On Thursday morning we took it easy and didn’t leave the city camp until 11.00. Our destination was a village in south Holland called Oudewater, after shopping at the local Jumbo Supermarket we found the motorhome parking area on the outskirts of the village next to a skating sports park, and decided this would also be our overnight spot.

 Oudewater

Oudewater is a very old place and the landmark which makes the town famous is the Weighing House where the past you could get weighed and receive a certificate. This certificate would prove that you were not a witch, (in the past they thought witches were very light as they could fly on broom sticks).

http://www.heksenwaag.nl/web/en/home/?language_id=16

As a local tourist site they still weigh people even now, Lori and I both received certificates but Jenny though that hers from 1979 when she was here last would probably still be valid. Apart the scales the place has a small museum and video displays which tell of the treatment of “so called” witches back in the dark ages. Over a two hundred year period 100,000 trials of victims were carried out and half of those were put to death; so having a certificate came in handy as the weigh house was sanctioned by royalty to be a true indication of a person’s weight.

We walked the short distance into town and found it was not very busy then spent some time exploring the village before returning to the motorhome just in time as it started to rain heavily. No other motorhome joined us on the site and we had a quiet evening, even the rain stopped pelting on our roof.

Friday our last day of our journey, we decided to stop in at the town of Gouda. Yes this is where the cheese comes from and there were plenty of cheese shops with a vast range. With our pantry still well stocked with cheese we resisted buying more, but we did do the odd tasting.

Gouda

Gouda had a walking tour map from the tourist office sold to us for €2.50, it was a very well laid out and interesting, nothing much is free in Holland. We followed the map which took us many places, some of them off the beaten track and down some interesting side streets and alleyways. Jenny and Lori went into the church museum to see the famous stained glass windows while I waked back to put some more coins in the parking meter, as we visited longer than planned. About mid-afternoon we drove the 45kms back to Martins place our final destination, as well as our starting point and where the “Bunyip” lives when it is not exploring Europe.

A couple of days was spent washing clothes and bedding, cleaning the motorhome and packing our bags for the trip home. Saturday night a barbeque was held at Martins with family attending to say their farewells. After eating the Sjoelen board came out and everyone had 3 turns. In the photo you will see that it is a game where you slide wooden disks and try and get them into the 4 gaps at the end of the board. This is a very typical Dutch game. https://dutchgames.us/

On Monday the motorhome was finished being sorted, the bags packed and it was off to the airport.

With 90kgs in our combined luggage and 21 in our hand luggage we checked in, expecting to be overweight as were on the maximum limit for three people. After 8 trips we had accumulated a lot of “stuff” and with Martin selling his house it was time to do some sorting. Some things were designated as rubbish, some went to the charity shop and we tried to bring back as much as possible. We were nearly totally successful but when we weighed all the bags it came up 6kgs over. One small bag containing our flippers and masks had to remain behind.

Next year our son and his wife along with their 2 children will be using the “Bunyip” so we left it in readiness for their trip. As to our plans for a trip next year that is still up in the air. Every year we say that this may be our last trip and every year we cannot resist the lure to go back, have more adventures and explore more of the fascinating sites that cover Europe.

As I write this we are safely back in Australia after an uneventful but long flight. Again our thanks go to Martin as he looks after our motorhome year after year. This year his house is being sold so another location will have to be arranged for its storage.