Friday 17th June, Oudega [Friesland] near Drachten

We left Ribadesella at about 2pm after spending the morning on the internet catching up with news and calling family to see how they are.

We arrived at Bilboa at about 5 pm. The camperstop we stayed in was on the top of the hill above Bilboa with spectacular views. We had an early night and in the morning we caught the bus into town at about 9. This took us to the old part of the town where we wandered the narrow streets, had a look at the market and went to a café and had a coffee before wandering along the river to the Guggenheim. The Guggenheim Museum opened at 10 and we were there at about a quarter past. The building itself is well worth seeing and we paid our 8€ and went inside. The exhibits were mixed, some looked like garbage [and it was] originally coming out of a garbage skips and trucks in New York. Other pieces were elaborate and obviously took time, effort and thought. Some made sense and others, well let’s just say that some modern art is in the eye of the beholder. It was very interesting but after a few hours we had enough culture for one day. We had lunch in the city and caught the bus back to the camperstop aiming to leave about 3 which is the exit time for the day. We found that leaving the city was not as easy as coming in because of many road works. The Tom Tom kept sending us down non existing roads and after a bit of a backtracking we noticed the right sign for the through traffic and finally got to the main motorway heading east along the coast to France. We drove from 3.30 to about 8 and slept in a road side car park which was well away from the traffic noise.

We slept until till 9 and slowly had breakfast before heading further into France. We then decided to try out our France Passion book. No it’s not what it sounds like!!!! It’s a book which has about 1600 farms, vineyards and other places where you can stay for a day for free. They can be wine growers, animal farms, cheese producers, flower growers, etc.

You have to be self sufficient with your own toilet and shower as they only provide a place and no facilities. All they ask is that you greet the owners and say goodbye when you leave. When we arrived at the first farm it looked deserted but there was noise coming from the shed where there were two men milking the cows, they directed us to a spot where it was quiet and had a pleasant view of the countryside. It was a long weekend and the two men left leaving the farm deserted except for us. It happened to be a long weekend as it was religious holiday on the Monday and I think the farmers were having the weekend off and they had their workers come in during the day. This was fine except that their dog was tied up and missing its master and decided to howl for a most of the night. With the help of earplugs we managed to get some sleep. The next morning the farm hands reappeared and we said farewell and continued our journey north through France. At morning tea time we stopped at a service station fill up and had coffee with a croissant [as you do in France] while using their free internet. We were planning to go to Disneyland near Paris on Monday until we were told by some Australians that Monday was a public holiday. It would be so busy and we decide to go there another time. They had seen our motorhome and decided to come over to talk. It really is a small world as the woman came from Adelaide and her brother from Barmera.

On Sunday night we arrived at our second France Passion site. This was also in a small village and there was no-one to be seen. There were signs however showing us to the parking place. It was on a lawn area next to a small dam with a lovely willow tree there and ducks and large fish in the water. And for us luckily no barking dogs. It was an interesting place and very picturesque with the ruin of a large chateau in the middle of the farm yard. Next to the parking place there was a guestbook and other information which was unfortunately mostly in French. We had a good nights sleep and headed for the final leg back to Martins house. With our plans changed we decided to go straight back to Martins earlier and stay for a few days. It was a good opportunity to do some laundry, clean out the camper and sleep in a “real” bed for a few days, as well as seeing some family.

There is a restaurant chain in France called Buffalo Grill and each year I promise to take Jenny there for a meal so before lunch we set our Tom Tom to the Buffalo Grill at Maubeuge close to the Belgium border. The Buffalo Grill is a American Western style theme restaurant where they décor inside and out is made to give the feel of the wild west. The staff were very friendly and one conveniently spoke English and it even had the convenience of an English menu. So we decided to order our meal, Ewout had a brioche, (meat and capsicum on a skewer) and Jenny had chicken with a spicy sauce. At about 3 we had finished lunch and headed back on the road again. From France we drove through Belgium, it only took an hour and a half [very small county] and into Holland arriving at Martins at about 7pm on Monday night. We found it funny that soon as we drove over the border into Holland it started to rain, almost like there was a invisible line there. The drive had been very easy as the trucks are not permitted on the roads on a Sunday and the Monday as it was a public holiday.

On Monday night, with Martins help we assembled our new bikes. After a lot of investigating and emailing companies in England we bought a pair of electric bikes. These will enable us to be more flexible and go further and assist in going up hills etc. This is not a problem in Holland but in other countries it is. We were successful and they work great. Tuesday we went for a few rides around the village and in the afternoon we went in to Dordrecht approx 8 km from Martins house to do some shopping and take a large bag of English language novels to a 2nd hand book dealer there.

Wednesday and Thursday we spent doing the washing and reorganizing the motor home. We had talked about replacing the car radio with a new one as it was difficult to use and often very temperamental so Martin ordered us a new car radio which has the convenience of an ipod jack. So convenient especially in Holland where finding a vacant band to tune our receiver into is almost impossible.

On Thursday it arrived and Martin took no time at all installing it for us. Friday mid morning we set off again in the direction of Drachten to visit with Hilly and Oena

and their family.