Nijmegen border crossing - Autumn 2002
Border crossing on the N52. We should have explored the surroundings better with a better map - we might have climbed the Devil's Mountain.
Initially we thought that this was the border. It looks very border like. For example the sign next to my car is a German sign, but it stands on Dutch soil!

We were confused by the building on the other side of the road. We even looked in the bushes for the border marker.

Then Jacob found this distance marker and we concluded that we had stopped 300 meters too early.
So we went an took a good look at the building that confused us. It was no border checkpoint, it was a money changing office. But all foreign currency has been abolished in January 2002. And from whichever angle you look at this building it remains closed. Very closed.
It''s closed in three languages ! GWK = Border Money Changing Office
I always dream of hiring such a tiny building and living in it. I imagine a kind of secluded, calm and philosophic existence. Maybe a writer, poet or a computer programmer.

Mybe you could hire it if you want a small, cosy house with a very reliable safe in the living room.

Could you use the safe as a panic room? I doubt it.
300 meters down the road we found the real border. This is the beginning of the Netherlands. With an official border marker. This time it is Nr. 639.
The meeting of Dutch and German asphalt never fails to fascinate me. This time Ggrmany looks better maintained. Everyone is careful not to step on the other's territory. I wonder who made the asphalt-line in the middle, a German or a Dutchman?

In fact the border makes a sharp left turn at the other side of the road! And it follows the road back to the West. We might have seen several more border markers (640) if we had looked at the topographic map. The water at the other side of the road is called Wijlermeer. The wooded hill beside the road is the Devil's Mountain (Duivelsberg).
This is the German border station. THey all look alike. Same shape, same materials. The huge parking lot was empty. And a sign said: "Office space for hire".

Sic transit gloria mundi ...
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