Montfort to Sittard

Monday morning Margriet joined me for the 24 km hike between Montfort and Sittard.  Since the B&B was about a km off the trail it turned into one of the longest hikes for her of those days that she joined me.
The terrain started to become a little more hilly but still mainly forest, corn fields and dairy cows. It is amazing how much corn is being produced in the Netherlands since we left 35 years ago. It used to be that you saw grain fields everywhere. Almost all of those have been replaced with corn fields in the last few decades. Apparently the eastern European countries can grow grain cheaper and the Dutch have changed their agricultural production to corn for cattle feed. 
Since it was Monday we did not expect to find anything open to get a coffee, but we lucked out when we noticed, around 11 AM, a café with an open door. A meeting was taking place and when we asked the owner if we could get a coffee she agreed even though she was officially closed.

This section of the trail took us into Germany and immediately the language and architecture was different from just a few km back.  We entered the city of Sittard (one of the largest cities in Limburg) via a nice creek valley and ended up on the market in the center of town almost without having to content with the outskirts of the city. The market place was surrounded by nice cafes with seating outside and we thoroughly enjoyed the beer and food that could be had there.
Later in the afternoon we were picked up by the owner of the B&B we stayed at that night and taken back to Montfort for the night.