After just over three weeks in Germany, early this afternoon we crossed over the border into Belgium. We went via a very popular tourist destination where the borders of Germany, Holland and Belgium all meet at a single point.

Actually, there is nothing much to see, except a post in the ground representing the exact spot. The lack of much else did not, however, stop swarms of people coming to the slightly naff cafés and gift shops. Below is a picture of people milling around the very spot. I do have a picture of the cafés and gift shops, to prove that they exist, but it is slightly less exciting than the picture below, so I'll spare you the bandwidth.

We then descended the hill into Belgium, not intending to walk too far today, having already managed to get past the rather large conurbation which is Aachen, with the help of an 8 minute train ride to avoid the worst of the street slogging (or so we thought).

Alas things didn't go quite as planned. We decided to walk all of the way out of Aachen and it turned out to be further than we thought. Then, our chosen location in Belgium didn't have a Hotel. The map said the next village south did, so we headed there. No Dice. And so we went on southwards, until we wearily trudged into Kelmis, having walked 15 Kilometres from Aachen. That is a lot in an afternoon, a time when we are usually less energetic, and it was in addition to the 7 Kilometres that morning, walking into Aachen, before we hopped on the train.

The really frustrating thing is that tomorrow, we will have to head back north, almost retracing our steps to our original Belgian destination to get back on our route.

Availability of even modest accommodation may have an increasing influence over our route. Unlike when we were in areas of high tourism, we can no longer assume that large villages or small towns will necessarily have a hotel. We may have to start targeting places that we know have hotels, rather than leaving things to chance as we did so often in the past.

The other problem that one faces in this region is what Language to speak – or in my case, what language to attempt to speak. This is the Flemish speaking part of Belgium but a lot of people speak German, as it is so close by. But when Doris popped into a pizzeria to ask directions, they spoke in French. And, I think I heard, a little Italian! Then we pitched up at this hotel - incidentally, we are staying in the Park Hotel which is the fourth time that we have stayed in a hotel of that name – and everyone here speaks German as a first language!

So the problem really is, depending what language you open up with, are you likely to insult anyone? This doesn't seem to throw Doris, who just opens up in German and waits to see what happens. I hover in the background, chucking out a few English phrases, to try to let them know that we are not a pair of neo-imperialists. So far, apart from the pizzeria, everyone has responded in German. Expect, that is, the bloke and two women with the horses and the horse-box who turned out, to my ear, to be from somewhere near Bolton. Their car was registered in Germany and they told us that the live in Holland, so as you can see, it is not an easy one to call around here.

Anyway, I am pretty knackered and off to bed.

Musical choice:

The Who 'Can't explain' after also considering 10,000 Maniacs 'Don't talk'