Drielandenpunt

What do you do when you live in Limburg and have a friend visiting from the UK? Primarily drink lots of beer, but after that you take them to the Drielandenpunt (three lands point), the point where the  Netherlands, Belgium and Germany all converge. Who wouldn't want to be able to say they've been in 3 countries in one day?!
So that's exactly what we did the with the lovely Sam today.

At the Drielandedpunt there are several restaurants and food vendors, two viewing towers, a maze and, coincidentally, the highest point in the Netherlands.
First up we did the maze, which was supposed to take us around 30 - 45 minutes to solve. We decided to make a race of it, Sam went one way, Alex (Arjan's dad) went another and Arjan and I went together down the third route.
We walked that maze to and fro for a good long while, it was very tricky! There were a lot of twists and turns, evil water traps and three bridges that rose up above the maze just to tantalize you with how close you were to the centre.
Arjan and I made it to the middle first after nearly giving up from hunger and bladder fullness, then came Sam, and after no sign of Alex for a while we made our way out to the exit and gave him a call.
We then stopped for a quick refreshing beer before walking the 100m to the actual crossing point.

These passages had little fountains that were triggered by motion sensors, you had to run through before they went off again! 

The pavilion in the centre

Silly mirrors

Congratulations! You found the middle...

Sam was a little jealous that we got there first

"I've got one foot in Germany, one foot in Belgium and my balls in Holland!"

The little green lines in the ground show the borders, left is Germany, Netherlands in the middle, then Belgium on the right 

A quick stroll into Germany

The highest point in the Netherlands....

It was a really fun day out and we got a lot of exercise! If you're ever in the area I would recommend a visit, we never made it up a viewing tower, but the view from the road was beautiful as well.

Sunny-Sunny-Sunday

I hate to sound repetitive, but I just can not get over the weather we have been getting the past few days! I am actually a little bit sunburnt and it's March! It's still officially winter for another 2 weeks but it has felt like we're in the depths of May this weekend.

Today was my Mother-in-law's birthday and she had some friends around throughout the afternoon, I made scones (savoury and sweet) and Arjan made little cocktail stick tomato-mozarella snacks and the sun shone with all its might.
But yesterday was even more glorious, temperatures were in the 20's and people from far and wide were shaking off the cobwebs to go for a walk or cycle along the canal near Meers. Arjan and I joined the crowds and walked the long way round to the Brouwerij De Fontein (Fountain Brewery) where we spent a leisurely couple of hours before making a (slightly wobbly) beeline for home.
I know this post may be a little same-y but we got some pretty nice shots and I wanted to share them. 

We ran in to Arjan's dad, Alex, on his way back from his Sunday cycle.

These are some of my favourite pictures to date, Arjan took them!

This bread was made with the grain left after brewing the beer and the dip was made with herbs from their own garden, it was delicious. 

I made friends with this slobbery little guy, he was pretty cool. 

Relaxing in the garden after a long, hard day.

 I'm going back to Yorkshire tomorrow for my Mum's birthday and so I'll get back to doing proper posts again (instead of just photo dumps of nice weather)! I'll be trying out lots of new recipes so don't be surprised if I do a lot of foodie posts.

Opening of SMAAK

Yesterday we played a gig at the opening of a family friend's clothes shop, it was a beautiful day and we had a great time. The shop is amazing and I fell in love with a few of the clothes but my pocket was empty enough as it is.

Here's a few pictures of the afternoon: