Susie's Report No 42

Susie's report No 42

Hello to All, Guten Tag..

Here’s where we have been for this report.

HATTEM: Our last port of call in Holland, and of course it's a marina.  This little town served the best Kiblings and chips so far for taste and value (more bad carbs again) Dr. Atkins and his diet would be horrified, but to the rescue ?....a 30 kilometre bike ride through the countryside. We peddled up past ZWOLLE over a smaller looking version of the Harbour Bridge, with a wide bike lane past a huge "Scania" truck building centre and into the rural area and into a little town called WILSUM.  

The local people have erected a purpose built Stork"s Nest in the fields, one even has a web cam mounted to the side, it would be great viewing with the eggs and chicks.

We retrace our way back, dodging a few tractors along the way and crossing some more Bruges, Holland is so pretty, we missed seeing Tulip time, but we say TOT ZIENS and next day into Germany.

WEENER: Don't you just love this name. At this camping platz along the canal, we meet a guy who lives on his boat (steel ketch) with his little dog Luna.

We are invited onboard "Pacifico" for tea and chats, he said he likes to practice his English. He's also very passionate about animals and whale protesting. He also looks very much like "Jon English" our singer/actor, he was most impressed.

We say our Vielen Danke and wander off to Lidl & Aldi - T. Lee is most happy now as we can buy Rum in Germany and I can buy my Rotwein at a good price.   And also to say Ich spreche Englisch, Bitte, nein Deutsch. Off we go to.

NORDDEICH: It's supposed to be Summer so we are paying higher rates now, plus a 5 euro a day "Tourist Tax”! Now this stinks as we already pay taxes on what we spend in the area anyway. I questioned this on our camping receipt and was told it was a tax for the "NORDSEE" North Sea to keep environmentally clean & tidy.  Well. !!!!!! I can tell you, clearly, someone is not doing his job.

The so called beach is an eyesore.

There was a dead seal on the shore amongst the flotsam and jetsam ( bottles & rubbish )

I think there would be enough royalties coming in from the North Sea projects I.e Oil & Fisheries etc to cover this. Tourist Tax... what a clever idea to make more money !!! Nein Danke.

When we finally came to a beach … sort of, we discovered the amazing “strandkorbs”. What funny things they are.

Each chair, (strandkorbs) have a number, seats two if you're lucky, (families must take it in turns to sit ?). On grass or sand, owned or rented, they have handles so you can move them around. Different colours, and there are thousands of them in various states of newness/oldness. They just look messy, but a very old tradition I guess.....

They even cart them around in their larger motorhomes and bring them out when the sun shines...

Eventually, the sun showed itself, we had a nice ride around the foreshore, lots of people flying kites and walking with dogs. Kids playing in the mud (sorry !! I mean) beach. ......

WILHELMSHAVEN: Germany’s deepest harbour and biggest Naval metropolis at the North Sea.  The campsite is run by Peter a friendly, English speaking gentleman, and because we were his first Australian visitors, he said our first night was FREE.

Whoopee.. He wouldn't even let us pay for our bread.

CUXHAVEN: You might have guessed by now that I am becoming a bit flabbergasted  (it's a good sounding word), by Germany's TOURIST TAX. You pay your daily rate at the campsite, then you pay for power, you pay to use the toilet, you pay to have a shower, you pay for water etc. Then you pay 3 euros for the privilege to walk on the beach.

Needless to say we didn't do this, I tell you they would have to pay ME to swim at some of there beaches, they are muddy, full of weed and you have to walk 1/2 Km out to get your knees wet. The tourist brochure says it's jade green - IT'S BROWN!

Anyway, we were getting ready to leave and two women came to H.H. We couldn't understand a word either of us was saying to each other. We worked out we had to pay 5.60 euro Tourist Tax as well as our camp fees. After I finished bitching/rambling on about this (they were just doing their job) I noticed her arm was bleeding, she had puncture marks, she notes my look and says.. “DOG" and points left ( I thought maybe someone else doesn't like the dreaded T.T. also) I digress, I get tissues, cotton pads & Dettol cream, fixed her up and off she goes. We still had to pay even though we were leaving ( this is obviously part of her job description, (lunatics & dogs).Imagine fencing off all the Tourist areas along the Australian coastline and charging entry to the beaches through gates/barriers - there would be riots in the streets.

GLUCKSTADT: We crossed the river "Elbe" by car ferry to this lovely 15th-century town. We had front row seats in H.H.

We were first on the ship, then it turns around so we are looking back to where we came from, it’s a wet drizzly day ( I keep forgetting its Summer ). It was an enjoyable 30 min ride, we were entertained all afternoon by the ships and a paddle steamer doing the tourist bit around their harbour and river.

MELDORF: . We spent two days by a lake.The first day calm as a mill pond.

And the second blowing a gale, with windsurfers flying around.

It was blowing well over 25 knots so it was entertaining to watch, and, of course, the ubiquitous wind turbines were kept busy.

Our bike ride was tough on the old legs, but we soldiered on only cause I knew our snack at the kiosk was not going to be overly healthy. Actually you don't' get to see much when your riding as you are below the Dyke wall. The sun was shining, we woke the next morning to a calmer day and headed off still going North.

ST.PETER ORDING:  This is the “Gold Coast” of Northern Germany! After wandering through the local markets, I spied a Tourism Office, in I go - absolutely nothing, nought, anything in English - I said but this is a Tourist Office  - for tourist information - nein English, obviously never will or have been. Hmph.....what I wanted was general info like local map & bike tracks ( even if it's in German) "YOU HAVE TO PAY."...no info is free - user pays. !!!

Unless I'm wrong no other country charges for tourist info ( what have we been paying tourist taxes for? ).The beach here actually looks nice, but, after paying your parking and entry to the beach, you still have a walk of 1 Km to the sand, then about 800 Mtrs to the water across a huge sandbank. After forking out 3 Euros per person to go on the beach, 14 Euros to rent the Strandkorbs for a day, it’s an expensive exercise!

 Terry & I were watching all this coming and going from atop the dyke wall, some areas you can even catch a bus for the first leg of the journey or pay to take your car. It must be a struggle for the elderly and children.

I don't think many would struggle with an esky of cold drinks and food unless it had wheels. (Don't think such an item exists here). After such an effort, you would build up a mighty thirst......so T Lee says....It's been interesting walking around most campsites/stellplatz (in the north). We are always the odd ones out with our G.B. number plates, 99.9% outnumbered. Crikey….We did find another however, they were from New Zealand, so great chats followed and exchanging of information.

We planned to go to DENMARK in the next day or two, our next stop was not what we thought so we kept driving and looking for an ATM. We needed Krones, not Euros. We ended up at a complex that had three giant bulk buying stores, with huge trolleys. This was still in Germany, so the Danish people come here to shop and stock up. I can fully understand, as Denmark is very expensive.

I have to keep the brain ticking over by dividing EVERYTHING by 5€ or 7A$ to get the real price I'm now used to. Everything is in double and triple figures.

We arrive at RIBES: Denmarks oldest town, with cobbled streets and pathways we go for a wander (flat soled shoes a requirement).

 Lots of Viking influence here...It's holiday time, and bustling with tourists, we find an ATM, then onto our Camper stop, by a fishing lake.

RINGKOBLING: Facing towards the Nth Sea we are parked at a Camper stop at a Marina.

 It' s a lovely spot on our our walk we came across an International Wood Sculpturing Comp, with eight countries involved, and one just happened to be a lovely lass from New Zealand.

She was surrounded by her tools of trade, sharp looking things with teeth and lots of different blades. Happy to have a chat, she's in Oz next week for a competition in Adelaide. We wished her every success. There certainly were some interesting sculptures. This “Burning Man” was from Iran.

Back at the camp site with drinks and talking to our Danish neighbor, two Italian Campers pull in beside us, he spoke good English and became the translator for the rest of the families. They were from Verona on their Summer holidays, (what summer). I'm really starting to feel sorry for these people, as Saturday arrives cold and pouring with rain.  So now I'm sitting in H.H doing this blog and it's blowing dogs off chains and halyards banging on masts.  Terry's thinking about putting on the gas heater......

So what we have worked out is - the Danish go to Germany to shop for bulk buying, ( there is 25% VAT on everything in DK ), the Brits go to France for Alcohol and Ciggies, the French and the Brits go to Spain as it's even cheaper there, the Dutch just move around as they are avid motor homers, the Swiss go to Luxembourg to shop and we have met more Kiwi's than Aussies on the road.

LOGSTOR: Typical of us, we arrive here and we have just missed the Mussel Festival and the Jazz Festival and one day late for the Sailing Regatta.  We are either one week early or one week to late. But at least we had a nice campsite.

Ho hum.....Today we are leaving the North and heading West to East now. Trundling down the road we came across a semi trailer jack knifed across the roadway, we stopped and I jumped out and ran to see if the driver was OK.

He was, so we edged H.H up on the grass verge and moved off around him. One can only try and guess the cause on the straight road. He could have swerved to avoid a Deer perhaps, only he knows.

Next stop is a delightfully named town called MIDDELFART.  Here we run into “Spirit Chasers” little brother.

And also a Bayliner from Australia of all places!

Now off to COPENHAGEN to see Princess Mary…. well she is from Hobart and so it T.Lee!

Getting there, was our biggest toll yet... 360.00 Kroner, 51€ or 72A$ ouch!! That hurt. Either that or a 200 Klm diversion around the waterway and the bridge.

COPENHAGEN: Is a city of Greenness, Fairytales (Hans Cristian Andersen), Maritime history and historic Harbour. We rode 6ks to town and ended up doing a 3 hr walking tour with an Aussie guide, Daniel, very entertaining and passionate about his adopted country.

The tour was fabulous, we learnt and saw a lot. Danmark, Sweden, Norway and the U.K were always at each other's throats, and the Vikings were always off doing a bit of Rape and Pillage. Obviously it was never a dull moment. We didn’t go and see the “Little Mermaid” as Daniel suggested it was the No.1 most over rated tourist attraction in the world!

The marina view from HH was stunning.

This city has one of the worlds longest pedestrian streets, lots of high end and odd shops, unfortunately Crown Princess Mary was nowhere to be seen, hopefully taking advantage of the sun somewhere. Everybody loves Carlsberg Beer. We stayed 2 days and then off to catch our very expensive car ferry to Germany. Only forty five minutes BUT, 869.00 kroner or A$135.00 !

Otherwise, we have to go back over that very expensive bridge again, Kroners to Euros to Aussie dollars again .Yeah !! We have had to re learn our 5 and 7 times table again to keep converting the currencies. It helps the old brain stay active, when calculating all this.....

The Ferry was incredible, we were parked inside the ferry beside an active train with passengers aboard on their way to Hamburg.

The train enters by its rail and exits the same way. I thought I was seeing things?????( doing a Harry Potter ). The bow opens up the rail lines match up, and off the train goes and we follow behind. We are now back in Germany and summer has finally arrived.

So I will say Auf Wiedersehen to you all, we do not know any Danish as 99% of the people speak English. Danke and  Guten Tag, love Susie , Terry & H.H. X. X.

 

Susie's Report No 41

 

 

Hello to All,

 

On leaving France, we head into Belgium to a town called NIEUPORT:  Great local markets and every man and his dog riding a bike. Bikes have preference on the roads and pedestrian crossings. They even have a special light for bikes at the traffic lights, bikes go first. 

 

 

Next day into the Netherlands, a town we have been to before, SAS Van GENT. We park along the canal and watch the canal traffic transiting to and fro.

 

 

It's the weekend, so all the weekend warriors are out in force. We are so tired of vans parking 2ft away from us - so I decided I would put out an "imaginary" force field it worked !!!!! ( the Germans are the worst offenders). We could be in a field, paddock or anywhere and with loads of spaces, but no, they will come and park right beside you, it drives me NUTS !!. 

 

 Anyway, we went for a scenic ride along the canal and there was a fishing comp happening - The World Feeder Fishing Championships, 36 teams with 5 people each, this was set along the canal for a couple of klms, it was very serious stuff, no one was talking just watching their rods, and waiting.We talked to Shaun from the English team, who after day one were leading the competition.

 

 

 Meanwhile these huge ships were pottering by sending their wake crashing into the banks as the men fished on....On returning to H.H. my force field was still active - Terry thinks I might have a hidden talent ( time will tell).

 

We were going to do a story just on Canals, because they can be unbelievably beautiful, intriguing, colourful, scenic, busy with traffic or very quiet, wide or skinny.

 

 

We just love them but I guessed you already know that. We have have some stunning photo's, mostly you can ride your bikes along them forever. It’s never a dull moment, there's ducks, geese,swans, cranes, frogs and this time of year lots with babies.

 

We met a lady walking along the canal, on her arm she had two exotic looking birds, we stopped for a chat, the birds are from Brazil. They even had tiny harnesses on, these we're tethered to her arm. She said she loved the Australian cockatoo and we said YES BUT !!! They are extremely noisy and can be very destructive ( we should know they tried to eat our back veranda, and b.b.q setting). She was on a 85 meter working boat, they have a contract to carry Pet Food along the canals. She said it can get very lonely being on the boat for along time, her birds give her great joy.

 

 So, here we are sitting beside the canal and watching the red poppies swaying in the breeze, and just finishing a cup of tea thinking life is not to bad at all ( we are lucky to be doing this ) and at 6pm we'll pour ourselves a nice refreshment and celebrate another nice finish to another nice day.

 

 

Now…. I might have mentioned that I am NOT a tunnel fan, but we have just driven 6.6 klms and it's all under water. I'm always looking for that light at the end, and wishing it would really, really hurry itself up. Holland has so many islands to skirt around this was the way to do it quickly.

 

 

We ended up at KATS near COLIJSPLAAT: settled in, then rode around the Dyke for about 25 klms. Scattered along the bike trail was broken bits of oyster and mussel shells. Intrigued we watched the big gulls drop their plunder from a decent height, it smashes, on the dyke wall and then… Bon appetite (very clever).

 

 

Back at the campsite we took pity on the local stray mother cat with 4 kittens, for breakfast she had, a small cube of cheese, 2 slices of ham, and a scoop of Bolognese meat sauce. She then wandered off into the fields looking for some mice. I now have to add cat biscuits to my shopping list....

 

Signposts in Holland are mind boggling, The pronunciation and spelling baffling, it looks like all the alphabet jumbled up into one long word.

 

 

ALBLASSERDAM: The windmill district. In the olden days there was 150 working, now only 48 remain and these remain as watermills. There job is to adjust the flow of ditch water at the side of the canals.

 

 

They bring the water higher to the low basin area, a fabulous site and a good ride around the area. Lots of geese, I'm not sure if these are migratory, there's so many of them and with babies.

 

GOUDA: What a lively and bustling town, we were lucky it was market day, we had a great morning of wandering around, and had our first taste of Kiberlings, bite size bits of cod or haddock. We are now pleasantly addicted. YUM......Gouda cheese of course features everywhere, giant wheels of yellow and lots of wooden clogs en mass, bright and colourful, with lots of pots of flowers and loads of bikes.

 

 

The cheese is not to bad if you like not a lot of flavour, give me a good old mature cheddar any day.

 

We are at a campers stop on the outskirts of UTRECHT: This town is the start to Tour De France, we will be back here for the trials and start. 

 

 

AMSTERDAM: What can I say - The Capital City.  It's Saturday, so many people, so busy, so alive, so good, so hippie, so cannabis, so seedy, so many bikes. The city of pleasure and hospitality, and oh… the canals.  It has a great public transport system with trams, trains, buses, boats and bikes.. bikes..bikes.

 

It's our wedding anniversary, so back into Amsterdam we go for a canal cruise, a meal and just to enjoy the atmosphere. We wandered through the red light district in daylight unfortunately. You can choose your lady from out in the street, she stands in the window bay, parading her wares. I coax Terry along  ( he's happy to stand there a bit longer ) and we go on our canal cruise, extremely entertaining.

 

 

This is where all the boats go to rest or die. The legal ones have power and gas, the illegals none, some are giants some so tiny.  

 

 

The apartments have a wonderful history also, each one is about 5 stories high. When built there was a huge tax on the width of the building, so the frontage had to be very narrow, hence very narrow internal staircases SO !! Each building has on the roof it's own gantry, very like a block & tackle to haul things (furniture etc) up and down through the windows.

 

 

It's been going on for centuries. The council also had to go to great expense because of the cars making along the canals. They had to put in guard rails to stop cars/bikes driving straight into the water, they say they still on average lose one car a week into the drink.

 

Terry did miss out on interesting times at the red light district , the girls would not accept any I.O.U's as payment for their services  - spoil sports !! Ha !! So we went to have dinner instead, great choices to be had, but we settled on Ribs, Salad and fries washed down with a Heineken. Prior to leaving we wished each other Happy Anniversary with a bottle of Italian Prosecco. We caught the tram back to H.H. Thank goodness it was good walk back from the station.  Amsterdam a great city....

 

EDAM: Pretty as a picture, and of course renowned for it's red ball cheese. So many small canals with traditional drawbridges, it was actually a fortress town. The cheese and shipbuilding trade has played an important role since the 16th century. As we cycled by, one of the locks leading to the town was full with a rally of great little canal boats.

 

 

VOLENDAM: Is a quick ride from Edam, and is an ancient fishing village on Lake Ljssel. The photos of the traditional boats called Botters tell the story.

 

 

This is a busy tourist town, thank goodness we rode there as we had Kiberlings for a snack lunch again, this has got to stop but, they are sooo....yummy.

 

HARLINGEN TERMINAL: Another good overnight stop in the heart of the shipping area. Great riding along the dyke wall. We came across this familiar looking boat, it looked like the one from the movie  "The Boat that Rocks”, a relay ship for a pirate radio in the sixties.

 

 

It was a sunny day so lots of boats (Botters) doing touristy things, car ferry's out to the islands, pleasure craft everywhere.

We are really enjoying Holland, the people are so friendly and they speak extremely good English (this really helps), the roads are brilliant, their gardens vibrant with flowers, all the towns/villages have flower pots everywhere along the roads.  We have travelled a lot of klms now and this country is very "house proud”, no rubbish anywhere, streets,roadsides, no litter to be seen. It's very green with lots and lots of trees, boats and bikes… bikes… bikes.

 

GEITHOORN: A very affluent town, large homes and properties with an incredible amount of tiny canals, with boats for hire.

 

 

The pathways and little bridges were so narrow we walked with our bikes to get around some of this area. Lots of restaurants, lots of tourists, lots of dairy cattle.

 

 

ALMERE HAVEN: Summer has arrived and it's the last day of June, hot and nice.  The marina is very pleasant with room for 16 motor homes and there is an Amusement/Sideshow setting up shop down the road. ( you know the ones, you have to spend hundreds of dollars to win a $1 fluffy toy or a plastic whatever?).

 

 

Riding our bikes has become less fraught with danger i.e. Terry's new frame is obviously carrying the load easier ( no punctures/flat tyres ) yet !! And I had to get 2 new tyres, which cost an arm and and a leg with fitting and labour. Mine had perished. The rubber had cracks all around the rims. I was just hoping they wouldn't burst open while riding, it was just unfortunate we had to buy these in Holland as by law you have to have a reflective strip in them, even though we do NOT ride at night. These tyres are so good they'll live longer than I will.

  

NOORD IJSSELDIJK:We are at Jachthaven MARNEMOENDE ( try pronouncing these - good luck ) awaiting the Tour de France, 5 days to go.

 

  We ride into UTRECHT to catch up with Wayne and Liz (Aussie friends) to watch the presentation of the riders for the Tour de France and the entertainment in a local park. Well !!!! We got terribly lost on the way in and likewise on the way home (1 3/4hrs each way). Needless to say we missed catching up with them.  We watched the events, found our bikes and rode off into chaos again. 

 

 

We finally found our way back to H.H. at 9.15pm with a thrashing storm behind us, thunder and lightning very very, frightening. So with a glass of rough red and rum and coke we reflected that it had been very interesting, very colourful, along with lots of swearing!! Ours, that it. Actually most of the riders are petite, extremely slim and fit.

 

 

The M.C at the park asked a rider "so what do you eat" answer - lots and lots of carbohydrates, so that got me thinking ( We'll just have to peddle faster and do lots of longer distances) and probably cut out the evenings refreshments and canapés. YIKES !!!. Not likely to happen........

 

It has been so hot here, all of Europe is in heatwave conditions, 38 degs. Thank heavens we have a portable fan in H.H. We would of not been able to sleep, I'm surprised it affected us so much, and as much as I love the canals I would not swim in them, just dangle legs over the side.

 

Sunday and it's race day, we ride into MONTFOORT:

 Not game enough to attempt Utrecht again plus some roads/streets are blocked off. So, we peddle in to claim a patch on the side of the road for race viewing. There’s a grand old tree just waiting to have our flags draped all over it.

 

 

That done we settle in for a couple of hours of waiting and waiting. But there’s plenty of entertainment.

 

 

 Countdown…. as it's all timed with precision where the riders will be, Helicopters coming across the fields, then BAM!!!! It's all over in a blur......of very fast riders. 

 

 

Even the promotional, cars, trucks and vans sped through in a flash of colour throwing out items, nothing to heavy as the crowd would/could of been maimed/wounded or actually got run over as they were scurrying for a souvenir.

 

 

I managed a SKODA cap that I had to push a child out of the way to get (just kidding-sort of) he already had a handful of stuff, he was not into sharing.

 

Well that's it ....now the other fun begins, thousands of people with bikes trying to leave the area, we end up with a BIKE JAM.....it's a fabulous sight, luckily we didn't have far to go.

 

 

Next day we catch up with Wayne and Liz, they pull into the marina on their boat "True Blue VI" heading down the canal to Gouda. We'll catch up again as the boat is based in Europe. 

 

So off they go with the Australian flag flying in the breeze. We wave goodbye also to a wonderful Dutch couple Cobi & Roel who we were parked beside us. They have been invaluable with information local and afar. It was one of those hugs and kisses days....

 

 

I am now signing off from a town called GORINCHEM:

 

 

The next couple of days we'll head into Germany-Deutschland to buy H.H. his new steps, and have them fitted. He’s gone without them for a while now. He/we have suffered long enough.  We risked life and limb only a couple of times slipping and sliding off the plastic one. They don't sit too we'll on gravel... Anyway...goodbye to All, love to All,  Susie, Terry & H.H. x x x