Nearly home!

And so ends the holiday!
Almost 3 weeks of wonderful experiences.
But not quite.....
My brother Jim suggested a few places to visit in Germany.  So we did.
The last day we were deliberately close to Monschau.  Not because we understood, but because he suggested we visit.
We woke up to a cracking morning.  Chilly.  About 1 deg C when I woke up, but the prospect for the day was getting better and better and better.
We left Herren Commandant's campsite just on 9 am, and headed off for Monschau.

The Commandant was actually quite kind and pleasant to us really.  It was just that she barked her orders quite a lot.  Rules for this.  Rules for that.  Laminated signs on the inside of the loo door while you are having a poo.  Rules about washing up.  Rules about what to wear on your feet in the washroom.
Endless rules.
But hey!  We were on our last day, so what the heck.
We soon clapped eyes on a McDonalds, and swung the van into the car park, just as a lorry was loading burger buns into McD's.

Ruth did a swift calculation and it was later ratified by the staff at McD's.  They have a delivery of 8800 burger buns, every 2 days!  And it wasn't a busy McD's.
Strangely this fascinated my dearest, to the point of asking the driver of the lorry, the cashier, the manager, and Uncle Tom Cobbly and All how many buns they use.
Super fast wifi in this McD's, and super clean loos, and we were on our way to Monschau.
What a gem!
The JWs taking their place among the crowds, but chatting away to themselves instead of saving the world!

Delightful little place.  Quaint, picturesque, charming, pretty, unspoilt, nestling in the valley with a stream running through.

We paused to spend a happy couple of hours here, walking to a viewpoint up on the hillside for a great view of the town.

Then down, to find that we had got a ticket on the window of the van.
Not to worry.  It had no serial number, and wasn't official.  Just a polite reminder that I was parked in a 'residents only' parking platz.  Kind people.
We drove out of town to find a picnic area for our lunch.  After 10 minutes we pulled over.  We were actually on the Belgian/German border.
Delightful in every way.
We stopped for our lunch, and then drove on.
We didn't stop until we reached Dunkirk.
Slight hold-ups on the ring road round Brussels, but other than that, nothing to report.
Arriving at the port 4 hours early, we tried our luck for an earlier ferry.  We were booked on the 10 pm ferry, but she put us on the 8 pm ferry instead.
Not a busy night for travellers!  It soon got a bit busier.

What a bonus.
We had a few minutes shut eye, and then were boarding for Dover.
Home safe and sound at 10.30 pm.
3 weeks.  3000 miles done.  Rome at the furthest point, and back.  Taking whatever route we fancied.
Lots and lots of wonderful experiences.
The top of the list for me has to be the beautiful scenery of the mountainous parts of our journey.
All other tourist attractions pale into insignificance.