We have been very busy the last few days buzzing about shopping for things and setting up our new home on wheels. Thus far the RV is fun to drive, performs well, and despite the square footage that we’re accustom to living in, it’s been very comfortable and efficient.
We capped off our fantastic Valentines Day with super meat fondue at the restaurant in our hotel and the following morning, drove to Munster to return our rental car (It seems everyone in this part of Germany rides a bicycle) we said good-by to our new friends and moved into the RV. The manager/chef at our hotel took the time to escort us to this specially  designated motorhome area (Stellplatz) beside a great recreation centre in the village of Senden about 6 km away from Hiddingsel where we could “free-camp”. We planed on staying just one night but this is our third. Each morning we get up and go for a refreshing swim at the family pool centre about a 2 minute walk away. A 5 minute walk in the other direction leads us to a very cool 300+ year old castle in poorish repair that the town has put up for sale to circumvent the renovation costs.  All the old village centres that we have visited are really terrific and the people have been so wonderful. Today we went into a pharmacy in Dulmen to check out some flu meds to have with us and the doctor owner asked us about our plans… before we knew it we were in his office at the back of the shop scanning his computer and going over all kinds of great places to see and things to do. We spent an hour of fun with him and despite the language gap, we managed to gain a lot of knowledge, information and respect for friendly locals. Tomorrow we will be off to explore another castle not far from here that is more famous and in much better repair.