HOOGHALEN

FRIDAY 8^th

It has been raining all night and blowing a gale, still raining this morning, ground is like a lake. We thought that Noordpolderzijl would be too bleak and barren, not suitable for a walk across the polder, so headed for Hooghalen instead, about 44 miles away, near to the TT circuit at Assen and also Camp Westerbork which is a concentration camp that Brian would like to visit. We stopped off for some foodie bits, fuel and also a camper shop on the way, arriving around 12.30 having driven down the road nearly sideways at times in driving rain. Not much fun! Camping Tikvah is mostly grass, mostly under water, but we have managed to get one of the only two hardstandings for 3 nights, so will now curl up with a glass of wine and a good book and see what tomorrow brings, shame we haven’t got the log fire to sit in front of.

SATURDAY 9^th

Although it was mainly dry through the night, it started again before we got up and p……d down all morning. Luckily after lunch it stopped and even came out sunny at times. We walked 200m further along the road to Camp Westerboek and spent about 1 hour having a look at all the exhibits and film in the museum part, very interesting but oh so sad. Then we got on a shuttle bus which took us 3km to where the actual camp used to be, not much left but they have reconstructed some of the huts and there is a memorial railway track on 97 sleepers depicting the number of trains that left for places such as Auschwitz. On the roll-call ground there are 102,000 stones with stars on the tops to denote the number of people who did not survive the camp. Since the liberation it has been used by the military as a barracks, as well as a centre for people displaced from the East Indies. Now it has a number of radio telescopes all around the woods so you can’t go around in your own car, but have to use the shuttle bus. Then we walked back to our little home, now in the sun and hope for better tomorrow.

SUNDAY 10^th

The sun was actually shining this morning, I did a couple of bits of washing to hang on the bike rack and then we strolled off in the opposite direction to the village about 1km away. As it was Sunday it was very quiet everywhere apart from all the cyclists and motor cycle brigades going by. We had a nosey at some lovely houses, found a Coop (closed), cycle shop (closed)  and a bakery that was open with a little garden room on the side.  Like magnets we were drawn inside for a cup of coffee and a couple of their lovely fruit tarts. What a civilised way to spend a Sunday morning! Then we strolled back to base and sat outside in the sun with our Kindles. No need for lunch we were stuffed. Later we planned our route for tomorrow and then had showers and dinner.