Let's Travel Europe: The difference between men and boys

Thursday 9^th June

Today it was sadly time to leave our accommodation in Rotterdam. We were well looked after by our host, Baz, and also at one of the restaurants nearby.

Rob was keen to visit the factory of Gerard de Rooy who competes in trucks in the Dakar rally so we were headed to Eindhoven, south east of Rotterdam. I looked it up on the internet to get a proper address and found a truck museum in Eindhoven as well.

So, today was all about trucks. First the DAF museum. I waited in the car and did a little bit of stitching and reading. (Haven’t stitched for 4 weeks and still have sore hands – guess it’s something I’m stuck with and not just sewing related.)

This car was at the DAF museum.

Some earlier Dakar trucks.

We next went to see Gerard de Rooy’s factory and blow me down if he doesn’t drive in while we are parking the car. Rob was like a little boy, excited to see his childhood hero. We only had a few words with Gerard as he was off to a funeral but he arranged for one of his mechanics to show us the workshop. Rob was in heaven – especially when Corny (Cornelius) told us visitors aren’t normally allowed in the workshop.

In the lobby of the De Rooy factory.

Rob thought all his Christmases had come at once. Its a long way down from there - he needed a step ladder to get in.

We had lunch at a big home depot type shopping complex not far from the workshop. We are finding it so hard to order meals here in the Netherlands as we have no comprehension of the language. Fortunately we strike quite a lot of people who speak good English.

Our accommodation tonight is a lovely big room with big windows letting in the late evening light. It is in a small village not far from Maastricht. We wanted to stay 2 nights but everything was booked out tomorrow night and when we arrived here the hotel manager said it was because there is a music festival here on the weekend and Paul McCartney is playing. We had dinner in the town of Valkenburg tonight and had a wander around the old town. This is another town we had never heard of, it was just a dot on the map, but had lovely sites to offer.

There was quite a few bronze sculptures in the town of Valkenburg.

This old castle sits on the hill above Valkenburg. It must be one of the only hills in the Netherlands - mind you we are close to the Belgian and German borders and moviong into the Alps country. As we sat and had dinner lots of men in lycra rode past on their bikes - not just the dutch riding to and from work/shopping/...