Holland – Sunday 14th to Sunday 21st, July 2013

 

Arrivals and Departure.

 

The start of a very busy week with the arrival at Schipol Airport of Ewout’s sister Astrid and husband Chris, and the pickup in Amsterdam of our friends Helen and John.

Martin and Ewoud had the lovely job of the very early drive to the Airport while we were able to leave later and make the drive to Amsterdam. Being Sunday the roads were very quiet and so we made good time on the motorways and arrived in time to meet our friends. Lucky for us the streets of Amsterdam were also quiet and apart from working out how to drive up over the tram line where they were doing some roadwork we made our pickup.

Arriving back in s’Gravendeel we did the introductions and worked out where everyone would sleep.

Ewout and John got started on familiarising the intricacies of the camper and we helped them get settled in to their new holiday transportation.

We had a lovely couple of days with Helen and John, spent some time talking and sharing stories with everyone and made a excursion on the monday to the Kinderdijk.  The most ‘typically Dutch’ pictures are taken at the Mills of Kinderdijk. This UNESCO area with nineteen mills is a must-see for everyone visiting Holland and being close by it was an ideal afternoon drive.

This made it the ideal opportunity for John to have his first drive in the camper, and so we all climbed aboard, (all 7 of us)  and headed off.

The weather was lovely, warm and sunny and we spent a lovely couple of hours walking along the pathways and taking photos, stopping along the way to watch the local lads jumping off a bridge into the water.

Tuesday morning Helen and John started on their journey in our Motorhome. Their trip this year is for 10 weeks exploring the northern countries of  Denmark, Norway, Sweden, then ferrying over to Estonia, leaving the  Motorhome in a  campground from where they will fly to Russia and see Moscow and St Peterburg, before returning  and driving back through Poland, Germany and Holland. We have made a swap with them and will return to Adelaide to housesit their home until they return.

Wednesday afternoon a boat cruise around  the national park the Biesbosch, one of the largest national parks in the Netherlands and one of the last freshwater tide areas in Europe. The large tourist boat was crowded with people and we sat in the sun and viewed the network of rivers and smaller and larger creeks with islands. The vegetation is mostly willow forests, although wet grasslands and fields of reed are common as well. The Biesbosch is an important wetland area for waterfowl and has a rich flora and fauna. It is especially important for migrating geese and a popular recreation area for boaties and fishermen.

On  Thursday it was decided that we would  go to Dordrecht and take a trip on one of the canal boats through the city.  Dordrecht is the oldest city in Holland and has a rich history and just happens to be where Ewout was born and his family lived for a while before migrating to Australia.

The canals were a view of the town we hadn’t seen before and the 1 hour cruise was a pleasant and informative excursion. This was followed by an ice coffee (not the sort you get in Aust, but more like a coffee milkshake) in a small cafe, and later Dutch croquettes and patat met. (or for the non dutchies, Chips and Mayonnaise) We did a bit of shopping and then drove back the 3.15 kms back to our billet with cousin Martin.

s’Gravendeel is a small town in the south of Holland, where relatives of our family have lived for many year. We enjoy being able to come to visit the family and enjoy the small pleasures of experiencing normal Dutch village life. It’s funny that small things like doing the grocery shopping in the local supermarket and walking the streets past the homes, decorated in typically dutch style can give us a lot of enjoyment and an insight into their way of life.

Friday another trip back to Dordrecht was arranged. It is market day on Fridays and is a chance to sample the delights of  Dutch gastronomy and to stock up with some fresh fruit and cheese. The main reason for visiting again was to meet another sister, Willy and her husband Dean who have been travelling around Europe and were catching the train from Amsterdam to meet up with us. This is the first time we have all been in Holland at one time and to celebrate this we decided to meet and drink coffee and Poffertjes in a Cafe before all going back to base.

So now the house is very full, all 7 of us in cousin Martins home, we have taken over, filling it up with our noise, our possessions and the myriad of technology that we are all travelling with.