Category: Netherlands

The Van Gogh museum has been on our to do list for Amsterdam since the first trip. Each time we have looked at going there were no spots available. We finally landed a spot today.

We got caught in one pretty good down pour on the way to the museum but otherwise enjoyed our walk. The city seemed a lot less crowded than our previous visits which was nice, we weren’t sure if this was a function of the weather (pretty wet) or the time of the year.

We arrived at the museum about noon, but our ticket was for 1:15. They had a couple of people in front of the museum so I asked one of the young ladies what time we should get in line for the 1:15 entrance-she said it is not too busy today so if you come back at 12:45 we will let you in. So we headed over to the museum of modern art next door to avoid another squall and hung out in the atrium until we could enter the museum.

The museum follows his career from his early days as an artist until his death by suicide. His career as an artist only lasted 10 years from roughly his 27th birthday until he died at age 37. While he was not commercially successful during his life time he was well known within art circles and admired. After his death a lot of his paintings went to his sister in law who eventually donated them to the museum.

Van Gogh had a contentious relationship with Gauguin. It was during the aftermath of a fight with Gauguin that Van Gogh famously amputated his own ear.

We were pleased with the museum. It was small enough to be easy to navigate, but had an extensive collection of his paintings representing his entire short (but prolific) career. It was not so crowded that you could not get a good look at all of the paintings, even the famous ones.

The Van Gogh museum is considered one of the must see places in Amsterdam. And now that we have visited it we are glad we did.

When we came out of the market the skies had opened up, and there was some blue between the big cumulus clouds. We headed down to the Albert Cuyp market which takes up several blocks of Albert Cuyp street. We were near the end of the day but still enjoyed the walk. We stopped in an old restaurant and got two famous Dutch foods. Bitterballen, and Apple pie. Apple Pie is self explanatory but Dutch apple pie is very good. Bitterballen is a fried ball of dough with a meat puree like filling. I think we liked the apple pie better but we can now say we have had bitterballen.

We spent the rainy day hanging around François getting over jet lag and planning for our unexpected extended stay in Amsterdam. We have been trying to go to the Van Gogh museum here, but were never able to get tickets. Today we were able to get tickets for tomorrow so we are off to Amsterdam to tick off one of our bucket list items for the Netherlands. Ton has come up with some other good ideas for the weekend so we will be busy being tourists the next few days.

Our optimism yesterday crashed this morning. When we started François the check engine light was on again, so we began our day by reaching out to the Fiat dealer nearby. During the drive over the light went out so some optimism returned, but in the end we decided we needed to be sure the engine is ok before we head to Morocco. The earliest appointment for a full appointment to do the diagnosis was Tuesday, that was a little later than we hoped, so we contacted the dealer in Delft that did the work on our airbag computer, but their earliest appointment was also Tuesday. So we are now here until Tuesday instead of Friday. Bummer.

Since we were already out and the weather was nice Ton suggested we go to Alsmeer for the day. It was reported as a pretty town on a large lake. Since it was pretty close I agreed. The drive over was easy and we parked up about a kilometer out of the main town.

We had driven along the lake and it was pretty, but as we headed into town the lake disappeared behind houses and never appeared again. The downtown was nice but not exciting. We saw signs for old town Alsmeer and headed towards it. The entrance was promising with a nice canal bridge and a couple of interesting buildings. As we got to the end of the walkway we came on a ticket office and had all but decided to turn around when a nice old gentleman came up to greet us. In the end neither of us could tell him we didn’t want to spend the entrance fee so we went in.

There were a couple of workshops and hot houses with flowers, But after the beginning it turned into a garden with different themes. The gardens were nice, and if you were really into gardening interesting because it included a lot of plants that are no longer in style, so rare. There was no sign of an old town, so we did a quick turn thru the gardens and headed back to François.

When we started François the check engine light was back. So our decision to stay seems like the right one.

Our neighbors are American. Nearly every trip we come across an American couple in one of the campgrounds. It’s funny how your ear is drawn to your own accent. When I went outside I heard them talking to each other inside their van. They are here on a trial run with a rental van to see if they want to buy one for future use. We had a nice chat and they asked some questions about our experience over here. It was fun to be able to share our experience with them.

As I said yesterday we have a check engine light that needs to be diagnosed. Luckily there is a Fiat dealer only 5 kilometers away, so once we got going we headed over there. Again luckily, they were able to squeeze us in to their schedule today. We had to wait a couple of hours in their nice customer waiting area. Ton used the time and their WiFi to download some shows onto her iPad.

Again luckily, the check engine light was caused by a one time event with our diesel exhaust system so all they had to do was reset the computer and we were on our way. The rest of the day was spent grocery shopping at the giant Asian grocery near by, and at a Lidl for meats and vegetables. All in all it was a productive day.

We are back in Europe for our next trip. The flight over was uneventful once we got out of Portland. There was a little misadventure at the beginning when one of us forgot their carry on bag at home which resulted in a mad dash back home from the airport. In the end we made the flight with minutes to spare and it all ended well. Thanks Rebecca for your help and patience.

After arriving we headed over to the storage we use, to pick up François the motorhome. He was sitting in his usual spot waiting for us, but we noticed that one of the storage buildings that they use had burned to the ground. The building was huge, nearly 100 yards long. The owner said the fire had happened about two weeks ago. Not only was the building destroyed but 180 travel trailers (caravans) had also been destroyed. He said that he has been spending a lot of time talking to insurance companies, but he thought everything would be ok in the end.

We had been hoping to move François to indoor storage when we returned, but now we are going to be happy with outside storage.

The only other issue was that we have a check engine light to deal with, so tomorrow in addition to going grocery shopping we are going to have to find a mechanic to see what is going on with our engine.

Today was about preparing to leave. Our airbag computer had failed while François was in storage over the winter. When we arrived in March we took him in to try to get it fixed but the parts took 4 to 6 weeks to arrive so instead we made an appointment for today to get it fixed. In addition we needed our regular maintenance including an oil change. Our morning was devoted to getting that taken care of. Everything was done efficiently and we were back at the campground by 1pm. Ton spent the rest of the day packing and I did a few minor things around the outside of François while she worked. We finished most of the food in the refrigerator for dinner.

We spent the morning starting to organize François for storage, that is, Ton organized François for storage and I stayed out of the way and helped a couple of times to lift things that needed lifting. We are pretty much surrounded by British so I spent most of the morning in conversation with our neighbors.

After lunch Ton was ready for a break so we walked into Delft. Delft is a lovely town, and could not be more Dutch. Clean sturdy looking homes, canals everywhere and lots of bikes. It is a nice city to walk in and has thoroughly charmed all of English neighbors in the campground as well as us.

After strolling around for a while we went to a pub that specialized in Belgian beers. Ton ordered a Leffe to make up for the one we didn’t get in Dinan the other day. When it came a Dutch gentleman next to us told her that if she liked dark beers she should order the one he was drinking. We struck up a nice conversation mostly centered around beer with him and his wife. They also gave us some tips on places to visit when we return in the fall. We really enjoyed the conversation and ended up spending about an hour there.

After a couple of beers we returned to François and continued to work on cleaning the last of the food out of the refrigerator. Not an exciting day, but in the end a satisfactory one.

A photo from yesterday as today we spent the whole day driving to our final stop on the trip. We started in Delft and are ending the trip in Delft. We have three nights here where we will clean up François and prepare him for storage.

We are in a corridor full of British so have heard a lot of English. The van across from us is an English/American couple so we are not the only Americans in the neighborhood.

There are two places we have been meaning to visit in the Netherlands but have not gotten to yet, one is the Van Gogh Museum, and the other is Keukenhof. When we first arrived we decided to go to Keukenhof. It is less expensive if you buy the parking and tickets in advance so we went on line, while there were tickets available on the weekend, the website said the place would be crowded. Since this is the second most visited site in the Netherlands we took that to mean very crowded. Today was not marked crowded and it was supposed to be sunny so we bought the tickets.

Keukenhof is a garden that displays all of the different flowers grown commercially in the Netherlands. The main reason most people come is to look at the Tulips, but there are many other types of flowers on display.

We set the alarm for 8 am because we have both been sleeping in, a combination of cold nights and jet lag. We packed François up and had him ready to go at 9:30, but when I turned the key the battery was dead. I headed up to the office to have them call for a jump start, but they volunteered to send one of their maintenance workers over to give us a jump, and we were on our way just before 10am.

We were in the park at 10:45 and the place was already jumping with people. We both looked at each other and wondered what it was like on a busy day. The place is beautiful, and the various gardens and indoor displays are very beautiful.

The only issue was that it was about a week to 10 days too early for Tulips. There were a few Tulips in bloom, but we mostly had to make due with other types of flowers that were also beautiful. The primary season for Tulips is April and May so we were just a bit too early.

The other issue was that while the day was beautiful the temperatures where in the low 50’s with a steady wind that made it feel much colder. Everyone was bundled up and the souvenir stores were doing brisk business selling stocking hats, and scarves.

We had bought a 45 minute canal tour, we enjoyed it but most of the fields were not in bloom. There were a lot of birds in the fields and some daffodils blooming so all was not lost.

We spent about 5 hours at Keukenhof and enjoyed ourselves despite the cold temperatures. Even without the Tulips in full bloom the grounds are beautiful and worth a visit as they plant other seasonal flowers during non-Tulip months.

Our last stop for the day was a mechanics shop near the campground. I had emailed them to see if I could get some things taken care of. Francois is approaching his 10th birthday and there are a few minor things that need maintenance, and one more major thing that needs taking care of. I had reached out to a place with a good reputation and they had asked us to swing thru to take a look at our issues. They closed at 5 and it looked like we were going to arrive at 4, when just 1.5 kilometers from our exit the freeway came to a complete halt, and the 1.5 kilometers took 45 minutes to negotiate. We arrived at 4:45 but they were kind enough to take a look at our problems. One they offered to work on when we return to the Netherlands, but unfortunately our bigger problem is going to require a trip to a Fiat dealer. So we have to work that into this trip.

We choose to have a lazy day today. The spring and fall time changes do not line up between the US and Europe so we ended up sleeping an hour later this morning as today was the day for Europeans to spring forward. It didn’t make a lot of difference for us as we had very little planned intentionally.

It was a very blue day, but very windy. François had been rocking all night in the wind and when we finally decided to head into town it was still blowing quite hard. We bundled up and joined the crowds in downtown Delft.

Our agenda was very simple, go have a couple of beers at interesting bars. Delft has been a major producer of beer in the Netherlands since the middle ages so we wanted to get a feel for the beer history of the region. Ton had picked out a couple of places that specialized in Dutch and Belgian beers. Our first stop was at a small pub near the church. They had over 30 beers on tap, and after consulting with the owner I choose a Dutch Blond, and Ton choose a “Belgian” dubbel.

The Belgian is in quotes because the bartender explained that the brewer of the beer was a Dutch guy who lived near the Belgian border. He initially brewed his beer in his hometown, but he learned that while Belgian beer was in vogue nobody was interested in Dutch beer. So after a couple of years he bought a place a couple of kilometers away on the Belgian side of the border and sales soared for his “Belgian” beers.

Ton had picked out another place that had a large selection of Belgian beers, but when we got there all of the inside seating was taken and the substantial outside beer garden was also full. We may return later if the wind is not blowing.

Our final stop was a small brewery which is the newest in Delft. While the building was being converted to a brewery a stray swing of a sledge hammer uncovered a forgotten cellar under the main floor. This happens quite frequently so the local town archaeologist was brought in and after some investigation he determined that the cellar had been used in the past as a brewery so the building has returned to its original roots.

We sat in the cellar that was the old brewery for our beers. The newest brewery in town has good beers that hopefully make the ghosts of the old brewers proud. We were debating whether to have one more beer when I spotted a place on the man square offering Affogato which is ice cream topped with espresso. Ton loves Affogato so we skipped the beer in favor of dessert. It was a good choice.

Last night Ton proposed a trip to Rotterdam to get us into the swing of things. So we forced ourselves up a little earlier. Ton prepared a nice hearty breakfast. It was our first big meal of the trip. We then set off for the train station for the 15 minute train ride to Rotterdam. In what was going to be a trend for the day, we showed up at the platform just as the doors closed on the train and it began rolling. Fortunately, the next train was in 15 minutes.

Rotterdam’s city center is very different than any other we have visited in Europe. In May of 1940 as the Germans were invading the Netherlands they sent one of the first mass air raids to Rotterdam, in 45 minutes the downtown core of the city was leveled with hundreds of deaths.

After the war most cities tried to reconstruct the buildings that were lost to bombings or battle, but in Rotterdam they decided to start form scratch rather than rebuild the old buildings. The result is a city of very modern and vibrant architecture. It has the feel of an American city, but with European walk ability. We really enjoyed it.

Our first stop was the Market Hall. It is supposed to be the largest covered market in Europe but I think it depends on how you define big, it certainly is the tallest. It is a giant food court with foods from all over the Netherlands and the world represented in different small restaurants. The interior is a gain arch covered in murals of food, plants, and animals. In addition to all of the restaurants the building also incorporates over 200 apartments. One of these apartments would be perfect for someone who didn’t like to cook!

Our next stop was the flamboyant yellow cube houses. These were built in the 1990’s as a civil development project. The architect promised something unique and he certainly delivered.

There were originally going to be 70 of these built, but in the end only 38 were completed. While people were interested in looking at them, they are not the most practical places to live so demand was not that high.

After the food hall, the yellow cubes and the longish walk to get to them our next stop was food. In the Netherlands we have been trying a lot of Surinamese food. It is an interesting blend of Chinese, Indian, and Caribbean food. We were excited to find what was touted as the best Surinamese restaurant in Rotterdam and it looked promising. It was full and informal which is always a good sign that it is the food not the ambiance that is driving business. I liked the food, but Ton was a little disappointed.

We had been reading about what the Lonely Planet called the best bar in the world so we decided to check it out. Unfortunately it was not open when we went by so Ton’s culinary experience in Rotterdam was disappointing.

Luckily we saw a nice bar on our way to the train station so Ton was able to enjoy a nice Dutch beer while I settled on a Czech Pilsner. We arrived on the platform for what was to be a quick ride back to Delft only to see our train pulling out. Luckily there was another in about 20 minutes so we moved over. When we arrived in Delft we found that we had missed our bus to the campground by 3 minutes, the next one was in 27 minutes but it did not turn up. We finally got a bus 57 minutes after arriving. So while the trains and busses run frequently we did not have very good luck with them today.

We had another late start to the day as a combination of jet lag, and iffy weather kept us in bed until late. We lounged around all of the morning until about 1pm when Ton suggested a walk to town.

We had visited Delft last year and spent a couple of nights. We spent one day checking out the town, and used it as a base to explore the Hague for another couple of days. Ton wanted to go back to a couple of the sites and check them out again.

After a short 25 minute walk we were in the main square of the town. As we expected it had not changed. The square is nice, and Delft is on the tourism trail as it is famous for its blue pottery, and as the home of the girl with the pearl earring. Scarlett Johansen starred in this movie a few years ago and it still drives visitors to Delft.

As we were walking thru the square a wedding party emerged from the town hall. The friends and family formed two lines and the newly weds walked thru it, while everyone blue bubbles. We guessed the bubbles replaced the throwing of rice, but maybe the Dutch never threw rice, and always blew bubbles at newly weds.

We had a nice walk thru town, but we had a deadline as it was supposed to rain about 4pm. Ton wanted to make one more run thru the supermarket before heading back to François. After 45 minutes we emerged from the Jumbo supermarket with a pack full of miscellaneous food and hustled back to François just before the rain started.

We settled in for the night, but after the rain it was a bit damp and chilly so I wimped out and turned on the heater to warm François up before we went to bed. We are planning to head out tomorrow for a proper day of exploring in South Holland.

We both slept in. I was up around 10 am and Ton took a little longer to get going. It was chilly overnight, and while I thought about turning on the heat we managed to make it through the night

To allow Ton a chance to sleep in peace I decided to head into town to see if I could find a charger for my Fitbit to replace the one which is probably sitting on the table next to where I packed my carry on bag at home. After walking to a couple of stores I was told it was unlikely I would find one and would have to order it on line. I wasn’t sure if that would work here, but telling Ton of my dilemma she said she thought we could order it from Amazon. After adding the campgrounds address to my account I was able to order one for delivery (hopefully) tomorrow.

We had our first and last meal of the day around 4 pm as jet lag is also messing with our meal schedule. To prevent us from falling to sleep too early we had a nice evening stroll taking in the children park next store, and heading to one of the main shopping areas in town.

Delft is a very prosperous looking town, almost stereo typically Dutch. It is full of solid looking well maintained Brick buildings, tall and good looking people, and of course canals. It is the kind of town I could envision living a good life in. The evening crowd was very young as Delft is a famous university town.

We finished the day off with a little recreational shopping in two grocery stores. After about 45 minutes of wandering aisles looking at various foods we walked out with a single bottle of salad dressing, and made our way back to François for the day.

Today we dropped François off at the Tulip Farm for storage this winter. We took our time leaving the campground in Amsterdam as the airport hotel will not let you check in early so we were trying to time our arrival for 3pm.

We did some last minute clean up in the morning, and packed all of the dry food and paper away in plastic boxes to try to keep the mice away this winter. Finally around 11:30 we headed over to a truck wash near the airport to give François a good wash before heading to storage.

After the wash we headed over to the Tulip farm, we had to detour around what looked like a pretty nasty motorcycle crash on a narrow road near the storage, but arrived about 1:30 at the storage. The storage we use used to be a Tulip farm and the old buildings that used to be for growing Tulips have been converted to storage. We have outside storage as the inside storage is completely full. The last step before we left was to set a couple of mouse traps just in case.

Our final stop for the day was the airport Ibis Hotel, where they were kind enough to let us into the room at 2pm instead of making us wait until 3pm like last time. Ton spent part of the afternoon doing a final rearrangement of the bags while I enjoyed Dutch TV.

Today Ton packed up our bags and we both did a little cleaning in preparation for putting François in storage tomorrow. We had a couple of nice conversations with some old friends Ovi and Cory, and our new friends from Singapore. The day was damp and dark so it does feel like it is a good time to get going to Portland which is probably also damp and dark, but it is our damp and dark.

The campground we are staying at is shutting down all of the camping facilities (showers, washers, and the little general store) tomorrow, but you can stay here without the facilities during the winter . The price drops quite a bit and it looks like a lot of people will be taking advantage of the aire that this place will become tomorrow, as it is as full as it has been since we arrived.

Another day of cleaning and organizing for our trip home. We did meet a nice couple from Singapore who we chatted with for awhile. They did Germany and the Netherlands, and in a separate leg rented a RV in Iceland and did the circle route there. It was fun talking to them.

Otherwise Ton worked hard, and I took a couple of short walks. The Heron in the picture spent most of the day hanging in the canal behind François fishing.

We have returned to the campground that we started the trip at. When we arrived in September the place was bustling. They are closing down on the 31st which works well for us as we are leaving that day. But now instead of bustling it is very quiet. With the rain and damp everyone who is here is pretty much staying inside their campers so it was a pretty quiet place.

Ton spent the day organizing things for the trip home. She spent some time taking an inventory of what we are going to leave behind as she has learned this helps us when we are packing to come back so we do not carry stuff from home that is already here. François has a lot of storage for his size, but after 6 years we are using a lot of the space we have, so we don’t need any duplicates. She was also looking at all of the stuff we bought on this trip to bring home and sizing up how to pack it.

Our preparations now include putting all of the dry food and paper products we have into plastic boxes to discourage another invasion by mice. We hope this does the trick.

I spent most of the day staying out of the way, but being available to lift things if necessary. We are starting to have big meals to get rid of all of the stuff in the refrigerator. So I did try to get in a walk in the morning to prep for the extra food.

We were able to enjoy an extra hour sleep this morning as Europe changes time one week earlier than the US. The traveling part of the trip ended today as we made our way back to our base in Amsterdam. We will be spending the next few days cleaning up and preparing François for storage for the winter. The drive over was easy and the high light of the day was some more Grocery Tourism in the grocery store near the campground.

Today was a maintenance day for François. We needed to have the oil and filter changed, so we asked for some references from the storage yard and were directed to a local garage. The people there were very nice. The work was done quickly. We spent the time talking to the owners wife who is a nurse, and a customer who is a security guard at the US Embassy in the Hague. The time passed quickly.

When I found out they didn’t take credit cards I had to find an ATM nearby. When I told them I was going to walk to the ATM which was about a kilometer away, the security guard insisted on driving us. In addition to getting some cash, we found the location of two more grocery stores close to where we store François. So thanks to everyone who helped us today.

We arrived back at the campground around noon and just as we settled in it started raining pretty hard so we decided that was a sign that we should just relax and try to get over the jet lag for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we will be off towards Bastogne in Belgium.

The mouse was quiet last night, but he did not end up in any of the mouse traps so we assume he is still with us.

We went to sleep during a huge thunderstorm and then slept somewhat fitfully until after 11am this morning. I made our coffee and was sitting outside while Ton lingered in bed.

I had tried listening for mouse noises, but had heard none so I was hopeful that the mouse had moved on before we arrived. It turns out I was wrong. He is still in François and it turns out is a bit of a jerk. During the night he gnawed his way into a packet of cookies that had passed inspection yesterday, and to taunt us dropped a piece cookie in the bed during the night to announce his presence. Ton woke up to find the cookie under her in bed.

We debated whether to go shopping today for a mouse trap, but by the time we had eaten breakfast and gotten organized enough to get going it was 2pm, so we decided to go tomorrow. So the mouse gets one more night before we start hunting for it in earnest.

Ton has been fascinated by the pizza machines we have seen near roads and in shopping centers around Europe. Since we last stayed at this campground they have installed one. One of the highlights of Tons day was studying the operation of the machine up close. The machine here delivers either a cheese or pepperoni pizza for about €13. It looks like you deposit your money, and about 5 minutes later a hot pizza appears already boxed for carryout. I asked Ton if she wanted to try one and she laughed and said only if I have not had any food at all for about 3 days. So fascination with the machine does not equal consuming the product for Ton.