After what seemed a very short weekend it was back on the road at 05:00 for a trip to Maastricht in Holland. I have managed to book my hotel in Holland whilst work is in Belgium but as both are just either side of the border it should only take twenty or so minutes to get between the two, or so Google maps tells me but I will find out tomorrow when I go to site for the first time. But for today it was get to Brussels, pick up the car and my colleague who is meeting me there and then set off for Maastricht.
The plane journey was quite disappointing, disappointing as I normally like to get an hours sleep but this time we had a smaller plane, one of those with propellers instead of jet engines and that meant I couldn’t get comfortable and therefore didn’t sleep. On the plus I got a pack of snacks as I was awake when they came around and that will be another present to take home.
Now the car I got, I have been used to getting something small like a Fiesta or a golf but this time I got a Peugot 508 which is bloody posh. Firstly it is an automatic which is great, but also it has that many gadgets it took me a few minutes to work out how to switch it on, it has a start button but that doesn’t start it, it only causes the computer to switch on. Also it is a hybrid which means when you travel under 30mph it is an electric car and over it goes to a petrol car, you can tell I don’t have one of these at home. But back to basics, to get the engine to switch on you have to put the car into forward or reverse then the engine starts but it is electric so it is quiet and you can’t hear it. After a few minutes and a few screams from my colleague who is with me I started to get use to it. It adds some fun to a normally boring journey. The problem is that there are gadgets everywhere and you have to be careful and not tempted to start fiddling while your driving. You can change the hybrid/petrol settings, you can have sport mode or normal mode, you can have the computer showing anything you like, I am sure I could order a pizza from the entertainment system if I knew how to work it. Everything is automatic so I am starting to wonder the point of me being in the driving seat is, it switches the parking brake on and off, without me touching it, the lights come on or off as required, it is automatic so I don’t need to change the gears, it screams when I am parking and go near anything and then if I keep going it stops me automatically. I think I will just get in the back seat tomorrow and tell it where I want to go.
Now the hotel, it is slap bang in the middle of Maastricht, which is handy for the walk we had this evening. But it also meant the hotel has an underground parking area that they manage to charge £15 per night. Unbelievable and for that reason only I will not be staying here next week. The hotel is nice and has a pool which also looks nice, not been in it yet as we had a walk and with no sleep plus been up since 4:00 this morning I was feeling pretty tired so I am now sat in my room having a few strawberry’s that I bought from a supermarket where I got my milk from for my morning bowl of Cardboard Flakes, sorry I mean Bran Flakes. On a plus note, the strawberrys are absolutely lovely and should last me for three days so I have a nice treat in store for each evening.
The centre is very very nice, mostly bars and restaurants surround the area but there are some lovely squares with huge churches and look very impressive. With the warm evening weather it has been a real pleasure walk and we were out for a couple of hours.
So my first night in Maastricht has been very pleasant and after a good night’s sleep it will be my first day in Genk and to see what that has in store for me.
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