202. Europe Bicycle Trip---Goodbye Betty --Hello Eric Pouw in Stein

Today is Day 70, Wednesday, June 25th. I said goodbye to Jacques last night. He had given me personal tours of Nieuwstadt and Maastricht. I did not have to leave his home until lunch time as I was only going a short distance to Stein today.

I had breakfast with Betty and then she left to play tennis and I did my Bible reading, worked on maps, did one blog and packed.

Betty and I enjoyed a nice lunch together outside on the patio.

At 2:30, I took a last selfie photo and gave Betty a big thank you hug  and said good bye. I used part bicycle maps and part roads and cycled through Nieuwstadt, Limbricht, Enighausen, and Urmond to get to Stein which was about 13 km away. .

In Limbricht, I saw this nice building and decided to ride up and read the sign. It said "Kasteel Limbricht. This is the left side of the outside and the arch bridge entrance to the inner courtyard. .

The right side showing the outside moat.

Inside the gate, I could see another moat and the castle. The castle is a whole cellar square four-winged building around a small courtyard. It is a rare example of a motte castle-a castle on an artificial hill. It dates back to the 10th century and was inhabited over the those years by various high ranking families. in the 1800s , the castle served as a military hospital for sick and wounded French soldiers returning from the Battle of Liepzig. In 1917 it was used as an internment camp for German prisoners of war. In 1955, it was bought by the Episcopal College of Sittard  for the benefit of students and then sold again to Castle Foundation Limbricht which has restored it and it is now a multipurpose hospitality center with a restaurant, bar, conference and banqueting rooms and a bowling alley. 

Tower of Lanxess Elastomers B.V. near Urmond

A horse riding school for children and a location in Stein to store your horses

Riding lesson

I arrived in Stein at the apartment building address of Eric Pouw, the cousin of my friend, Caroline Pouw, who lives in Sault Ste. Marie. I have already visited several of her cousins that live in  the Netherlands.

Eric's apartment--Eric was in and helped me park Silver by the inner stairwell of the building. He has just moved in here in the last week. Eric is a truck driver and used to have his own business but the economy has been very bad and he has had to give up his own business, sell his house and his truck and work for another firm and move to this apartment until things get better. I also have a cousin here who has lost his whole gardening business in the last year. Now Eric works for a trucking firm that picks up and delivers laundry to hospitals and other places of business. His hours are from 3 am to about 3 pm so he had just come home when I arrived. His poor 4 year old yellow lab had been alone too long and in  the excitement of my arrival, he did his business twice on the living room floor. I felt bad. Eric made me a cup of tea as I introduced myself and then we took Storm out for a nice long walk in some bush and fields not too far away.

Living room with a COW rug on the floor

Dining area--Eric is still unpacking boxes

Storm enjoyed his long walk outside. In the bush, he can be let loose and stays fairly close.

This is Eric's house that he has had to sell.

When we returned, I checked Silver. Someone had moved her with her chain on and I was worried that some spokes may have been damaged. We tried to put her more out of the way. I said that I would treat for supper and we ordered a pizza. We talked about his family and his siblings. He said he was pretty close to cousin Wil and husband Abe because when Eric and his brother were teenagers and lived in France, they would come and stay with Wil and Abe. Since Eric had to be up by 3 am, we said goodnight early and I made some phone calls for places to stay when I leave and I called my cousin Hans to say I would come on Sunday instead of Tuesday. That was okay with them so I only needed to arrange 2 Friends of the Bicycle places. I also worked on Knooppunten for when I leave.