Tuesday July 14, 2015 The Villages of Thorne and Roermond

Today we went shopping for the basics: beer, wine and groceries....yes in that order. Guys back home would love this beer warehouse. It also sells wine, potatoes and pyrogies.....what else does one need to survive?

This warehouse is in Germany. The prices are reasonable and they take back the empties and the cases. After this we went grocery shopping in Herkenbosch in the Netherlands. The Dutch beer was on sale: buy two get the third free.....works well when you buy it in cases. So,George and Tony have enough beer to last them and I picked up some lovely white wines to try.

After we drove to Thorne for a walk and lunch at the Pannekoek huis. 

The houses in Thorpe are mainly white but some are also made of brown brick. It is a town that goes back to medieval times with of course the church being the main part of the village.

Tony and Marja in Thorpe.....the rain is finally starting to let up a bit.

Going to come back here for lunch....but first a walk to work up an appetite.

Many streets of stone cobbles. Hard to walk on but they look so pretty.

The church in the main part of town.....we were lucky enough to hear the church bells.

Dogs are not allowed in the church cemetery.

There were some lovely old graves and new headstones.

Old roses, cobbled stones, and pretty arches make the old church look like an old monestary.

The whole town had interesting sculptures and artwork everywhere.

Marja and George beside the goat statue.

The church and Thorne from the walk in the countryside. Lots of corn and vegetables were planted. 

This our placemat and napkin in the Pannekoek restaurant.

Tony had the strawberry and icing sugar Pannekoek, I had the half and half. One side savoury, the other side sweet. There was a lot of food there.

After lunch we took a walk in the old part of Roermond. Again beautiful old buildings, cobbled streets, a harbour on the river the Maas, and some cute winkels ( shops) to look at.

The clock played a song from the Nutcracker at 2:00 pm.

We even caught a glimpse of the sun sometimes! Some folks were enjoying the afternoon time on the patios.

The church had a lovely garden in the front. Old- fashioned flowers such as zinnias and sweet William amongst box hedges were planted.

Then time to go home for a drink and dinner. Tomorrow another busy day planned. Now if we could only get those lousy trains for Saturday organized!