Friday, May 27

Friday, May 27, 2011
We woke up and made plans to hit three countries today – Belgium, Luxembourg, and of course Germany. Headed northwest on the autobahn. Stopped and turned around so that Steve could take pictures of wind turbines. They seem to be all over this part of Germany! Then on to Belgium. Stopped for a cache just before the Belgian border. Couldn’t find it – found out tonight it was disabled. Then into Belgium where to my surprise I found that the Nuvi did NOT have maps for Belgium. So we were dependent on road signs and our paper maps, which aren’t all that detailed. I managed to get us to one of my three caches that I’d downloaded info for. It was a stone tower in St. Vith, Belgium. The cache listing gave hours that you could get the cache, which gives one the assumption that it was inside. Sure enough, it didn’t seem to be outside. But we arrived within the stated hours and the door was locked. More German or at least more English translation would have helped. Moved on, and with a wing and a prayer decided on what appeared to be the easier of the two remaining caches that I had information on. Somehow we managed to pick the right road and drove the 3 miles to get there. Took a bit of looking but finally found the preform tube duct taped to a tree and I had my Belgian cache. Backtracked to St. Vith then started looking for a liquor store. Scott had asked that we look for some Heineken in brown bottles, which is available in Belgium and the Netherlands but not in Germany. We struck out, unfortunately. Found some liquor places but none that sold what Scott wanted.
Then headed south into Luxembourg. Following the maps and road signs, we headed toward Vianden. Stopped along the way in a nice forested scenic area and had a picnic lunch. Then to Vianden. Saw the castle from a different direction than when Scott and I had gone there in 2009. We parked the car and toured the castle. Now I know how Scott felt taking me through after he’d already been there. Interesting but not quite so much as the first time. Steve enjoyed it – though he said that when they restored the castle they should have made all the doorways tall enough for him to go through without banging his head! Then a swift souvenir shop and headed toward Germany and Scott’s. We missed the turn to Bitburg, though, and went on south in Luxembourg a bit before we realized our mistake. Backtrack and there was the Bitburg turn. Shortly thereafter we were back in Germany. A nice ride to Bitburg then a cache stop for a TB hotel. Time to drop off the scouter coin that I’d taken all over Europe on this trip.
The cache listing (even in English!) said to bring stuff to help get the cache. That didn’t really sink in until I was faced with a cache about 3 feet down a PVC pipe, with a ring in it to bring it up but no other way to bring it up. I tried MacGuyvering it for a while but couldn’t do it. Went back to the car and persuaded Steve to give it a try. He was working a stick down the pipe when two other people showed up. Since they had GPSrs, I looked at them and said “Geocachers, I hope?” They were, and spoke English as well as German. Steve got the cache up and out and I traded the scouter coin for the only traveler in the cache, a chain full of beer caps. A bit bigger than I planned to pick up but it does want to travel the world so I’ll take it back to Michigan.
Arrived back to Scott’s about 4:30. Scott home and we had tacos. Now they’re watching saved episodes of Enterprise while I checked email and facebook from Scott’s phone as he still doesn’t have internet. They guy hooked everything up but Scott needed a new password which he hasn’t yet been able to get. Since it’s now the weekend looks like I won’t get any before we leave. Oh well. Tomorrow’s plans include probably heading over towards the Rhine, hopefully Scott will be able to come with us.