Van-to-see land
Wednesday, April 15: Amsterdam
We took the tram back in to Amsterdam this morning to retrieve the bikes we had arranged. They were a couple of fun Serbian guys to work with... looks of joking around. The bikes were more or less ready or us, and soon we were off on a 15 km ride back out to Amstelveen where we were to retrieve the van.
Of course, being the Netherlands, the bike lanes and traffic protocols are very well organised, though one must keep pretty alert in the city. Once out of downtown, much of the route was alongside parks and canals, so easier to relax. 15 kms was still a bit of a slog for old guys who haven't ridden much lately.
The Roadsurfer garage was in a light industrial area. Very clean and well organised. They had a whole app system set up which required us to go step by step through the systems of the camper, and check off any previous nicks and dents in the van, of which there were few. The one big obstacle we encountered was the very high up bike rack, and the quite heavy bikes. We will have to get a small stool and work on a loading system to get comfortable with.
Back to Hester's house to load up our luggage and set up who gets what drawers and compartments in the van, and then headed off southward.
For the vehicular minded, the van has all of the latest "mod-cons". It is a "bluetec" diesel (uses a chemical system to clean the exhaust), 7 speed automatic, stop-start system where the engine shuts off at stop lights, and with the kind of navigation and systems screen of modern cars. The one feature I have never had on a car is the automated cruise control with avoidance systems, which means you set the speed, and the car just drives along at the set speed when it can, but slows and even stops and goes in traffic without touching the pedals. Of course one keeps one's foot ready in case it goofs up!
That system proved useful, as for some reason the motorway south was really jammed up and stop and go much of the way. After a while, Google Maps offered us a "shorter route" which took us off into the countryside on narrow little roads through dikes and farm country. The problem, of course, is that everyone using Google Maps was doing the same thing which meant a long line-up of cars snaking along the dikes. We were happy to be off in the farm land seeing pretty little farms, with sheep, goats, llamas, but I doubt the local traffic was pleased to see us all!
By 5:30 we were pretty pooped, so looked up nearest campground in our "Park 4 Night" app, and soon found ourselves in a huge resort ground on a small lake near the town of Beest. It has 200 sites, mostly taken up with semi permanent trailers and mobile homes. These were not peoples homes, but rather vacation "cottages", mostly closed at this time of year, but there were a few occupied. It seemed there were only a smattering of empty sites for overnighters like us. One can imagine it would be a hectic resort with hundred of kids swimming and playing in the summer. It even had one of those cable rigs above the lake that pulls water skiers around the lake.
It took a bit of time orienting ourselves to the bed set-up and cabinet organization, as it is quite different from our westfalias, but were were soon having a very peaceful night's sleep. listening to the ducks and pigeons splashing and cooing.
Enjoyed finishing the sentences with pictures. Camper looks comfy. You need a crane fo get the bikes up top!
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