Venray and Mönchengladbach

After the long day on the Floriade we took it a bit easy the next day (September 5th).
We drove along the river Maas, stopped at Wellerlooi where Frank and Chimay stayed for some days in January. Walked the dogs and Chimay recognised the surroundings from her previous stay.

Then on to Venray to get some shopping done. Venray has a nice center with a lot of shops and we sat a while on a nice terrace at the town square. Two little boys were playing at the fountain.


Next to the gas station was a large pet shop, I had go in to have a look around. They had a nice collection of dog strollers.... well that would be handy for Ari! I had carried him around a lot at the Floriade and he became quiet heavy in time. And it would be great to take Ari on longer walks, as Chimay is getting older and doesn't appriciate the longer walks anymore. I wanted to get Frank to show the strollers, but he already arrived in the pet shop. We briefly discussed to pro's and cons and decided to buy a stroller. Tried it with Ari in it, he loved it, so we went away with a stroller ;-)

The next day the stroller was already used when we took a long walk in a park in Mönchengladbach (Germany).

Ari liked the stroller, he walked with us at first and when he became tired we put him in the stroller.

The park is called "Bunter Garten" (= Colorful Garden) and you can see it lives up to its name.

Frank and the dogs took a little rest while I took some pictures.

At the edge of the park is the Kaiser Friedrich-halle, with a restaurant at the park side.

We were ready for dinner, but had only an hour and a half left, because Frank had to be in time at the Hockey stadium where the Leonard Cohen concert was held. This concert was the reason we went to Mönchengladbach, Frank ordered a ticket months ago.

The staff of the restaurant was great, they managed to serve us a delicious three course dinner within time. We might go back one day to enjoy their food without (a little) haste.

We went back to the car and I delivered Frank at the stadium. He had a marvellous evening. I would have loved to go with him, as I love Leonard Cohen too. Sadly I get panick attacks in big crowds, so I stayed with the dogs.


A video of the Leonard Cohen concert in Mönchengladbach
And more videos of his tour Leonard Cohen in Gent

When I went back to pick up Frank, I heard a bit of the last songs from the stadium, so I enjoyed some of the music too :-)