June 10 – East Coast of Netherlands

The original “schedule” had us going to Cologne, Germany to see the cathedral there. After talking with Dirk and Bea over the weekend we decided to do the east coast of the Netherlands today instead of going to Cologne. As we drove south the North Sea was on our right and much of the way we had lakes on our left that were supported or created by the dikes. It was a very interesting drive.

The Dutch have been reclaiming land from the ocean for centuries. Their system of dikes and canals controls the water levels very well. It not only lowers the level but raises it. In many cases the land is made of peat and to keep it stable it must be kept as wet as possible. That is one of the used of the canals you see through the country. They also use the large canals for transportation, shipping, and tourism. Holland is essentially the delta of the Rhine River. The Dutch have made maximum use of that resource.

We ended up in Hasselt, Belgium for the night. Check into the Holiday Inn there. All I can say about the room was that it was overpriced compared to Avifauna in the Netherlands. They also wanted 15€ for breakfast. We passed on their breakfast. My brother wanted beer. We ended up in an Irish pub in Hasselt, Belgium for dinner. They didn’t have much in the way of food except for sandwiches but they did have beer. We got by.

If you go on a trip like this you should plan out ahead where you are going to stay whenever possible, even if it’s only the day before. I found out a couple of days later that we could gotten the same room on the internet for $50 less. If you are on a tight budget it can make a difference fortunately our budget isn’t that tight. I will do more checking before we go to Paris.

Off to Luxembourg tomorrow.