| The End Of Our "European" Journey For Now |  | 4 February ’06, Saturday.
Ok, now I’ve got to go back a few days to catch up… Tuesday and Wednesday were spent pulling our suit cases down about 50 times to see what we were going to take home with us and what things we were going to leave behind. It was amazing how much we had to go through. Some things that I had packed away were never even touched in the 2 years we were here, and those were most of what I determined to leave behind. Then there was the roll-up electrical cables, the “wheel stands”, radio/CD player, and on and on…all this was either being left with “Bumble Bee” or given to the neighbor in the caravan who has come to Delft to help his daughter move in to her new apartment. Our liquor cabinet…well, the crew at the Delft campground liked that. Of course there was the last walk into Delft to visit the market one more time, and the last cheap breakfast with as many espresso refills we could stand at IKEA. Then on Wednesday afternoon, finally having everything packed and re-packed for the last time, we said our good-byes to the crew at the campground and headed for our airport hotel. After checking in, lugging our bags (5 suitcases, 3 carry-on, and Lou’s purse) up to the room, we jumped back into “Bumble Bee” for the last time and headed off to see Donna in Utrecht. You know, I think we must have missed something or maybe it was that we just didn’t have the time, but we just didn’t get melancholy. All the way out to Donna’s was as if we were just going to the grocery store instead of coming to the close of our European Journey and saying good-bye to our faithful companion (Bumble Bee). As we pulled into Donna’s yard and the gate closed behind us, we knew that this was the finish of our first leg. Now onto our next “Journey”… We walked to the train station from Donna’s, caught the train to Schiphol (Amsterdam’s airport), and waited for the airporter to take us to our hotel. Early the next morning we were on our way back to Seattle. Our flight was taking us to London and then directly to Sea-Tac for a total of 11 hours of in air time (which is 10 hours more than I really enjoy). Well, “We’re Baaacccckkkkk!!!!
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| February 13, 2006 03:27 PM
By Joel and Louise
Location: Netherlands
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| Wow, What a Parade !!! |  | 22 April ’05, Friday.
Two days in a row…it’s amazing how good the sun makes you feel… It’s not summer, but it’s still really comfortable and your not getting wet !!! We’ve been hanging around camp, with the exception of a walk into town and breakfast and a look around IKEA. One of our purchases today was a vacuum cleaner. It has been one of those items we’ve thought about many times, so today we got it. It was a $40 Euro item, that was on sale for $9 Euros…that could have been the reason why today was the day… The internet café was next, but didn’t have on-line service this afternoon, so we went to the public library to check our mail. Thanks for the emails… Boy, the campground has a lot of campers still coming in. It gives us a chance to meet a lot of people from all over Europe. Yesterday we met a couple from Great Britain (never too many to meet), and today, one of the couples we met was from the Netherlands but now after traveling in the summer, winter in Portugal. They have their own yellow and white “Bumble Bee”, but about 6 years older. It still looks and runs like new. A few years ago, they shipped their van to Montreal and traveled Canada and western USA. We got an invitation to stop by their condo in Portugal this winter and we definitely look forward to it.
Well, Saturday has arrived. We were up, showered, had breakfast, and were headed out to the front gates of the campground to catch our bus to the annual Flower Parade. We had no idea when we signed up and paid our $8 Euros each, that we were signing up for a whole days events. This parade runs 40km or about 24 miles. We were bussed to Wassenaar (a very small Dutch village) and told that the parade would start in about 30 minutes (11am). As we arrived we were only one of many busses to arrive and settle into the streets to await this parade. It kind of reminded us of the 4th of July parades in Carnation, with the kids all dolled up, riding anything that has wheels, and everything fully decorated with (in this case) flowers… come parade time, we saw the typical motorcycle police start out and then followed with all the kids, and more kids, and more kids… it was a hoot !!! After they had all peddled, walked, or were carried, past, we expected more, but…nothing. That is, not for the next 15 minutes or more and then, the parade that we were expecting, finally reached our village. Now this was a great day for a parade and it was a great parade for this day as well. We saw it all, and it was worth every minute and dollar (Euro) we spent, and more. The cars, trucks, horses, buggy’s, trailers, all decorated with live flowers, peddles, stems, and more were absolutely beautiful. Of course there were the marching bands, twirlers, flaggers, and more to make it complete. You can sure understand why Holland is the “Flower Capital” of the world. Yep, we had a good time !!! By 1, we were back at the bus and were starting off for Scheveningen on the coast. This was a “free stop” for walking on the beach, shopping, eating, or just lazing around on the boardwalk in the sun. We were to be there for 2 hours, so it gave us plenty of time to do it all. By the way, the name “Scheveninggen” was used by the Netherlanders as a test to determine if a person was really Dutch or…possibly, German during WWII. If they could pronounce it correctly, they were Dutch…if not… Back on the bus again and additional tours through the streets of Den Haag to see the palace of the Queen, the Prince’s office, the Summer Home, and a lot more…not a bad $8 Euro value for the day…
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| April 26, 2005 04:12 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: Netherlands
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| Oh This thing Called Jet-Lag... |  | 17 April ’05, Sunday.
Apparently jet-lag is still with us. We force ourselves to stay up until 10pm and then, 3am we are both awake. By 5am we have gotten ourselves back to sleep. When we do wake, we find we have slept to 10. Now this morning, it wasn’t much different, except that we had to be out to pick up our rental car by 10, so we forced ourselves out of bed and to the showers by 9. When we first got in, we picked up a car at the airport. Their rates were good until they tacked on the “airport” surcharge of $60 Euros. That car cost us $140 Euros for 2 days. Yesterday, we went into Delft and found a rental car for $25 Euros per day…we changed carriers… It’s not that we needed a rental car, but it has given us some freedom to see some sites we haven’t seen before. Yesterday we drove into Hoek van Holland, to see the town and the location for the ferry service that hooks us up with Great Britain. There are as many ferries that make the crossing from just about as many locations, but this one has been recommended to us, so we decided to take a look ourselves. We had a nice drive through some wonderful Dutch countryside, and enjoyed the day getting back on the road. Although it was raining pretty much the whole day, it was still a good day. When we got back to the campgrounds Louise found a restaurant right here on the grounds. I don’t know how I had missed that one, so we went up for a nice dinner and a glass of OK wine. Today we headed over to Rotterdam and then made a swing around to see the town of Gouda. Rotterdam is the second largest city in the Netherlands. We decided to stay in the car and see all that we could by driving. We did see the location were they boarded the Mayflower in making the first trip to the “New World” America. A little further down the road, we saw where they reconstructed a 18th Century windmill that had been destroyed during WWII. Rotterdam it’s self had almost total destruction during that time, so what you will find there is a lot of very new and very modern buildings and a little of the “Old Town” that dates back to the 15th Century. Most of these run along the canals and is close to the harbor. Gouda turned out to be a wonderful town, again with lots of canals, little bridges, narrow roadways throughout, a wonderful town “Markt” and beautiful old buildings that are dwarfed by the huge and stunning churches. We found a great outdoor restaurant for lunch. This sidewalk cafe sat right at the edge of the Markt. We not only could enjoy a real good “split” meal, we also had the company of interesting people to talk with.
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| April 19, 2005 03:21 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: Netherlands
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| Guess Who's In Intensive Care ???? |  | 15 April ’05, Friday. Our Temp Homes at the Campground
I don’t know what it is about traveling, but expect the unexpected… We no sooner had stepped right up to the door of our plane for the flight to London and on to Amsterdam, and Louise grabbed my arm and said “Oh my God, we forgot to call Mikleane and tell her where her car was (we had used her van to get to the airport and was to leave the keys in it for her and the family to find when they got back from their trip on Friday). We ran back up the loading ramp and told the agent that “we had to make a very important phone call right away…No, sorry.. But we have too, it is life or death…OK, but hurry, and only one of you”. The message was sent, and Louise was let back onto the plane. We had a direct flight to London and then a wait of 1 1/2 hours before our continued flight to Amsterdam. While waiting for the gate to come up on the board, we found a seat and had a little break from the confines we had experienced from the flight over. Unfortunately, when the gate number came up, we apparently read it wrong and missed our flight… Not good… Fortunately, we were allowed to get onto the flight that would leave 3 hours later, so not all was lost, except time and having to hang around an airport longer than we wanted. By the time we landed in Amsterdam, we were really bushed and a little touchy..
We decided to rent a car at the airport, even if it would cost us an arm and a leg. We just wanted to get to “Bumble Bee”, and then onto the campground were we had a bungalow waiting for us to move into. By the time we got to the campground, after all the delays, it was closed….not good… I walked around looking and praying that I could find someone there and wouldn’t you know it, as luck would have it, I did. About 8:30pm we were able to climb into bed, and we needed it. Now this bed was a dream, at least a dream for two very small children that wanted to sleep in the same TWIN bed… On top of this, we both were wide awake at 3:30am. I finally rolled out of bed and stepped out into the rain and found my way to the shower at 4, I think Louise lasted until 6… About 10 we finally got things together enough to go over to “Bumble Bee”. The agenda was to find out just what the trouble was with her when we left last month. I pulled the battery out and had it checked, and it checked out to be perfect…now what the heck, I guess it could be the starter, but I will have to leave that to the pro’s. We headed off to Utrecht to see Donna, at Turners Campervans, and see if one of her mechanics could come out. Donna was right on it and had one of her men come back with us and we pulled “Bumble Bee” about 30 feet and she started. That done, we headed off to Utrecht. They will go all over her to get her ready for the road, so we will be here in our Bungalow until Monday.
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| April 19, 2005 03:19 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: Netherlands
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| A Little More Holland and Then Egypt.. |  | 17 and 18th of March 2004. Tuesday was spent just testing our wings (feet as we were walking) around Utrecht. It was a good day to do this as the weather was overcast and in the low 50’s (just like Seattle !!!). We had to watch ourselves as we walked the streets. Now don’t get me wrong, we did stay on the sidewalk but, with there being a bicycle lane, a car lane and a separate bus lane it made it rather interesting to cross the street. Another interesting action or should I say no action was the stopping at the “Stop Lights”. The general rule as I saw it was “SWSWSW” (some will, some wont, so what !!).It was the “so what’s” we had to watch out for….. I really like the town of Utrecht with the architecture of “old” and mostly townhouses style, the very narrow streets that just swing one way and then the other. All the waterways and all the little row boats some swamped and the others just like new. A retired man fishing from the banks and pulling this little fish up at his leisure. The GREAT bakeries that not only serve up wonderful pastries but the best coffee’s ever. I think I have found my next home !!!! After noon we called Donna to come and pick us up so we could finally meet “Goldie”.
Well, “Goldie” is a little rough right now but when Louise and I finish with her she will be ONE HELL OF A GOLDIE that we will all be proud of !!!! Wednesday was some more of the same of finding more neat little corners to round and another little shoppe to explore. The camera is clicking galore (I will be working at getting these on the site soon). Thursday we went down for breakfast, checked out of the Ouwi and walked pulling our one bag (we left all the others with Goldie) to town and through a street market and then on to the train station for our ride back to Amsterdam. The train ride was executed “Perfectly” this time. This morning we woke at 4am and headed off to catch our plane to Paris and then on to Cairo Egypt. The Paris airport is going through a major remodel and getting around was a challenge. The customs experience arriving in Cairo was easy enough but for some reason it took forever!!! We arrived without a hotel or B&B to go to and well, we are going to move in the morning…. This one is…well…. more to come… | |
| March 19, 2004 12:02 PM
By Joel and Louise
Location: Netherlands
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