Left Brussel this morning around 9am and arrived in Maastricht around 3pm, about 80km cycling today. To start with we thought that several days rest had turned us into super-cyclists. Eventually we figured out that a brisk tail wind was making life much easier. I even managed some streches in the third top gear today, love that tail wind.
The country side is rolling hills and valleys with villages just about touching along the road. Sorry didn't take any photos of the landscape. There are houses that look a bit like an armadillo with one side of the house covered in scales; the scales come in various sizes shapes and colours. Not sure why, might be just waterproofing a blank wall. We weren't entirely sure where the Belgium-Nederland border was, but it became very obvious. The cycle path went from a half metre section of painted road verge to a cycle only path well away the main road - you've now crossed the border.
Looks like it if full on University party time here. Must be the start of the university year. Maastricht is a very large town, and must have been very prosperous looking at all the church spires and the number and variety of shops. The Maas River flows through the middle so it probably always has been a wealthy river town.
One of the things I haven't chatted about yet is the decoration of houses for the birth of a child and anniversaries. Today I finally took a photo of a stork crashed through a window to celebrate the birth of a little girl (seen a few earlier, but didn't stop). Near the same town, one house was decorated with gold lamee fabric and golden 50 signs - figured that was a 50th wedding anniversary. Further along another house had paper 60 signs (like the 60 speedlimit sign) and red and white balloons - probably the 60th birthday for somebody.
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