Off we go!

Despite the van being mostly packed by last  night, our intentions of leavng by 11am slipped to 12pm - which, in the scheme of things isn't too bad.  Our first call was to drop the  dog off with Michael and Glenys at  their new house.  Otto was off on his holidays, keeping Michael company during his perfectly timed leave, and "helping" with some gardening jobs.   It was raining.    

M & G provided us with lunch, we waved a hurried goodbye to the dog (through a closed door - we didn't want him trying to come with us), and off we went - heading towards Stowmarket, and our first night in the van.

It's been a long time...........

It's been 9 years infact since we went on our 2 month jaunt around Europe in Little Vanno (*sigh*)  - and here we are again, revisiting some of the old haunts, in a bigger van, with 2 kids, and a bit more grey hair (Jon that is - not me, I'm still youthful looking........).

We were reading the old blog to see what we had done when we were last here - in Holland that is - because we couldn't remember (old age, etc), and Jon said that maybe I should write a blog always - for our benefit, and I thought, well, why not?   I do like to ramble on about stuff,and, although I always have good intentions of keeping a diary sort of thing - I even save things to stick into it, tickets and the like, this year I wrote it for the first 3 days, got the kids to do drawings in it and everything, and then.........well, it went by the wayside.  This will be better.

Jon has set me up with his bluetooth keyboard, and I've hitched it to the Hudl, which since it's arrival, appears to have been mostly flat, and serve no purpose other than for Zac to occasionally play "Angry Sharks" or  Elliot to watch downloaded episodes of "Pointless", so, maybe this will be it's calling! I just need get over the fact that the keys are in the wrong places (this would be improved by being able to turn the light on - but the kids are refusing to sleep, and I can't light the place up as that wouldn't help) and then I'm sure I will be racing along, blethering on into the blogosphere........

Anyway, this is not the point.  The point is, that we are on holiday........................

Wimeraux – Camberley

Our last day has arrived. Who would have thought it?

To finish as we started Jon went out to the boulongerie and got a croissant and pain au chocolate each for us (everything seems better after a couple of pastries) and we had fresh coffee with it. How many pastries have we eaten this holiday I wonder? Have I eaten my own weight in them perhaps? It has to be close.

Anyway, after the pastry eating, some reading (me) and programming (Jon) we set off for Calais – taking the rather lovely coast road rather than the motorway.

Once we got to Calais we located the shopping centre type place to get some wine. It seemed like what we had to do – fill the van with boxes of french wine – so we did. Well. OK, we didn't actually fill the van (what do you take us for?) We bought 30 bottles of wine and a small box of stubby beers. Pretty restrained eh?

That took up quite a lot of time – and yet I still didn't remember to buy any paprika crisps to take home (love those things – why don't they have them at home?) or any sweets for the journey. Ah well.

We rocked up to the Sea France place – bought our ticket home (€120 – ouch!) and then got in the queue ready for a 5pm sailing. That was it. Time to go home.

I was alright about it all until then – suddenly I realised that this was it, we really were going home and suddenly – I didn't want to :( Of course I knew we had to – we can't afford to travel around in the van forever, and – seriously – my back can't take much more of that bed, but still, the reality of it was a bit sad.

Still. That's the way it goes – and we were on the ferry, nice crossing - pretty calm - and off to blighty before we knew it.

Then it was white cliffs of Dover, M25 and home.

4,150 miles and 47 days after leaving - we were back!

Everything is fine here, there was a lot of post and the garden has gone bonkers, but it's all still standing, there have been no floods or fires - which is good.

It was such a great trip - we had a really great time and saw so much stuff and did so much, but also me & Jon spent a good lot of time together - which we haven't really done in ages - and although we had a few arguments (and a couple were REALLY good ones) we mostly had really good fun together - which was great.

Highly recommended.

Also great was the van - apart from that minor fuel leak in the first week, we haven't had any trouble at all, which is fantastic. Long may it last!

Hope you have enjoyed the blog - look forward to catching up with everyone soon (offers of drinks/running dates/free lunches all welcome) - please come back next year (hopefully) for the sequel :)

The End.

Bruges – Wimeraux

I have a cold :(

This morning we cycled into Bruges for the obligatory tour round the city. We soon abandoned the bikes because the place was just too rammed with tourists for them to be practical, it was either that or some kind of collision – it would have been inevitable, they were just wandering all over the place.

So, Bruges is nice. We decided that we are a little jaded from the number of lovely towns that we have seen – it is true – but that Bruges is nice, and that it would probably be a great place to visit in the winter! Also we observed that while some cities we have seen have nice centres but sort of fade pretty quickly once you move away from them, Bruges seemed to be nice all the way out – lots of nice little streets with attractive buildings, a couple of canals, some greenery, etc. It was ridiculously packed with tourists though – worse perhaps than anywhere else we have been the whole holiday, with the exception of Venice maybe.

Still, we had a nice couple of hours just wandering about, having some lunch, nearly buying some Belgian chocolates (but not), seeing this van (potential idea for ours for the future?) that kind of thing. It was still only 1;30 though by the time we were done and recovering the bikes from where we had left them – and by 2pm we were on our way – out of Belgium and back to France for the final few hours of our trip!

We burned down the motorway out of Belgium but took the first turning off and towards the sea when we got into France. We had a little walk on the beach and a bit of a paddle, then we went back to the van, found some internet, got some pastries and sat and had coffee and cake. There has been a lot of that (it is a tradition I will miss!).

We decided then to drive on to Bologne Sur Mer for our last night – near the sea, almost certainly there would be restaurants, not far from Calais. Perfect.

We actually ended up in the town next door – Wimeraux – but I must say that the countryside around there is lovely. Suddenly it is quite hilly (we haven't seen hills for a while – the van wasn't too keen) and green and the sea is there – plus it was sunny – fantastic. Didn't help with the having to go home thing either :(

Still. We were in the municipal campsite – which was fine – and then we were walking along the sea front into town, looking for somewhere to eat, which we found, and then we were eating a 3 course meal (which included the obligatory Moules-Frites) and drinking a bottle of very dry, very cold white wine, and then..........our last dinner was over and we were back in the van looking back at all the photos of our trip and marvelling at how long ago it all seems.

It is a long time I guess – nearly 7 weeks since we left, and we have done (give or take half a mile) 4,000 miles so far!! It's been quite a journey.

All things come to an end though – and I am ready to go home. I might not feel like that tomorrow, but right now I am looking forward to going back to the house, and catching up with everything that has been going on, starting new jobs, sleeping in my own bed, having hot water on tap, all that sort of thing. I guess doing contract work means that neither of us are 'just' going back to doing the same old thing (no offence to all you permies out there – but I'm sure you know what I mean), we don't know what is coming next – which does mean that the come down from the trip isn't so bad. We think. It is going to be quite odd though.

I might even have to stop wearing shorts every day, and my hair might go back to normal (whatever that was). How bizarre. And how is the house – is it OK – and how much post will there be to go through, etc......

Exciting times.

One thing I did want to show you though - before I forget - is this: The 'magic' table - my only souvenir (apart from 2Gb of photos and this blog!) - brilliant don't you think ?

:)

West Kappelle – Bruges

This morning before setting off on the day's travels but after packing up the van and having some cheese on toast and a brew, we went for a walk on the beach.


It was lovely - windy and a bit chilly(or bracing for the more northern amongst us), but sunny and pleasant.

The beach is stunning, and if it was a hot sunny day you could definitely imagine spending a day down there soaking up some rays, and even taking a dip in the (chilly) north sea.

I settled for a paddle.

We set off for Bruges then – taking a 6km tunnel across the Westerschelde (a big sea inlet type thing) which was nice.

We rattled through what was the little bit of the Netherlands on the other side, and into Belgium. It was just as we remembered – dreadful roads, and not much else to say for itself. Really, apologies for any Belgians that might ever read this (but why would they?), but it's just not on the list of places to return to. Nothing to recommend it from what we saw.

We stopped in a town not far over the border to see about some lunch and – hopefully – pick up an internet connection. We got the internet, so we had some lunch. Nothing else to say. We carried on to Bruges.

Bruges – from our first impressions (a trip around the ring road) looks quite nice.

We drove around the ring road – thinking there might be some kind of special (and maybe free?) parking for campervans, and just as we were giving up – I saw the sign!! Yay! Free camping car parking right near the town centre. No facilities (well, there was drinking water), but free, and not bad at all. Absolutely rammed with vans – but we got a little tiny space between a British Transit conversion and a patch of grass – just like having a garden!

Jon was busy updating his CV (we have to go back to work apparently) so I took Top Bike and went to get some food and beer. The decision was that we would eat in the van tonight, see Bruges in the morning and then push off to somewhere near Calais for our last night – to include a slap up dinner and, perhaps, a bottle of wine.

I cycled for miles – managed to find a Carrefour supermarket that we had driven past on our way into town. Was all good though – cyclepaths all the way, and a sunny evening. Just right for a trip out on Top Bike. I have been mostly cycling in the highest gear on the middle chain ring on the bike – to simulate riding a single gear town bike. It's my kind of 'fun' and is very good exercise – by the time I got back to the van my buttock muscles were complaining :) Still, got to work off all the lardy pies and beers we have been drinking somehow.

Talking of beers, I bought a selection of Belgian beers for the evening – one bottle of each of 7, 8, 9 and 10% brews. How nice. Just the one bottle of each though – to share – nothing too serious. Also, slightly randomly, chicken burgers for dinner.

It was all good.

Jon finished his CV, we had dinner, the beers were nice and that was that. Another pleasant evening.

Also, we heard from my sister (Helen, you may remember her from such stories as – Amsterdam) that she got the job that she had been for – still at John Lewis (she works at the store in High Wycombe), but doing something new and exciting! Brilliant news – well done bird!

Dordrecht – West Kappelle

It has to be said that we didn't actually pay for last night's stay in the end. Not really intending that that would happen, but more that it just didn't happen. There was no one in reception when we went to pay, we hadn't had access to any of their facilities because there wasn't anyone in reception last night when we went to pay and we needed access codes to the toilets, etc.....so, yes, we just drove off. Does that make us bad? Will there be police on the look out for us all over the Netherlands? Let's hope not eh.

So, this morning we decided to head off towards Bruges – with the plan that we will be sailing back to Blighty on Friday!!

We set off from Dordrecht (didn't see much of it in the end) and across the Dutch countryside towards the Belgian border.

The kind of countryside we were passing changed quite a bit – if possible I would say it got flatter and more open (it was already very flat), it definitely got more windy (this was being put to good use with all the windmills that we saw), and the land we were travelling over got interrupted a bit more by sea – and so there were bridges and thin strips of land with roads on and the like.

We stopped for lunch by the side of an inlet we were passing – it was an attractive looking place, although it was nowhere in particular. Also nowhere in particular was the small town we stopped in for a brief walk about, and, I suppose, the place we finally stayed the night in.

After a small detour to see the product of the largest sea protection project in the world (the Delta project), which wasn't really worth it (I mean – it's a big barrage, cool, but ultimately not so much to see really!), we decided not to push on to Bruges tonight but to stop by the seaside!

We ended up in a nice campsite at a place called West Kappelle, right by the seaside on – apparently – the most beautiful bit of coastline in Holland.

We went out for a run to check it out, and I have to say that it does definitely score highly in my list of most scenic places I have ever run. Sand dunes, sea views, sea walls, lighthouse, stunning sandy beach............ lovely. Jon wasn't finding it so lovely mind, but that's because I threw in a few hill sprints up and down the sea defence wall that ran around the 'corner' of the the bit of coast we were on. :) It's good for us. Apparently.

Had something healthy for dinner and no beer (or wine or other alcohol) in an attempt to redeem ourselves (hopeless cause really), and that was it. Nice.

Delft – Dordrecht via Schipol Airport

Today was Helen & Andrew's last day of visiting, and it didn't start well. Torrential rains from about 4am coupled with a big thunderstorm meant that they had had another interrupted night's sleep, everything was a bit boggy (there was some concern about getting the van off the pitch) and everything had to be packed up in the rain.

It also meant that we couldn't make a brew or anything in our current state (we now have gas but still no inside plumbing) because it was too wet to cook outside!

So, Helen & Andrew got themselves packed up – wearing the fetching Paris Marathon ponchos – and we went out for 'breakfast' (it was gone 11am) – to Ikea! Well, you know – it was just up the road and we knew that they do really good value food. Infact, in the Rough Guide to Sweden it even says that if you are looking for good value food you can't go far wrong if you go to Ikea restaurants!

It's true as well. We had 4 main courses (meatballs and chips or chicken kebab, veg & chips) and 4 coffees and it was €20 – and it was nice. Can you go wrong?

Of course their clever trick is directing you to the exit through the store, but I managed to resist buying anything, although it was a close call!

After brunch we went to The Hague. It was close and we thought we should – and thought that it might be quite nice/interesting. It wasn't really. There's not so much to see – it's more of a businessy place I suppose, lots of offices and that sort of thing – it's not so attractive as some of the towns we have visited, the one museum we might have gone in was closed on Mondays – you know, all that sort of thing. There are some cool modern buildings there though – really nice in fact. I think I said that already as well – the Dutch have some amazing modern architecture, really striking.

So. After wandering about the shops, Helen buying us a big umbrella (to be kept in the van and no doubt used often) and the final sticker required for the magic table, failing to find a pancake shop and getting a bit bored, we decided to leave. Our intention was to go to Leiden on the way to the airport – which we did – but we stopped at the seaside on the way. Only for 30 minutes, but it was enough for a quick walk on the beach, a tiny paddle in the (North) sea and a face full of sand: it was very windy down there!

Leiden then. Sounded like a nice place in the book, and from what we saw (which was very little in the end) it seemed more like what we had seen in other places and liked – canals, tall houses, etc. What happened though was that we got to the main meeting square (described in the Rough Guide as “ugly” but actually was rather attractive – maybe they were there in the rain or with a hangover or something?) and straight away we spotted a pancake house! Well, I have been going on about having pancakes for a while now, so we couldn't not go in.

Blimey. You would have thought that one pancake surely couldn't be enough – but even Andrew, who could eat for England, was struggling to finish! Of course we all did finish, but it was an effort. They were lovely though – I had a savoury one (bacon, cheese & apple) which I split with Jon who got a sweet one (apple, cinnamon icecream and cream), Helen had something with Grand Marnier, and Andrew had cherries, ice-cream, cream and half a bag of icing sugar. They were amazing, and totally perfect – exactly what we had been looking for!

We waddled out of there and on the way back to the van I spotted a hardware store on the other side of the road where I thought there was potential for some gas hose purchasing. Jon was totally dismissive of the idea, but the other 2 were all for having a look, so we went in. After waving the old bit of pipe at the chap behind the counter and confirming that it was for butane and that we only wanted the same length again (he asked “how many metres” but it's only about 30cm long!), which he seemed to find quite amusing, he went away and came back with just the thing – all for €1.40! Perfect. We like Leiden!

Then we were on our way out of there for the final stretch of motorway up to the airport.

We made it in good time and dropped H&A off for their flight home.

As you can see, they looked gutted to be going home – despite having to sleep in the tent (there were complaints about the ground being too hard), and the rain, they both said they enjoyed themselves and would definitely have carried on for longer if the option had been there. We enjoyed having them to stay also, it was lots of fun! Cheers guys. :)

Then it was just us again, so we drove back south, passed Delft and on to Dordrecht and a small campsite in a nature park, next to a youth hostel. Jon has fixed the new gas pipe onto the various fittings and we can't smell gas – which is a good start – but we will be switching the gas off at bedtime until we are sure it's OK. Good to have everything back together though and the option to cook indoors again – and, not having to rely on sites with electricity again, as we can now run the fridge on gas if we need to.

Relaxing tonight, although can't believe we only have 4 days left – current plan is to be home Friday night! Where did all the time go?

Delft – Gouda - Delft

Today was a first – we went out for the day in the van and returned to the same campsite as last night. It wasn't so tricky as it might have been if we had been by ourselves – because we could stash somethings in Helen & Andrew's tent, plus our pitch was well and truly bagged because of it also!

So, slightly hung over, we had bacon sandwiches for breakfast - cooked (in the rain) by Andrew. Good work that man.

Then, we drove to Gouda – famous for cheese, and apparently (according to the Rough Guide) a jolly lovely place. It was nice – although everything was closed (it's Sunday after all) and we didn't really see anything to do with cheese, which we thought was a bit odd. Still, it had all the usual stuff - nice town all, attractive market square, windmill, canals, etc... and we spent a couple of pleasant hours wandering about, admiring the sceneries........all very Dutch that's for sure.

We resisted the lure of the cafes in the square and went back to van for some cheese sandwiches and crispies.

After Gouda we went on to Oudewater, another very lovely looking town – similar sort of thing, canals, houses, windmills, etc – but we were mainly there to see the Witches Weighing house!

Back in the 16^th Century Witches were 'found out' by several different methods (by fire and drowning are probably the ones we know best) and one of those was by weight. If a person (not always ladies you know) was weighed and was suspiciously light, then that was a sure sign that they could fly on a broomstick and was therefore a witch.

In Oudewater the weighmaster wasn't up for any of this nonsense (they were usually bribed to decree that accused individuals weighed just a few pounds) and that weighhouse still survives.

There is an exhibition upstairs in the house – which is a bit lame, but reasonably interesting, however, the main attraction comes after that – being weighed on the original balances that they used to use back in the 16^th century. That was fun. We all had a go, and the lady running the show told us some interesting facts as we went along.

Turns out I'm not a witch (no particular reason, I'm just not), Jon wasn't because he weighed 77kg and that – apparently – is a lucky number, Andrew also wasn't a witch because at 88kg he was too heavy to fly, but Helen – weighing in at 66 kg (part of the sign of the devil) is definitely a witch!! :) It was all good fun, we got certificates to say we weren't (or were in Helen's case) witches, and we were glad we had made the trip.

After that we had coffee and apple cake (I really fancied pancakes all day as I have seen loads of pancake houses – but typically once I mentioned it, we haven't seen anywhere selling them!) out in the square, and then set off back to Delft and the campsite.

H&A were clearly a bit sleepy :)

Nice to get back to the campsite - nice to return somewhere and not have to arse about setting up so much – and especially when you know that the site is nice, as this one was.

Once back Helen & Jon went off to the swimming pool (too cold for me) with Andrew going to observe, and I got ready to go out for a run. Just as I was about to leave the rain came down really hard, and there was a mini thunderstorm. Helen & Jon just stayed in the pool – apparently the water was quite warm, but the rain was really cold and the whole experience was a bit surreal – being in the pool while it was raining so hard, Andrew came back soaked through thinking he should have just gone in the pool after all!

I waited till the storm passed – only 10 minutes or so – and the blue skies were back and went out for a 45 minute run around the area. Something about the Netherlands that you quickly realise is that if you want to get anywhere – follow the cycle paths. I think I might have said that already. Tonight's run was a really good example though. I was trying to get around this lake near the campsite – if I followed the footpath signs I usually ended up coming up to a dead-end, running through puddles, suffering from broken ankles, etc. On the cycle paths, silky smooth tarmac, perfect route around the lake, not a puddle in sight! Incredible.

When I got back from my run (the apple cake was weighing heavy) the others were all back and dried and warm and dinner was on it's way. Andrew took to the stove and made a very marvellous spaghetti bolognaise. Just perfect.

Not so perfect – Helen managed to smash one of the light fittings in the van. There are only 2 lights and one of the clear lenses was smashed when we bought the van, now they both are. How did it happen? Well there were LOTS of mosquitos knocking around in the van (the problem with camping somewhere with so much water I guess) and Helen went to kill one that was on the light and just smashed the plastic! Doh. Still, accidents do happen right (am thinking of numerous things I have broken or split or something on this holiday!).

Anyway, after that excitement we set the table up (our new 4^th 'chair' is the porta-potti, with the lid down obviously – it's a perfect height and surprisingly comfortable :) ) and played some rummy – well, me, Jon & Andrew did – Helen was reading the blog!! She must have read about 25 days worth all in one go! It is odd having someone read something you have written while you sit there though – don't like that so much.

Andrew won at cards. I lost. Bah.

Duinrell – Delft

This morning we were up reasonably early, breakfasted, packed up and fed (also the geese were fed by Helen who had insisted on saving all bread crusts to feed them with!) and ready for a day of fun! And it was sunshining!

First up – the amusement park (had to let our breakfast digest before swimming!).

This was good fun – although not the biggest place in the world, it was free and they have a couple of good rides. The first thing we went on was a watery ride (the theme is generally water related) where you sat on a sort of sledge and slid down a water slide – very exciting!

Next was the roller coaster – possibly the most uncomfortable ride ever, especially for tall people as you knees bang on the front of the carriage and your back on the back of the chair. Still fun though :)

After that we had a bit of a walk around - admiring the many displays and things that were around – mostly for the benefit of kids, but still quite nice – and then a couple more rides. The best one was this water ride where you could decide whether you wanted to go on a closed or open boat – interesting.

The boats were five rows of 4 seats – we naturally chose the open boat – and each row had a kind of plastic mac for 4 people – 4 holes for 4 heads – try and imagine it if you can! So. We knew we were going to get wet! And we did. This thing was amazing, you were winched up this slope, round a bend and then DOWN INTO SOME VERY DEEP WATER!!! You should have seen the tidal wave that coming down generated (picture shows it from the side after the event) it was incredible – and we were drenched!! It wasn't so much the depth of the water that was the thing, we discovered afterwards, it was that the boat was on rails all the way through the water – so it didn't just skim across the surface but really plunged straight in!

We went up to the viewing platform afterwards – there was a plastic screen that you could stand behind if you didn't want to get drenched, because you really would – even just doing that was pretty cool – but the ride was tops!!

After that, and a trip on the toboggan ride (not so impressive) and the bumper cars (bumping allowed) we went back to the van to get our swimming stuff and on to the water park.

This place is cool – 8 slides (count 'em) and all indoors – none of this freezing to death trying to enjoy yourself when it just isn't sunny enough really! Anyway, we were in there for the maximum 2 hours – I went on every slide, and was the only one of us to do so – and they were easily as good as I remember from when I was a kid. Brilliant. A real mixture of super quick scary slides and more fun ones – like the 2 that were in the dark and you went on in pairs sat in a double rubber ring!! Excellent.

After all that enjoyment we went back to the van for some lunch and then had a discussion about where to go. Andrew had really wanted to go to Arnhem – and that had been broadly in the plans, but we decided that it wasn't really the best option – if we had done that we wouldn't have really had the time to see things properly because we would need to have done quite a bit of driving. As an alternative we decided to head to Delft and then explore around there.

It was a good choice.

The campsite in Delft is really nice (Delftse Hout), although your approach is straight off the motorway and through an industrial estate, so it looks a bit ropey, it's actually in a bit of a park, nicely laid out, cheap, good facilities and only a 15 minute walk into town – which was a good thing as going out drinking was high on the agenda tonight!

We got pitched up, changed and we were on our way into town with our road beers.

Once in town we had a bit of a walk about, appreciating how nice Delft is (very pretty), then we stopped in a bar for a small beer, then went looking for a bar that was mentioned in the guide book (there's always one!) which we did find eventually – it was OK, but nothing really worth talking about – and then we went for dinner.

That was great.

It was in a really nice building, an old warehouse by the look of it – next to a canal, high ceilings, amazing wood beams – also, great food (I had the biggest pot of mussels ever). So it was fab. After that we went to another bar and then onto our final bar of the evening. When we went in there – at about 11pm – it looked like it was closing for the evening, but by 12am it was absolutely packed!! We seemed to have picked a very popular drinking spot.

We had a few beers, and also something of a local 'speciality' – beer with a Dutch Gin chaser. Apparently it “hits you like a sledghammer”, or so a guy at the bar told Jon while he was getting the round in – and I have to say that I agree. About 30 minutes after drinking it I was ready for my bed!!

It didn't taste so good either – as the expression on Helen's face here probably tells you :)

We did have one game to play – trying to get a piece of paper out from underneath a 50pence piece balanced on the side of a glass, without knocking the coin into the glass. Andrew was a pro at this game, but I managed to do it eventually – getting better as the gin took effect – and then getting worse as the sledgehammer hit home!!

Was fun though – and we left at last orders to walk home.

On the way Jon & Andrew stopped off at a kebab style place to get a pizza. I wasn't in with them while they were ordering but it sounds like an amusing time – almost as amusing as the 'pizza' they got. It was a 'Turkish Pizza' which seemed to comprise a very doughy piece of dough, some filling, and then it was all rolled up, superheated, and served! They weren't impressed, but it didn't stop them polishing the lot off! Boys eh?

By the time we got home it was nearly 3am – and time for bed – I'm too old for these late nights you know :)