Tongeren to Julich July 16^th

We woke up to a sunny day. Hilary, even before breakfast, was across the road playing in the sand and climbing up large nets and other climbing apparatus. She stayed there for an hour and a half or so, we having joined her. We had a very strong yet delicious coffee in the sun after a play and climb ourselves. It is a very good playarea/family area, a concept Christchurch could well adopt in its rebuild. The café was being used (at 10 am and probably earlier) by a few middle to late aged locals who were drinking either coffee, or the old men, beer, and all chatting amiably, I presume they are “regulars” and all knew each other. There were young men fishing in the lake, they had electronic devices on their rods which set off a beeping alarm when there was a nibble, and they were all set up with deck chairs and food, again hanging out with mates having a nice time in the sun. There were children playing in the sand, and some watching the fallow deer in an enclosure beside the lake, and a few more elderly people sitting on benches watching the geese and ducks on the pond. A really nice atmosphere, and well utilised by a varied group, ..great.

We drove off east again towards Aachen and then headed for Julich. We didn’t realise, it was only when we stopped at an enormous American military cemetery and read the information about it, that we realised we were in the Netherlands. A little bit of The Netherlands (a U shape) hangs down between Belgium and Germany, and in less than an hour (if we hadn’t stopped at the cemetery) we would have gone from Belgium, through the Netherlands and into Germany. There certainly isn’t a big indicator that you are changing country, as I said we missed the leaving Belgium point, but managed to spot a smallish road sign saying we were entering the Federal Republic of Deutschland.

The military cemetery was huge, beautiful in a haunting sort of way, pristine, ordered, moving. I’ll let the photos show you, not that they could capture the enormity of it or the atmosphere.

We sat in the  truck under the trees eating our lunch, despite the signs that said ,“no picnicking in the grounds out of respect for the interred”. We didn’t think they would mind if we ate in a respectful sort of way and remembered them…. Which is what we did.

We drove on, stopped at Julich, where we are now, in Germany, at a large grassy area that has power,water, toilet and waste water disposal, and a large themey park nearby. Unfortunately we have discovered that our power cord which fits sockets all over the UK, France and Belgium, doesn’t fit in these sockets, so we don’t have power.. hence the battery on this is about to expire.

It started to rain (of course) just after we arrived, just as I was putting a rack of washing out, it continued to drizzle now and then as we put the washing out and in repeatedly until we gave up and had it drying in the truck.

After dinner I played 500 with Hilary while Di stitched patches on to her blanket, late into the night, optimistically waiting for a fireworks display we had seen in a brochure Di had found, which was to take place in the park next door. It was raining quite heavily, so we didn’t hold much hope. However right on cue the sky lit up and was continually filled with colour for 20 minutes until 11pm. An exquisite display which for some reason made me think wistfully of all our friends and family and Christchurch and the turmoil they are experiencing while we holiday and experience the world.