08.26 The day to sign off and check out is here. Most of our belongings are packed and in place. All I have to do is to press down the towel. It is time to leave Ghent and Belgium.

09.39 We’ve said good bye to our hostess. Our stay here has been pleasant, nice and cosy. It is yet another place to recommend. We are now waiting for a tram. One was able to get here and away while we were buying our tickets. The ticket machine is currently undergoing some service. I am glad we bought our tickets in time.

10.17 We are back at the Sint Pieters-station. I’ve got me a cup of coffee, which is so great. I also received news from home that the door to my patio is slightly open, which is bad. The woman who phoned me about this has promised to go and check it out. Some eager kids have been running around on the platform. They are on some kind of adventure camp. I think they are going to a beach. If not, why are they wearing bathing rings and swim goggles? One girl has her bikini top over her t-shirt.

10.56 I haven’t heard anything about the door or my apartment but I have heard children’s voices and clap games. A group of children, not the swimming group, has been going on since the train started. Their leaders seem frustrated.

11.21 We’ve handed in our backpacks at the left luggage office at the Central station here in Brussels. We are about to get us tickets for today's journey.

The ticket to Duisburg in Germany cost us 47.20 euro per person. The trip will be delicate with a change of trains in Liège and Aachen. For the second day in row we´ve taken aim for Grand Place. There we will meet the daughter of Christer´s father’s partner Märtha. We are about to have lunch here before our train leaves.

We decided to meet in the middle of Grand Place. Where is that exactly?

12.17 We’ve joined forces with Cecilia. We are sitting at the café of Hotel Ort. It is time for food. We’ve ordered today’s lunch special. It is fortunate that Cecilia can order in French. Sure, I know some words but that is on such a simple level.

13.47 It was delicious. We’ve had a two course lunch with the Belgium beer Kwak on the side. We’ve also been talking about trips, Belgium and other things. We’ve said good bye to Cecilia and have just returned to the railway station and our backpacks. Now the question is, are we at the right platform and by the right track? The man who sold us the tickets said track 1. The strange thing is the fact that a different train is on its way in on track 1. What is right?

Christer and Cecilia having lunch in Brussels.

A Kwak-beer and a two course lunch.

14.13 All looked well with the track. Then we suddenly got the information. We were informed in the very last minute that the train would arrive at track 3 instead of track 1. We’ve switched platform and are on our way out of Brussels.

14.43 Our train is slowly rolling in at the station in Leuven. We are thirteen minutes behind schedule. If we´re on schedule we´ll have fourteen minutes to go before the next train departs from Liège. This looks a little tight. We can’t afford to miss this train and catch a later one. Our next home in Germany only allows check-in between 17.00 and 20.00. Will we make it?

15.04 Just as things looked dark it got worse. We just made a stop in Ans. The station isn't among the ordinary stops. On top of this my pen just broke. I’ve changed it and am ready for more writing.

We made a short stop in Liège.

Inside our Belgian train from Liège to Aachen.

15.28 Well, I don’t know how this happened. We’ve taken back all the time lost. We are at the station in Liège-Guillemins. It is a bright, airy and modern station. It has a vaulted, glassed roof/ceiling over the tracks. There are construction sites all over the place. Here comes the train.

15.38 We made it to the train. Is it the right train? It is of the older kind. Oh no, we stopped at the station in Angleur. Sure, we are supposed to stop here but we are already two minutes late. Our locomotive sounds just like an old steam engine. Why do we remain at the station? Why is the conductor walking back and forth? We are moving but we are moving. Hooray, shoot... we stopped again.

GERMANY

16.03 Our journey took us through deciduous forest covered beautiful mountain areas. Places like Pepinster and Verviers was passed in an area which is a part of the Ardennes which is a mountain range. We finally arrived at Aachen and walked to the door. It was impossible to open. We had to use another door and quickly change from platform 9 to platform 7. We are back in Germany.

17.37 We are slowly heading north and have stopped at umpteen stations. We´ve got less of an hour left on the ride. We are currently in Mönchengladbach.

18.53 We’ve made it to Duisburg. The train passed the huge Bayer-factory in Hohenbudberg and the river Rhine before we got here. We are looking at a map. We seem to have taken the wrong way. We are in front of the petrol station Star. We’ve been asked to watch a man’s bike while he popped inside a house.

19.49 We made it in time to our next home but we weren’t let inside. A note on the door said that we weren’t allowed to ring the door bell. We were supposed to phone them if we couldn’t get inside. But we were let inside by a man before Christer was able to phone. Does the man stay here or was he from some other place in the same house? We checked in and had some problems finding our room, number 27, here at City Hostel (http://www.hostel-duisburg.de). A thunderstorm just rolled in over the city. Heavy rain is coming down. Wait, I can hear a bird sing. Has the rain stopped?

Strange Easter-like decorations and Peter´s head at City Hostel.

The sculpture "Lifesaver" in Duisburg.

Peter in front of the central station (Hauptbahnhof) in Duisburg.

21.35 We left the room and cruised and navigated us towards the centre. We were looking for food and food we got. We are at Burger King next to the railway station. Burgers are great from time to time. The city centre reminded me of the centre of that in a suburb. Not much exciting or beautiful. The Second World War is to blame for this. Many German cities are really “new” due to what happened during the war (bombings).

22.58 We are back in our room. We are thinking about the upcoming trip to Africa. Will our days there be like this one? A lot of travels and tiring train trips? It is time for beer, beer bought at the night open petrol station Eller Montan.

Peter in our colourful corridor at City Hostel.

Tuesday 7th of July

09.07 Guten Morgen! It isn't raining, at least not here and now. It is this trip’s last decent morning. I will handle tomorrow´s morning tomorrow.

11.44 Today is a last day. We’ve been able to get us breakfast here at the hostel. Two women and one man had breakfast before us. One of the women had her grandfather in Mellansel, a small place not far from where I live. The three of them had travelled through Sweden. They had passed the home areas of both Christer and I. The ladies were about to fly home to South Africa.

City Hostel, Duisburg.

The catholic St Josef church at Dellplatz.

Memories from the day before.

12.27 We’ve made a short stop at Dellplatz. There is a church here and also a big branch which probably broke off during yesterday’s rain and strong wind. A postman with a small trailer is crossing the square when I´m writing this.

13.06 It is time for a classic in double sense. We are having coffee and are doing so at Starbucks. There have been some visits to this chain during the last four years. There are yet more countries and more Starbucks to visit. I wonder where the next visit will be.

The pedestrian street Königstraße in Duisburg.

Peter is happy when finding a Starbucks.

Theater Duisburg at Opernplatz.

13.58 We’ve found a great "sitandreadplace". We are sitting on a bench between the water and the Salvator church. It is time to read in the books we brought with us. It is in moments like this it actually feels like vacation. An excavation next to the church shows the oldest parts of Duisburg’s history. The city is really old. It was founded around year 420. Today it has around 497 000 inhabitants and isn't known for much more than the fact that it has the world’s largest inland port. Most of the guidebooks regarding Germany don’t even mention Duisburg.

14.53 We looked at the port area but got tired of if quite quickly. It is time for lunch, a late lunch. We are at the pizzeria Daniele Giani’s Imbiss at Kühlingsgasse 19. Christer has ordered Pizza Hawaii and I will have Chiliwurst.

16.04 We’ve sat down on a grassy area by Opernplatz in front of the theatre/opera. We’ve seen more of the city. The food was great and was just what we needed. It also had great prices.

Salvatorkirche, Duisburg.

Schwanentor Brücke at Duisburg´s inland port.

Christer somewhere in Duisburg.

16.46 We are once again back at Dellplatz. We will continue reading our books. It is very peaceful here.

17.55 We made three short stops on our way home. The first one was at a restaurant that we intend to visit later this evening; the second one was by the barriers by the railway track and the third one was at Markt, a grocery shop. Now we are just relaxing in our room. A new guest just arrived to the room. She had biked here, well not all the way into the room.

18.42 We can hear birds sing and pigeons coo. The cloudy sky is breaking up. We are sitting on the balcony next to the hostel kitchen. Christer is reading in his book and everything is peaceful and quiet.

19.47 The restaurant we had planned to visit had higher prices than expected. We had looked at the lunch specials. We are now having schnitzels at Da Paulo in Kasinostraße 10. It is no exclusive restaurant, just a small diner.

21.45 We got what we wanted, food to survive on but not full enough to say no to a balcony beer. We will soon have a shower and sleep because tonight...

On the balcony at City Hostel.

Wednesday 8th of July

02.43 We are awake, all belongings are in place, and it is time to head for the airport transport. The German biking girl is sleeping (how odd) so we´d better just sneak out as quiet as possible.

03.03 That’s it. We made it to the bus stop. I hope that our transport will do the same within twenty minutes. We are at Mercatorstraße just by the railway station.

03.17 We´ve been picked up and ready to go to the airport in Weeze. We are going with the same company that took us from Weeze to Arnhem on the 29th of June.

04.09 The trip on the Autobahn to Weeze was pleasant and calm. German radio mentioned something about Sweden just before we stopped at the airport. I didn’t quite catch what it was about.

Christer finishing his crime novel at Weeze Airport.

Milk for breakfast at Weeze Airport.

05.26 We are having sandwich and beverage for breakfast today. Our backpacks are checked in and all is well. Well there is a slight problem! My pen is running out of ink. Will it cease to work before we get back home?

06.39 The danger has been avoided. I’ve borrowed a pen from Christer. We managed to choose the wrong queue on our way to security. All we had to do was to switch. We are after all not going to Hamburg. We were the last ones to the gate and among the last ones on the bus to the plane. We were the first ones out of the bus boarding the plane.

SWEDEN

08.58 By the counter there is a blonde woman with a yellow reflective vest. Some commercial is running on the TV. We are back in Sweden and Västerås airport. We are having some coffee and a little to munch on. Later we will pay our parking fee and head home. I suddenly realise that this is the first time since 2003 that I am in Sweden on a July day.

09.50 We finally made it out from the parking lot. The machine wasn't able to read the parking ticket that had been in the car. We had to pay at a counter. It didn’t run all smoothly there either. The lady there wasn't used to handle this kind of deals.

We´re going north towards our homes. Here you can see Romfartuna church north of Västerås.

Wild strawberries on a straw.

11.17 We are having a short food break by the side of the road. We and the car filled up at the petrol station Statoil in Heby. There are plenty of wild strawberries next to us. There were even more when we got here. We have eaten some.

15.23 We had some more stops before we just entered Christer´s flat. Here we will rest, have some food and perhaps start to plan the next trip that starts in ten days time. The first half of the travel summer of 2009 is over.