| Ukraine and North Europe Trip - 2004 / 40811_01 . . . Lunch time in Rheine. |

As was alluded to in the previous gallery, Harry's prediction had come true and Danish prices had blown a significant hole in a tightly scripted budget. After making our adieus with Jane and Sven, it was time to go home. Twenty three days of touring was catching up to us and we were worn out. We left Verlose about 8pm and crossed into Germany shortly after midnight. It finally happened - Ruth, as budget meister, agreed to sleep in the car - which we did for 5 or 6 hours at a roadside pullout. By now it was raining and in spots, raining hard. We stopped at a couple of places but either it was raining too hard or they had closed the place for the day and nothing was open. Rheine was en route and it wasn't too far off the highway so there we stopped in a little Grill-Station for a mushroom schnitzel, bratwurst, gyro and a couple of beers - all for 12 euros. The photo shows great smiles for the rain had stopped, the sun was shining and the birds began to sing (big grin). The way the time was flying, we figured we could beat it to Amsterdam, poke around there, maybe find my cap then camp at the Breda Premiere Classe for the night.
I suppose we could have given Jacqueline and Harry a call but figured we had interrupted them enough and they also had day jobs or could be sleeping. We knew that Harry also has an Opel Vectra. What we didn't know was that he had left his keys in the back of MY car when we went out chasing hotels and food - who knew?