The Oct 3 holiday in review - Part I

Earlier this week, Wednesday Oct 3, was the German reunification holiday, so a mid-week day off from work. I had not bothered looking for any travel opportunities because the Germans tend to book 51 weeks in advance, so the prices get jacked up.

I'm so far over on the western side of Germany where the only comment upon the day is to grumble about the reunification tax coming out of one's paycheck and how 'we never should have gone back together with them'. In the local paper there was a flea market scheduled, but otherwise, it would have been a day of sitting at home with all of the shops shut. So therefore, you know the drill...

At 10.30 we were off and heading immediately west, destination Roermond. We had planned to wander around the outlets and around town, wrapping it up with some shopping at Jumbo supermarket in Roermond. The expected drive time should have been one hour 20 minutes. However, as expected, the approximately 70 billion other Germans in the Cologne/Duesseldorf/Duisberg region, all also wanted to go over the Dutch border to shop. And they say Germans don't want the stores open any more than they are now. Pffui.

The traffic was obnoxious, so we finally rolled into Roermond at just before 13 and the outlet parking lot was closed which pushed us into the town proper where I already know that parking options are limited. After listening to the German cars beeping each other (which was why I was leaving Germany in the first place, for a break of Germany), I made the executive decision that we were getting back on the road and continuing westward.

D got out the map with the instructions-->find the next big Dutch city from here, which turned out to be Weert, a mere 17 km away. By this time we were rather hungry as it was working toward 14, and just in need of something like a McDonalds. The highway transitioned to a one lane road which then changed to a brick road--in Weert. Lo and behold a McDonalds sign pointing us toward the Centrum. Weert seemed from the road to be laid out in a circle, so we decided just to park and head in on foot.

I chose a parking spot, and as I was parking noticed that someone was watching me from a balkon. I take extreme (although laughable) pride in my parallel parking, and living in Germany has only made it that much better. If you need to get your manual car in or out of a spot uphill in in the sleet with a one inch clearance on either side, give me a call. Add added difficulty on this spot was that it crossed a bicycle lane, and as it was Holland a cycle was passing every 15 seconds, as well as a vintage Mercedes was parked behind me.

As we got out of the car--of course only after I asked D to confirm who the best parker in the Western world is--the older man on the balkon shouts something down to D. As we were coming from Germany, I was expecting him to shout at us to get out of his 'private' spot on the public street, based on the fact that he looked to be of retired age. D tried to figure out what he wanted in German, but wasn't getting it, so scurried off to get the parking slip. As I got out, the man's wife joined the man and he tried again with me.

He was commending me on my superb parking job. THIS is why I go to Holland. It made the almost three hour drive almost worth it, to have someone who appreciates good parking. (And I think it was his vintage Mercedes behind me.) D came back with the slip to put on the dashboard and we stood there a moment trying to figure out the best way to McDonalds. The ever helpful Dutch couple, seeing our confusion, starting to shout and point to direct us which street to take. How did they possibly know we wanted to go to McDonalds?

It became a little more clear once we followed their instructions, there was a huge street fair going on, and that is what they directed us to (conveniently located next to the McDonalds). We were so hungry we just went to the McDonalds anyway. I was a little disappointed, they did not carry the 'Groenburger' or the vegetarian burger that many Holland McDonalds sell. We then took a stroll down the main shopping street, where various things street fair things were set up, like games, food, rides, etc. I ended up finding a plain piece of pizza so all was well. The street fair went on for quite a long while, if you were speed walking from one end to the other, I imagine it would have taken 20 min, but we took our time, stopping to go into the open stores also.
To be continued...