Jesper Nielsen wrote:

>Well for me my interest in borders comes from that very thin line that
>means alot. I enjoyed travelling to the Danish-German border this
>year. I drove along the border on the German side and just 5 meters or
>so across the line I passed a German house, German flag waving in the
>wind, German number plates, a Deutche Post van entering the driveway.
>Shops were advertising their goods in DM. Looking back into Denmark,
>signs were in Danish. There is no Iron Curtain or any other big
>divider, but yet the difference is clear.

This gives me an opportunity to introduce myself as a new member of
this fascinating group.

I am very much of a beginning border tourist. This might be strange
when you realise that I grew up in Etten-leur (NL), just 10
kilometres from the border with Belgium. On the other hand, this does
make for some nice trips to go and see the NL-BE border (Baarle,
Putte and maybe Nispen(NL)-Essen(BE) spring to mind).

Just this week I made a little trip from Maastricht to Aachen (by
Dutch Interliner bus over Vaals), took the train to Herzogenrath (DE)
there and started walking towards the Kerkrade (NL) railway station.
I had the same experience as the one Jesper described.

As we were walking towards the border, we were wondering where
exactly it would actually be and commenting on how German everything
looked. We were somewhat uncertain whether we had to turn right or
left at a T-junction, looked right and saw the sign Kerkrade at a few
metres distance.

After walking around the building, which was, as far as we could
ascertain, standing partly in the Netherlands, partly in Germany, we
started walking the Nieuwstraat - Aachener Straße/Neustraße border
line. On one side of the street there were German construction
workers, busy doing their thing. On the other side of the street a
Dutch family had come up with the same idea of renovating something
in or around their house, but had hired Dutch construction workers to
do the job.

In the same vain, the Dutch Aldi supermarket (a German chain) in
Kerkrade is being supplied by a Dutch Aldi lorry, the German Aldi in
Herzogenrath belonged to the Aldi Süd branch (as opposed to the Aldis
in the Netherlands, which carry the same logo as the Aldi Nord
branch).

It would seem that these people are standing with their backs turned
to eachother.

What I would be interested to learn is, how the people living in
Kerkrade/Herzogenrath deal with the border in their daily lives. How
separated are they, but how international can they be at times. Do
they buy their groceries at both German *and* Dutch supermarkets,
because they might have different products, or do they stick to their
own?

After this, we went to Thorn. We had dinner there, and I only found
out when I came home that we had been sitting practically on the NE-
BE border, and we didn't go over and have a look. Obviously, I have
to return there someday. :-)

-Pepijn from Leiden, the Netherlands

(Hi, Peter S.)

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