Interesting views

As we travel hundreds of miles throughout Europe we have found it interesting to see the different changes in country side between the countries of England, Holland and Germany. Here are just a few interesting observations.

After 9 hours on the road: England was hilly, lush green, every field separation is made through a tall dense hedge. The landscape meanders along brooks and streams that became boundry lines to land holdings. Most open fields in England house either small herds of cows or sheep (we never saw swine but smelled them). Little English towns would pop up here and there and always would have a tall steppled church in every town. We saw no orchards of any kind in England which would account for never getting a salad or fruit as a meal choice (except at great expense). Wood shingle roofs and small gardens are common.

After 6 hours on the road:Holland, because it is flat we could see for great distances. They commonly have large livestock farms with mostly sheep and cattle. But you could not smell the herds like you can in the states. I think that is because they are in open grass fields and not standing in plain dirt! The crops in Holland were corn, barley and cherry orchards (at least were we where). They are set up differently in Holland and it must be because perfectly flat land lends itself to perfectly square boundries! Order in all things is BIG in Holland, perfect square fields, all the houses line the streets with acreage in the rear. All the same. The homes have either the traditional thatched roof or newer homes now have brown tile roofs. Everyone has some kind of garden and flowers in the front yard.

After 14 hours on the road (by car and train): Germany has green lush hills, lots of them, as well as flat land. They likewise farm every spare inch of ground. But we never saw one livestock farm! Not one! They farm up hillsides like nobodies business! The crops we saw were grapes, corn and grains only. They don't use hedges as much as England but rather a dense patch of forest separates land holdings. Here little villages would surface and always there would be at least one tall steppled church in the town. I believe there must be a rule that for every 25 homes there must be a church because some villages were so small but had three different churches within their boundries. The roofs are dark tile, mostly red, everyone has a garden. They have large open spaces by modern cities which are rented out by apartment dwellers so they can garden.

As we see new places I will just add their overall comparisons here.