Three Countries - One Day

This past Saturday we headed to "Drie Landen Punt" or (3 Land Point in English). It is located on the outskirts of a quant little town in the Netherlands called Vaals. It is, as the name suggests, where Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands all meet up. I have to say, probably the best part of the trip was the drive. This was our first trip heading East out of Brussels and it was a much more scenic drive. Some rolling hills, flower fields, etc. Nothing too spectacular, but it just felt nice...I'm sure it had something to do with the blue skies stretching as far as the eye could see. Once we got off the interstate the little towns we passed through along the way were as cute and charming as could be...I felt a little like we were back in Ireland.

We had a little trouble finding the actual Drie Landen Point because all we knew when we left the house was that it was in Vaals. Occasionally there were some signs, but we mostly just followed the GPS map to where it appeared the three countries met up. We thought we had arrived at it when we saw this look out tower.

So we pulled over and had some lunch. Ginormous hamburgers piled high with all sorts of junk and some delicious frites...served with the famous mayonnaise. I'm sure we could have ordered something a little more exciting, but the menu was all in Dutch and we had no idea what anything was...oh and the waiter did not speak any English. So when we saw hamburgers on the menu we just went with it...especially since those are usually safe for Autumn to eat with her allergies.

After lunch we decided to head up in the lookout tower. Autumn was having fun running around, but then started getting a little unsure of walking on anything where you could see the people below you.




The views were quite pretty from up there too...

We headed down the tower and went looking for the actual point. Turns out we weren't as close as we thought...after walking down the road a ways we finally found the actual area...with it's own lookout tower and shops and eateries. We had just gotten a little excited and pulled over to early I guess. We of course then had to pose for our picture...each of us in a different country. So here Autumn is in the Netherlands, Jacob is in Germany, and I am in Belgium.

In this next one I'm sitting in the Netherlands with one hand in Germany and one in Belgium.

Unfortunately before we could snap Jacob's picture sitting in one country with his hands in the others a huge crowd of people came and kinda took over the spot...so we decided to move on.

On our way home we took a slight detour and visited the town of Maastricht, Netherlands because of a recommendation from our new friend Ali. It is supposed to be the oldest town in the Netherlands. We didn't have much time to explore, but what we did see was very charming! There was a river running through the city. A large shopping area where we saw some young kids having a blast entertaining the crowds with music and their funny outfits! Winding streets with old churches and cute shops. It was a great little town...one we will definitely have to head back to sometime when we have a little more time for exploring!

A few more pictures I just had to post before I go because I know this is getting long...the first is a picture of a dog in a store. I've been telling everyone that dogs are allowed anywhere here...so I thought this picture showing a dog taking a nap in a fancy women's clothing store pretty much summed it up :o) And the second was a bike lot in Maastricht, Netherlands...have you ever seen so many bikes?!? And you should have seen how many people were riding their bikes...I'm sure partially because of the nice weather that day, but seriously there were more bikes than cars on the road!! It was crazy!

All in all...I'd say it was a great day!