Day 8 Monday 19/08 Bruges > Heidelberg - 27deg Sunny 600km

Today began with an early start for our 1.5hr train journey from Bruges Belgium to Lille France to pick up our hire car and commence the automobile section of our trip. Our first challenge was to find the hand brake in the car, which turned out to be a button we had pressed many times, however as we couldn't read the instructions in French we didn't know there was a next step, once sorted we were on our way with our GPS "Shirl" to tell us where to go!. The freeway is 130kph so it makes for quick travelling. Our car is diesel and the cost is about €1.20 (Au$1.42) per litre, much cheaper than Oz. The countryside is rural and lush with little villages along the way. We stopped for lunch near Remich on the Luxembourg side of the Mosel River at a quaint park which they had called Bistro "Ob Der Musel" Self service, which was well set up for people just wanting to stop and have a picnic...we were surrounded by grape vines and quaint villages, with swans on the river. Today we had the first ice-cream of our trip. We arrived in Heidelberg where it was warm and sunny. Once checked in we went for a walk along the river to the old part of town just as the sun was setting, so pretty with all the gorgeous buildings, and the historic bridge as well as the cobblestone streets, set against the backdrop of the sandstone castle. For dinner we had a typical german meal of schnitzel with salad and John had a pork hock with sauerkraut, we wandered back through the main street, which had many cafes, bars and shops, and as this is a university town lots of young people out and about. Today we had breakfast in Belgium, freshen up coffee in France, lunch in Luxembourg and dinner in Deutschland.