Amsterdam (Take 2)

We remember why we left the Netherlands in the first place. The roads suck and the drivers honk at you because of the black smoke ‘Old blue’ (my name for her) makes. Free camping is illegal in the Benelux region and fines are on the spot. Campsites are over priced and to us are just parking lots with drinking fountains, because you have to pay extra for what other campsites or stellplatz (in Germany and we read France too) include in their fee. It’s also very flat, we did however see a floating farm so that was kind of cool, and ferries cost money (why can’t they just make a bridge?). After we dropped off our rig at BW’s we wondered around and found a JYSK. We purchased some bed sheets for 13 euro, mainly because it can get pretty hot in the van, and the duvet is too much. After that we discovered that the only way to Amsterdam’s center was by bus. We skipped this idea and went to Mc Donald’s for lunch. This is the first such stop we have made. I tried a new burger and Julie pointed out that shrimp was available (we did not try it though). When it came time to pay, they told us that all McDonalds in the Netherlands do not allow foreign cards to be used for payment. So we pulled out all the cash we had and turned out to be 0.30 cents short and the manager let us off. Like I said, we now understand why we left so early in the first place. We decided to head back to the van, another walk through the sketchy area, and see if we could head out. It turns out she was missing a screw and too much gas was getting into the engine, and the gears they just greased up, which I doubt will solve my problem but figured if the black smoke was gone I would be good with that. Go to Amsterdam if you have money and a place to stay for the night in town.

Oh, and we got to see one of these this time too.