Lost in the woods 25 August

Happy birthday Bro.

We left Maastricht at about the normal time after our night in the Central B & B. Nice big room, with lots of powerpoints and phone jacks. It probably used to be an office, but it has been nicely done up as a bedroom. Shared bathroom with another bedroom and an interior courtyard to sit or store bikes. Breakfast was delived trays and put in a little alcove under the stairs - apparently this is the French style of delivering continental breakfast.

It was quite a climb to get out of Maastricht. Near the top there is a huge cemetary that commemorates all the American soldiers that were killed during WWII. The number of crosses is staggering, and there is also a commemarative wall with more names where the grave locations are not known. Very sobering sight.



The route today was very hilly and my ambition was to grind my way up hills without getting off the bike. This also included a hike up the point where three countries meet (Nederland, Germany and Belgium). We knew it was going to be a climb as it is the highest point in NL at 322.5m above sea level. I don't know how George managed to cycle all the way up, but I ended up walking bits when I got too tired. We made up for it with apricot flan and drinks at the top in a restaurant with a nice view. After a quick look at the various monuments Thingy (the GPS) told us that there was another route off the hill direction Monschau. So we did as Thingy said......



It turned in to a moderately steep downhill mountain bike track through the forest on the hill, followed by forest maintenance tracks to harvest and collect firewood. Glad that we had strudy bikes, that it was downhill and not too wet. Thingy then sent us on a right royal chase in and out of forest tracks and up some amazingly steep narrow little roads. One was so steep that George had to get off and walk - and he never gets off! Eventually we got to a bigger road (it had a give way sign - so must be a big road) and ignored Thingy for a while.
This is the larger bicycle track below the down hill mountain bike bit

Not sure how many times we crossed the border today on our winding route. Even climbing up to the three country point you were crossing from NL into the other countries, and we must have crossed between Germany and Belgium at least half a dozen times after that. Really hard to pick which country you are in. The registration plates on cars weren't helpful, as they included all three countries and some French ones too.

We are now definitely in Germany, in a place called Konzen on the way to Monschau. My legs and enthusiams ran out about 2 hills ago - on a really long and relatively steep one. I'd think to myself, just around that bend the road will start dropping again. But no, still more up hill. In the end I was setting small targets, you can reach that tree, and then that tree, etc. That worked for a while, but the ratio of up to down seems particularly unfairly distributed and I just ran out of steam. So we stopped at the next hotel. Not much here really, couple of pubs, a church, a statue of a cow (partially cut away so you can see the four stomachs inside) and a fast food joint. We'd forgotten about German portion sizes an ordered the most expensive thing on the menu at the fast food place. I managed about half of my assorted grilled meats, chips and salad. George managed to finish his large plate of steak, mushrooms, and chips, but only half the salad. Salad is served swimming in dressing.

Ah well some more sleep and probably a few more hills tomorrow. Good practice for cycling from home to work when we get back.