{"id":194,"date":"2018-04-01T22:42:18","date_gmt":"2018-04-01T21:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/?p=194"},"modified":"2018-04-23T15:55:22","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T14:55:22","slug":"three-country-point-borders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/2018\/04\/01\/three-country-point-borders\/","title":{"rendered":"THREE COUNTRY POINT – Borders"},"content":{"rendered":"
Read this post in German<\/a><\/div>

3 Countries – Belgium, Netherlands, Germany all come together at Vaalserberg
\n31st March 2018<\/p>\n

The main sponsor of the Ball Journey is the Robert Bosch Foundation, which actively engages in international understanding within Europe and with its neighbours.<\/em>
\nOne of the main themes of this fifth edition of the Journey is the strengthening of Europe through football.<\/em>
\nConfronted with current issues like the Brexit, the so-called refugee-crisis and the ensuing strengthening of right-wing parties, we want to counteract the crumbling of Europe with our means of educational projects for integration and inclusion.<\/em>
\nThis is why we want to make a few takes of the place, where Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands meet, to include them in the documentary we are making of our journey.<\/em><\/p>\n

Slowly we wind our way along countriy roads, all along the border, to the place of our focus.
\nBenni at the steering wheel,
\nthe film crew and Frank Albers of the Robert Bosch Foundation in the back,
\nI am the navigator.<\/p>\n

The satnav says turn left… Bling! The mobile bleeps.
\nBienvenue en Belgique.
\nDamn, the satnav pans out, nothing goes.
\nThe route is quickly typed in again.
\nAhh! Right after all! Blinng! The mobile again!
\nWelkom in Nederland!
\nNo chance!
\nAgain the satnav is reprogrammed,
\nNetherlands, Belgium
\nBelgium, Netherlands
\nOur mobile is going crazy!
\nA village with crooked streets
\nLeft, right, straight on, right again…
\nAaaaagh, I\u2019m sure that we\u2019re driving in a circle.
\nWe\u2019re constantly receiving the infos from the new mobile-network.
\nBenni is nervous.
\nI never liked this new technology.
\nIt\u2019s no fun being a navigator…<\/p>\n

Crazy, how often we have crossed borders in such a short while!!!
\n35 years ago this wasn\u2019t possible\u2026 without border controls of passports.
\nThis is indeed an advantage created by the Schengen agreement on a free Europe and belongs to the success stories of the EU.<\/p>\n

Ahead we see a cross-road of three.
\nWhich should we take? Another try with the satnav…
\nWe are in Belgium. The film crew has to catch a train soon!
\nWe are left with one hour for filming and driving back to Aachen.
\nThe crew checks the train connections on the phone \u2013 a few years back that wasn\u2019t possible \u2013 and are happy about free roaming-rates.
\nBling! The mobile bleeps: Welkom in Nederland!<\/p>\n

We have arrived!
\nAt a place which stands for Europe without borders
\nA symbol of freedom!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Just next to it is an inconspicuous stone, stating:
\n\u201cHighest point of the Netherlands \u2013 322M above sea-level\u201d
\nWe never noticed, hahaha!!!
\nEven parts of Erfurt, which lies in the Thuringian Basin, are higher. The airport, for instance, is at 315m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3 Countries – Belgium, Netherlands, Germany all come together at Vaalserberg 31st March 2018 The main sponsor of the Ball Journey is the Robert Bosch Foundation, which actively engages in international understanding within Europe and with its neighbours. One of the main themes of this fifth edition of the Journey is the strengthening of Europe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"coauthors":[9,8],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-belgium"],"geo":{"latitude":50.75531769999999909259713604114949703216552734375,"longitude":6.0187635000000003770992407226003706455230712890625,"description":"Viergrenzenweg 97, 6291 BM Vaals, Niederlande"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2018\/04\/teaser-dreieck.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions\/222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}