Our exact 15th anniversary date was February 5, 2025, but the actual get-away was February 24-28, Monday to Friday, last week. A mini-vacation!
There was one thing in particular we chose to see, which was in Belgium, just over the border, so we chose a Fletcher hotel in Kerkrade, NL, near the 3-country border of the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, knowing we'd have several side trips across the 5 days, 4 nights. We had visited the "three country point" back in 2017 when we went to the Aachen Christmas market. But this time it was Maastricht we wanted to see again.
Maastricht is the capital of the Limberg province in the Netherlands, at our southernmost border.
We had visited the Dominican Church bookstore back in 2010 and wanted to see it again!
It did not disappoint, with fond memories of the last time we drank a latte macchiato there!
And because this was the week before Carnival, we got our taste, without the chaos.
Tuesday, February 25, 2025: Genk, Belgium:
THIS was what we most wanted to see this trip: the "Cycling Through Water" path,
in the beautiful Bokrijk National Park and Open Air Museum. We had visited the Moses Bridge
in the Netherlands in 2012 and wanted to compare.
Again, we were not disappointed.
After eating lunch in nearby Rijkhoven, we visited the 16th century Alden Biesen Castle.
It was a totally unexpected delight to our already wonderful day!
Wednesday, February 26, 2025, Heimbach, Germany:
Of course, being so close to Germany, we HAD to get our German "fix," especially with food.
Heimbach is a darling town of only 4K+ people, 15 km from Belgium and 30 km east of Aachen,
situated on the river Rur in North Rhine-Westphalia. The 11th century Hengebach Castle
was visible from everywhere and, regrettably, still closed for the season.
But, as in Maastricht, they were getting ready for Carnival!
We also made a quick trip to the nearby Mariawald Abbey (top-right), where we hoped to have lunch,
but, not impressed with the menu, we drove back to Heimbach center for our wurst and schnitzel.
Thursday, February 27, 2025, Aubel, Belgium:
The Val-Dieu Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery in Aubel, Belgium, less than an hour's drive from our hotel, worth seeing and where we wanted to eat. But again, the restaurant was closed for the season.
So we drove to nearby Verviers, just to say we did it, where we ate pizza for lunch.
The joke on us, however, was that we thought we had ordered carbonara and one pizza,
only to find out our carbonara was a carbonara pizza. Who knew there was such a thing!
Friday, February 28, 2025: back to Home Sweet Home! It was a total of 771 km (479 miles), 405 (252 miles) of which were while there on our out-n-abouts. Like I said, a mini-vacation!
The trip was totally lackadaisical and without any rushing about from one place to another. We just let thing happen, apart from the basic research Astrid did for our time away. We needed to change scenery from the renovation going on here at our senior-living complex (another post!), and chose our anniversary time as a perfect "excuse."
We were reminded again of how mistletoe grows plentifully in that area.
We saw it everywhere in the naked trees of winter, something we don't see in our neck of the woods.
And besides the hotel breakfasts we looked forward to every day,
eating differently than "normal" was just plain fun...like spaghetti carbonara and pizza.
Oh, and the Belgium and German beers!
Can you tell???
HAPPY 15th ANNIVERSARY to US!
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