Long drive North

We drove North from Assesses stopping in Lieges Belgium.  We were looking for a Belgian Harry Potter book but after spending an hour driving around we stopped at their Christmas village.  We drove all over Liege which looked like a small Detroit. GPS does not discriminate on the type of neighborhoods it will route you through.   This Christmas village was huge with a big area with 25+ bar huts an area for food and rides for the kids.   It was lightly raining outside and we wanted more food than what was served at the Christmas village huts. We went into a mall and found a cafeteria in the back of a department store.  Imagine a cafeteria inside an old Woolworths. The food was great, hard to translate, and this was definitely eating like a local!
Still not finding the book we followed the GPS out of Belgium through part of the Nederlands.  This was unplanned because we were only counting on driving in seven countries so now we have done eight.   We should have tried for Luxembourg!   We had problems again getting gas but finally found a station in a small town with an attendant that was fascinated with meeting Americans.  He was grinning ear to ear as we drove off waving.  France and the Netherlands are going to completely self serve stations but you must use a special card.  In France I talked a gentleman into pumping 50 euros using his card and me giving him cash.  We had gone below E and the computer was at 0 miles till tank empty, that was a close call!  

From the Nederlands we drove North through Germany to Nuemuenster.  As we were traveling up A1 I noticed Bob's GPS pointed out we within 60 miles of the shipyard where I spent  a lot of time in 2010.  After a quick review at a truck stop we realized a Papenburg detour would put us way behind schedule so Sally and I opted to keep driving North.   As we approached Bremen we noticed the GPS had some favorites saved; one being called Bremen waterfront shopping.  We jumped off A1 looking for dinner and found yet another Christmas village and mall. Our first suburbia mall.  We ate in the food court with each of us choosing something different.  Once full we pressed on North.   Numuentser was not an ideal location to the ferry but it had an affordable hotel.  Unfortunately this is where Chance started to get sick along with Sally.  Sore throats, runny noses and aches.