Vacation, vacantie, vacance, vacanze, Urlaub, ...

It seems that I had only one vacation this year: my trip to the US. Of course that is not true at all. It was the trip that took me the farthest away from home, but James and I had a very nice small quiet vacation right after he came to Europe in August.

First we drove to Maastricht, the most "undutch" city in the Netherlands. Maasticht has Belgian flair and Dutch no-nonsense mentality. An ideal combination. We had of course our trip through the center and ate our obligatory vlaai.

Via the highest point in the Netherlands (Vaalse Berg), we went to Aachen (Aix la Chapelle). Aachen is the city of Charlemagne and we did the important sights that remind us of his existence, such as the incredible cathedral (Dom; see picture above) and the treasury of the cathedral with the famous golden mask. Charlemagne was in essention the first real European leader.

From Aachen we went to visit our friends Alain and Jean-Luc in Luxembourg. On our way we did a little detour to pittoresque Monschau and Malmedy. Luxembourg was great. Our friends took good care of us. The first night we went to the fairground (see picture of me with the pink unicorn bag) and the second day we got the grand tour. On both days we were spoiled with an incredible meal.

With some useful tips Alain and Jean-Luc send us on our way to see Metz and Nancy after the weekend. I had passed both towns on earlier occasions without taking the afford to have a closer look at them, but I must say that especially Metz is an incredibly beautiful place.

A 31 and N 57 took us further south through the Vosges Mountains to Belfort and the Alsace. We saw the church Notre Dame du Haut (Le Corbusier) and the tops of the Alsace mountains. Near Munster we found a nice quiet campground where we stayed for two nights. We toured around on both sides of the river Rhine. We saw Colmar and Freiburg and climbed (LOL) the tops of the Black Forest.

Via Strasbourg, Worms and the picturesque part along the river Rhine (where we enjoyed a wonderful dinner on a terrace just above the river), we found our way home.