Our last week in Wijchen

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  Wijchen, Gelderland, Netherlands
Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Tuesday 3rd August                                                                        Wijchen - Nijmegen       

Hello

Today is our last day here so we are busy cleaning, washing, packing, etc. It is time to get ready for the next part of our trip. Tomorrow we will catch the train to Basel.

We have found more interesting things to do this week. Thursday we set up the GPS and headed for Renkum. Renkum is only 20 miles from here but all new territory including back roads and motorways. We had a very enjoyable day with Marrian Beyer (Monique's Mum). She is over here visiting her mother for her 91st birthday. We have heard about Renkum for many years so it was nice to actually see where Marrian grew up. It was also nice to see her mother again, even though her English is  limited. She is very well and still rides the bike to the shops.  Marrian took us to a lovely pancake place for lunch and showed us the castle not far from their house. The GPS proved to be a good investment.

Friday we went exploring around a few more local villages. There are so many such a short distance away.  We really should have ridden the bikes but it is nice driving the car with the roof down when the weather is fine. Most villages seem to be pretty deserted but we found one called Appeltern and were told that there were nice gardens there that were a big tourist attraction. We found the gardens and also quite a lot of people. They all knew it was there but we didn’t.  We had a pleasant few hours wandering around the gardens. The only disappointment was that all the info was in Dutch and we would like to have known more about how they 'winterise’ their gardens. It is interesting to know what plants survive through winter and what has to be pulled out and put in hothouses or started again the next year. They really have to work hard to have a nice garden. Probably the hydrangeas were the nicest flowers at this time of year.

Saturday we caught the train to Amsterdam for the day. We had a good day exploring and generally got our bearings for when we go back at the end of our trip. (We fly out of Amsterdam to go home late September). It was very quiet for most of the day. We found a nice Greek restaurant for lunch and the whole street of restaurants was almost deserted. As we were leaving town around 5pm the crowds were starting to arrive. I think it is definitely a ‘night place’ We were exhausted by then and happy to sit on the train for a couple of hours on the way home.

The last couple of days have been wind down days. We rode into Nijmegen for the last time yesterday. It rained  but we managed to dodge the showers. It was a very different place without the Four Day Walk crowds. We have had our last bike ride. This morning was our last walk. Rob has just gone down to fill the car and we will hit the road tomorrow. Jack is picking us up to take us to the station at 6.30am. They are coming to our place late November so that will be the next time we’ll see them .  We’re not sure how much internet we’ll have after leaving here but hopefully I’ll still be able to send my blogs. We have certainly been spoilt here.

Until next week

Carol & Rob

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