Tri-country Day Trip

Have just been on a day trip through three different countries - the Netherlands, Germany and of course Belgium. We did think about trying to fit in France and Luxembourg as well, but thought that might be a bit too much. Denis and Philip were supposed to be at work today, but they were both very naughty and called in sick.

Our first stop was Maastricht in the Netherlands, which is only 20 minutes by car. We got a little bit lost trying to find somewhere to park and ended up nearly doing a complete circle of the town, but got our bearings eventually. Unlike the UK, which is extremely well-signposted, the signs in other parts of Europe seem to be either too small or non-existant. We didn't have a guide to either Maastricht or Aachen in Germany, so we weren't really sure what there was to see. By the time we left as well it was nearly lunch time, so as we were walking around Maasticht we were also looking for somewhere to eat - not so easy when all three of us are vegetarian and Philip is gluten intolerant! None of us were pqrticularly impressed by Maastricht, but given that it's pretty hot and that all three of us have been feeling tired I'm not sure we really gave the place a chance.

From Maastricht we then crossed into Germany and spent a few hours in Aachen (pictured), which I'd read good things about. The cathedral was quite beautiful, but again none of us seemed to be in the mood for sightseeing and we seemed to wander around fairly aimlessly. It was my first visit to Germany and although Aachen is very close to Liege there was definitely a different feel to the place. None of us can speak German, so we all felt a little lost. We didn't really spend very long in either place and in some ways I feel like it was a bit of a wasted journey. Maybe we should have gone somewhere in Belgium?

Last night I cooked some Sri Lankan food for Philip and Denis. We didn't have all the ingredients, but it wasn't bad.

Back to the UK tomorrow. I really don't feel like going as I'm enjoying being here too much, but I don't have much choice - have to earn some money!