We made an early-ish start and drove slowly to Calais, stopping at Carrefour and Pidout to stock up on wine for the year ahead! We managed to make it to the ferry early, and got put on a ferry an hour ahead of the one we had booked, which was handy as we had calculated the time to get to the Wightlink ferry based on normal driving speed. It was a difficult drive home, as most of our driving so far had avoided hills – the steepest inclines had been getting in and out of tunnels. Most of the drive was at about 45-50 miles per hour, but on some hills we were down to 30 (on 70mph dual carriageways this isn’t much fun) and we had a few incidents of the van cutting out. I suspect the weight of the booze in the back didn’t help! However we made it back in time for our 6pm crossing (nearly made the 5.30 but not quite) and got home ok, for which we were most grateful.

It had been a fantastic trip. We’ve been dreaming of this trip for years, saving for it for almost as many years and planning it properly for about a year. It has been a really great way to (slightly belatedly) celebrate 25 years together.  We hope to post a bit more about some aspects of our trip when time permits.  I’ll just leave you with a picture of our favourite stop on the trip.

 

 

We’ve structured our return in short chunks to try and keep the van alive, so we moved on to another camperplaats we have visited before at the Landwinkel de plantage. This is a great little site, where you park up in the orchard. Another bargain price at 15 Euros. We had a shortish cycle (but steep in parts and very windy) and took in the rather grey sea views, then back to the site for some more lounging around.

     

The following day we decided to head to Bruges/Brugge. It was very much en-route and there was a campsite within about 3.5km of the city centre, so we booked in and cycled in. It is a very attractive city, but very much dominated by tourism, giving it that slightly off feeling of not being quite real. A bit like visiting Godshill looking for a typical Isle of Wight village. The prices also seemed rather more reminiscent of Scandinavia than we might have liked. I suspect Brugge might make a nice city break, and it was a pleasant enough afternoon, but by no means the highlight of the trip. However we did find the Aldi here (Aldi Nord, rather than Aldi Sud which we have in the UK) sold a rather nice Ameretto, which went rather nicely with our coffee and (overpriced) Belgian chocolates.

So, tomorrow is the last day of our trip. We’re hoping the van will make it home. The last two days we have managed to avoid any failures. I’ve stuck to very gentle driving, which I suspect is what is keeping us going. Once we hit UK soil I may get a bit heavier with my right foot to see what happens. We still vaguely cling to the hope that the problems may be due to a bad batch of fuel and so maybe by then things will be ok, but I don’t really think that things are right even though we haven’t cut out recently, so suspect we may need more work, hopefully on the Island.

This holiday has seemed like a series of quite different holidays strung together, and no section more so than the last couple of days. We have returned to a favoured spot from previous Netrherlands trips, basing ourselves at the Camperplaats Het Groene Hart, This has felt like a typical (for us) Netherlands break, a relaxing almost-end of our holiday. 

On our first full day here we headed out to Haarlem. It’s a great ride, mostly along canals and through parkland all the way into the city. We had a little wander round town and bought some ice creams (no stroopwafle ice cream available sadly, a disappointment for Martin, but the ice creams were still top class). We also indulged in some expensive chips, but they were very tasty, even if the man selling them gave Susan a dirty look for opting for Belgian Mayonnaise rather than Dutch…

We thought about spending more time in Haarlem, but decided the cycling was our real focus so we headed off again, deciding to head for a pancake house on the way back for a beer and “maybe a pancake if we fancy one”. Of course that meant pretending we might not buy pancakes in spite of the inevitability of it. When in the Netherlands it is just rude not to support one of the many pancake houses.

We then carried on to Hoofdorp for a spot of shopping – originally to check out panniers in the bike shops but we ended up shopping for dinner in Lidl and buying some socks from Primark, we know how to live it up!

We returned, with 50km under our belts (around 30 miles as long as the mile/km ration hasn’t gone the same way as the pound/euro since we booked the trip). Susan then cooked a fabulous chicken and chorizo dinner, it would have been great at home, so as camping food was simply fabulous.

On day two we also got out on the bikes in glorious sunshine, and cycled out to Noordwyck, touted as an old fishing village, but the bits we saw were more sandy-beach seaside resort (but very pleasant). We had a wander round the Sunday market, bought some rather yummy coconut things for coffee later, then cycled off through the dunes and made up a route home with the help of the fietsroutenetwerken  

  

On our return we lazed around for the rest of the afternoon. We thought we’d have more time doing very little on this trip, but we haven’t really – that’s not been a problem, but it was nice to have an afternoon doing very little today.

 

Tomorrow we’re doing the next bit of our limp back towards Calais, heading for an overnight at another previously-visited Camperplaats in Zeeland.

We left early (for us) and headed off towards Groningen, stopping off at IKEA in Bremen for Breakfast. This is getting to be a bit of a thing!  The van was doing well, but after a brief rest stop died as we pulled out. Once again we managed to restart after a few minutes and got going again. We arrived in Groningen and found the free camper parking provided by the sports centre. It was just an allocated area on grass, but no charge and in pleasant surroundings. We cycled off to look in a couple of bike shops, and got Susan’s broken spoke repaired. Handily we found a large blue building next door so we could get free coffee (Ikea family card out once again) while we waited. Then back to the van for dinner and an early night.

An early start again the next day as we headed to Haarlem. We shunned the route favoured by TomTom, opting instead to travel across the Afsluitdijk, a 30km long engineering marvel, built in the 1930s to close off the Zuiderzee (though why anyone would want to ruin a sea full of cider is beyond me). We opted to pull over at one of the rest spots along the motorway and where rewarded with views out to see and across the Ijselmeer (for the most part you can’t see the sea) and even a little tower to walk up for a better view.

We arrived in Haarlem, and if you’ve been following the last few days you can probably guess where we went. That’s right, it was time for another IKEA breakfast! This time the main draw was proximity to the city centre and free parking, the 1 Euro breakfast, free coffee and decent toilets simply acting as a bonus.

Refuelled we got on the bikes and cycled a few kms into Haarlem to another used bike shop. I managed to try five different bikes here, and am now the proud owner of a used Gazelle Stadfiets!  Shopping for a bike was one of the main reasons for a few days in the Netherlands at this point so I’m pleased to have succeeded in finding one.

We wandered a bit into town, far enough to find a pastry, then headed off, to the Camperplaats Het Groene Hart, a motorhome park we have stayed at before and love. It only costs 14 Euro a night (12 if you forego electricity), each pitch has its own little grass area next to it, there are views over farmland and the owners are friendly and helpful.

We pitched up, had lunch and it started raining, so we lazed around in the van until the rain cleared, then cycled into the nearest town to pick up some pancake syrup, Spekulas spice and Hertog Jan beer – all things which are challenging to buy in the UK. Now even if we breakdown and have to be recovered home we know we have purchased the things we needed in the Netherlands!

Only one van failure today, unfortunately just as I pulled into the outside lane as the motorway split in two. I managed a hasty retreat across the carriageway and stopped in the bus lane for a little rest, before slowly creeping away again.

We plan to stay here for three nights, taking it easy, cycling, drinking beer, that sort of thing. We’ll probably head back into Haarlem tomorrow for a proper look around (we loved it when we visited on a previous trip) and for me to see if the little ice-cream place is still serving Stroop Waffle ice-cream, one of the wonders of the modern world.

Today we left Scandinavia behind, to start a slow trek home through Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium and France. We’re spending longer on this part of the trip than planned due to the problems with the van, though we had always planned a few days in The Netherlands on our way back. Today we headed to Rødby to catch the Scandlines ferry to Puttgarden in Germany. On the way the van died again, and didn’t seem keen to restart, but after a few minutes on the hard shoulder we managed to get it going again. Shortly after we had to make a quick call on whether to pull in to a rest stop or keep going, so I made the decision to put my foot down as we approached and see what happened. What happened was the engine management light came back on so I pulled off and made it into the caravan parking area. No stall this time, but the engine management light wouldn’t go out, so we switched off and waited for about 15 mins, before heading off again, a little slower this time (max of 80kph rather than 90). We made it to the ferry without further failure (bit lumpy at points though) and then had issues with the automatic check in (eventually they realised we shouldn’t have done auto check in with a motorhome, but the helpful lady who came to our rescue got us sorted and onto the ferry, which left as soon as we had loaded. By this time I was quite stressed and needed the whole 45 minute crossing and a coffee and pastry to recover! We then headed to Ikea in Lubeck, which turned up on my Camper Stopover app. Sure enough, 5 motorhome spaces here, so we have spent the afternoon in the IKEA cafe eating Scnitzel and Strudle. Van managed the run here without significant event. Tomorrow we head on to Groningen, our longest single-day drive of the rest of the trip, fingers and toes crossed.