8 down, 2 to go

It's my (Annie's) penultimate day of driving home from Switzerland, and so far I've racked up 8 countries: Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and The Netherlands. I think it's something to do with an island mentality - give me a whole continent to drive on and a wanderlust takes over. I just love the idea that I could turn right at Frankfurt and end up in Russia. Chris did a charity vintage car run last September through 10 countries with 100 or so Triumphs and I was immensely jealous. So these few days have been my revenge.

Today started in a sunny German Black Forest. From there, I drove up to the Nürburgring - a famous old racetrack, modern day test track and mecca for petrolheads. I stood at a corner and watched people whizz round (this track is so large there's a whole village inside it) and contemplated whether to take our fully holiday-laden diesel VW Golf round it. The decision may well have been made for me because it may have been closed to the public for testing. In the end I was tired from driving so chickened out from checking and potentially joining the beefy Mercedes tyre squealing round. I'm not usually one to chicken out of things: I'll come back one day with Chris and we'll do it together.

I headed up to Luxembourg, and got my passport stamped in the very friendly Tourist Office for free (do they know Liechtenstein charged 3 euros?). Then on up to the Belgian / Netherlands border for the night before heading back to the UK tomorrow.

I'm staying in the wonderfully crazy Baarle-Nassau which is made up of around 20 Belgian enclaves in the middle of the Netherlands (some of which have a Dutch enclave within them). All as a result of ancient bartering and gambling. The borders are paved into the streets and even split houses in two. There are two churches, two sets of postboxes, etc. My favourite bit of the wiki description:

"There was a time when according to Dutch laws restaurants had to close earlier. For some restaurants on the border it meant that the clients simply had to change their tables to the Belgian side."

I've always loved maps*, so when idly Googling for interesting geographical places I came across this town. Thank goodness you don't need to show your passport here.


* A note for KeithKnight - we haven't mentioned maps at all so far, and I feel very behind - it's a start... :)