Overschild, Netherlands

Now that our final commitment has been met (the Vierdaagse), it’s time to start exploring Europe. Oh, but wait – I have to go back to Oldenburg for an appointment at the Ausländerbüro to arrange my Ausweise. So, after a relaxing weekend to recover from the strain of walking so much, it was back into the car and time to head back into Germany.

Here, I have to say how much I love German bureaucracy. When I first went to OL to enquire about an Ausweise, I was told that I would have to make an appointment, which I did – for four weeks later! So now, it is time to go to this appointment. The appointment was successful, yes they were happy to grant me an Ausweise for 5 years – because I am married to the holder of an EU Passport. Great! But now I have to wait 2-3 weeks before I get a letter about the ID Card and when I get the letter, I will have to ring and make an appointment to collect the card! Jumping ahead 2½ weeks – I rang the Rathaus (Town Hall) and they said, yes, the letter is ready to collect and I can make an appointment to collect my card – but I have to wait until 4 weeks after my original appointment at the Auslanderburo!! So, on 20 August, I will collect my German ID Card, which will allow me to stay in Europe for 5 years! Boy has it been a saga, but it will be worth the wait!!

I will be able to do a direct comparison between German & Australian bureaucracy! I have an appointment the day after collecting my German ID Card to replace my Australian Passport! Yes, it got damaged in a storm (water-damaged) and I will have to get it replaced! So it will be back to Berlin for a couple of days but it won’t be a total detour because we will be on our way back to Poland for the long-awaited replacement of the rear suspension on the car! I will keep you all posted on the differences and/or similarities between German & Australian public servants.

So what to do whilst we wait??? It’s off to visit/meet family and also to explore Belgium! I’m not sure how many of you know Nick’s background, but his parents emigrated to Australia from the Netherlands the day after they were married! So, whilst Nick & his sister and brothers were all born in Australia, all of his relations (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc) are on the other side of the world, and Nick’s mum was one of six children – so that’s a lot of cousins!!

We decided to visit a Dutch province that we had never been to before, but had heard so much about – Friesland. And there we met Nancy and her three children. Nancy and her family (hubby was away) live in a beautiful lakeside environment which is within a FANTASTIC campground. Brief aside here – the Dutch REALLY know how to do a good campground. This particular campground (It Wiid at Eernewoude, or Earnewâld in Friesian) is very well set up – the amenities are well presented and very clean, there is a well-stocked shop on-site, there is a plethora of activities for young and old alike, from swimming to sailing, and plenty of space. And, the staff here are really lovely and helpful. So, if you are planning an exploration of the Netherlands, this is definitely a good spot to stay for a few days. Anyway, advertisement is over… as I was saying, we came to meet Nancy and her family and had a great afternoon chatting and getting to know each other.

After two nights (and a pretty good storm), it was time to head off to Zwolle to see Patricia and her family. Now, we had already met Patricia and her girls, but not her other half. They had had to move out of their home whilst they were getting a new kitchen and some major work done in the living area, so they were camping nearby Zwolle (people still have to work – apparently!) for a couple of weeks and on this weekend, Patricia’s sister (Marion & Harry) were going to be camping with them. What a great opportunity to catch up with another cousin, one that we already know but hadn’t seen yet. So, it’s off to Zwolle and another campground. Great location – very convenient but noisy! There was a very busy train line quite close and there must have been a level-crossing somewhere because we would hear bells and then a train (or the other way around). It seemed like there were 1000s of the damn things! But despite this minor inconvenience (and another storm in the middle of the night – at least our tent was getting cleaned), it was a great weekend. Normally when travelling and you visit people, it may be for a cup of coffee or a meal but then you move on. But to spend a whole weekend in a location where there is no pressure on anyone to entertain – it was great! We cooked together, we could eat breakfast and lunch at our own time, you want to sit and read? – no problem, go for a bike ride? – great! We had a fun time – thanks to Patricia, Tijs, Marion, Harry, Laura, Dorien & Marlene.

We have arranged to stay in two different campgrounds in Belgium – one that it close to Brussells and Antwerp and the second is near the coast and close to Bruges. In between these two locations, we would slip over into Germany for a quick visit with a friend of mine (Anne from Finland), so the next 12 days were going to be busy.

I have always thought that Belgium is a bit like Canberra (the capital of Australia) – it’s full of politicians, public servants and not much else! Though Belgium does have the saving grace of some major culinary contributions – Belgian chocolate, Belgian beer, Belgian wafels & Belgian frites (chips)! All of which were sampled (sometimes on numerous occasions) and thoroughly enjoyed – though I don’t think I will ever get Nick to enjoy Frites met Saus!

On our first day in Belgium, we were staying at a place called Dendermonde which was a train ride from Brussels (30 minutes by IC train) but our campground was about 12kms from the train station. We had decided to take our bikes into Brussels with us on our first visit, so that we could do a cycle tour around the city. At first, we were doubting whether this was a good idea because Belgian train stations are not particularly bike-friendly, but it did turn out to be a good way to explore Brussels. We covered a lot more ground that we would have on foot and saw some really lovely sights, eg a park that has 40+ bronze statues around the perimeter. Each of the statues represents a different guild such as the shoemaker’s guild, the blacksmith’s guild, etc. There were also a number of statues of “famous” Belgians in the part but the only one we recognised was Gerardus Mercator – he was the person who invented the Mercator Projection, which was found to be the best way to display a globe map as a flat map (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercator_ projection). We discovered a new food-group – Belgian cupcakes. We were entertained with the removal of an illegally parked German-registered car – they don’t just book an illegally-parked car, they bring in a truck with a crane and pick up and take the car away! We explored the Grote Markt and the Bourse and saw the Mannekin Pis.

On day 2, it was stay at home and recover day. Why did we need to recover? Well, as I mentioned earlier, we rode our bikes into the train station at Dendermonde (12kms) and took them into Brussels and rode around the city and then when we came back to Dendermonde, we rode back to the campground. All up, a total of 40kms! The sad thing was that we managed to get lost on our way back to the campground and ended up riding for the last 30 minutes in the rain! NOT HAPPY JAN!!!

Day 3 saw us riding in the other direction to Lokerun (yes, we got lost again) so that we could catch the train to Antwerp (but the bikes stayed behind at the train station). Close to the Antwerp Central Station is the Diamond Quarter – not very attractive architecturally, but the contents of the shop windows was divine! In fact, I fell in love with one window which was full of sapphire rings but sadly Nick didn’t get the hint! It was a telling tip to the race of the majority of the shop-keepers – most of the shops are open on Sunday and closed on Saturday! We also saw a lot of yarmulkes (Jewish skull caps) in that area. It was a very hot day on that particular day – over 35°C, which make walking around very uncomfortable and made the need to keep hydrated very important. We learnt that Belgian beer is an excellent way to stay hydrated!

One of Nick’s habits when he is researching travel options, is that he googles blogs from other travellers who have been to places that he is interested in visiting, or who have travelled in same sort of vehicle. Anyway, he had found a blogsite for a Belgian couple who drove a Troopy through Africa, so he sent them an email. It turned out that this couple (Frederick & Josephine) live about 10kms from Dendermonde and Frederick works in Antwerp, so he picked us up at the end of the day and we had a great evening talking to fellow-travellers and picked up some useful future travel information.

After 2 visits, we felt that we had pretty much “done” Brussells, so it was time to head into Germany for the weekend. When MJ was in Oldenburg in 2008, she made some friends who live in different parts of the world, one of whom was Anne from Finland. Anne has finished her degree and has been working Germany for the past 2 years (with a few breaks in between). She lives and works in Mönchengladbach, so off we went for the weekend. Actually, we did a farm visit – arrived on the Saturday and left on the Sunday. But we spent the afternoon catching up with Anne and all-together, we went to Düsseldorf. This was Nick’s first visit to the Rhine and it was a glorious afternoon. We walked along the Rhine, visited the Rathausplatz where we managed to find a Wine Expo espousing the virtues of wine from Rheinland-Pfalz, we sampled some of the delights of Düsseldorf – ice cream, coffee, beer & wine, we found a Lamborghini function where there were about a dozen different models all lined up, ready to drool over and finally we had dinner in a nice Spanish restaurant.

We were feeling very Australian after this weekend because we had driven about 550kms to spend an afternoon with a friend and have dinner! That’s right – on Sunday, we were back in the car and had to face a drive of about 300kms to get to Blankenburg, which was going to be our next stop in Belgium. What is Blankenburg? It is a Belgian seaside resort that was big in the 1930s. In some ways, it was like Surfers with high-rise apartments right on the edge of the beach. It was strange (to our eyes) to see the beaches, with their bathing hutches (not as pretty as Brighton Beach in Victoria), having to pay for sun lounges & umbrellas, and generally finding the beaches portioned and fenced.

No there were no hold-ups or delays – one-way (from De Panne to Knokke) is 68kms! Sadly, I would have to say that the tram is over-rated. Yes, it is good value but with a few exceptions, you are at least one block back from the beach and can’t see the water because of the huge apartments that line the shore.

On the way back on the tram, we got off so that Nick could explore a military site that we had heard about from his brother, Eric – The Atlantic Wall. This is a string of fortifications that were built by the Germans during WW1 and then added to during WW2.

While we were in the area, we wanted to visit Brugges (or Brugge, as the Dutch call it). Over the years, we had heard many recommendations about visiting Brugges but we hadn’t managed it. So, now was the time and sadly we were disappointed. Yes, there are lots of lovely buildings and twisty streets which are very quaint, but the big memory of Brugges is how expensive it was. When you are travelling like we are, you have a budget to stick to and whilst we don’t stick to this budget like glue, Brugges had the potential to blow it out of the water. We have to say that, from memory, Ghent was as pretty and Antwerp was more affordable.

Time to head back to the Netherlands. Now, with all our visits over the past 12 years, we had never been to Alkmaar, which is a big cheese market that is done on traditional lines but caters for tourists. “Quaint” is a word that comes to mind, but another word is “frustrating”. Things are soooo directed to getting tourists to spend their money that the companies that supply the cheeses for the market are allowed to have mobile sellers of a “Kaas Tute” (a bag contained 2-3 different types of cheese, a cheese board, a Dutch cheese knife plus brochures), are walking around whilst the Cheese Market is on. This is frustrating because invariably when you want to take a photo, either the cheese seller is in the way, or their cart is obscuring your view. But, at least we can tick that box – Alkmaar = DONE!

We had enjoyed our previous visit to Eernewoude so much that we decided to spend a couple of days there before going back to Groningen. Whilst there, we discovered yet another maritime museum – Skutjes were the boat used to move stuff through the canals in Friesland. Even though it was all in Dutch, it was a good museum and we spent a pleasant couple of hours there. And we were continuing to enjoy the Dutch summer – it had rained on our first visit to Eernewoude, then it rained in Zwolle, it rained in Dendermonde, it rained at Blankenburg and yes, you guessed it, it rained during our second visit to Eernewoude, and it rained when we got back to Overschild! Ahhh, don’t you love Dutch summers!