And we went a whole 66K (44 miles)!! The Netherlands is small and there are many things to see in very short distances.
After a quick sneak peek at the neighborhood flea market just across the canal from Donna’s, we backed out of her driveway, followed Robert, the mechanic, to the Texaco station where he retrieved the dealer license plates and bid us farewell. The Netherlands – and perhaps other nations as well – has a new-to-us ruling that diesel vehicles older than 2001 can no longer drive in town centers, due to the exhaust. Donna tends to sell vehicles older than 2001 but she lives within the “green zone” so to keep from receiving 90 euro tickets as she transports vehicles in and out, she temporarily attaches her dealer license plates to get around the system.
It felt so good to get out on the open road. As accommodating as Donna was, her driveway had a small worldview and we were glad to expand our perspective.
In order to get accustomed to driving the van, we opted to take the A2 freeway on our way towards Haarlem. Normally we shy away from the larger, busier roadways, preferring the national highway systems or even more local roads, but today was day one and getting comfortable driving was paramount.
By the way, we chose a name for our camper. We are accustomed to naming our rigs and needed to come up with one for this guy. Our first VW camper was named Queenie after NL Queen Beatrix because we arrived on Queen’s Day 2000. Our second VW camper was named Lily because she was white. This van was masculine – our first – and, since we arrived on King’s Day, we’ve named him Willem Alexander after the king. We’ll call him Willy – or if he pisses us off WILLEM A!!
Originally our idea was to go to Lisse where Keukenhof Gardens is, but Donna suggested the roadways would be horribly busy because of the holiday, so we altered our plans.
We have joined the ACSI camping club – which gives a considerable discount for camping in the low season
Its called Kennemer Duincamping De Lakens and I swear it is the same camping we stayed at on our first trip in 2000!! It has gotten a lot more sophisticated than when we were last here but the location is correct, it looks the same and the name is the same except for the addition of De Lakens. The low season rate is 19€ night; half the nightly rate without the ACSI card.
European camping is a bit different than camping in the RV parks in the states. It is more like camping at state campgrounds with partial hookups.There are no water hookups or sewer, but there is electrical. There are shower and WC blocks, usually a restaurant, a grocery store and a laundry. Campings are everywhere, I used to say the middle class European uses campings like Americans use Motel 6 or 8.
De Lakens amenities includes 16A electric (plenty for European standards). It has free hot showers that last as long as you want. If past trips hold true, most showers at campings cost 1€ for 3-6 minutes (I learned to wash body and hair fast, a trait I didn’t forsake once back home), so free showers are a luxury to be enjoyed to the fullest. Toilet paper is included. Don’t look shocked – toilet paper is often missing in campings, everyone carries the little packages of tissue just to be on the safe side. (A fact we had forgotten even though I packed them in Willy – they do one no good if one don’t bring them to the toilet.)
Duincamping is just as the name says; camping in the dunes. Our area is shared with 4 other campers in a flat space surrounded by bushy dunes. The whole campground has well over 500 pitches (campsites)
We paid for two nights but we think we will make it three
Today we washed ourselves and our clothes. Tomorrow we will go into Haarlem and Sunday we’ll visit Zandvoort, a beach town that reminded us of Santa Cruz, CA when we last visited it. Monday we’ll go in search of the tulip fields, which happen to be about 20K away. I said this country is small!
5/6/17
Saturday we took the bus from the camping into Haarlem. Because it was Saturday, the weekly open air market was going. Europe is the originator of farmers markets. For centuries markets and fairs were the way people traded goods. I don’t know how often markets were open in the Middle Ages but today every town has market day once or twice a week.
All sorts of delightful offerings were on display today including vegetables and fruits, cured meats, cheeses, breads and pastries, candies, brick oven pizzas and to-go meals as well as dry goods from shoes to handbags to clothes.
The Haarlem market is in in the Grote Markt a large open square flanked by beautiful historical buildings and the magnificent Grote Kerk van St Bavo (what a mouthful!) a cathedral with a pipe organ that is 30 meters high (98ft) and has 5068 pipes. The church was consecrated in 1559, the organ was built in 1735 and Handel, Mendelssohn and a 10 year old Mozart are among the famous musicians who have played the organ. The famous artist Frans Hal is buried in the floor of the church.
We are still getting used to marathon walking and I wanted to find an Aldi store (owners of Trader Joe’s, by the way). We were looking for one of those magnet screen doors for Willy and an advertisement said they were for sale Saturday only at Aldi.
Our trusty TomTom GPS (henceforth to be called Tomy) directed us the long way to the store. We walked along a canal with a working, or at least moving, windmill.
There were no screen doors, but an Action store was nearby and we scored the door and several other items we needed for the van. We’ve been wracking our brains trying to think of an equivalent U.S. store, but we’re stuck. The best I can say is it’s a store with cheap prices and lots of inventory.
We almost got lost returning to the train/bus station but finally made it back to the bus stop. By the time we returned to the camping, our backs and feet were very sore. Thank goodness for ibuprofen 800s.
Bruce N' Peg 