We stayed two nights in Metz, recovering from our long day and then headed north towards Luxembourg. We needed gas and groceries. We exited the Autoroute when we saw a large commercial complex and bought just a little gas (at € 1.45 per liter) since we knew we would soon be in Luxembourg where it is much cheaper. But the shopping center had erected 2.5-meter high barriers at the entrance, so we were unable to get our vehicle into the parking lot to buy groceries: these are huge shopping complexes that apparently don’t want any money from people in camping cars (as they are called in Europe). We got turned around heading back to the A and got trapped in a detour and about 15 miles later we were finally on the right road headed in the right direction. As soon as we crossed the border we exited to a small town and bought gas (€ 1.17 / liter). Luxembourg proved to be one big road construction zone. We were headed north to Ettlebruck and the George Patton Museum, but first we had to travel about 20 miles through small towns and several detours and road construction zones. In road construction zones they like to make one of the lanes 2 meters wide--Rover is 2.5 meters wide --always exciting.
We finally arrived at the campground in Ettlebruck, high on a hill up a tight winding road. The owner gave us a map directing us to a grocery store where he knew we could park and showed us where the museum was (where we could not park). So we drove back through the town, found the grocery store and did what we hoped to be our last grocery shopping. Then we drove back into town and found a place to park about a 15-minute walk from the little museum, which proved to be a collection of things that had been dug up after the war and correspondences to and from Patton. Then we made our way back up the winding hill, hot and exhausted. We opened a second bottle of wine that night and actually had enough electricity to turn the AC on for a few minutes. But at night it cooled off nicely. We are surprised how far north we are and how late it stays light. We can sit outside and read at 10 pm.
The following day we drove to Bastogne, Belgium where there is a large American Memorial and War Museum. Getting there was not without incident. We relied on the GPS, which again took us through ridiculously tight streets and dumped us onto the main artery through town, where a large parked truck took up 1/4 of the roadway. The regular cars could pass each other, but we needed someone to stop to let us pass. This wasn’t happening. So finally David just took his turn, forcing the oncoming car to stop, back up the few inches he had available, and pull far to his right to let us (just barely) get through. Except for the line of cars behind us, we probably didn’t make any friends in Bastogne.
Then it was off to the museum and the memorial. It is quite a special place, remembering the Battle of the Bulge, where 76,000 American soldiers lost their lives over Christmas 1944. The museum tells the story well (and in English) and the memorial--in the shape of a huge star--looms over the beautiful countryside.
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So we stayed in Ghent two nights. We had been here before also and had missed a few high spots in the city, so it was a natural stopping place on our way to Rotterdam. We are having unknown electrical problems. The transformer shuts itself off, so we are running a lot on the house batteries and LP gas. The campground was even nicer than before with the absence of hundreds of soccer players who had been here previously, but the city was a dusty mess of--you guessed it--construction. And again it was very hot.
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Then it was off to Rotterdam, where the city is hosting the start of the Tour de France. (But not before another bout of road construction and a complete absence of detour signs messed us up again.) Susan had worried about getting a spot in the Rotterdam campground ever since they told us they wouldn’t take reservations for what would be a very busy weekend. But we arrived early in the afternoon and they had a lovely shaded spot for us. (Many people prefer treeless places that allow them to get satellite reception.) And then we watched a lot of people arrive the rest of that day and into the next.
Rotterdam was hopping. The day we arrived The Netherlands soccer team won a semifinals spot and the place erupted. David was watching it in the bar and Susan could tell they won by the hundreds of horns that started blowing on the nearby roads. That alone would have been enough to make it a festive place (orange flags everywhere), but the Tour festivities for “Le Grand Depart” were spread over three days. We went into the city on Saturday. Unlike much of Europe, Rotterdam is a very modern city,
completely rebuilt after the war: wide boulevards, public art, pedestrian shopping streets. We walked through the market and then headed for the bike route for the prologue time trial for 193 riders, each starting one minute apart. We found a place under a tram underpass where the cyclists rode by on our right and five minutes later came past on our left just before the finish line. It was a good place to be because clouds moved in and it started to drizzle just as the race started. The temperature dropped from the upper 80s into the low 70s with a cold breeze off the harbor. And the one accident that we know of happened right in front of us--a cyclist sliding on the wet pavement into metal fencing, injuring a couple of bystanders. We could see the grimace on his face, but he got up and continued on his way. The crowds were amazing--people everywhere. But our space was not easy to get into, so it remained not too crowded. The only downside was the ever-present loudspeakers. The Dutch cycling fans really know their Dutch riders, and they also gave Lance Armstrong a wonderful welcome. It was really fun and exhausting to be part of it.
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We had returned Saturday to find we had left a light on for 12 hours and the circuit breaker at the campground’s plug-in point had shut off, and the refrigerator had run off the batteries, which were showing very little charge. So we ran Rover’s engine several times to recharge the batteries. We don’t know what the problem is, but suspect that the transformer is fried. We have refrigeration (on LP gas) and enough electrical to run the water pump, so we can winterize the plumbing system before we put Rover into storage.
The campground was pretty empty on Monday when we did one last load of laundry and headed out. We were within 2 miles of the storage facility when we hit our final road construction/detour. It was really tricky to get there. And it was a good thing we didn’t have a flight to catch until the next morning. It is hard to believe that our twelve weeks is over and we are heading home. We’ll post again when we have added up all the numbers we have collected over the last 4783 miles (at least 500 of which were totally unnecessary!!)