DELFT

THURSDAY 21^st

We packed everything away first of all, then walked over to Lidl and picked up 3 boxes of wine for 27 euros (would have cost £42 at home), then set off for Delft just 26 miles away. We found Delftse Hout Vakantiepark fairly easily, passing a huge Ikea on the way. We were not too impressed with the site, it is the most expensive we have stayed on, not the cleanest, and no spaces in the campsite itself. We were given a pitch outside in the camperplaats, but charged the same price as if we had been inside! At least we can walk in to use the showers and toilets, but the slots are very small and the entrance horrendously congested with a barrier and the entrance/exit only wide enough for one vehicle.  Needless to say we followed a Dutchman up to the entrance only to find a motorhome trying to come out, so we had to reverse back on to the road and move out of the way first.

FRIDAY 22^nd

It was raining a bit first thing so we took our time getting up. We bought city shuttle hop-on/hop-off tickets to go in to the centre of Delft. It turned out to be a cross between an overgrown golf buggy and an Indian tuk tuk, just taking 6 people, but as there was only the 2 of us we had plenty of room. We felt every single bump in the road and nearly flew out of our seats a few times. We were dropped off in the centre square and the first thing we saw was the New Church to investigate. Somewhat of a misnomer as it goes back to the 1500’s but is still newer than the Old Church. William of Orange is buried in the crypt there, as are all the members of the royal family since then. It has been fantastically cleaned inside and made to look very new, some restoration work is still going on. The stained glass windows were gorgeous to look at. From there we strolled along little streets alongside the canals to the Old Church which was also beautiful but in a much plainer way. Everything there is geared around the painter Vermeer, who, with his family is buried in that church. After some more strolling we found a small coffee shop which we had been given vouchers for so piled in for our free cuppa and a sandwich. It was in an old warehouse and was selling all ethnic clothes around the walls, quite different. Eventually, more wandering brought us back to the square where caught the shuttle back to the campsite. We have been a bit disappointed with Delft, whilst it is one of the oldest cities in Holland, it is certainly the most run-down looking.

William of Orange's mausoleum

Beautiful ceiling in the New Church, all wood

Outside the Town Hall

New Church

Town Hall

Wonky spire of New Church

Tomorrow is our last day, and we need to do some cleaning up before heading to the port on Sunday morning for the ferry home. We hope you have enjoyed reading about our travels and maybe given some of you ideas for yourselves.

ALBLASSERDAM

SUNDAY 17^th

Dry, but grey and a lot colder when we packed up. We had to play silly buggers with mudmats, ramps and chocks in order to get ourselves off the soggy grass, then clean the mud off everything, so were not on the road until about 11.00am. Still it was only 61 miles to Alblasserdam where we headed to the Camperplaats Kinderdijk. We had a coffee stop part of the way and pulled up behind another English motorhome. When we went inside the service station we discovered that it was people we know from years back, that live just around the corner from us at Cliffe Woods. Jo spoke to me and said what a small world this is! They were on their way back from Poland and as the weather had been so awful were going to cut their visit short and try to get on an earlier Eurotunnel train. We found the camperplaats with difficulty after driving around the town a couple of times, it would appear we had the gps for the old place and we were now going to the new one. It was a lot sunnier and nicer now, although we had driven through quite a bit of fog on the way, so after lunch we went exploring. We are hoping to go to see the Kinderdijk windmills that are famous and we can get there by waterbus, so we found the jetty for it and noted times for another day. Back at Juliette we had showers and then had a lash-up meal from some tins we had in the cupboard.

Alblasserdam camperplaats overlooking the harbour

MONDAY 18^TH

It had rained again in the night, but was dry at 8.30 when the baker’s van came around, I hopped out and bought some lovely rolls for breakfast as well as a half loaf for the future. We strolled over the bridge and in to town around 10.30 in showery rain, everywhere was quiet and hardly any shops were open, even the market was a bit half-hearted. Apparently 11.00 is the magic hour, so we waited around for a while and then did some shopping. I treated myself to a hot-air curler/styler thingy with a 2 pin plug to keep in the van for when we are travelling as most washrooms we come across have plug sockets in them. After the foodie shop in Albert Heijn it was tipping down and we had to dodge from one shop front to the next to try to keep dry. We ended up at a fast food outlet so went in for a coffee and portion of chips each (well it was nearly lunchtime!) When it had stopped raining briefly we legged it back to the van just getting in as the heavens opened again, we even had thunder as well this time. We relaxed all afternoon, with really heavy showers interspersed with some sunny spells. At least we have a good view of the marina and the expensive boats with their comings and goings.

TUESDAY 19^th

Once more up in time for the baker lady, a bit foggy and damp, but eventually it cleared. We caught the water bus at 10.45 for the 10 minute trip along to Riddekerk where we hopped on to a smaller boat to take us across to the World Heritage site of Kinderdijk. The whole area is part of the water management system going back to the 1700’s. First 8 brick windmills were built, then another 8 with thatched rooves, plus a couple extra over the years.  All to pump the excess water out of the polders back in to the river Lek and out to sea. The land here is about 6m below sea level and if they stopped pumping for 3 months it would totally flood again. The mills have now been replaced with 2 pumping stations, originally steam driven, but now electric. We walked about 1km along the footpaths and were able to go inside 2 of the mills which have been kept just as they were all those years ago. It is hard to believe that a whole family lived in one, with 13 children, sleeping in cupboard beds with small cribs at the end for the little ones. Outside was a thatched workshop, as well as a kitchen and a wash house complete with tin bath and stove to boil the water. Back at one of the now unused pumping stations we sat and watched a film explaining how everything worked. We met loads of Japanese tourists again with their cameras and also chatted to a family from Melbourne. Then it was across the road to the bus stop and back to Alblasserdam by bus, getting back around 4.00pm.  It had been a lovely day, sunny most of the time with just a couple of showers to remind us that it is now autumn.

PUTTEN

THURSDAY 14^th

52 miles today to Putten, a campsite called Strandparc Nulde, via the back roads through the lakes area, very pretty in the sunshine. We arrived just before 12.00 and with difficulty got sorted out. The guy from reception was out on the site blowing away leaves and acorns, apparently they had the bad storm yesterday as well. We had just got parked up when it started to rain again, so stayed inside until about 8.00pm when we tried to level ourselves out a bit, but the ground was so soggy we just got stuck in the mud so gave up and will now sleep on the slant. Hopefully it will have dried out a bit by the time we come to leave or we could have a problem. There are very few people around here, mostly shut up long-term caravans whose owners come and go throughout the year.

FRIDAY 15^th

A fairly nice day  on and off. We did a bit of tidying and then went for a walk along the strand, not much to see apart from trees and water, no cars or people about. It is very definitely the end of their season. Quite a few folk turned up on site today and started cleaning up their caravans and taking awnings down, apparently they have to be off the site by 1^st October. In the evening we went and made pigs of ourselves in the restaurant, steak for Brian and smoky ribs for me, yummy! I had to ask for a doggy bag as I couldn’t manage all the ribs, we’ll save the rest for tomorrow.

SATURDAY 16^th

Raining again this morning so we did not get up very early. Later on when it dried up a bit we emptied our waste, toilet and filled up ready to move on tomorrow. After lunch we went for a stroll in the opposite direction, but again not a lot to see. A few more folk came today and cleared out their vans.

GIETHOORN

MONDAY 11^th

We left the campsite around 10.00 and drove in to the village for some food items from the Coop, then headed off for 46 miles to Giethoorn. We had been told about this “Little Venice” as the Dutch call it, by a couple back at Alkmaar and it sounded as if it would be worth a visit. It was a terribly windy drive again, may be something to do with the landscape, and as the roads are not very wide it was most uncomfortable every time a lorry passed us. Anyway Silly Emily found the way across the country, over a canal where we had to wait for the bridge to be lifted and safely to Camperplaats Hamstede.

Crossing the canal to the camperplaats

After lunch we walked along to cross the bridge to find our way in to the village, picked up some leaflets from Tourist Info, found the boat trips place and also hundreds of Japanese with their inevitable cameras. Then it came over very black so we scurried back to base just before the rains came again. In the evening we had thunder and lightning and horrendous downpours, we are once more surrounded by a lake.

TUESDAY 12^th

Luckily it was sunny again when we got up although still quite windy. It is about a 15 minute walk up the road alongside a wider canal, over the bridge in to the centre. We first came to a museum called ‘t Oude Maat Hus, which roughly translates as Old Maat’s House, one of the original farmhouses. Very well-preserved both inside and outside where they showed the old reed-cutting equipment and boats that transported both livestock and reeds along the small canals. Giethoorn gets it’s name from all the goats that were kept here (Goat’s Horns) and once was only accessible by water. It is a maze of little canals with wooden bridges going over to each house with their thatched roofs, all very pretty and extremely well-kept. No need for any licks of paint here. We wandered, and wandered some more until about 1.00 when lunch called, so sat for about 1 hour with a very nice meal, then wandered some more. All the time dodging the Japanese with their cameras. We had to laugh as the females posed in all sorts of strange places, one even laid across a table waving a Dutch flag, whilst their male counterparts clicked madly away. There are some times when I would like to see Facebook ‘cos I am sure they will all be on there tomorrow. We got back around 4.00pm a bit footsore and weary but having had a really interesting day.

WEDNESDAY 13^th

When we awoke it was grey and gloomy, wind howling and rain sounding like god throwing pebbles on the roof…in other words a “stay snuggling in bed” kind of day, so we did. We had thought of going to the village and having a boat ride around the canals but quickly gave that idea a miss. So here I am catching up on the blog and photos again. Tomorrow we plan to drive on down towards Delft or Alblasserdam with a stop somewhere on the way.