Herkenrather Kapelle

 Herkenrather kapelle

Here in Western Europe the weather has been horrible for outside drawing lately; snow, frost and
freezing wind. But at last: since a few days the weather has improved enough to go outside and draw!

So yesterday, returning from a visit to a client in Roermond, I passed
this little chapel in the middle of some bare fields.

It was located along a road that we call locally “the international road”. It’s a road between two Dutch towns (Brunssum and Koningbosch), but runs across Germany for some 10 miles.

Formerly, some 20 years ago when the borders were not as open as they are nowadays, the road was fenced off from the surrounding fields. You could not leave the road and you were not allowed to stop there. That was to avoid smuggling. Back then living near the border meant taking advantage of low prices across the border.

But on the  bright side: even though there was a speed limit of 80 km/hour you could drive as fast as you could because the Dutch police had no jurisdiction on this piece of German territory: they could not hand out speeding tickets. And as the road was not accessible from the German side, the German police could not enter it! But I should add that it also meant that it was the most lethal road in the Netherlands.

Anyway: nowadays it’s not prohibited to stop and leave the car anymore: so I could get out and draw this cute little chapel!

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