27 February ’05, Sunday.
We’ve just about made our first circle complete. On the 15th or March last year we flew into Amsterdam and the next day we took the train to Utrecht and saw “Bumble Bee” for the first time. This afternoon, we pulled into Delft, in the Netherlands, after visiting 19 countries. It has been one heck of a journey so far, and we are looking forward to our return in April to finish with those countries that we haven’t visited yet.
After leaving Paris, we continued heading north. Our next campground was in Tournai, which is about 50km outside of Brussels. We had pretty good traveling weather, as it was mostly cloudy with a snow misting once in awhile to keep us informed that it was still winter. The campground in Tournai, was one of the best winter camping’s so far, and it wasn’t because of the 12.50 Euro cost per night either. The owner lives on the site and it shows, it’s well maintained...almost luxurious! Tournai was a pretty little town with a lot of history behind it. It just happens to be the 2nd oldest town in Belgium. The town with it’s narrow streets, all being hugged by the 2 story buildings, and in the middle, a huge town square, that was surrounded by at least 5 large church buildings and a beautiful cathedral with 5 spires. Unfortunately, we didn’t take a lot of time to visit all that there was to see, but hopefully, when we come back, we will take it all in. This morning, we had a large breakfast and got on the road so that we would have plenty of time to set up camp here in Delft. The sun was out bright this morning, but it was COLD !!! About the time we arrived in Brussels, we started to encounter snow flurries and heavy side winds. I fought the winds for hours, and let me tell you, I’m damn tired of them !!! Hopefully, with a couple of days camping here, the winds will have diminished and we can continue into Utrecht with out them. We have a few things to do before we leave for the airport, and it would be “real nice” if we could do it all in nice Spring weather…(wishful thinking). This campground also ranks up there with the one in Tournai. It is spotless, very close to everything (walking), and is well within the budget for our stay. As we drove into Holland, it was really amazing how the architecture changed, and also it was good to see the canals. On our walk into town, we must have crossed over 5 or 6 canals, and that was within a 3km walk. But our walk back, well, it was HELL !!! That COLD WIND I had mentioned before, was right in our face, and it wasn’t pleasant.
We’ve just about made our first circle complete. On the 15th or March last year we flew into Amsterdam and the next day we took the train to Utrecht and saw “Bumble Bee” for the first time. This afternoon, we pulled into Delft, in the Netherlands, after visiting 19 countries. It has been one heck of a journey so far, and we are looking forward to our return in April to finish with those countries that we haven’t visited yet.
After leaving Paris, we continued heading north. Our next campground was in Tournai, which is about 50km outside of Brussels. We had pretty good traveling weather, as it was mostly cloudy with a snow misting once in awhile to keep us informed that it was still winter. The campground in Tournai, was one of the best winter camping’s so far, and it wasn’t because of the 12.50 Euro cost per night either. The owner lives on the site and it shows, it’s well maintained...almost luxurious! Tournai was a pretty little town with a lot of history behind it. It just happens to be the 2nd oldest town in Belgium. The town with it’s narrow streets, all being hugged by the 2 story buildings, and in the middle, a huge town square, that was surrounded by at least 5 large church buildings and a beautiful cathedral with 5 spires. Unfortunately, we didn’t take a lot of time to visit all that there was to see, but hopefully, when we come back, we will take it all in. This morning, we had a large breakfast and got on the road so that we would have plenty of time to set up camp here in Delft. The sun was out bright this morning, but it was COLD !!! About the time we arrived in Brussels, we started to encounter snow flurries and heavy side winds. I fought the winds for hours, and let me tell you, I’m damn tired of them !!! Hopefully, with a couple of days camping here, the winds will have diminished and we can continue into Utrecht with out them. We have a few things to do before we leave for the airport, and it would be “real nice” if we could do it all in nice Spring weather…(wishful thinking). This campground also ranks up there with the one in Tournai. It is spotless, very close to everything (walking), and is well within the budget for our stay. As we drove into Holland, it was really amazing how the architecture changed, and also it was good to see the canals. On our walk into town, we must have crossed over 5 or 6 canals, and that was within a 3km walk. But our walk back, well, it was HELL !!! That COLD WIND I had mentioned before, was right in our face, and it wasn’t pleasant.