Meeting friends in Ermelo

 Ermelo, Holland

Off again then, this time to Ermelo, where we had booked in as we were visiting our friends, Meerke and Nol who had been our neighbours back in Albir. They have a static van on a campsite in the forest so it was really easy to visit them, just book a pitch on the same site.

The drive to Ermelo was fairly peaceful, although the roads were a bit narrow. They seem to be a single lane with wide shoulders each side, so if anyone comes in the other direction, you have to move right over to drive on the rubbing strips which makes a very interesting noise in our van.

Quite a lot of these

and of course they can also be quite narrow in places.

Thankfully not too many of these

As I said we were visiting friends and although we didn't want them to think that they had to entertain us all the time they did take us out. Which was wonderful as we saw a lot of places and learned a lot of things that we just wouldn't have known otherwise.

Our first day out they took us to Dronten and for a visit to the Polder. In Dronten, we visited Hank and Jenny who had been our neighbours on the other side while we were in Albir. Although most Dutch people speak pretty good English, Hank's English is exceptionally good having worked as a police interpreter. Meerke hadn't told Hank and Jenny that we would be with them so it was quite a surprise for us all to turn up. They are also going back to Albir this winter but this time will be leaving their caravan behind in storage as the journey is getting a bit much for them.

Whilst in Dronten we visited the Air Gunner's room and the monument to the Air Gunners. The original Lancaster propeller monument is adopted by the local primary school year 6 children every year and the schools take their turn in looking after the monument, polishing it and keeping it clean. They really take pride in it – perhaps something we should adopt. At the Air Gunner's room we were given a book about personal recollections of the air gunners and their times during the war. I haven't read it yet, but will get around to it.

Leaving there we went to the Polder. I remember as kids being taught something about the Polder, but I have to admit that most of my schooling seemed to go over my head, I really don't remember much. God knows how I managed to get 8 O'levels at my first go.

Now if you don't know, the Polder is the “New Land”, where dykes were built across waterways and pumps were put in place which pumped all the water out of the sea and created new land for Holland. Of course what you don't think about is that these pumps are continually working, it wasn't just a one-off exercise. A bit simplistic I know, sorry. The first picture shows the view from the top of one of the dykes across to the sea, the second illustrates just how high the dykes are.

You get an idea from here how high the dykes are

Looking across from the top of the dyke

This picture shows just how much the land was pumped out. The lock gates are the largest I have seen, you can get an idea of the size with Nol, Meerke and Iain standing on the bridge. It would be disastrous now if the sea was to break through.

All over the Polder there are sights where WWII planes have been found and also wrecked ships. Sometimes the occupants were still in them. These places are marked on maps but there's nothing left to actually see.

Most of this land is now used for agriculture, but of course there was work to be had and new towns to be built. This work started during WWII and men who chose to work on the Polder were excused fighting for the Germans. This was seen then as the easy option.

If I've got my facts right, the town of Dronten was only established about 1970 and there would have been grants for people wanting to move to a new town. Nol said that the interviews were strict and if someone was considered “unsuitable” for the new town they they would be refused the move.

Nol and Meerke had moved here in the early '70's when they had got married. Nol worked as a pile driver amongst other things – a bit more of that to come.

Leaving Dronten we moved up to Urk which was a pretty fishing village. For our motorhoming readers, there is an aire at the harbour which looked ok and well situated for the shops and views etc. Here we stopped for lunch and of course got wet again. We then visited the memorial where there is a statue of a woman looking out to see and a memorial wall engraved with the names of all the Urk fishermen who lost their lives at sea.

   

We visited the island of Schokland which for hundreds of years was a small island with 3 settlements in the middle of the sea. For many years they fought off the sea by building sea defences all around which of course took a lot of maintaining. In the mid 19^th Century the government of the time decided that they would not give any more funding for the island and ordered the evacuation. There were about 170 people living on the island at that time. Of course now the Polder has been drained this island stands in the middle of the land. It's quite an interesting place with a very interesting museum and church. In the museum it tells you about the life of the people who lived on Schokland and also the building of the Polder and the things that were found when the Polder was drained – including some impressive woolly mammoth bones. There are also some glacial boulders to see that were left in the Polder at the end of the Ice Age although these in the picture actually came from Norway.

The image below we call “Nol's Wall” because Nol worked on the reconstruction of the sea defence wall of the island.

Nol's wall (it's much higher the other side)

Well worth the 5 Euros entrance fee.

On the way back we visited Lelystat and saw the replica of the Batavia ship. This is pretty impressive, the original was shipwrecked on her maiden voyage in 1629 and this replica was built using traditional methods.

Also looking from the shore near the Batavia, you can see this statue. It is called Exposure and is 25 metres high (5 metres higher than the Angel of the North). It was made by Antony Gormly and was commissioned in 2005 and officially inaugurated in September 2010. Apparently you can get to it although it's quite difficult.

The following day Nol and Meerke took us to Gouda to see the cheese market. This market runs every Thursday from April to August and is well worth a visit. (I believe there is a similar one in Edam) The farmers bring their cheese to market on their horse and cart and display them in the town square. Then the price is haggled over and the deal is done.

Doing the tourist bit

Say Cheese! Well it just had to be done.

Of course a lot of this is done for the tourism these days but it's still interesting to watch. Gouda itself is a very pretty town and well worth the visit if you are ever going that way. It's like a little Amsterdam but just a shame that the canals are so green.

We visited the Stadhuis in Gouda (Town Hall) built in the 15^th Century. 

Nowadays it is used for special ceremonies and weddings. 

 I'll bet it costs a fortune to get married there. It used to be the courtroom and the convicted offenders had to leave the building by the left stairs and the innocent by the right stairs. Apparently due to superstition all wedding parties leave by the right stairs.

Condemmed to the left - innocent to the right - which way would you leave on your wedding day?

After lunch we visited another little fishing port on the way home, but I'm afraid that I haven't got a clue where it was. We had been taken to so many places that the name for this one escapes me. I wish I could remember as it was a very pretty place at the end of a canal and there were some interesting original fishing boats moored up in the old harbour.

What is this man doing?

A lovely evening was had, having dinner with Meerke and Nol and their grandson Tyrone and then it was time for us to wave goodbye to our friends – hopefully we will see you again soon in Albir in December. Thank you Meerke and Nol for a very enjoyable stay with you. 

So we were off again.  This time to Dusseldorf on the Rhine, via Arnhem.  Well that was the plan but hey what are plans for if you don't change them.

Belgium in August

 Early morning awakenings

This morning (Sunday) I woke up in a foul mood. The dog had woken me at about 4.30am wanting to get on the bed with us. Now this is no longer allowed because as an old lady she had problems with her waterworks. This has been going on for a little while now, but it is getting worse and she needs some HRT which we will get sorted when we get to Spain. So having sent her back to her own bed I was now awake.

Well in the words of the Lighthouse Family - “You can't always be happy all the time”.

The reason for my bad mood, well, we're on the road again and that is always stressful for me. I just don't have the wanderlust that Iain has, I like to know where I am going, where I can get my groceries, how easy it is to get washing done, what the roads are going to be like. I can get really wound up when driving but I know I'd be worse if I was a passenger. The rain was beating down, I'd nearly run over a couple on a zebra crossing and I didn't like the campsite we'd just arrived (well nearly arrived) at. It was very close to the “It's all your fault” stage yesterday but the words didn't quite come out, but the “I want to go home” did. Woops – this is home, wherever you park it and at that time it was parked on the side of a road, somewhere I didn't want to be, with the rain beating down – again - while we frantically looked for another camp site.

In my defence the zebra crossing incident wasn't all my fault, but of course if you hit someone on a zebra crossing it is immediately your fault in law. Anyway it happened because I was approaching the crossing and looking at the couple on my right side, they were dithering near to the crossing and I was waiting to see if they were going to cross or not. They dithered enough that I decided they weren't getting onto the crossing and were going to wait for me to go past. However, because my attention was on them, I hadn't seen the couple on the left-hand side who had decided to cross and make me stop. Well by the time I saw them it was “anchors on”, hard on the brakes, Iain nearly shot into the windscreen and the noise of loads of stuff reverberating around in the lockers was like shaking pebbles in a tin. The guy looked just like the frozen rabbit in the headlights, but hey if you saw a great big truck coming towards the crossing, wouldn't you make sure it was going to stop before you stepped in front of it? No harm done, except it probably raised a few people's blood pressure through the roof.

This was one of those bad travelling days – not as bad as the San Sebastian one, but pretty bad and this is why I didn't want to be where we were.

Down there?  You cannot be serious!!!!!

The book said, lovely campsite suitable for large motorhomes. They're having a laugh!!!! This was the entrance. We stopped behind another motorhome who obviously had the same idea as us. Iain got out and walked down the lane, he came back with that look on his face of “mmm, don't think you are going to like this. At this point the other motorhome drove off as they'd obviously decided that they didn't like the look of it either. So I then got out (in the rain) and had a look. Yes it was DOWN the lane; DOWN to a level crossing with a tight bend, DOWN another single lane track and finally arriving at the campsite.

I considered it for a while. I thought that we would get the van down there, after all it does say suitable for larger motorhomes, but then maybe if it wasn't raining, I might have a go; maybe if I didn't have this innate fear of level crossings (I think it was all those silent movies that my dad had when we were kids, where the damsel in distress would always be tied to the railway tracks and be rescued, screaming just as the train came along), I might have a go; maybe if it wasn't so narrow that there was no passing place, I might have a go; maybe if once getting down there I didn't have to think about getting back up, I might have a go. Iain offered to drive down there and I said "You must be joking, you haven't driven in the last 5000 miles, do you really think it's a good time to practice?"

Then I calmed down and saw sense – I remembered the terraced site in Costa Blanca last winter where we got onto the pitch ok but then grounded trying to get off again and although I thought I could do it, I just wasn't prepared to spend 4 days worrying about getting out again!!!!!!

So there we were – and now we're somewhere else. But before I move on to where we have been, as I said I'm up early and I've just taken the dog out. It was about 6.30am when I took this picture.

The weather is feeling pretty autumnal even though we haven't got to the end of August yet.  However cold it is here, I've just heard on the news that it was -2C in Northern Ireland last night, so that's made me feel smug. The mist was rising above the river and forming in little tufty clouds as they floated their way up the gorge into the trees and beyond. It reminded me of my rowing days on the Thames at Twickenham when we would be on the river by 8am, Saturdays and Sundays, rain or shine, summer or winter. Those early mornings were wonderful. Still, crisp and you knew that soon you would hear the lovely splish of the blades as they entered the water and propelled you down the river. So now the world is all right with me and I know it's going to be a lovely day – who sang that? I just love the water and as long as I'm near water, I'm happy. It must be because I'm a pisces.

Ostende

So getting back to our trip. In my last post we had just arrived in Ostende – which seems like ages ago. There's really not much to “write home about” Ostende. The campsite was ok, the internet was expensive and not very good – I had to go to the toilets to get a decent signal which seemed miles away. They were full up when we arrived and we had to stay on a bit of grass in the middle which was obviously saved for “drop in's” . The area had a nice beach – and allowed dogs on it early morning and evening. There were a few shops around so we could get groceries, but we didn't eat out at all. We didn't even go out for a beer!!!!!! Mainly because nowhere did free wifi. It did give us a chance to get our washing done so at least we left clean and with all clean clothing. The weather was a bit hit and miss as we got the tail end of hurricane Bertha but hey, you got worse in England. It was a bit of Margate across the sea though. So that's about all I've got to say about Ostende, I didn't find it very inspiring and don't think I got my camera out once – so I'll move on.

Breda

Leaving Ostende we travelled some 2 hours

to Breda in Holland. Here we were to stay for 5 nights. The main roads in Holland are fantastic, although there are a lot of lorries on them. The surface is great and the motorways have 3 lanes so for a change there were no problems with the driving. We understand that the people of Holland pay around 80 Euros a month in car tax so not much wonder the roads were good. The campsite was nice, off the beaten track and had a pool, although even though it was August it wasn't warm enough for me to swim.

The lanes around the campsite were pretty small so we had to go slowly. As we turned around one corner, some children were playing in the lane. One girl about 12 years old suddenly looked up and exclaimed “Oh My God!, mama, mama, come see”. They don't get many vans like ours around here then.

The first day we just chilled and took a wander around the area. This took us up the lane and past this really vicious dog. Now I'm pretty cool around dogs but this one scared me, even our dog didn't do her normal dancing around. I'm so glad that he was behind a metal fence, although you could see loads of places where he'd tried to gnaw his way out, which you might be able to see in the picture. I scooted past his place several times.

Along the end of the lane we found the smallest church I'd ever seen, it was really quaint, with only 4 pews, worth I picture I thought.

The weather forecast was ok for the following day so we decided to cycle the 5 miles or so into Breda. As you can imagine, cycling around Holland is a doddle. It's just so flat and there are cycle lanes everywhere, even though with the dog on the back it's like peddling uphill all the time for me.

Breda itself is a bit disappointing, it's pretty but a bit run-down with loads of closed shops. So here's a couple of token pictures of Breda.

We actually decided to have lunch so we stopped in a street cafe. Luckily we chose one with umbrellas as not long after we sat down the heavens opened. We couldn't go inside because of the dog so we just sat it out. It was so heavy that the dog was shaking because the sky was falling down and we even needed our waterproofs, under the umbrella.

It was just a shower - not

August in Breda

We didn't wait that long, unlike in France a couple of years ago when we got caught in the rain and ended up leaving 70 euros lighter. We weren't going to make that mistake again.

So the 5 mile cycle ride back home – in the rain. Luckily before leaving Ostende, we had visited the nearby supermarket and I had stocked up for about 5 days of food. Unfortunately Iain hadn't done the same with his really essential supplies - booze. So we just had to find a supermarket on the way back in case we were confined to barracks for a few days. This was when I thought that Dutch people don't eat. Can you find a supermarket? No! All the way in and all the way out – no supermarket to be seen. We cycled onto a huge retail park where we were convinced we might at least find the equivalent of an M&S food hall and there was nothing. A young couple gave us some general directions to a supermarket but they said it wasn't very near to where we were. So off we went – this time with Iain in front. As we cycled round a residential area, I could see a church over to our left and that's usually a pretty good indicator of a town centre, and civilisation but we had gone past and he was too far ahead for me to shout. Finally I got him to stop and made the decision to find the church. Yes, there was not only one, but two supermarkets. We chose one and did our shopping – then went to the “Cards only” lane, only to find that it didn't take our cards. Only Dutch ones. How stupid is that? So after some discussions we were able to pay in cash at another till. Luckily we had some. That is one tip for people travelling to Holland – it is nearly all Maestro cards, many places just don't accept Visa, cash machines are generally ok though. Also supermarkets don't sell spirits!!!

So essential supplies replenished we headed off back to the campsite. We were pretty wet when we got back but hey – we are English, we are used to it.

The following day, the weather forecast wasn't too good so we decided to have a day indoors. This would give me a chance to make a start on my re-upholstery of the settee. So we got the sofa-bed out to see how everything was attached. We established that this job didn't have to be done in one go and that we could still use the settee during the process – so I got out the snips and made a start. The weather was overcast but I could get outside so I unpicked one of the seat cushions, got my empty cow outside onto the ground and made a plan.

Measure twice, cut once

Beer cans make great weights to stop the leather blowing away

That was enough for the first day – sewing to start tomorrow. Then next day I did manage to complete one cushion but the before and after pictures to follow when I've finished.

After 5 nights in Breda it was off to Ermelo