THE NETHERLANDS
Friday 24th July
We were up just after 7am and out for a run. Unfortunately the weather did not hold this morning, and we got rained on. However we did choose a much nicer running route and ran along one of the canals, which had several big old wooden windmills spaced along it. On our way back we had to stand and wait for a few minutes, because a 90m barge was going up the canal. All of the bridges are low so they have to be lifted in order for it to pass - we had to wait for it to be lowered again. It was cool to see it squeeze between the sides of the bridge with inches to spare.
We did not muck around at the campsite when we got back. We got ready for the day, and on our way filled up our fresh water, emptied our waste water and emptied our loo before getting on the road and heading east again, right across Belgium. We were on the road before 10am. Our first stop was Antwerp. I was keen to go there for a look around. We arrived just after 11:30am, and parked up. We were 1.5km for an information centre and we set out to walk to the info centre. Well this was harder done than said without a map, using the GPS. Anyway we made it but it was a tourism school! So we made our way back to the van, by which time we were both starving. Luckily there was a bakery and dairy across the road from the van, so we bought some bread and fruit. The baguette we bought was fantastic. Our best baguette to date on this side of the world. So good that I went back and bought another to snack on later on in the day.
Once we had finished lunch we decided we would drive to the information centre in the centre of town. For some reason the city was still very quiet so we were comfortable doing this. We think it is because these are the two weeks that 'Belgium' (and most of Europe) is on summer holiday. Anyway we drove past a few nice buildings, and down a maze of one way streets into the town square of Antwerp. It was spectacular and had it been sunny we would have wandered around. However it was pouring with rain, and the city as a whole was very similar to our other Belgium experiences so we decided to move on. We had not set out next destination but Em was very keen to go to Maastricht in the far South of the Netherlands. So we headed further east across Belgium and into the Netherlands. Em had seen Masstricht on her Grandparents' 'Andre Rieu' concert DVD (a brilliant violinist) and it looked spectacular. Our 'Lonely Planet' also gave it a great review saying that it may be 'the highlight of the Netherlands' so we decided to go there. As we got nearer the weather slightly improved, well it stopped raining anyway. When we got to the city, the size of Dunedin, we successfully found the information centre, and chose our campground to go to. It was certainly a city full of character, lots of nice alleys and and a very grand centre square, surrounded by restaurants and nicely maintained trees. Our campground was 10km out of Maastricht in Valkenberg. The campground had a great view of some castle ruins, but apart from that it was not that good (we saw loads of tents on a HUGE slope – they must have had terrible sleeps).
After dinner we decided to head into the village which was bigger than we realised. It was certainly a tourist village. There were about 3 souvenir shops, 3 gaming rooms, a casino, and about 100 restaurants, some of which were empty at 8pm when we were walking around (on a Friday night!). Unfortunately we got caught in the rain and thunder, and thanks to my “no it won't rain” optimism we did not go prepared with our umbrella. Still we survived, and made it back to the van for an early night.
Saturday the 25th of July
Well only five months, or 153 days, until Christmas, that is exciting!
We got up and left the campground just after 8:30am. We stopped in at a McDonalds carpark to 'steal' some Wifi internet, but unfortunately you have to pay for it there to, unlike McDonalds in many other European countries. So we left there and drove into town. Once we parked up we explored Maastricht on foot. We wandered the streets for the morning, Em took us on a walking tour off a map. Initially it was rather chilly, for a summers day, but the sun eventually broke through to warm things up. We found 'Vrijthof Square' which is where Andre Rieu played the concert in his DVD. We had a waffle which we tried to get with some other topping apart from sugar, but they were only able to be served with sugar apparently. We also finally found a post office to buy some stamps. We wanted 6, but could only buy 5 or 10. It was strange. Anyway once we were done exploring the town and walking through the park and along the river we headed back to the van and drove northwest to Eindhoven.
We drove straight to the information centre which is a new strategy we are trying, before going exploring (trying to find things with no map doesn't work well we've discovered). From there we headed 10km out of Eindhoven to Veldhoven to a nice camping ground there. In the afternoon the sun came out, so we took advantage of this doing washing and relaxing in the sun. It was nice to be a campsite early enough to enjoy it. It seems like we have been on the move so much we haven't really had time to sit back and relax. We were also able to use internet which was very handy to catch up on a few things. Dinner and some French wine rounded off our day nicely.
