Three countries in one day, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany

September 6, 2016 Anne Germany, Norway Trip 2016 0

Day two started with a lovely walk near where we stopped last night called Tielrodebroek, which I think was a nature reserve. It was a well-used path for both runners and cyclists. Next we hit the road heading north out of Belgium, then briefly into The Netherlands before heading into Germany. Everything was going well until we hit roadworks on the A1 in Germany. After crawling along for a few miles we were diverted off for about 10 miles and then back on. It was then that the fun really started as the motorway turned into an episode of wacky races. You can certainly tell that on this section there was no speed limit. We looked like driving miss daisy at a steady 80. Even the police went past at about 100m/h with another car about an inch away from its bumper. It was certainly not an experience for the faint hearted and I am pleased I wasn’t driving.
Tonight we have found another free stopover in the town of Sittensen about half way between Bremen and Hamburg. It is right next to a lake and park so we have had another lovely evening walk. Finn met some German friends to play with who were having a dog training session in the park, he soon interrupted that. To get back to the van we cut through a housing estate which was like the Truman Show. It was extremely quiet, with perfectly manicured gardens. The few people we passed said hello in English, we must look so British! The most surprising sight is we passed two cigarette machines in the space of about a mile on the estate. On closer inspection we worked out you had to swipe an ID card before buying them so I think that is supposed to stop underage people buying them, somehow I doubt that works