It is a four hour drive to Egmond aan Zee and considering we had a big drive to the ferry we think we will stay around Brugge in Belgium, that is of course if you can find a camping ground in Brugge, we stayed there in 1995 but it seems to be invisible this year so we grab a loaf of bread stopping at a roadside stop to make some soup and sandwiches, and push on towards Netherlands. We travel the motorways around the cities of Rotterdam and Amsterdam which is just as well as the traffic and the new driving conditions were much easier at this time of night, then we end up free camping at a roadhouse 10 kilometers from Thomas and Cointhas (our Dutch friends) and there children’s Joris and Sarah home.
After a pommy bath we navigate to the home of the very shocked Thomas and Cointha as we have arrived a day early and thanks to all these different country codes which I had not forseen we have difficulty phoning them before we arrive, therefore we arrived unannounced, it seems this is a theme that is becoming regular on this trip.
After a wonderful lunch of all sorts of meats, breads, cheeses and cakes topped off with chocolate sprinkle (called Hagel slaag here and seems to be a very consistent part of the diet) sandwiches we ventured into town and we ran into Astrid and Frans some other Dutch friends, Frans was playing trombone in a festival to mark the start of the Easter carnival so watched a bit of that before returning to Thomas and Cointhas via the Supermarket (our first foreign language market) where we had some difficulty working out what a few things were. We had some wonderful Dutch meals including a night with Frans and Astrid indulging in local dishes like Curly flower which looks a bit like parsley and more hagel slaag.
From Egmond we visited Alkmaar, where they roll the cheese, Bergen a beautiful old village, Edam and Volendam an old fishing village with some great pubs and restaurants, then we were off to Amsterdam via an old village full of working windmills. In Amsterdam we took a canal boat ride around the city then we walked the streets taking in the Grand Dam and palace then off through some eye opening alley through the red light district, (I don’t think Daniel will forget that walk in a hurry as a lot of women in g strings thought him quite cute giving him winks and nods ) It was great to have Thomas and Cointha available to share there Dutch cultures and history with us. It will be good to return here when the weather is warmer.
As we are about to leave Holland Atrid arrives to deliver a wonderful bag of Dutch goodies that she and Cointha have put together full of Chocolate, cakes, biscuits and of course Hagel slaag.


So off we go again with our mouths full of chocolate.