We have been corresponding with a RV shop in Roses Spain about getting our privacy screen fixed. Yesterday they said they had a replacement screen available, but their technician said he thought he could fix the existing one. So our next stop for the day was set.
It was a cold and drizzly day but the promenade at Roses was still busy in the evening.
The drive was a little further than we thought it was going to be. When we started out looking at the distance we were going to cover on the Autopista (freeway) Ton and I guessed it was going to be a €40 toll. We were both wrong today there was no tolls. We arrived at the RV repair place and the tech looked at the problem and thru his interpreter (his wife) said it wont be elegant but it will work. He underestimated the quality of his work and while he was with us I had him fix one more small item. The repair was quoted at €700 in the Netherlands so the €108 we paid today was a great bargain.
We’ve seen some interesting rigs in Europe.
We were at the campground by 3:30 just in time for it to rain. Ton cooked a nice dinner, and then declared her day over. I took a short evening walk and then came back to relax in François.
We really need tires for François and since Zaragoza is a good sized city we decided to take the day and see if we could find some here. A google search led me to a tire place with multiple branches in Zaragoza and one of them was near Costco so that is where we went to start the day. The store near Costco did not have any but the receptionist did a quick search and found that another branch did. She even said she would call ahead since she wasn’t sure anyone there spoke English. On arrival it was clear we were expected, and they got right to work. It was a busy place with a police car, two ambulances, a road safety truck, and a bunch of cars getting tires.
François in the middle of getting new rubber. Not NASCAR fast, but pretty efficient.
We spent time watching the cars come and go, watching a cooking show on the TV with one of the customers, and Ton tried to read the local papers. The two local papers had extensive coverage of yesterdays parade, its too bad we couldn’t read them.
The local papers had extensive coverage of the parade.
Since we had such good luck with the tires we decided to try a RV place to see if we could solve our problem with the privacy screen. A google search showed a place with good ratings that was supposed to be a dealer for our motorhome. It was only about 15 minutes away so we decided to try our luck again. Greta directed us into a BP station and said we had arrived. We looked around for a minute and saw a shop with a motorhome in front of it tucked into a corner of the lot with the BP. I went in and asked if they could look at the problem. The lady was very nice but then said no mechanic, vacation. She did come out and look at the problem, she asked where we were going next and when I told her Barcelona she actually called a repair place there and described our problem. Unfortunately, they told her they could not fix it.
Nothing from today, Ton liked this picture from yesterday so I included it today.
Figuring we still had done pretty well, and having solved our major problem we decided another trip to Costco would do us some good. After an hour of walking around Costco, and filling another cart with stuff we headed out to François to see a major thunderstorm heading towards us.
The land around Zaragoza reminds me of the mid-west which means you can see the storms coming. We beat feet for the campground, and I was just able to get set up on our site before the storm hit. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and watching the thunderstorms approach trying to guess if they were going to hit us. Two of them did, both pretty large with lots of lightning and rain.
Today is Palm Sunday which represents the official beginning of Holy Week. Zaragoza goes in big for Holy Week with 53 processions during the week by the 23 brotherhoods in the city.
Palms for sale for Palm Sunday celebration. They came in many sizes and shapes.
I had tried to check the schedule for the processions before we left for the center of the city, and as near as I could tell there was not one until 7:45 at night, which is too late for us. But as we turned the corner onto a main road we noticed a large crowd lining the road so we joined the crowd and found a good spot looking down the road at the main Cathedral.
The road to the Cathedral that the procession would come up.
While we were waiting I did a quick Wikipedia search of these processions and found that they were led by different Cofraternity of penitents, or to use their simple names brotherhoods. The brotherhoods exist in many countries, and were initially secret male only societies. Today they are not so secret and are not male only. They exist to allow the members to make penance through charitable works, and once a year to walk the streets doing a public penance. Each “brotherhood” takes a story from the life of Jesus to base their work on and adopts a unique dress and color to tell them apart from the other brotherhoods.
This large statue of Jesus was the center piece of the procession.
One of the principles of the brotherhood is that the penitents must do this work anonymously to the community at large. So they wear what is to an American a startling piece of head gear to maintain their anonymity. It is called a Capirote and is a tall pointed mask with a face covering that we associate with the KKK in the US.
This conjures up a very different image here in Spain than it does in the US!
Today the penitents parade thru town with many of the members banging on drums and a small ratchet like device. When they went by it was quite noisy.
There were several hundred drummers in the parade. Some did not wear the pointed hats but these white hats.
Each “brotherhood” has its own unique color combination, and today the group in the procession wore blue Capirotes. Near the end of the procession there were representatives of other brotherhoods marching in support of the blue group.
Representatives of other “brotherhoods” walking with their palms in support of the Blues.
After we got over being startled by the dress it was an interesting experience. There appeared to be a lot of symbology in the dress, the statues, and the drums that went over our heads. But we enjoyed watching it.
This women surrounded by Palm bearing walkers in plain robes was near the front of the procession. These were the only people in the parade without their heads covered by some kind of cover.
After the statue with a scene of Jesus’ life went by their was a collection of older ladies dressed in traditional Spanish widow dresses. Ton wondered what that was about but I could only guess.
The widows with a couple of priests and politicians behind them.
It was a beautiful day in Zaragoza and with the processions the city center was hoping. We headed down to the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of Pillar to check out the sites in the center. The Cathedral is located on a very large square. On one end is a very modern fountain, on the other end are a series of sculptures dedicated to the artist Goya who was from here, and in between is the Cathedral, what is now the parliament building of Aragon that resides in an old Mosque as Zaragoza was ruled by Moslems for about 300 years.
Another large church, with a carousel in the forefront that was doing booming business.
It is said that there are three major architectural influences in Zaragoza. It started as a Roman city, then was conquered and ruled as a Moslem city, and finally the influence of Christianity. Each has left their mark on Zaragoza.
The interior of the Cathedral.
We were not able to tour the parliament building today, but it is supposed to have some of the best examples of western Islamic art in the world. When we got to the Roman theater it was closed but we were able to look at it thru a fence and it is quite extensive though it looks like it was buried for a while so is not functional like many we have seen in Europe.
The Roman amphitheater.
The center of Zaragoza was also full of good restaurants that were doing booming business on this beautiful Sunday. Zaragoza is the fifth largest city in Spain and seems to be a prosperous and comfortable city.
Statue fo Goya enjoying a cup of wine on the main square in Zaragossa.
After spending several hours watching processions and wandering thru the city we were getting tired so we returned to the campground and for the first time on the trip had to open up all of the windows in François to allow him to cool off. We were pretty happy about that too.
One of the old gates in the city walls. The walls appear to have been removed in the 1800’s to allow for development of the city.
This will be short. We were up early, said goodbye for our neighbors and were on the road about 9:30. Our destination for today was Zaragoza for two reasons. We had not visited it on our previous trips, and it had a brand new Costco to visit. We are still on the hunt for new tires for François and we were hoping this brand new Costco would have doors that he could fit in to change tires.
One thing we like about visiting Costco’s over here are the interesting products that we don’t have at home. These are chicken feet. Lots of chicken feet.
The drive over was smooth though a little more expensive than we hoped for. It looks like the Spanish are catching up to the French for the cost of toll roads. We found the brand new Costco on the edge of Zaragoza and headed straight for the fuel station. This was the cheapest fuel we have seen in years and was 40cents a liter less than we have paid anywhere in the last two years. That translated into €30 savings on a tank of fuel.
Ton kept me from making a disastrous mistake. In the US diesel fuel pumps have green handles and gas have black handles, these colors are reversed in Spain. I had the green handled filler for gas in the fill spout for François and was about to turn on the pump when Ton came flying over and intervened before I started, putting gas in a diesel engine would have caused a tow, and a lengthy stay in a garage to purge the system and change all of the filters. I am going to have to pay more attention going forward.
Unfortunately, it looks like none of the Costco’s in Europe are going to be able to take François but the guy at the tire center gave us a tip for a RV place that does tires so we will swing in there Monday and see if we have any luck. We spent the next hour happily perusing Costco and we now have a bunch of Spanish goodies in our cupboards.
We decided to have a laid back day today so we did not plan to leave Orio. We spent the morning doing some light chores around François before heading into town for lunch.
Part of the old town in Orio.
Our neighbor had recommended a restaurant to try, and about 1:45 we started into town to get lunch as it is served later in Spain than we are used to at home. We arrived and ordered a three course lunch with a starter, a main course, and a desert for €13. The waitress spoke limited English, and I can read limited Spanish, she left us her notebook with the options (there were 4 starters, and 4 main courses to pick from), between the three of us we eventually figured out the options and we were served an excellent lunch. After we placed our order the waitress asked us if we wanted water or wine, when we said wine she returned with a bottle of wine and put it in the center of the table. It was included in the €13.
If my Spanish is correct this is a ceramic factory across the river from the center of Orio.
After lunch we decided to take a stroll thru town to burn off some of the food. We also unsuccessfully cased another grocery store looking for Basque Vermouth. On our way back to the campground we saw 2 oxen yoked together with red masks covering their eyes being led from a barn. There happened to be a bench nearby so we sat down to see what was going to happen. Eventually, they hitched the two oxen to a sled and placed a couple of large rocks on it, then a grandfather and we presume his grandson got on the sled, and the boys father led the bulls down the field.
These two oxen were being trained for a Basque sport called Idi Probak.
The bulls were being trained for a Basque sport called Idi Probak. The contest consists of having two ox yoked together at the horns, (if you look carefully at the picture you can see their horns are interlocked.) then heavy rocks are put on a sled, and the ox have to drag the rocks, the sled, and a driver around an oval for 30 minutes to 2 hours. The problem is that the way the ox are yoked together makes it difficult for them to pull in a straight line unless they are well trained, so the driver and another person who walks in front have to work hard to keep the ox on track and moving. The winners are determined by who covers the most distance and carries the most weight in the time period allotted.
The ox off on their Idi Probak training session.
After we returned we took it easy for the rest of the day. I spent some time chatting with our Irish neighbor about life while Ton watched some movies on Netflix.
We took our time leaving in the morning as we were hoping that the traffic in Bordeaux would die down. We have experienced more traffic jams passing thru Bordeaux than any city in France including Paris. So we lingered around the campground until 10 am hoping, but we still ran into a lot of slow traffic in Bordeaux. It wasn’t as bad as some of our other trips but it was slow crossing the city.
Ton was up for sunrise.
Once we broke out of Bordeaux the remainder of the trip was smooth sailing and we arrived at one of our favorite campsites in Orio Spain about 1:30. We had made reservations in advance, so check in was smooth, and we were settled in by 2pm. Our neighbors were Irish and English so we had a chat. with them.
Sunrise from our campsite. Not bad for $15.
Later in the afternoon we had a stroll into Orio for some recreational shopping. When we returned we were invited by the Irish neighbor to join him in the campground bar for an after dinner beer.
Ton loves the wide sidewalks in Spain. She calls them three generation sidewalks as often you see three generations of the same family out for a stroll together.
The drink turned into several, and we had a nice time learning about his very interesting life as first a Catholic Priest, and then a teacher in Ireland. Just as we were about to leave, our English neighbors arrived so we enjoyed some more time swapping stories about life in general and traveling in Europe. It was a late (for us), but enjoyable evening.
We have been looking at Tours for a few days now and we finally decided to make it a stop. No guidebook of France is featuring Tours as one of the cities you should visit. Tours is the kind of town every country needs, there are a lot of things produced here, a lot of things are transported thru here, and a lot of people make a good living here, and it is a good place to live. What it doesn’t have is a lot of cool things for non-residents to look at. It is the French version of Pittsburg or Birmingham.
A pond near the campground.
Our original plan was to drive the 280 kilometers here, check in to the campground and head to town. Based on our quick look around town we would decide whether to stay another day and explore some more or get back on the Autoroute and continue driving to Spain.
While driving I remembered that quite often French campgrounds have extended lunches where you cannot check in. We figured we would arrive at about 1:15, while we were driving Ton did some research and it looked like they would open at 2:30, it was a little frustrating but early enough to take a run into town. But when we arrived there was a sign on the door saying they were closed from 12:00 to 3:30 for lunch. Nowhere but France would a business close for 31/2 hours at lunch. After some muttering by me we both settled in for the 2 hour wait. By the time they reopened there were 7 motorhomes waiting. We will visit Tours tomorrow.
We had a long discussion last night about what to do today. Initially there were two options, go into Paris or drive to Tours. Neither option appealed much to Ton though Tours is in out future as it is a stopping point on our way to Spain. After a lot of hemming and hawing we had not reached a decision when Ton saw that Fontainebleau was free today. So the decision was made and we were up bright and early for the 80 kilometer drive to Fontainebleau.
This guy featured heavily in today’s activities.
Ton had visited Fontainebleau during her student days in London and had very good memories of it. She had told me about it several times during our travels the last few years every time we blew by the exit for it on the A6 Autoroute. It had made a really strong impression on her then.
The other half of today’s featured family.
So we were up and off early for the 80 kilometer drive south from Paris. We made a quick stop in Samoreau a village close to Fontainebleau to make sure they had space for us in their campground, they did, so after checking in and doing a quick drive by of our assigned spot we headed over to Fontainebleau.
A wedding party posing at the main entrance to Fontainebleau.
This is a very large Chateau, probably the third largest we have seen, Chambord, and Versailles were larger we think. There are over a thousand rooms and multiple wings to the place that make it difficult to capture just how immense it is.
The church inside the Chateau.
The theme of the tour definitely is Napoleonic. The stories about all of the rooms talk about how Napoleon and his family used them. So I was a little surprised when I did some research to find that it had been a royal palace since the 1200’s, and the buildings we saw today were all in place when Napoleon occupied them.
The rear of the palace looking across the Carp Lake.
Between 1200 and 1780 it was constantly added on to by various kings until it was transformed from a modest (relatively speaking) hunting lodge to the giant building we see today. Most of the construction took place between 1550 and 1780.
The throne room.
Unlike Versailles, Fontainebleau did not suffer any damage during the French Revolution as it was far enough away from Paris to miss out on the chaos that affected royal buildings in the capital. As it was intact Napoleon used it as his official palace when he declared himself emperor.
The furniture all came from Napoleon as the original furnishings were sold off during the French Revolution.
We spent a couple of hours working our way thru the palace and we missed one section of rooms. There was a lot to see and some of the art and furnishings were spectacular.
A couch for Napoleon to recline on while he had informal interviews.
The grounds were quite large and included a very large man made lake. We were expecting more gardens, but there were no formal gardens. The grounds were effectively giant lawns with a few statues and a few trees.
This stream had a few wild flowers blooming just about the only flowers on the grounds.
At the end Ton told me she was a little disappointed. She remembers being awed by this place when she was a student. Today she was not awed, she was thinking that maybe because over the last few years we have visited so many different palaces and castles that they are losing their ability to wow her.
The Carp Lake does have very impressive carp in it.
We headed back to our campground in Samoreau, and I was really charmed by it. The campground is on the banks of the Seine river and when we arrived they were having sailboat races. There is a small restaurant on the banks of the river that was doing booming business as a large percentage of the population of the town were enjoying the beautiful spring day with friends. I was clinched on the place when Ton casually mentioned that Django Reinhardt had lived here most of his life, he is one of my favorite jazz guitarists.
The locals chilling on the bank of the Seine River in front of our campground.
We took a quick stroll along the Seine to end a very nice spring day in France.
We had thoughts of going to Paris but on the way to the train station we ran into a market near the campground and spent some time looking around. It was a pretty small market, but the different vendors were busy. These markets are very common throughout Europe. Most towns have them a couple of times a week, and in bigger towns they are often daily. While the prices are slightly higher than the supermarkets they are well supported.
A fruit and vegetable stand with a mixture of locally grown and imported goods.
Across the street was a very popular bakery, that had a long line stretching out the door the whole time we were there. We were curious about the food inside, but were never able to get inside.
This bakery is on the corner of the street that the market is on.
After spending about an hour walking around checking out the Saturday sites in our little corner of Versailles, Ton suggested we do laundry. So our trip to Paris was put aside and instead we headed back to the campground to knock out our laundry.
In addition to fresh vegetables and meat, pre-cooked foods were widely available.
A couple hours later we had all fresh clothes, and Ton asked if I wanted to head into Paris. By then it was mid-afternoon so we decided to take it easy around the campground. I did walk over to the rugby field next to the campground and watched a game of high school aged kids, the home team was running away with the game at half time so I headed back to François to rejoin Ton.
Most of the stalls were doing steady business the whole time we were there.
As we do this longer, and as we get a little older, these down days where we hang around become a little more common. We are going to be busier tomorrow.
Today will be short. We were up early as we are shifting to Paris. It was a 300 kilometer drive, but it involved crossing Paris at mid-day. We had one stop in mind for the day which was one of the two Costco’s in Paris.
There was a circus in the parking lot next to Costco.
We arrived at Costco without any incident and went on a shopping spree to stock up with cool things we don’t see in our Costco at home and some old friends we do. François needs new tires and I was hoping they could do them here. We had everything worked out, I would buy the tires now, they would order them and then hold them for me until, we passed thru going north on our way back to Amsterdam then they would install them. Just as we were to seal the deal I mentioned that François was 3 meters tall and everything collapsed, their doors can only accommodate vehicles 2.75 meters tall. So I am still looking for tires.
Eventually we walked out with a large chariot (the French word for shopping basket) full of food, and a bottle of wine from Chile to add to our collection of French and Italian wines. Another interesting (at least to Ton and me) thing is that the days we do the least are often the most expensive. Due to tolls, buying fuel (at Costco), and groceries we spent 400% of what we budget per day while traveling.
Today we wanted to visit a town about 25 kilometers away to check out a restaurant Ton had read about. It is famous for its seafood. It’s funny how sometimes a place is so very different than what you expect. We expected Boulogne-sur-Mer to be a sleepy fishing village. To our surprise when we arrived we found a bustling city with heavy traffic. Instead of a few local fisherman we found a waterfront full of giant seafood factories with semi-trucks backing into loading docks to be dispatched with various frozen seafood for markets throughout and France, and the rest of Europe. Our impression was that Boulogne was a much bigger and busier town than Calais. When I checked though Calais is about 30% larger than Boulogne so again impressions do not always line up with facts.
The street art on display was quite beautiful, parking to enjoy it was hard to find.
We almost abandoned our quest as we could not find a place to park François. All of the street side parking in the city was full. There were a couple of large parking lots by the port, but they also turned out to be full. We tried to get into a lot that looked promising but the entrance was barricaded, which led to me backing François down a narrow street for a couple of hundred yards to get turned around. Just as we were driving out of town I spied a street that looked to have available parking. It took a couple of attempts to find the entrance, but we finally had a place to begin our day.
The pleasure port in Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Boulogne-sur-Mer’s other attraction beside seafood is a UNESCO tower in the old town. We walked up the hill to it but were disappointed when we got there. As we were standing in front of it in a large square, Ton asked me where it was and I pointed at it and she said, it is supposed to be beautiful?
The church belfry taken from the moat of the castle in town.
Having gotten our morning walk in we decided to head back down to the port to Tons restaurant. Local ambiance was not what drove people to this place as the view out of the windows was of the loading area for a giant fish processing building. To get in we had to navigate a couple of tables of workers on their lunch break and step over a large dog which was sprawled across the sidewalk. But when we entered the decor was first class, and the place was jammed. When we got to the hostess she asked if we had reservations I said no and she said nothing available until 2pm. As I was having this conversation an older gentleman was standing next to the hostess stand, he made eye contact and gave me a glance that said hang on, he then had a long conversation with the hostess and at the end kissed her on both cheeks, and then looked at us and said 2 minutes. In less than 2 minutes we were shown to a very nice table. The meal was wonderful consisting of three courses of local fish dishes we were wowed by the food. This was one of the best seafood meals we have had in Europe and was definitely worth the walk.
The 2 Caps scenic route.
We took a scenic route back to Calais. There are two capes that face each other across an inlet in the English channel each with with white cliffs similar to smaller versions of the cliffs of Dover on the English side. In between the towns are dune lands and pastures with rolling hills it was a very nice drive to our final destination of the day the 2 Caps Brewery. After a little GPS misadventure we arrived at the brewery hoping for a table over looking the beautiful countryside. It turns out it is not a cafe, but a place to buy beer to take away. They did offer tastes of beer similar to a wine tasting. We tasted the beer and it was excellent, so we walked out with 6 large beers, and 6 small beers, we just have to find a place to store them in François.
We enjoyed a relaxing morning and Ton whipped up a nice breakfast before we set out for Calais. We began by repeating our walk from yesterday up the promenade to see a giant mechanical dragon that had caught Tons fancy. It is a giant thing on wheels that is about 30 feet tall, for a significant fee you can purchase a ticket to ride on the back. Right as we entered the promenade I saw it in the distance moving around. By the time we arrived it had retreated to its lair (in this case a large glass building), and it didn’t look like it was coming out. We hung around hoping for a few minutes but then the crew that operates it walked away so we decided to move on.
The dragon is impressive it even shoots fire out of its mouth.
We had a pleasant stroll thru town, and while it was windy we decided it was slightly less windy than yesterday. The first part of the town is on an island and guards the mouth of the ancient harbor that put Calais on the map. Today the main town is on the mainland, and the old town is mostly restaurants and hotels catering to tourists.
This statue of de Gaulle and his wife commemorates the fact that she is from Calais and they were married here in 1924.
We had seen a large clock tower off in the distance from the campground that is attached to the Hotel de Ville (town hall) so that was the next stop on our impromptu walking tour. In addition to the clock tower which wasn’t as nice up close as from a distance there was a statue by Rodin in the gardens.
Actually the clock tower and town hall look nicer in this picture than I remember in person. While it looks old it was built in 1925.
The statue by Rodin commemorates 6 burghers of Calais who surrendered the town to the English after a long seige in the 1300’s. They were to be executed but the English kings wife intervened to grant them clemency. I liked this piece a lot but Ton was not as impressed.
The six burgers of Calais by Rodin.
Calais was once a center for lace production so we decided to head to the lace district and check out the church there. After another longish walk we arrived at a square full of cars with a large church. Ton wasn’t impressed she looked at me and said since we walked all of this way I will take a picture. She took her picture and said what is next?
The church in the lace district.
The art museum was free today, or possibly is free everyday we never quite sorted that out, but we arrived about 10 minutes before it officially opened at 1pm and took a seat in the lobby. There were four workers at the front desk staring at us and we in turn stared at them while we waited for the countdown to the stroke of 1pm. Finally, at 12:58 one of the workers came over and invited us in, only to be chastised by another worker, she then turned sheepishly to us and said 2 more minutes. Precisely at 1pm we were presented our free tickets and allowed to enter.
The entrance to the art museum in Calais. They are very punctual but the price is right.
It was a mix of art from many ages and while small there were some interesting paintings and sculptures from different ages that kept us engaged. A large part of it was being remodeled so the displays didn’t take that long to get thru.
We liked this dress with a face hidden in it.
There was a film running about a French artist named Zlotykamien who may have been the original graffiti artist. He started out as a fairly renown artist in the 50’s, but was looking for a different canvas for his work. He found it by painting figures he called ephemerals on walls in cities. Art is in the eye of the beholder, I am not sure if I came across his stuff on a wall in Calais I would recognize it as the work of a famous artist. You can look at the picture below and be your own judge.
A series of ephemerals by Zlotykamien.
The next stop was the highlight of the day for me. This region is famous for a dish called the Welsh Sandwich. It is a dish consisting primarily of melted cheddar cheese with something floating in it. Why it is called a Welsh sandwich is a bit of a mystery as there is no bread in it, and no direct connection to Wales. We headed to the L’Hovercraft Cafe as they were supposed to have the best Welsh Sandwiches.
My Welsh Sandwich Complet. The most traditional of the 18 Sandwiches on the menu.
We sat down and I opened the menu to find they had 18 different Welsh Sandwiches on the menu. I went with the traditional one which consists of ham and an egg with lots of cheddar cheese. As a fan of cheddar cheese I was in heaven, but even I had to admit it was a lot of cheese. To give your heart a complete workout it was served with fries. Ton ordered the plate of the day which consisted of potatoes swimming in a different kind of cheese and a charcuterie plate.
Tons dish also had a healthy amount of melted cheese.
We decided at lunch there were a couple of other places in the region we wanted to stay so we decided to add a third night to our stay here. When we arrived at the campground I asked for a third night and they were happy to oblige, and then told me it would cost €1.20. It turns out if you stay three nights the third one is free except for a tax. We were quite pleased.
Today was a day to move. We enjoyed Delft but it was time to get on the road so we decided to make a pretty long jump down to Calais France. It is a place we haven’t visited on our travels.
We made one stop on the way out of town to have a mechanic look at a problem we have with François. We are getting an alarm when we start the truck that there is a fault with the airbag. We had hoped the place yesterday could deal with it, but they told us we needed to go to a Fiat garage. Our second stop at Fiat service centers (the first one did cars only and directed us to the one that does Ducatos our van.) We met a very nice and chatty guy who checked out François confirmed it was a problem with the computer and told us we were all right to drive as long as we didn’t have an accident. We have a date scheduled to return at the end of the trip to get the problem taken care of.
A ferry departing the port of Calais. It was named after Oscar Wilde who I always assumed was English, but turns out to have been Irish.
The drive was uneventful except for a major detour in Antwerp due to a tunnel being repaired. We followed the signs for the detour, but at the last second I made a wrong turn and went the wrong way on the freeway so we got to repeat the detour. I was not happy with myself or the Belgian traffic people who marked the detour!
Beach huts on the 4 mile long Calais Beach.
We arrived at the campground in Calais about 3:30 and settled in. The day looked beautiful with bright blue skies. Unfortunately the wind was howling and the wind chill was 41 degrees. We bundled up and tackled the promenade along the beach. The beach is beautiful fine sand and the promenade is full of interesting looking places, most of which were closed up for the season. The weather is supposed to be better tomorrow so we will spend more time exploring.
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.
The reason you visit Keukenhof.
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.
A flower we both liked.
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.
A mixed field of flowers at Keukenhof.
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.
We both liked this flower pot.
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.
A bubble gum flower from one of the indoor displays.
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.
A canal tour boat, notice how cold everyone looks.
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.
Some of the water fowl on display from the canal.
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.
The grounds are beautiful at the gardens. We both really liked the red flower that seems to be inverted in this picture.
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.
Trying to look cool, but I think those days are past.
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.
One of the churches in Delft.
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.
Despite it being chilly and very windy the outside seats at the cafes were still the first choice for most of the diners. We were in the minority who chose to sit inside out of the wind.
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 bar at our first stop.
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.
Not all of the outside seating was full.
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.
Canals, Bicycles, and tall people because it is the Netherlands.
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.
The main square.
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.
Street scene on the walk home. The sign is advertising a Belgian beer.
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.
A typical street scene in Rotterdam.
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.
More interesting architecture in the down town core of Rotterdam.
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.
The Market Hall is the largest covered market in Europe.
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!
The entrance to the yellow cube houses.
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.
Looking up from one of the courtyards in the Cube Houses.
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.
A courtyard with several homes. We couldn’t tell if each cube was it’s own place or separate units.
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.
Walking to the restaurant we came across this weird looking gnome. It turns out it is a very controversial piece of art here. It is supposed to be Santa Claus holding a Christmas tree, but the Christmas tree looks like a sex toy, (intentionally) so it is called the Buttplug Santa. It has been relocated several times as merchants are not amused, though it must have fans as it keeps finding a new home.
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.
The entrance to the “best bar” in the world.
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.
This blue heart is supposed to represent the heart of the city of Delft. It is blue because Delft is famous for blue pottery.
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.
The obligatory canal and bicycle picture.
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.
Street art of the Girl with the Pearl Earring. The paining is sometimes referred to as the Mona Lisa of the North and was quite scandalous when it was first shown.
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.
The wedding party posing in front of the town hall.
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.
The home of Jan Vermeer who painted the Girl with the Pearl Earring.
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.
This kissing Dutch couple is quite famous and we have both seen it in many places but we do not know the story behind it.
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
This sheep is from the children park next to the campground. It is a kind of giant petting zoo, full of cute animals. He looks like he is ready for a shearing.
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.
This goat had mismatched horns that caused Ton some concern. He looks like he is managing fine with his asymmetrical horns.
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.
Part of the rowing team from the local university.
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.
The canal next to the camp ground.
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.
François getting his pre-storage bath at the truck wash near the airport.
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.
One of about 10 storage buildings that used to be used for Tulip farming.
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.
