When it’s spring again we’ll sing again……tulips from Amsterdam

Hoping for the best to Eastermeer: 10th May – day 5

I think this one was a Max Bygraves special?
Today was a traveling day, we left the Op Hoop Van Zagan to other campers ‘Hoping for the Best’ – don’t get me wrong there was nothing wrong with the campsite, in fact a very convenient stop over for those wishing to visit the Keukenhof gardens or take a train into Amsterdam. The site was clean, well run but for us just a little crowded. After the aires of France and the small CL sites (5 vans) in the UK they don’t half pack ‘em in over here. I believe the Dutch are a great camping nation so I guess that is the norm over here – we have yet to find out as this was our first time in The Netherlands (and only our second time abroad with Hilma so what do we know). If you were to use this as a base then the train from Voorhuit (about a 35min bike ride from the campsite) takes about an hour with one change to get into Amsterdam.
Today we ventured into the north of Holland over the Afsluidijk a 30km dike built across the Waddenzee between 1927 and 1932 to keep the Dutch clogs dry.

From there we were inbound towards Leeuwarden and our first Dutch aire at Eastermeer, a beautiful little harbour we found in the Vicarious ‘All the Aires’ series. Not quite the French ‘free’ style aires at €10 but was certainly a very pleasant place to stay N53°10.538’ E006°03.307’.

The journey took us a little longer than expected and we were last on site, we counted 13 motorhomes in all, we parked next to a lovely old Hymer which made Hilma feel very young again.

Eastermeer to Ommen : 11th May – day 6
Another travel day – we upped sticks and continued our journey heading south. When we initially booked the holiday we did not realise that around this time there were some school holidays so I was a bit nervous of not finding anywhere to stay over the coming weekend and so on the Tuesday after our arrival I booked online a 3 nighter in a Caravan Club approved site between Ommen and Zwolle. The drive this time was much more relaxing – we are getting to grips with planning a route and marking key junctions on the map. I think we would get terribly lost if not! We drove through some very pretty villages, we have noticed that there are very few white lines in the middle of the roads which makes you respect everybody’s space. None of this “this is my lane and your having none of it” UK type of thinking, drivers are generally very good over here.

We eventually found our destination and this time there is plenty of space at ‘Resort De Arendshout’ – we were welcomed by Michael who spoke excellent English (most of the Dutch do putting us to shame). The site is on the banks of the Vecht and is very popular with fishermen.
After settling Hilma into her spot Janette decide to wash some smalls and t shirts with which for drying we surrounded Hilma – she was not impressed!

We are putting our feet down here for 3 nights and then moving on again. Looking forward to some nice cycling again (flat, flat, flat 😊).