A bright start, pick up the E30 motorway, and soon we leave Germany and enter The Netherlands, only a few more countries, and a few hundred more miles and we will be back in the UK, the majority of the drives will be short now.
The drive was easy once we entered Holland, it’s flat as a pancake, no more changing down the gears, engine straining to climb Mount so and so. Todays pit stop is in Zwolle, the site we are staying at is on a marina, two km from the centre, there is a canal along side which is busy with all sorts of barges and boats. 9€ EHU and showers on meter.
80 miles 1hr 30min
View from the van
Views from the site
Another telephone box used to swap books
If only Billy Bridgend had applied himself at school
A treck into the centre dodging bicycles along the way, they have their own two way lanes, but there’s thousands of bikes and you forget sometimes you're walking in a bike lane, thank god for the invention of the bicycle bell.
Zwolle is a nice city with plenty to do, it's basically an Island, there are four rivers that encircle the city, quite modern with a few old buildings of interest, plenty of shops plenty of bars. I like Holland, I've visited umpteen times over the years, living and working in Arnhem at one point, a good few moons ago!
Tomorrow we are heading towards the Dam, we will stop and recharge the batteries for a day just outside Harderwijk, we will be able to smell the North Sea, then it's onto the outskirts of Amsterdam for 3 or 4 days.
A funny thing happened today? Sam found a site on the web called Munster Motorhome Club, thinking this was Munster Germany, wrote to them 2 days ago saying we wanted to visit the City, and was there anywhere to park? Today she got a reply back from them saying Munster is not a city but a region and the capitol city is Cork, from a Tom Murphy even though her letter stated as part of our German trip, a bit of a goof by Sam, well at least he replied.
25th - 26th June
A midday start and 40 mins later we were at our destination, 52.311829 5.566530.
30 miles
Camperpark Strand Horst is not far from the beach, 11€ inc EHU and showers on meter, and is very popular with kite and windsurfers
There's a Bar on site, guess we'll hit that later
There's a ferry that runs across to Zeewolde on Flevoland
The weather was the hottest we've had for sometime, and the forecast is looking brighter.
27th - 30th June
38 miles 40min
Arrived in Amsterdam at noon, we are stopping at Gaasper Camping Amsterdam,
52.312713, 4.990711 It's at the top end of our price range, but of all the sites around Amsterdam, this ticks all the boxes, it has nice level pitches and borders onto Gaasper Park.
We picked up a 48hr travel card which we can use for unlimited travel on the metro, trams and buses for 12€, and Max got his first taste of the metro and a tram ride into the centre, didn't phase him at all. Stopped at a few of my regular bars in Rembrandt Square, although smoking cigarettes in the brown bars is now forbidden and enforced, yet up the road they are smoking joints a foot long indoors in the coffee shops, and no one bats an eyelid?
Getting around the Dam is so easy with their transport system, hop on hop off the trams and you're over in the Leidseplein at another haunt of mine the Sportsbar. We spent most of the day mooching around then headed back.
Sun
Another trip into the centre, and a lot of footwork along the canals, I never tire of Amsterdam, as there is always some new bar you find along a canal, and always a canal you've never walked along where you can sit and people watch. We stopped off at the Amsterdam Arena on the way back for a couple of drinks and a Febo, my favourite snack on the hoof.
These snacks are great along with a bag of chips and mayonaise.
Amsterdam Arena the home of Ajax
Mon
Yesterday was another warm day and today was the same, the forecast is good for the week. We took Max around the park today, it's a great place, there are many good parks in the Dam, and I prefer it to Vondel Park one of the biggest and more popular, there are not as many tourists or cycles.
Five minutes walk from the campsite.
And your on the lake
Tues
The last day for us in Amsterdam, a day of lazing about and making plans now for the rest of the journey home,
1st - 2nd July
Today we are in Gouda, home of the famous cheese. The Aire is in the town 300m from the centre 52.011929 4.716150 8€ pn free EHU.
41 miles 50min
A stroll into the centre, we found the cheese shop and bought a wedge of their best, while in there I sampled about ten different types of Gouda, we also tried another local delicacy Stroopwafels " Syrup Wafels" which originated in Gouda in the early 1800's.
The Stadhuis built in 1450
Waag, "Weighing house"
This is where all the cheese was once weighed.
3rd July
We are on a campsite in Delft, famous for it's pottery, yesterday we had an accident when Max knocked over a glass of wine onto my pc, the result of that is my keyboard doesn't work, and I now have to use the on screen keyboard.
We will stay here two days, then we are heading to Ypres and the Menin Gate, Max will have his jab in Ypres to allow him back into the country. On Wednesday we will be back in the UK after 8 months on the road.
Europe
Morocco
The trip has taken us to France, Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Morocco, Andorra, Monaco, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, Holland and Belgium. We have drove over 9600 miles at a cost of £1489.00, £6.36 per day on diesel, campsites cost £1151 in total, we stayed at 119 different places, 59 days free and 175 days paid, £4.92 per day, and £189..00 on internet.
Along the way we met up with some great people, too many to mention, hopefully we will catch up with them on the road sometime somewhere.
Once again thanks for reading our blog, and those that left comments, we hope you've enjoyed.
Get well soon Paddy!
