I did not have Vaalserberg on my GPS so even though I was close I had a bit of trouble locating the exact route. I stopped at a convenience store and luckily the lady spoke English well and she quickly pointed the way including writing down the signs to follow on a piece of paper . She was extremely nice.
"Mount Vaals" or Vaalserberg is a hill 322.7 meters or 1,059 ft in height, the highest point in the Netherlands. It is located in the province of Limburg, at the south-easternmost edge of the country in the municipality of Vaals, near the eponymous town, some three kilometres west of Aachen. But all the route up and parked the car and like before walked to the slushy ice over to my third and final “summit” of the day. I snapped some shots as before and reflected on this day on how even though it was a "road trip", it still had it's difficulties including a headache, lack of navigational aids, and not speaking the countries language. I also know as the world moves forward a recurring issue as I continue with this project is changes in counntries territories. For example, later this year Saba will become a so-called special municipalty of the Netherlands and because of this, Mount Scenery would replace the Vaalserberg as the highest point in the Netherlands which is not in Europe but is a small island south of Puerto Rico in the Carribean which . Come on, the Carribeans?
I headed back on E40 to Brussels to spend the night, I reached speeds in excess of 150 kilo per hours. The trip went by quickly and there were more wind vanes along the highway including three blades trailered on the back of a truck. Why am I fastinated with these? They either remind me of my privates pilots aviation journey or my intereset in clean energy. Either way, they are huge and I am impressed. As they afternoon fades and I continue back to Brussels, I needed to make a decision of either finding a hotel near the airport or heading into Brussels for a bit to do some exploring even though I desperately want to get a shower and some sleep. I continue on into Brussels to find a hotel that might suit my fancy however it was a town like Rome with traffic packed to the gills of the historic buildings. I never made it into the actual main square and decided to turn around as a quick car tour must do it justice. As I made it back to the airport at a Marriott, a shower never felt so good. I made some tea and read part of my Jeppesen private pilot book in the main lobby before making a back upstairs for a great nights sleep.
The alarm went off at 4:30am and I headed to the airport to catch my morning flight, but as I walked into the airport I had a bad sense I failed to make the gate closure time as United only has one flight out of Brussels. This gate closure is something I have noticed in the past few years as airlines have really strapped down on closure times. The historical days of running to the gate are a thing of the past as your cannot even get thru security without a boarding pass which is granted a the ticket counter, however this was yet another failure of not have internet access in which I could hve still preboarded from my hotel 24 hours before. My senses were correct and today was the day that I would not make it as they required 45 minutes before the flight, and I was well inside that window.
Luckily having a lot of time between arrival and departure back at Heathrow, I was able to find a reasonable airfare allowing me to make my connection. Today would be a exhausing day of travel with layovers between each connection from Brussels, Heathrow, Minneapolis, and finally Seattle. I started at Brussels airport at 5:45 am, a flight out at 10am arriving at 10:30am, a flight out at 1:55 p.m., arriving in Minneapolis at 5pm, leaving Minneapolis at 9:55 p.m. finally arriving in Seattle at 11:55 p.m calculating to a travel time of 27 hours with Brussels is nine hours ahead of Seattle. Party in a Belguim bar, three highest peaks in one afternoon all wearing sandals, 27 hours of travel, priceless...
"Mount Vaals" or Vaalserberg is a hill 322.7 meters or 1,059 ft in height, the highest point in the Netherlands. It is located in the province of Limburg, at the south-easternmost edge of the country in the municipality of Vaals, near the eponymous town, some three kilometres west of Aachen. But all the route up and parked the car and like before walked to the slushy ice over to my third and final “summit” of the day. I snapped some shots as before and reflected on this day on how even though it was a "road trip", it still had it's difficulties including a headache, lack of navigational aids, and not speaking the countries language. I also know as the world moves forward a recurring issue as I continue with this project is changes in counntries territories. For example, later this year Saba will become a so-called special municipalty of the Netherlands and because of this, Mount Scenery would replace the Vaalserberg as the highest point in the Netherlands which is not in Europe but is a small island south of Puerto Rico in the Carribean which . Come on, the Carribeans?
I headed back on E40 to Brussels to spend the night, I reached speeds in excess of 150 kilo per hours. The trip went by quickly and there were more wind vanes along the highway including three blades trailered on the back of a truck. Why am I fastinated with these? They either remind me of my privates pilots aviation journey or my intereset in clean energy. Either way, they are huge and I am impressed. As they afternoon fades and I continue back to Brussels, I needed to make a decision of either finding a hotel near the airport or heading into Brussels for a bit to do some exploring even though I desperately want to get a shower and some sleep. I continue on into Brussels to find a hotel that might suit my fancy however it was a town like Rome with traffic packed to the gills of the historic buildings. I never made it into the actual main square and decided to turn around as a quick car tour must do it justice. As I made it back to the airport at a Marriott, a shower never felt so good. I made some tea and read part of my Jeppesen private pilot book in the main lobby before making a back upstairs for a great nights sleep.
The alarm went off at 4:30am and I headed to the airport to catch my morning flight, but as I walked into the airport I had a bad sense I failed to make the gate closure time as United only has one flight out of Brussels. This gate closure is something I have noticed in the past few years as airlines have really strapped down on closure times. The historical days of running to the gate are a thing of the past as your cannot even get thru security without a boarding pass which is granted a the ticket counter, however this was yet another failure of not have internet access in which I could hve still preboarded from my hotel 24 hours before. My senses were correct and today was the day that I would not make it as they required 45 minutes before the flight, and I was well inside that window.
Luckily having a lot of time between arrival and departure back at Heathrow, I was able to find a reasonable airfare allowing me to make my connection. Today would be a exhausing day of travel with layovers between each connection from Brussels, Heathrow, Minneapolis, and finally Seattle. I started at Brussels airport at 5:45 am, a flight out at 10am arriving at 10:30am, a flight out at 1:55 p.m., arriving in Minneapolis at 5pm, leaving Minneapolis at 9:55 p.m. finally arriving in Seattle at 11:55 p.m calculating to a travel time of 27 hours with Brussels is nine hours ahead of Seattle. Party in a Belguim bar, three highest peaks in one afternoon all wearing sandals, 27 hours of travel, priceless...
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