Pieterpad 3

a good early breakfast

rain was threatening, so we started walking right away

only a little damp

7 voetvallen, not sure but it looked like stages of the cross

Lourdes Grotto

At the end of August there's a procession 

going up to this place from Sittard every year

this field path was way deep

this part of the trail had more hills

this field was unharvested to leave food for a rare hamster

suddenly this big old building , Watersley

this farm is square with a yard in the middle

a Carre Farm

Looking back on the farm and the Waterley building

healing water

walk through town

love this views in backyards

some houses have shutters

d-tour because of a dumpsite of drug making chemicals

at Windraak

not often do we have steps

most steps had an owl carved in the top post

Pieterpad is about 500 km

It will take us a while

looked cool 

very inviting bench

Fachwerk houses

walk down the slakweg

Castle Terborgh

they opened at 11 but we were there at 10.30 and 

they served us at 10.45, 

we were thankful because we had a train to catch

on the way to the train it was muddy

somehow we were at the wrong platform waiting for the train

so when the train arrived we had to run to catch it

It was raining in Sittard when we walked 

from the train station to the hotel

It had been dry so far, thankful that the rain missed us

Hope to be back on the trail the next time we're in the Netherlands

Pieterpad 2

 

Breakfast room

Lots of good choices

we missed the train, trying to upload an App

It would have given us a free ride, didn't work

On the way to where we stopped the day before

most people come by bike to the train station

rows and rows of bikes

On the road again

nice narrow paths

through the narrowest part of the Netherlands

Germany on one side Belgium on the other

only 4.8 km wide

evidence of beavers in this area

we passed this replica of the Lourdes Grotto 

without seeing it

when we saw it as a point of interest in the guide book

 we went back about 150 meters

we were apparently interested in the garden on the other side

of the street

We were fortunate to hike in dry weather

but there had obviously been a lot of rain

walking into Germany

we follow these white / red blazes

no real border visible

but the language changed

Farm protest flag

looking for the most western German border post

found it

water for people walking the Pieterpad

kind of fun walking through towns

a farm in the middle of a town

This is one of my favourite pictures

nearing the end of this second day hiking

beside a nice river that used to be an open sewer

with the name "keutel beek" now called Geleen beek

keutel beek = droppings brook

City wall

or Begijnenhof wall

The beguine movement isn't there anymore

they were religious single women but not nuns 

living together in a community

Sittard home town of Toon Hermans

end of the hike at the market

walked in the church 

It's nice to be able to go in

apparently this church was dedicate to a holy person 

who was supposed to defeat the reformation

on Oct 4 (animal day) 

you could have even your stuffed animal blessed

back to the hotel

eating at Dods