In the next morning I start around 7:00 again. It's not far to the Belgian border anymore. I cycle through Belgium for a few kilometres. It is the Flemish part of the country where people speak a kind of Dutch, roads have something that they call cycle paths next to them and both the roads and the cycle paths are in bad conditions quite often. When I crossed the river Maas back to the Netherlands the cycle path is much better again. My destination for today is the border triangle of the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. It is situated near the German town Aachen on top of the Vaalserberg which is the highest natural elevation of the Netherlands with an altitude of 322m above the sea level. Between the Belgian border and Aachen there is a densely populated area which makes it difficult to navigate. This surely earns me some extra kilometers again and I am happy when finally I find the way to Vaals. From there it's steep uphill to the Vaalserberg. Something that you wouldn't expect if you know the Netherlands from stereotypes only. On top of the mountain (or hill?) there are many possibilities to spend money. I can resist, take some photos and try to find the real border triangle.
After looking around there and taking some pictures I sit down on the bike, cycle around the point once and head to the road that leads to Belgium. The road is much worse than the Dutch one that led up and it has some strange corners one wouldn't expect, especially as it is relatively steep downhill.Then suddenly I am in the first town after the border, Gemmenich. It looks exactly how I imagine France. Everything written in French of course and houses that are totally different from the uniform Dutch style. I enter the first supermarket and get myself a baguette. Typical French.
I got myself some other food, too, and so I am busy with eating a little bit when a man starts talking to me. He lives there and saw my bicycle and as he's a cyclist himself, too, he is interested in how traveling is with such a bike. We talk a little bit and his Dutch is really wonderful. The French accent and the totally different pronunciation of the letter "g" are just nice. He tells me that talking to Belgians in Dutch usually works quite well in the region I want to cycle through as long as I don't use too many modern words and maybe speak slowly. But German is okay, too. As long as they don't insist on French.
I continue to a camping site with the name "Wesertal" in the west of Eupen in the village Membach. The camping site is not really cheap but at least quiet. And for the first time I'm not the only one with bike and tent. A couple from Leiden (NL) puts up its tent next to mine and invites me for tea and salad in the evening. Thank you for that!
But before that I use the time to visit Eupen. In my opinion it's a nice town with nice houses and its position in the mountians but with absolutely too much traffic running through it. Furthermore I don't get rid of the feeling to be in an old German town. People speak German with a dialect that I haven't heard until now. Therefore and because I didn't use my German quite often in the last time it is somewhat difficult to order food. But finally I am successful.
Afterwards I cycle back to the camping site, take the invitation and then I go sleeping.