Stats so far

Belgium Statics

Km traveled by car: 1,023
€ spent on fuel: 130.20
€ spent on camping: 103.50
€ spent on groceries: 174.88
€ spent on takeout/Restaurant: 49
€ spent on misc. items: 276.90
€ spent on tourist sites: 134.70
# of showers had: 4
# of days spent in Belgium: 15

Luxembourg Statics

Km traveled by car: 286
€ spent on fuel: 54.83
€ spent on camping: 47.30
€ spent on groceries: 58.62
€ spent on takeout/Restaurant: 3.00
€ spent on misc. items: 31.00
€ spent on tourist sites: 23.00
# of showers had: 2
# of days spent in Luxembourg: 6

Kampen

Not wishing to drive through the city of Amsterdam we deselected the “avoid highways” box on our GPS unit and took off. No black smoke and the gears appear to be working better for now. It was a long drive, about 300 km, the longest yet for us, but we needed to get a move on and this Stellplatz was free and along the way to Bremen, our destination. With Julie still being sick and keeping me up at night we spent two days in Kampen. We headed into town on the second day and I tried to convince Julie to purchase a leather jacket, as she is always complaining about the cold. On a side note we are north now, and will be for at least another month, so we won’t be in warmer weather until then. However, with the price being 65 euros and Julie being a tough Northern girl, she didn’t buy it. Oh and Julie fed more ducks again.

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.

Zeedervoot

I chose the campsite in Zeedervoot because of its 20km drive to Amsterdam; it is amongst sand dunes and only 200 meters from the beach on the North Sea. However, we did not stay at any of the campsites (there were at least 5) due to the huge fee. 32 euros for one night stay without showers or electricity is ridiculous. I also want to point out that sand dunes need to be made of sand, not long grass. So, I got to see the North Sea from the road, many people were paragliding and I know we will see it again anyway, when we head over to England next spring (is it always that cold). This left us with only one option, to head back to Amsterdam and stay at one of their campsites. We stayed at Gaaspar Camping again; it turns out to be the cheapest and cleanest of the lot. The reason we are heading back to Amsterdam is because of the van. A month into our trip I sent an email to BW’s to let them know about a few of the concerns we have about our rig and if we needed to come in to get it fixed or if she (Old Blue, Papa Smurf, Big Bertha Blue, The Blue Rock…pick a name) is good and not to worry. The van and its components (fridge etc) are supposed to be completely covered for one year. We are taking her in tomorrow morning, which Julie tells me is a Monday, and plan on revisiting Amsterdam while we wait. We decided to send the email because we were heading north in Germany and it was now or never as once we are done Germany, we plan to head south to warmer weather. We both hoped the van was fine (though we would like to have it work properly too) as this curbs our travels and puts us in a race now to get to Regensburg for Anna’s birthday party.

Maastricht and Gorinchem

The drive to this town was simple, but getting to a parking spot proved to be difficult. Much to Julie’s dismay (she thought the area looked sketchy); we parked under a highway overpass, along with many other cars. The town of Maastricht is famous for its thermal springs, just like Aachen is; it’s also famous for its man made caves, which sounded a lot like Luxembourg’s casements. Julie also points out that there aren’t many differences between Europe and Canada. The “similarity” is annoying to Julie and at times makes her wish to not visit some towns or cities. This was the case for Maastricht, when we arrived, it looked like Toronto and made Julie not wish to head into town to explore, it took much convincing on my part to at least head to the tourist office. It’s simple to please me; whenever we head into town I enjoy seeing different buildings, the markets, the people and any visits to the many patios. The “similarity” to Luxembourg City is also why we opted out of visiting the cave system, which were made by the Romans as well (we came to Maastrict for the caves), Julie and I did take a walk around in the huge town square though. The town square was buzzing with people shopping, eating, drinking and just wandering around. We walked into a concert of sorts and left because the music being sung was for people in retirement homes (you could tell by the audience and the choir of people in their 70-80’s). It wasn’t long afterwards that we made our way back to the car and decided to almost complete our drive back to Amsterdam. The drive was about 4 hours due to us not using the highways, but we passed through many small towns and even took 2 ferries. The stellplatz in Gorinchem we stayed at only ever has two spots available, and it looked like both were in use, so we parked in front of them and hoped for the best.

Aachen

We arrived in Aachen late, actually we haven’t entered a destination this late since Bruges. It was getting dark and we had found the Stellplatz we were planning on staying at. We had been rationing water up until we left St Goar, we officially ran out in Koln and bought two bottles of water (and more food) on the way to Aachen. We didn’t do the laundry at our last campsite stop so I was officially out of clothes to wear too. The stellplatz looked more like a campsite but we decided that we shouldn’t pay for one night when it was so late and we didn’t have the time to do everything we needed to. We generally use the campsites to charge our batteries/laptop, wash our clothes, fill up on water and do any dishes we neglected to do…oh and shower. Conveniently, there was a parking lot right next door to the stellplatz so we freecamped. The next morning we decided to visit the tourist office in hopes of finding a campsite with free water, showers and a dump station for our toilet. We learnt that the place we parked next to the night before was the only site and was considered a campsite/stellplatz with a 5 star ADAC rating and was 12 euros per night. The other stellplatz’s up to this point had 80L of water for 1 euro (we only need about 10L so we couldn’t fill up), a place to dump your toilet and electrical hookups. This stellplatz was very convenient. It’s about a 2km walk to the town center; electricity was included in the price, as well as water and a dump station. Hot showers were extra. We spent the morning getting our stuff together and reading about our next destinations. While we were getting ready to head into town, two RV’s from GB pulled up trying to find side by side spots and were thinking of squeezing between our van and the hedge, I walked up to one of the guys and told him that we were leaving later that day, so it wouldn’t be a problem for them to park so close to us. They took our offer happily. The town of Aachen is known for its thermal spa’s. Charlemagne lived here because of it. It was 9.50/person to use the spa for 2.5 hrs, and we decided that money could be spent better elsewhere. They also love their fountains. The first fountain you see is called Elisenbrunnen and smells of rotting eggs (sulfur actually and they say you can drink from it but not the other non-smelling fountains they have). The next fountain we saw is the Geldbrunnen, which represents the circulation of money, and the center drain is jokingly referred to as “the tax man”. After that we strolled along the street next to the mall to come across another fountain, this one called Bahkauv, our personal favorite. The story behind this one is fun too; it’s a monstrous looking mythical creature that apparently jumps on you when you’re stumbling home from the bar late at night demanding a piggy back ride home. The next fountain is located in the Huhnermarkt where you can start to see the town’s dom. The fountain is called Huhnerdiebbrunnen and is a Chicken thief about to be unmasked by a rooster. The second to last fountain we came to visit was Charlemagne. We then walked through the market, stumbled across a wine market, and finally reached our last fountain which consisted of bronze figurines that you could move around. This one is popular with the kids, they managed to make one of the figures pick her nose, and it was pretty funny. Still traveling south on the pedestrian street, we proceeded towards the Dom to see (or touch) the devil’s thumb. It is said that when the Dom was being constructed, money was tight; Lucifer came disguised and offered the town’s people money to help finish the Dom. The town’s people were smart though, and saw through the Devil’s disguise (his hooves gave him away). When the Dom was finished, Lucifer asked for the first soul that entered it. The towns’ people agreed and sent in a wolf, Lucifer in his frustration slammed the door shut, catching his thumb in the door where it still is today. Inside the Dom, you can see a statue of the wolf with a hole in its chest where its soul was ripped out. Behind the altar, in the Dom, you can see where Charlemagne lies (gold casket). There was really nothing else to see here so we made our way back to our van and had a conversation with the two English men from earlier. They gave us plenty of information on camping for cheap around France and England; they also told us to attend a meeting of one of the caravanning clubs in England (once we get there) because we could significantly reduce fees for camp grounds. It was too bad we were leaving, as we would have stayed and had some drinks with them.

Koln

Trying to avoid the highways in Germany keeps proving to be a difficulty for us. We rely on the guidance of our GPS unit and ask it to avoid highways. The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg never once put us on the highway. So we once again had to navigate the old fashioned way (using the map on the computer). The road we took into Cologne provided us with a spectacular view of their industrial area. With Julie already feeling sick, she didn’t care to see the rest of the city after that drive. In her defense the area we saw looked worse than Hamilton and was much larger. We rested again in the van at another stellplatz with the full intention of viewing Colognes massive cathedral and city center. Cold rain and Julie’s sickness sidelined us for another day. The only highlight for us was seeing an identical Blue LT28 in the same car park. We left Cologne without seeing any of the sights. We both left this town miserable, me because we didn’t stay to see anything and Julie because of the schedule we needed to keep.