Thursday 19 May 2011

If it's Wednesday it must be the Netherlands

This was started last night but after uploading and sorting photos I found I was dropping off and had to stop for the night.


The crossing was way better than expected, we started earlier than scheduled and I didn't even know we were underway. Slept well and awoke to see us coming towards land and then docking. No, I didn't have an outside cabin, the tv has the output from various cameras around the ferry. 


Driving off and out of the dock area made me quickly realise how useful a second pair of eyes would be, I don't speak the language, I'm driving on the other side of the road and it's rush hour. I found a layby to stop in and work out my options and decided to head straight for Amsterdam. The satnav was set and we were off again, the camper managed to keep up with the traffic with no problems whilst in the urban areas but once on the motorway we were definitely the slowest vehicle rarely going above 50mph. It has a long way to go so I didn't want to push it too much. The motorway is very good varying between two and five lanes depending on the area with plenty of warnings of lanes merging and diverging although at one point I had been happily bowling along on the inside of a three lane section only to find myself on the outside of four lanes and traffic hurtling up on the inside. Although they appear to drive more forcefully than in the UK there was no problem, just indicated and the traffic allowed me to move across to the inside again.


Before leaving I had searched for campsites near to Amsterdam and had found Zeeburg just to the east, the signposting was good and arrived about 12.00 (or was that 1.00?). Booked in for two nights and the staff were very friendly and helpful for this total newbie to all this. I drove onto my pitch, managed to hook the mains link up and remembered to turn the fridge to mains. I boiled my first kettle of water (in a campervan I hasten to add) and had a coffee and a think. According to the information the city centre was seven minutes away by tram although the walk to that was about ten minutes so after a short bike ride around the campsite I headed in.


I can see that I will need to start this writing procedure earlier from now on, I've uploaded a few new photos to Flickr, see the link at the bottom of the page, but will leave it at that for now while I sort myself out for the day. The photos have no names or details yet, something else to add to the list of things to do later!


Off to the city again.

1 comment:

Auntie Betty said...

The intrepid Englishman has hit Foreign Lands !!! Ha Ha!

All sounds good so far, Paul.

('arf miss our smilies !!!)

Auntie Betty