12 September
Went out for a 200km round trip to Aachen which is just over the Belgium border – just some 90 kms away.

Started off with a morning coffee in Champagne (no not the French Champaigne) – coffee was made by pouring hot water into a container which had a coffee bag or granules in the base of a ‘plastic cup top’ which sat on top of the cup. By the time the coffee arrived at the table, the water had dripilated through the coffee and was ready for consumption. Nine people who had arrived in the pub, probably after church, many smokers and they were there to play alley bowls in the back room – they all spoke what seemed like a version of French. Walked around Aachen but as it was Sunday, eveything appeared to be closed, so we travelled back through National Park and visited Einruhr (a beautiful little village on a lake where we had afternoon soup.