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Maasgouw

This is our last day on the continent before we catch the ferry tomorrow, Friday 11 September, and see Grenville and Janet with Emma in Folkestone on our way back to Southampton. We are in a naturist site but it is overcast, cool and with a little drizzle at times. It's better in England.

We spent the morning cycling around the Maas looking at Thorn. We caught a ceremony marking the anniversary of the day they were liberated in 1944 eight months before the end of the war. It was a bit like the 11 November ones in England. But then we crossed the river at the locks and circled the area. The rain forced us home soon after lunch.

Appelsha, Netherlands

We forgot to mention last time that we had a very sunny week at the Tandem Rally in Appelsha (it poured down on the Sunday though) with friends from the Wessex region. It was great. We were also only a few kilometres from the local naturist club so we spent one day there instead of a long ride north. On the day off we travelled west to Sneek where there was a festival going on. It was hot but we circled the Sneek Sea to keep cool.

After Dresden

We saw lots of what there was in Dresden. The Frauenkirke was an amazing place. Our guide book said it was being kept as a memorial to the dreadful bombing in February 1945 but it had been rebuilt in its original condition. And lovely it was, just like an opera house in many respects and not like the usual Lutheran churches. The art collections are world class but many old buildings in the East are being restored at present so we could not get inside every time.

A cycle ride along the Elbe to Meissen was a chance to see and touch that famous porcelain.

Leipzig had a wonderful parking space for motorhomes right in the centre even more central than the one in Berlin. They are preparing for big celebrations in October to mark the ending of the partition between East and West Germany. Leipzig played a significant role in that time in 1989.

But then it was a slow journey home.

We shall be there soon, but off again to Suffolk in a week's time.

All the best.

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