When we left Ypres we headed for Utrecht. I set the sat nav for a campsite about 6 kilometers out of the town near a smaller town called IJsselstein. Everything went well ‘til we got close and we found ourselves driving through the narrow streets of a housing estate. None of the people seemed taken aback by a motorhome driving through though so we thought we must be on the right path as it’s as if they’re quite used to it.
So eventually we were out in the country and we could see the campsite off in the distance. Only trouble was we couldn’t see how on earth you might get to it. At that moment a, shall we say more mature lady came along on a bicycle and I said to Lynne wind down your window and we’ll ask if she speaks English. We needn’t have bothered, as soon as she was alongside she said “are you lost”?
Yes was the obvious reply and she proceeded to give us good directions on how to get to the campsite that we could see probably less than 300 yards away. The strange thing was that her directions which turned out to be correct actually entailed driving approximately another 5/6 kilometers!
When we got closer I stopped and looked at the sat nav and it turned out the campsite was in the data base anyway, duh! Should have been obvious really as it’s a special motorhome edition sat nav!
Once at the campsite we went to the office and entering I asked the man behind the counter if he spoke English, yes he replied do you? Right, every ones a comedian! Nice guy though and in no time at we were set up at the side of the river. The area is everything you would expect of Holland, very flat, and the one thing I’ve noticed is there are waterways everywhere. It’s an idyllic scene with boats drifting by and various water birds paddling around.
Unfortunately the idyll didn’t last long as soon after we arrived a boat turned up and moored directly in front of us. That would have been ok but on board the boat were a large Italian family with 4 or 5 children who spent the next hour or so jumping and diving into the water whilst screaming and shouting at the top of their lungs. Needless to say no one wants to stop children (bless em) enjoying themselves but this was no longer the peaceful haven we had liked so much when we arrived!
Anyway all’s well that ends well and they departed after emptying their bilge tanks or whatever you call them. I have no idea, they might have been filling up with clean water for all I knew. It involved use of a large pipe anyhow! I don’t think we were the only ones that breathed a sigh of relief when they went anyway!
Close by was a boating club restaurant and we ate there that evening. Food was good and the drink too, I might have had slightly too much and I went to bed as soon as we got back. The van was like an oven and even with a portable air conditioning unit at the foot of the bed blowing directly on me bits it was almost impossible to sleep. As I said, almost. I actually did sleep until woken at about 1.00 am by Lynne bouncing around (no nothing like that smutty). I soon realized that we were in the middle of a storm and the wind was threatening to wreck the awning which we had left out as there didn’t seem any likelihood of the weather changing.
So I scratted around to put on a pair of shorts and ran outside to try and get the awning in. Lynne had to hold it while I wound it in. She was quite a sight in her nightie. The only consolation was that most of our “neighbors” were all frantically doing the same as us in various states of dress (undress). I don’t know how the chairs didn’t end up in the river but we saved them and it saved us packing everything up next morning. Literally as soon as we got back in the van it absolutely threw it down with rain. At least it cooled things down a little and sleep was easier afterwards. Not a big surprise that we couldn’t sleep previously as it had been 35 degrees during the day and didn’t seem to have cooled too much in the evening till the storm came!
Tomorrow it’s off to Amsterdam. Somewhere I’ve always wanted to go, let’s hope it lives up to expectations!
Wandering Wildman 