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Published: July 24th 2010
Und today ve vere und Germany! Jahhh. That was German, Nigel-style!
Well, today was one of our most fun days so far! We had planned on going to Dusseldorf but at the last minute (actually, around 8am this morning) we reconsidered and found a nearby smaller city called Neuss (pronounced Noice). It was quite noice! sorry about that one...
Rather than picking an attraction, we chose a city on the Rhein and decided to play it by ear! We found parking and then found a visitor's centre and got a map. We then just wandered around to see what we could see which turned out to be a lot! The city centre had a ton of history including ancient Roman battlements from 16 B.C. The city is over 2000 years old - amazing. Then it was just a fluke that today was a Familiefestival in Neuss. The festival had all sorts of things going on - a japanese war drum ensemble which was really great (cottage Grampa would have loved it!), a German band that played traditional jazz (the German version of Ragweed), face painting, a German's men's singing group called the Neuss Marine Choir (which Vernon Grampa would
have loved), old train engines, modern train engines (which you could board and see where the engineers usually control the train), a small coal-powered steam engine that took kids for rides, and wandering performers. It was so much fun! We eventually wandered back to the city centre and had lunch at an outdoor cafe (very quaint) and then wandered around the shops for a while. We finally made one last visit to the festival and then made our way home.
Some interesting tidbits from today - MAN they drive fast on the motorways once you get into Germany!!! There was no speed limit so Nigel was going 130 km/h and we were getting passed by almost all the cars who must have been going at least 180 km/h as they were out of sight within 10-12 seconds. Yikes!
Another thing we've learned....in the Netherlands, when you are out and about, there is really no such thing as a free toilet (or WC as they call it). This is generally a problem for one of the members of our family (some of you will know who...) who, as a rule, can't go anywhere without almost instantly searching for the
nearest washroom. Well, with WC's ranging in price from .25 euros to 1 euro, we've probably spent more on toilets than on souvenirs! Next year, we'll be budgeting for this depending on where we go!
After dinner, we grabbed the soccer ball and headed to the park. After a while, a pack of Dutch kids came along with their ball. Eventually Russell and Rachel joined in and had a blast! They both got some goals and Russell outran all the big kids! Once they were suitably sweaty, we came home and hit the sack.
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Elke Campbell
non-member comment
You guys are tooooooo funny!
You probably already know, but 'Ausfahrt Freihalten' means Exit, Do Not Block. Too bad you didn't make it to Dusseldorf.