50 euro per person. Well, therefore it is a nice view. :)
The ascent to the top of the tower was through a very narrow staircase. With oncoming traffic a very tight case. On the half way up was an exhibition of an artist about Rembrandt. And from the top we really had a great view over Maastricht and the surrounding. And of course we could see from up here the 3D painting on the place.

After this culture excursion we went back into the city. We still had to write the postcards, which we bought in the souvenir shop. I limited it this time to 4 cards. Did I mentioned already that I can’t see postcards anymore? :)
No, it is not that bad. But not too much in one time anymore. But they have really beautiful postcards in the Netherlands. So Lotta and Anna got a postcard. :)

On the way back we stopped again at the tourist information and I bought a very special souvenir (which has nothing to do with Maastricht, but it is a cool one :) ). I hope it will survive the way back to Cyprus. Back at the car park we paid our ticked and went then, over this bridge again, to the next postbox. Inge said that there is also a Mc Donalds around the corner. That fits well. :)
When we arrived, we mentioned that it was just a small street, where it was hard to find a parking. And the Mc Donalds didn’t had an own parking. So we stopped for a moment and I just posted the postcards. We didn’t wanted another parking ticket, to stay longer.

We skipped Mc Donalds and thought about a place to stay for this night. It would be the last night. Tomorrow we would be back in Germany.
Inge was showing us a few side streets in a forest area, close to the German border. That looked good on the map. So we went there… and could read on every single street “Just for forest vehicles.”. Well, our Kangaroo wasn’t looking like a forest vehicle.
But then I saw a spot on the map which looked like a parking, in the same forest. We drove to the other side of the forest and really it was a bigger parking, direct at the forest. A great place for a last night into the wild. :)

We parked between some trees and converted the Kangaroo.

25.07.2013

And how much this place was suitable. The trees, under which we was standing, was spending shadow in the morning. Even in the late morning it was nice cool in the Kangaroo.
Of course we was also late on this morning. Why to make a difference on the last day? But it didn’t matter today. From here we just was going back to Germany and then would be everything over.
We was wasting time. I made a movie from our little Kangaroo… and slowly we packed our stuff together and left the parking place.

It was just 8 km from there to Julias home. Not even 15 minutes later I parked the Kangaroo a last time and switched off the engine.

Best wishes
Gordon

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