Week 2 (continued) - Oops!!

 
We have had a super few days with Dijkie and her daughter Maria and have been trying, unsuccessfully, to decide where to go next. Austria was our original intention but time is getting very short for that sort of trip (well at the pace we travel anyway) so we have been thinking about the Friesian Islands, not that you can take a caravan on many of them, or perhaps the north coast of Poland, But before our decision was made I woke feeling very “out of sorts” and having been to the doc recently with tiredness and fatigue and having been subjected to lots of (clear) heart and lung tests I had done what all men do at that juncture and buried my head in the sand. Time to clear the sand and ring the doctor for an appointment 
and a cancellation appointment was offered for this coming Monday, just three days away. Fortunately our ferry ticket was flexible and we were able to reschedule, without extra cost, a ferry for Sunday and set about finding a site within a short distance of Hook of Holland. There were two possibilities the first close to the ferry port and with excellent reviews, the second under the take-off flight path from Rotterdam airport and with some worrying reviews. We elected to go to the first, how I managed to ring and book the second I don’t know (it’s an age thing - editor) still at least they emailed a confirmation booking otherwise we would have arrived at the wrong site demanding access. As it happened it was not a disaster as my short report on RECREATIEPARK DE KOORNMOLEN explains.

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The drive from the north of the Netherlands was, as always, easier than driving in UK where traffic levels are generally higher but harder than other parts of Europe where traffic is generally much lighter. We had two nights at Recreatiepark de Koornmolen before the ferry on Sunday so elected to visit GOUDA. Never been but love GOUDA CHEESE.


We had a super morning visiting Gouda, including Sint-Janskerk (St. John's Church) which boasts at 123 metres (403.54 ft) the longest church in the Netherlands and has superb stained glass windows dating from the early 14th century and (more importantly) two superb cheese shops, one of which sold only farmers unpasteurised cheeses - superb though expensive.

After returning to the caravan and having a lovely cup of tea we toddled off to the local supermarket for bread for sarnies and cakes for the journey back to UK and on returning to the site was confused by the number of people standing looking at our van. As we approach we wondered why some of our kit was outside on the grass.

We soon found out - our caravan had just had a visit from the local fire brigade to put out a fire.

Fortunately there was very little damage as two young ladies (their father insisted they were girls but being late teens/early twenties surely they are young ladies) had seen the smoke and fire and by reaching in through the kitchen window removed the burning material after which they had realised the electric ring on the cooker was on and again reaching through the window switched it off. Job done. Unfortunately a passing member of site staff went into panic mode called the fire brigade and the police after which he wrecked one of the window blind cassettes getting in and sprayed water everywhere. Thank goodness he didn’t find the dry powder fire extinguisher - still he meant well and so it’s very hard to get upset particularly as one so rarely gets away with a caravan fire - oh and in case your’e wondering the picture on the What’s New page pirated from t’interweb and is not the guys who turned up to our caravan putting out our fire. As a thank you for saving our home from almost certain total destruction  we went back to the supermarket and bought the “girls” a couple of bottles of wine and some posh chocolates - a very small price to pay.

With sore throats from breathing the smoky atmosphere all night we were up early Sunday. Not that it would take long to get to the Hook for the early afternoon ferry, but loading was due to start at 12.30pm and we wanted to get on board as early as possible in order to get a good class of cabin, not necessary on a day crossing but with Sue’s tendency to seasickness our own quiet comfortable space is far more pleasant than fighting for a seat on the sometimes (and this was one of those times) packed public decks. Unfortunately the particular design of this ferry - MV Stena Hollandica - is such that all cars are loaded on movable decks first and then the taller vehicles loaded underneath them. Although this meant we were one of the last vehicles to load it also meant that after our relaxing 7 hour doze in our CAPTAINS CLASS CABINS we were one of the first vehicles to disembark, so less than fifteen minutes after docking in HARWICH INTERNATIONAL PORT we were through customs (usually a nightmare when arriving at Harwich) and driving west on the A120 heading back to Little Henham.

© S W Ghost 2016