A Day in Three Countries

Wednesday August 11th

Today it was pack up and move on day again. That means I get to go out on the motorways and squeeze between the big trucks. Some of them think I go too slowly and give me a hurry up with a toot or a light flash. They have no respect for age. Alan set the Tom Tom to take us to Wesel. Now this is not a tourist destination but it was a good half way point for getting to Hanover. I took them through three countries in the space of an hour. Started in Belgium and then into the Netherlands. What a change. The road s in Belgium were rough and all my rattles and bangs were obvious. As soon as i crossed the border into The Netherlands it was all smooth and I sounded just like a posh van. All went very smoothly until a left lane suddenly became a right lane and Mary missed an exit. Tom Tom lady kindly replanned the route and took us off 2 miles down the road and back in the right direction.

The plan was to stop outside the town and ask the Tom Tom to find campsites. But a big truck was behind me and it was impossible to stop or pull over. Suddenly Mary spotted a sign to a camping so they followed that. On the way they spotted Lidl and this is always a good place to shop for food so they went in there to get supplies.

The camping signs eventually took them over a river and to a huge campsite. This is not a tourist spot. All the campers are Germans out for their summer holiday alongside a river. We are probably the only English speaking people here. It is huge. A man drove a car that we followed to our site. They have a fleet of vehicles not registered for the road that they just use to service the site. It is a village really. There is a supermarket, (bingo takes place four times a day), a pub, restaurant and even an ATM.
There are activities organised for the children and teenagers. It is not the sort of place where you pull up and stay one night, but here we are. Most people are flying flags of some sort, mainly German, but we have seen a skull and crossbones! Some have huge flag poles. So we have up our NZ flag and it flying out my window. Everyone seems to be sitting around drinking smoking and listening to songs in English! At the moment someone is playing Cat Stevens singing Morning has Broken.

Mary and Alan are enjoying being here as it has given them a chance to do the washing and generally tidy me up. . For the first time they have rolled out my awning and Mary was horrified at how mouldy it had got so she spent about an hour cleaning it and it lloks like new. When she gets a spare moment she is gradually cleaning my body work with some magic cleaners she bought and I am starting to sparkle on all sides.

They went for a long walk around the camp, well it is a village really. Down one end are all the statics that are really bachs that people come to in their holidays. They are lovingly cared for and have beautiful gardens and well trimmed hedges. There is fishing and boating on the river and it is safe to swim in so it is a great holiday spot. Nearly everyone is smoking. Cigarettes are relatively cheap here and on display at the counters. In Belgium the bus driver was smoking as he was driving the bus.
At the supermarket on site, Mary decided to buy a couple of tins of food, the labels of which she couldn’t read so she went by the photo. What she thought to be a stew of some sort turned out to be a lovely lentil and bacon soup. It is so nice they are going back to get some more before they leave.
After dinner they had a game of Yahtzee before going to bed.