Category Archives: Cheddar

May 22 – Wednesday

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Woke up several times during the night attempting to keep the tent up and dry – kept it up but not dry!

It is the end of the day now as I write this. The kids are in bed –finally after causing problems and not going to bed (their usual routine). We are in a campground not on any list, guide or map. We found it by chance. People that are here are all Dutch pleasant but not very friendly. They just seem to tolerate us Americans. Theresa struck up a friendship with a little boy right away that couldn’t speak english. But they go on fine for a couple of hours. Aren’t kids great! The other 3 were not as fortunate, the spent most of the afternoon fighting and playing. An interesting thing happened in this campground. I started up the Volkswagen so we could use the air pump to pump up the air mattress for the tent. It made a lot of noise. Guess what happened, the camp owner came over and asked us to turn it off and to not make so much noise! So we did.

Making friends

two young children looking at the camera

Had dutch pancakes for dinner made from a mix that Marsha had bought in Gouda. They were heavy but eatable. Campground is out of Gouda on Reejeekee lake. It was hard to find, but a nice spot. We camped under a willow tree.

By the time we got to Gouda this morning the market was over. We missed it by 15 minutes. Roozboom told me market was from 9:30 to 10:30 am but it was from 9 to 10 am and we got there at 10 am. The market square was big and empty. Dad did a good job of telling us what was supposed to happen there. Spent most of the day looking around Gouda. There were a couple of farmers still there; they were selling cheese and a street market was going on. These farmers did not sell to individuals but to wholesalers so we couldn’t buy a wheel. The very old scale house (built 1668) was still in use. In fact they still use the old scale. An interesting array of shops at the market but the most interesting part was the fish! There was fried fish, smoked fish, and raw fish for sale. Lots of herring ready to eat, raw or pickled. To eat the herring, it was dipped in a number of flavorings, onions, spices, etc. The herring was then eaten on the spot. Cheese, cookies, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, you name it and you could find it.

I can now understand why the Dutch have so many windmills, the wind blows here constantly. Plus it is chilly in Holland it hasn’t been warm since we arrived. Filled the stove tank with lp gas today – finally! Just one more thing to get working and that is the refrigerator. Will probably have to wait until we get to Germany to get it going. Also got the tent up properly today and it looks twice as big.

Goodnight!

Traveling to Holland, via the Battle of the Bulge and the first of many, many war monuments.

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May 19, Sunday – our first day in the camper traveling

Planned to get up a 6 AM and get on the road, slept till 8 AM, finally left about 9 AM on our way west to Holland. Drove through the Battle of the Bulge area. We stopped at Bastogne, spent a couple of hours climbing on tanks and looking around. Bastogne was a big part of WW II, the Allies drove through here to Germany. It is amazing to see the devastation of war, but the town was rebuilt. Everyone still very tired. The jet lag is more than I had anticipated or remembered.  Apparently tougher on the children and Marsha than me all though I am very tired. Drove all day through Belgium into Holland. Camped at the first campground we could find, “Katjeskeller” in Oosterhout near Bredd. The campground was somewhat crowded as it was a weekend. Lots of weekend campers will lease a spot in the campground and leave their camp set up all the time and come out for weekends. A neat idea! Met an American service man and his family, they have camped all over Europe and they highly recommended it to us. An enjoyable family, we had a nice visit but I was very tired and had a bad headache. So we retired for our first night sleeping in the Camper. It will sleep 6, particularly if 3 of them are small, might even squeeze in one more if necessary. Josh loves the poptop; we can’t keep him out of it when it is up, much like the loft at the cabin on the lake. Everyone asleep by 9:30 PM – up at 6 AM?

Goodnight.

four kids in front of a tank

Arriving in Luxembourg, helpful sales ladies, and picking up Cheddar, at last.

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family with their luggage standing by their orange camper

May 18, Saturday – Arrival Day

Finally arrived in Luxembourg at 8:30 am, Luxembourg time. We did stop in Iceland for 30 minutes. The airport a real tourist trap all though the prices in the tax free shop looked good, did not buy anything. I had set it up with the Volkswagen dealer in Luxembourg to meet us at the plane and take us to the Holiday Inn and then pick up the camper. Since we were many hours late in arriving no one showed up to pick us up? Everyone was very tired-including me! Jet lag affected all of us. The lady at the auto agency booth was into a big argument with a French woman returning a car when we found the agency. We were supposed to check with her about the person from Volkswagen. I did after she and the French woman finished hollering at each other. She told me that the man from Auto, Martin Loesch was expecting us yesterday. She called someone and then I talked to him, he indicated that he would pick us up at the Holiday Inn at 11 am. So we took a taxi to the Holiday Inn. Registered at a typical Holiday Inn, the pool was not functioning. Everyone upset about no pool! Everyone very tired and went to sleep. I showered and shaved and waited for the man from the Volkswagen agency. He arrived at 11 am as promised. He was very nice and helpful. We went to the agency and I picked up the camper. The delivery was uneventful but no international registration papers, which we were supposed to have with us. We made arrangements to have them sent to us in Amsterdam.

What a long day! The first time we ever experienced no night, 24 hours without darkness, a disturbing experience-nobody wanted to sleep, but they did!

I drove back to the Holiday Inn about 2 pm, finally got everyone awake and then we had a lousy lunch at the motel. We then piled into the camper and headed down town to find a camping store to pick up needed equipment. The car man recommended a camping store “Stenbergs”. Couldn’t find it but stumbled onto one after driving around, parking and walking. Purchased cooking equipment and a one-burner stove for extra use until can get ours in the camper hooked up. The sales lady at the store insisted that we get saucers with the cups. Every once in a while she would mention, “having to buy saucers”. Marsha liked the butter dish.  We walked back to the camper and discovered a street carnival. We all had sauerkraut and bratwurst for dinner. Found “Stenbergs”, but it was closed. Then we discovered that we were only parked three blocks away! We turned the wrong way when we left the parking lot.

We returned to the motel, a tired bunch. Palmer and Esther unbelievably overtired and could not get to sleep but they finally did. Paul and Theresa slept well as did everyone else when we finally got to sleep – what a long day!

Good night.