Crossing borders

Wohoo, our first border crossing! GoogleMaps freaked right out! "Watch out, you are crossing a border! There might be man eating beasts of ginormous size lurking behind the next bend in the road! Or maybe there are just different rules regarding the pandemic. Whichever you prefer."

There are different rules, indeed! No masks! As of Saturday. We got here on Sunday. Great timing!

The closest city to the border is Venlo. So we had a stop there to get a first impression of the Netherlands. But that was rather hard to come by, since the city was stacked five high with Germans. We were surprised that all the shops and supermarkets were open. By now we learned, that that's normal. In the cities, at least. 

The peaceful warrior

King Carmelo

A fence to look at twice

   

My human went into one of those supermarkets to get us some coffee, we were almost out. One can't function without coffee, can one? Even the line to get a cart (which you had to take) was as long as the one in front of the ladies room at the Oktoberfest. At the checkout she asked the clerk if this was normal, and she nodded sadly, yes, Saturdays and Sundays all the Germans come over to shop. Time for us to get outta there!

This one was funny, though!

We stayed at a very nice campground halfway between Venlo and Eindhoven. And because it was so nice we hung around for two nights. Although still very close to the border, here we were the only Germans. Much better! Another great area for biking and running. Unfortunately the weather has turned on us since we got there, but that had to happen at some point. So far we were very lucky, anyways. 

In a little shed they had a projector running in the evenings and pretty much the whole campground congregated to see - the Netherlands lose. After that we were all Belgian. And the next day we all turned Swiss. What they did that night was historic! Just about as historic as Germany's 7:1 victory over Brazil in 2014! Ah, good times! They ended the next night. But let's not go there.

Frist time we got out the sun sail. Or rain cover.

The following day we drove to Eindhoven and spent all of two hours there. Not impressed. The city center was rather dull, to be polite. For lunch, we had planned to go to a big, highly recommended food hall a bit outside the center. First it was a hassle to find it, second the navigation system kept trying to lead us into a parking garage (I'm 2.7m high), and third, there were exactly three stalls open in that market. Three. Did I mention how not impressed we were?

It could only get better and it sure did. Arnhem was our next stop. A friend my human made in Ecuador years back referred us to a good friend of hers, and so they caught up that night in town. Which is very pretty. Unlike other places. No, I'm not resentful, why do you ask? 

The Devils House

And these guys are the reason for the name

Eusebius church

Very cool food marked, only empty because it was closing time

In spite of the terrible game, they had a great night and my human was provided with lots of tips and information regarding the area around Arnhem and the Netherlands in general. You just can't beat insider tips, they are priceless!

And so, while I chilled in the parking lot, my human and Carmelo went off to explore the Vuelvezoom National Park on foot. It is the oldest nationl park in the country, founded in1931, and is a beautiful, old forest with a multitude of tracks and trails for hikers and mountain bikers. On the brochure there is a photo of a wild boar. Sure, she thought, sure. As if! Until they crossed her path! And not just one of them, but a whole extended family from Granny to great grand children.

Does anyone else see the rhino?

For dinner, we were invited to our new friend's home and had another great night. Her and her boyfriend are non-religious vegans (never mind the wonderful Pho they ate the night before; as I said, non-religious) and they made delicious pizza with vegan shawarma. There is always a first, right? Vegan pizza. And that with shawarma. Apparently it's a thing in the Netherlands. And what can I say, it's damn tasty! Of course I always have a hard time digesting human food, but once in a while I just can't help myself.

Talk was easy and the topics went from cultural differences to traveling by foot and bike to a new sport emerging here called Padel. A mix between squash and tennis. Why not? Throw in a bit of philosophy and you get to the conclusion that lettuce doesn't bleed. Yes, there was some wine.

This morning we left in the direction of Deventer. There is an arts festival going on for the next ten days, and we are going to check it out. And there is a laundry. I'm not saying this out loud, of course, but she needs to wash those running clothes! The socks, especially. She doesn't notice because she is gone a lot of the time, but the socks stay behind with me!

And to finish off, here is our ordinary/not so ordinary photo of the day. Home office in a van.