Vaals to Lommel - back to Belgium

As we were in that bit of Holland that extends southwards between Aachen and Maastricht we took a route north west which brought us back to Belgium. This little corner of Holland is surprisingly hilly, but we enjoyed the landscapes and gentler slopes.

After our dearth of shops for the last few days, it was a real pleasure to come across a wonderful baker in a small village  - we devoured pizza slices and apple and apricot turnovers etc.

The town of Valkenburg was particularly lovely.

Valkenburg 

We crossed the Maas Canal with its barges, then the Maas itself by ferry and into Belgium. 

Barges on the Maas Canal 

Bike ferry over the Maas

 The route in Belgium was efficient, but somewhat tedious, along a canal with a good bike path, but long and straight with few barges to watch.

We gradually became aware of an accommodation problem today. We had wanted to aim for a very small campsite about 90km away. As it's the weekend I thought I'd better email them last night to check that they had space. Unfortunately they had a large family booking and didn't.
Every campsite we passed early in the day had a notice up saying they were full, including the one we left at Vaals.
So at about 4.30 we decided to phone some others in the area we were aiming for. No luck - it's the first weekend of school holidays here.
So we started on the B&Bs and eventually found one - more expensive than we would have liked and not as far as we'd have liked. It's very nice though and we're sitting in a peaceful garden here enjoying Trappist beer which was brewed in the neighbouring village.

We have though, booked a place at the next and last planned campsite before the Hook of Holland (now only 160km away) and also changed our ferry booking to overnight on Sunday - so we'll be home on Monday!


Vaals to Lommel - 76km, 150m climb