This morning we had a very lazy start to the day following a couple of late nights for the kids. Although we stayed in Belgium we were right on the border with the Netherlands so a quick 15 minute drive and we were at the Maastricht caves.

As part of planning the trip there were destinations that were chosen, such as Prague or Dubrovnik and others that were a mid way point between other locations. Maastricht was one such place and didn't have a huge selection of tourist spots to choose from.

As we entered the cave with our tour guide our kids were the only ones so we were told to stay at the front with the leader and the kids got a torch to hold. There were lots of interesting facts about the tunnels, how the farmers who owned the land on top also owned underneath and would mine the limestone.

At one point they were used to hide from the French during a war and we got to see the bedrooms and fireplaces that were built. Later on, to bring money in to the farmers that owned them, they got local artists to draw pictures as a tourist attraction.

The French even tried to blow up the fort above by exploding dynamite but rather than going upwards it just created a huge outward explosion, also it was around 150m away from the fort so wouldn't have worked 💥

The creature on the left in the picture below is a Mosasaur, named after the river Maas (the Maas in Maastricht) because it was in these caves that the first jawbone of one was found. The French heard about the discovery and offered 600 litres of red wine in exchange. The order was accepted and they took it back to Paris where it remains to this day in the national museum of natural history.

Our guide also explained about the different types of rock that could be found, including flint stone where Robert got to use a metal object to strike it and create a spark then she let the children have a go at cutting the lime stone using the old saws.

It turns out that some things were even grown in the caves such as mushrooms! When the horse manure was piled up they discovered a fungus began to grow so then they started farming these and still have a group of volunteers that carry on the tradition.

After the caves we headed into the town centre on the hunt for our tourist bauble and van sticker. We could only park in the centre for 1hr so had to be quick. Another sign this isn't really a tourist town was the lack of souvenir shops.

We ended up in an area full of high end designer stores, who knew Maastricht was so fashionable. We found an information desk where they told us about the single souvenir shop in the town 😂. We did also find a beautiful book shop that has opened up inside a church.

By now the weather had turned bad so our plan to take the kids to the local water park was a literal wash out.

With nothing much else going on in Maastricht we decided to head to our next stop earlier and see what was in the area.

We were staying in Mendig in Germany which is known for being a volcanic region. They have some public swimming baths that are naturally heated so we decided to give those a go only to find out when we got there that they had closed early for some reason. Clearly we were destined not to get to a pool today so instead we found a local brewery / restaurant. Food was lush, Al enjoyed the beer and they had a mini play park so the kids were also happy.

There was still a bit of time before bed so another highlight on my travels is to visit a local supermarket and look for new products 🛒. Rather than hit up the local Lidl or Aldi since we have those back home the map showed a REWE:XL it sounded ideal however we soon found out this must be their version of waitrose. €4 for a loaf of bread, and a whole aisle selling just honey. We bought the minimum we needed for tomorrow then parked up for the night.

Again we're staying in a car park for campers but this one is much more in the centre of the town and rather popular as you can see.

The next few days we will be staying in Germany and tomorrow we're travelling down the Rhine. We now just need these beasty children to go to sleep, 2hrs and counting 🙄 Time for a cocktail me thinks 🍸