Maastricht, The Netherlands

Within spitting distance of Belgium, Our really expensive motorhome camping is on the banks of the Meuse river.  It is 5km north of Maastricht city.  It’s too hot for a pair of unfit fifty somethings to do very much, so we chilled out for the first afternoon trying to keep cool.  The next day and the need to keep cool meant a (slow!) 10 km cycle ride to visit the Maastricht underground site and the extensive underground limestone quarries that are over 400 years old at Zonneburg caves.  There is no lighting installed in the system, so the whole tour was conducted by torchlight. Never mind all the fantastic tales we could tell you about the quarries or the people that dug them, all you need to know is that for one hour, we had 12 degrees C and almost 100% humidity – it was fantastic!  Traditional Netherlands dishes for lunch followed and then a very slow 10 km back through the town to the mothership. We didn’t get to see much of the town centre. Few photos from Maastricht, the caves were too damn dark!

Bourtange, The Netherlands

East, east and a bit more east. So close to Germany, we could spit over the border.  And in fact, the route sally took saw us on 40km of Germany motorway, so we have already fitted in another country!  Remember folks a world without borders is wonderful!

Bourtange is about 1km inside The Netherlands and is a fortress town dating back to the time when the Spaniards controlled the area.  It’s a classic 5 pointed star when viewed from above – as design that can be seen all over the Netherlands.

It doesn’t take long to look around – It’s a tiny town and most buildings are part of the museum.  So our day was mainly a chill out. It was our 26th Wedding anniversary so we decided to take it easy apart for a quick drone flight.