Low Countries 8-23 Mar 18

On Thurs 8 Mar  - somewhat later than planned due to the appalling weather and spending 5 days in London, we set out for Holland. The journey down to the tunnel terminal was the usual boring but uneventful affair. However, on check in at the tunnel, the plonker who tells you what lane to go in prior to loading sent us to the wrong loading line and we missed our assigned train. Half hour later, and seriously pee'd off with Eurotunnel, we travelled across, parked up in Cite Europe, bought a bit of shopping and then settled down for the night.

At Eurotunnel Folkestone

On Friday it was through Belgium without stopping, with a final destination of Middelburg, where we found a new camper platz near the town. The staff are very friendly and the site very nice, undoubtedly improving once it has settled down a bit and the planting has taken place. We wandered around this old town before heading back for dinner and bed. We decided to stay another night in the hope of finding the 6 nations on tv. We called into the unpronounceable  Manamana Rugby Club (Oemoemenoe), but they weren't showing it, we wandered through the town again, buying a 2 euro ice cream and searching every possible location for Rugby before giving up and heading back to the van, finding the rugby on an internet feed. It wasn't worth the hassle as England were appallingly bad. They were so bad that they must have been coached by Harlequins! Despondent we had dinner and went to bed.

Middelburg

Rugby Oemoemenoe 

Sunday we headed north to a lovely site camping Strandpark de Zeeuwse Kost, near Reenese, passing the impressive dams and barriers between the islands. The sun came out, we sat on the beach and got excited at the thought of summer and the end of this never ending winter. We enjoyed a pint in the lovely bar at the resort. Again we decided to stay another night and on Monday headed out for  10 mile bike ride along the excellent bike tracks, beating the rain back by minutes. It pissed- down all afternoon. So much for summer - winter was back with a vengeance.

Reenese

The following day we moved up to Alblasserdam, near Rotterdam, to an excellent aire near a boatyard. It rained, so we took the waterbus into Rotterdam for a mooch around. It's a modern city with not a lot to offer in the rain (except the excellent market).

It could be Rotterdam or anywhere..

Wednesday was bright and fair. We cycled to Kinderdyk to admire the windmills, cycled back for lunch, then took a water bus to Dordrecht and a wander around this charming town. Later it was back to the excellent supermarket in Ablasserdam to buy steak and chips for dinner.

Dordrecht

On Thursday we moved north again to Camperpark 205 near Haarlem. This is basically an open field next to an exhibition centre, very close to Schiphol airport and between Amsterdam, Haarlem and Leiden. It has superb transport links, albeit the Dutch system is now quite expensive, and is therefore an excellent spot to explore the area. We were met by the friendly owner, parked up and cycled (shuffled?)  into Haarlem, had a good look around, and then beat the rain back. The journey back was much nicer, following the canal and polders, than our route out where we got lost on the myriad of cycle tracks through the housing estates. The weather remained very cold indeed.

Haarlem

Friday saw an early start and, using a one day tourist card sold by the site owner, we took the very frequent bus into Haarlem, then the equally frequent train into Amsterdam. We made straight for Anne Frank's house, but, as with much of the whole of Europe, there are works underway and entry was by timed ticket booked online. Of course, there were no slots left for that day. We wandered about exploring the narrow streets of this lovely city, made unlovely by the hordes of maniac cyclists determined to kill you,  and vans parking wherever and wherever they pleased, pushing you into the path of the killer cyclists. As the day wore on the crowds started gathering. We had a light lunch in the oasis of the Amsterdam museum before braving the growing crowds of stag and hen parties, had a beer in the rugby pub, bought some cheese from a delightful lady on a stall and finally took to the trams to make the most of our travel card. Eventually we went back to the van before having a late night excursion on the bus to see Schiphol airport. We walked 16.75 miles that day.

Anne Frank's House

Amsterdam

Dancing Houses

The next day was bitterly cold. I mean it was absolutely arctic. A very strong wind blasted us direct from Siberia. The outside thermometer read -9 degrees. The water on the site, obviously, was turned off. The wind and stinging sleet took the skin off any exposed skin. Spring? Pah! In the high, buffeting winds we set out for Hoorn. Having eventually managed to find the entrance to the site, we parked up on the road next to the pitch as the grass was sodden. It was, in theory, an easy cycle ride into Hoorn so we attempted the journey in the 50kph arctic wind. It was miserable. Hoorn is probably very nice but not when you can't go out without getting the skin stripped from your face. We tried to find a bar showing the rugby, but there was only the ubiquitious plastic Irish bar, which we detest vehemently. Still we had a beer, watched a bit of the rugby, got fed up, went home and went to bed., trying to defrost from the cold of the day. The site would probably be very nice in warm weather but it is a bit of a rip-off. 20c for hot water, 75c for a shower, arm and a leg for Wi-Fi. Robbers! There was still no water to be had as everything was frozen.

Hoorn aka "brass monkeys"

Hoorn

On Sunday the weather was still bloody freezing, the reception at the site was closed for the day, there was no water to be had, so, completely fed-up, we cut our losses and made a dash for Belgium to get past Antwerp before every truck in Europe blatted through on the Monday. We pulled into the excellent aire at Bruges, hoping to fill our water tanks, but the pipe was marked as non-potable, so we walked around to the local Aldi to buy bottled water to keep us going for a while. Even on a Sunday evening, Bruges was very busy and the shops open, so we had a good wander around before dinner and bed. Monday we decided to stay over as the aire was so good and, once again, we wandered around Bruges enjoying a very nice lunch of Flemish stew in a local Bistro.

Bruges

Bruges at Night

Tuesday we had a leisurely morning before moving across to Cite Europe in preparation for our crossing the following day. As usual, there was the usual collection of motorhomes gathered there and we enjoyed a relaxing day, a peaceful night and a good crossing the following morning with no hiccups before parking up on Wednesday evening in the excellent Canterbury aire at the Dover Road park and ride. We wandered around Canterbury but refused flatly to pay the extortionate  £10.50 to go into the Cathedral. More robbers!  Canterbury was packed full of screeching foreign schoolkids, piercing one's eardrums and blocking every route. Tourists eh?

Canterbury

On Thursday Debs caught the train to meet her friends in Gravesend and I took the train for a good walk around Whitstable, lunching on a plate of local cockles, before heading back to Canterbury, meeting up and enjoying a nice meal in the local pub.

Whitstable

Peter Cushing's house

On Friday we headed home. A good trip in all, but the weather could have been kinder. The Netherlands is great for motorhomers, but I wouldn't say that the sites were particularly cheap, plus they love to load the cost with a local tourist tax, which can be up to 2euro per person per night.