Sept 25 – This was to be our week of hiking on the Pieterpad – the Netherlands trail that starts in Pieterburen in the north, and extends to Mt. St. Pieter in the south. The weather is perfect – sunny, cool and breezy, with blue skies and zero rain in the forecast all week. Best laid plans…

As Jim began to feel worse and tested positive, we asked Boris to drive past our hiking origin point, and take us right to our accommodation for the evening in Groesbeek. One look told us that if we couldn’t hike out from here, we were pretty well stuck – no traffic for hitchhiking, and definitely no public transit. Jim even looked for a taxi service, but there was none. We are only booked here for one night, and I knew I, for one, would not be ready to hike in the morning.

We talked about our options, and decided, with heavy hearts, to cancel our reservations along the trail for the next week. We asked Boris to come back tomorrow and drive us south to Valkenburg, where a quick online search found us a studio apartment with a kitchen, near a grocery store, so we can hunker down until we feel 100%. That’s our plan B.

Sept 26 – We both slept well in the absolute quiet of the countryside. Boris showed up right on time, and two hours later, we are in Valkenburg. One week of walking = two hours of driving. Thank you Boris – we literally could not have done this without you!

So now we are at the Marx Motel. Karl? Groucho? Who can say?

We have an efficiency apartment with a balcony and a kitchenette stocked with everything we should need. Here we can rest and recover.

Valkenburg is a pretty, tourist town. There are many things to see here, but we only walked the three minutes from our apartment to the excellent grocery store. We bought some chicken soup – sure to help us feel better!

So here we’ll be for the next few days. We’ll check in when we have something to report!