Stage 2 of the 'Odyssey' just about completed! We have had a great time in Bad Bentheim. Rose has in particular enjoyed meeting with Janna and Helmuth and swapping stories about Kurt. They took us on a tour around the town yesterday, which helped to give us a good overview of life in this town. It is a very pleasant town, of course filled with history and the Schloss dominating the landscape. However it also has a nice 'feel' about the town. This has been accentuated by the fantastic guesthouse where we are staying.
For example - we enquired about doing some washing, and were told "no problem". Just put our clothes in a basket and they will look after it. Sure enough, this morning we were presented with our clean clothes, carefully folded and ironed. The cost?  ~ 5 - 10 Euro, which by our reasoning is money well spent!
We couldn't understand why so many shops were closed yesterday Thursday 9th  May. Apparently it was Fathers Day, which explained why there were lots of family groups out, with the mums seemingly doing everything and the dad's drinking beer! Sounds like a typical aussie day, I hear some of you say? Sunday is also Mothers Day here.
After we got back to our hotel yesterday, we were relaxing and Rose started reading some of the books on a shelf. She had a book titled "Unser Land" - Our Land, covering some of the region around here. It described some towns, including the township of "Holt und Haar". This of course raised her interest and she started delving further. The owner & Chef must have realised what was happening and he came and showed us another book with family names in the region going back over the centuries. We asked about the township of "Haar" and was told it doesn't exist as a town anymore, but is still an identifiable location, about 5 kms from here. So, this morning, we drove to Haar! After dodging some cars and trucks and at one stage parking in a driveway, we took some photos to record Rose's unexpected link to this area. (If anyone is unaware, Rose's maiden name is Haar.)
This afternoon, we met with Janna and Helmuth for kaffee und kuchen. They have been great to us and I am sure Rose will maintain a closer relationship with them into the future. They enjoy travelling around in their campervan and  showed us (a sample of ) pictures from their journeys to Norway, Finland, incl. Lapland, England, Ireland, Hungary etc. They don't speak English, so Rose was working hard translating both ways. Her German is developing every day, and able to express herself very well. Me? A lot of charades and interpretation based on a recognisable word here and there.
Tomorrow - off to Koln to drop off the car before catching the train to Paris on Sunday.