Just as we were about to leave Tony saw a squirrel run across the park - a red one no less! Nate and I missed it and are so jealous. Weve seen a rabbit in France, and two ducks here but they're hardly very interesting!
We set off just after 9 and wanted to make a tiny detour on the way. Just out of Rotterdam there is a place called Kinderdijk which has a number of 18th century windmills. It was incredible!! Seeing one in the town, but seeing here "in the wild" was simply magical. We drove the loop right around and saw them all. Then getting back on the motorway saw another couple of different ones just in random fields.
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| most of the houses here are either split level or they're down way lower than the road |
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| just on the road out of town |
The rest of the day was spent driving the motorway/autobahn into Germany. Didn't take long to get to the border and they still have a border police building on the border itself. The road also changes colour from asphalt to a concrete grey style. We stopped at the first big service station for lunch and of course had to have Bock wurst.
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| big sausage |
We have been told frequently that the French are pretty bad drivers. Yes they are. However we think now that the Dutch are worse and even now in Germany they're at least as bad as the French. Infact they're bad everywhere. The autobahn doesn't always have unlimited speed restriction either. There are areas that definitely have speed limits and they truly suck. For example you can be driving along at 130, then you see signs for 100. Then about 100 metres later its 120, then 100 and then 130 and then 80 and so on. No reason for it that we could see either. In all those zones though there are many many drivers who go way faster than that. Often a VW would speed past, closely tailed by a BMW. We also saw a lovely Maserati that was being held up by the traffic flow so didn't get to fly like the others. Tony took the opportunity to wind the Citroen up to 166 kms at one point but for the most part drove at 130, unless in a restricted zone.
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| a much older Citroen than ours |
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| another bum tunnel - this time a hairy one |
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| many many people carry bikes |
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| another blast from the past |
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| hello Germany - I missed the Netherlands and the Belgium ones :-( |
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| i was slow on the click - was 166 |
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| typical scenery on the way |
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| getting quite mountainous here - Netherlands was lower than sea level! |
As I have done often I decided to change accommodation yesterday and booked a different hotel as I decided we needed a bigger room than the one we had booked elsewhere. Now, we're in a little town called Lindwedel which is about 10 mins of the main motorway. We stopped at a supermarket just before the hotel and I must say the prices here are cheap - we get ripped off at home! Seriously I could spend the rest of the trip here as its so pretty - very wintery though. The internet is finally working well and we just ate at the restaurant. OMG very good food and huge serves - Tony and I had veal with mushroom sauce and it was heavenly. Also got to have the fabled white asparagus and its much better than the usual green!
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| Lindwedel main street |
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| nice hey |
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| Hotel is this way |
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| main part of hotel |
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| guestrooms at the rear of the property |
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| Tony happy to drag the bags in |
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| Cherry blossoms here a plenty |
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| sooo good |
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| view from the restaurant at dinner |
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| Nate at the bar |
The only problem with this hotel is that there is no minibar fridge to keep our Pepsi light cold - no matter I guess as we can just put them outside on our patio as its supposed to be 0 overnight!!
Wine = Bordeaux and not very good this one....
My only comment here is "WOW". What scenery. Had been wondering if you have border checks but doesnt sound like it. Keep the blog going, I love it. xx
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