A dead bird in the awning.

Day 18, Thursday, Someren, 19^th May.

A dead bird in the awning.

There was a dead bird in the awning this morning. Mousy on e of the 9 cats had left it as a present for us. Dank u Mousy. As bad things come in 3’s, I then fell through one of my 4 deckchairs during breakfast and was then scared by a large caterpillar in the sink. All that nonsense over we decided to hunt for windmills, we had already seen some at the sides of the road, but we wanted to be close up, or even inside. But first, Bob had a bike issue which needed sorting. In Holland most people ride bikes so there must be bike shops everywhere, and there can’t be a better place to sort a bike issue. We needed cheap, so off to Someren centre we went. In the second shop we found the one. Second hand, or 2 hands as they say here it still looked expensive. With a chocolate brown frame, dynamo and Dutch stability we were surprised to find out that the guy in the shop would do it up for Bob for just 55 euro and that we could pick it up on Saturday. Perfect.

Finding windmills and stopping off in cafe’s for frites and beer was fun. It was a still and warm day so perfekt for strolling around and exploring. We found out that one of the windmills would be working on Saturday so are going to take a cycle there, Bob on new wheels then. We found a windmill which you can walk right up to, they are such pretty things, its weird to think that they were purpose built for working really, why can’t all factories look so nice?

We had a bbq in the evening, Bob bought 20 frikkerdellan sausages for 1.99 euro and I made garlic potato’s and pepper kebabs. We also enjoyed Appleflap which I had bought at the stall earlier in the day, I was secretly hoping that Bob wouldn’t like his then I could have two, but before I could look needy it was gobbled.

I spent some more time chatting with Wilma about horses and cats and hot air balloon festivals and old trucks. She is interesting and easy to be around. Evening around the caravan are becoming quite similar now and relaxed so it was nice to be around someone else and hear about other lives. We chatted until the cold air replaced the warm then I went back and played cards and dominoes with bob and we looked at the map.

I hope that Mousy doesn’t bring us another present tonight, for the birds sake more than mine,

Goodnight, x. 

A travellers dream, Wilma and Martein.

Day 16, Tuesday, Someren-Heide, 17^th May.

A travellers dream, Wilma and Martein.

My hair is amazing. After an amazing shower that cost 50 cents and using my new amazing hair conditioner, I feel amazing.

This morning we were unsure whether to move on orlook for work, a man Bob met in the toilets had told us about the asperges farm, so we asked the cleaning lady on the campsite if she knew of any farms, she asked another man who I believe was the gardener, who told me that the largest Asperges farm was just around the corner and that there was a campsite right next to it. We packed up faster than ever before, excited about the prospect of work and more excited about such a short journey to get to it. He was right, his directions perfect. At the farm we were told that there would be work once the sun came out but we needed to obtain a sophie (?) number to work in the Netherlands. Okay, this was promising, so we drove the whole 20 meters to the camsite. Martein met us at the gate and said he would get ‘the wife’. Wilma came out just seconds later and told us that the camping was free! A travellers dream, a dream which was cut short when Wilma told us that the mayor of Someren has banned people who live in caravans from working and that if we had jobs, we couldn’t camp. As we didn’t have jobs and a free campsite is nearly as good as having a job, and after promising Wilma that we wouldn’t get jobs or she would be fined 5000 euro, she led us through the gate onto her pristine campsite. I was expecting to be getting the porte pottie out on a free campsite, but no, there is electric which you pay for what you have used when you leave, water points, free hot showers, toilets, an incredible looking bar, atmospheric with a duke box, native American memorabilia, fake bears heads and cow skins hung all over the walls, this was brilliant!

Wilma made us milky coffee and we chatted about their place and where we had been and were going and discussed the state of the roads in Belgium. Wilma thinks we will lose the caravan in a pot hole when we reach Poland as apparently the roads are even worse there. Wilma and Martein were the most welcoming people ever, they have 2 horses, 2 dogs and 9 cats, one of which is pregnant. They told us they sometimes have parties in the bar, and sometimes they just sit and people come, the duke box has ‘lost its memory’ so doesn’t work but I love that they still have it as a piece of furniture.

I think we are the only ones here, there are 2 other caravans without tenants and many more in storage in one of the barns. The area is beautiful, there are hundreds of cyclists, two of which are soon to be Bob and me and just miles of asperges and strawberries and wholesomeness.

What an amazing day, its amazing how amazing conditioner and an amazing couple can make al the difference,

Goodnight Someren-Heide, je taime tout, x.

Bob Holland is in holland!

Day 15, Monday, Someren, 16^th May.

Bob Holland is in Holland.

Francis wasn’t around this morning while we were packing away. We had one mouthful of sultana bran with gone off soya milk for breakfast and discovered that the back legs of the caravan are slightly skew whiff. We realised a while ago that we are going to need to do some work on our home. The day before we left England we discovered some rotting wood to the front right hand side, the shower room needs to be re-sealed and now its the back legs. We need to seal the shower room to stop further rot as some campsites charge 1 euro for a shower, it may not seem like much, but could be 14 euro a week just to shower! 14 euro to us is quite a good food shop or, in France, 16 bottles of wine! We also need to think about getting the European gas bottles filled as our English on has been going strong for 2 weeks now, but new to the caravanning way of life we are unsure of how much longer it will last, and don’t want to be caught short in the oven one evening, or worse, in the shower one morning.

We are heading to Venlo still, it was raining all morning and I didn’t want to think about repairs we couldn’t afford. So off to try and work on the tomato’s it is. We hit the road, my 3 hour rule is in place again today, even though so far, it has been broken, probably every time we have moved. After just one hour Bob wanted to stop. He wanted an easy day. Okay. We found a campsite with a frog as a logo, thankfully it was too expensive, so we moved on, found another campsite in some woods, the sun shone through the trees in such a way that the bark appeared purple, this would have been a great place to camp. The reception feels strange, it smells like school dinners and there appeared to be a class being taught, were we in a school? They told us that caravans were not allowed on site, although really wanting to camp in the woods, the caravan ban true or not, it was probably best not to camp near 40 8 year olds and we moved on.

Suddenly we were in Holland. Bob Holland is in Holland I sang as we crossed the border and continue onto the flat and well kept roads, with signs, many signs, signs for everything. So we were in Holland, unexpected, but good. We found a campsite in Someren, a farming town. It is very clean, there are many caravans with double awning here which all look exactly the same and a riding school. And many flies. Without even taking the legs down on the caravan we headed for the supermarket. Jumbo we found nestled in the town centre, small and sweet with hundreds of cyclists. We needed to stock up on butter, soya milk and Bob was still gagging for a bbq, so chicken. I also managed to buy hair conditioner in a pharmacy close by, so I can now have nice hair again instead of the bail of hay which has been propped on my head for the last week. Jumbo is no Aldi, its like the equivalent of Boothes in the UK, so just the essential were bought. Bob’s chicken, butter, soya milk, a huge block of Gouda (its just east of here) and some salad. The campsite was still when we returned to our dumped caravan. Legs, wonky or not barely wound down and Bob had the bbq lit! While he bbq’d happily in the rain I spoke to Nigel on the phone. I had rice salad for tea and Bob had the same with the addition of chicken. I spent the evening typing outside in the chilly but now dry weather as the sun went down as Bob set up the recording studio again. The recording didn’t seem to go well and after about an hour I found him rather drunk playing game boy. He then ate 4 rounds of gouda on toast and is now asleep with flies buzzing around his slumbering body.

We heard there could be some work on an Aserges (Asparagus) farm as it is the right season so we are going to investigate tomorrow as Venlo and the tomato’s seem now to be in the wrong direction.

Goodnight Holland, goodbye haystack hair, x.

Sampling Belgian Beers on bikes

Day 14, Sunday, Herselt, 15^th May.

Sampling Belgian Beer on Bikes.

Francis was hanging around the caravan this morning. It is wet and the underwear I washed and hung out yesterday is even wetter that it was just washed. It was not bike riding weather, so to begin the day I cut myself a fringe again after growing my last one out for the past six months and Bob cleaned the bathroom. Living in a caravan is harder when its raining. Everything gets dirty as soon as its cleaned and if you don’t want to get soaking you are confined to a twelve foot by seven foot tin can. The rain continued to be intermittent for what seemed like forever. Fringe cut, bathroom clean and toast eaten, we set off anyway on the bikes. After about a mile, Bobs karma knee kicked in and we had to swap bikes. I can’t help but feel that I always get the soggy end of the cucumber, its not that I don’t love Mini (the bike) but she is hard to cycle on those small wheels, and Bob can now cycle even faster! The Belgians are great at cycle paths, you get right of way at roundabouts, your own traffic lights at junctions and they are better maintained than the roads. After about half an hour of jolly pedalling we end up right where we began! How? We set off again, I was keen to find the pace we passed through yesterday and also quite determined. We reached Herselt, and as rain loomed, we stopped off at a bar to sample some Belgian beer. Bob had a dark Leffe and I had a Palm, “a sweet one” as the barman had described it. So now we have sampled five of the about three hundred beers, quite good going I think.

Back on the road we realised we were on the right road to Westmearbeak, the place we wanted to reach. We pass the amazing dilapidated manor house with greenhouse attached, the caravan in the woods on the side of the road and then stopped off at a fishing/Sunday lunch bistro for another beer. All of the sights I had noticed yesterday had now been found. The beers this time we Le Chouff and Primus, Le Chouff being twice the price of Primus so think I know what will be the beer option in the future. Cycling around you see cabbages and strawberries growing everywhere, the houses are still lego like, but there are some nice buildings interspersed amongst the semi modern, semi plastic surroundings. Bob had decided that he wanted a bbq. So the search for bbq-able foods began. As soon as we realised it was past 6pm on a Sunday we knew that the bbq was going to have to wait for another day.

Back at the quiet campsite I make Bobs favourite, Lasagne, to make up for the lack of bbq, and after enjoying some wine and letting my aching legs rest, (I am sure we cycled 7-10 miles today, Bob thinks we cycled about 5) I brought in the still wet washing and hung it above the fire to avoid Bob being pant-less for another day.

Tomorrow we move on to Venlo, don’t know if we will make it, and I really don’t mind,

Goodnight, x.

Bumpy bumpy bumpy roads.

Day 13, Saturday, Herselt, 14^th May.

Bumpy bumpy bumpy roads.

We woke this morning feeling like crap. Either too much sleep or not enough? Groggy. We decided to hit the road to Venlo, although not all of the way in one trip, my 3 hour rule was definitely in place. After 3 hours we would stop.

 4 ½ hours later, after driving on the most frustrating roads ever, bumpy, potholed, diversion after diversion, well not even diversions, just piles of sand in the middle of the road, one not one, but three of the roads we wanted to follow.

Stressed, not knowing where we were and hungry we found a campsite we had spotted on the map, it was by a river so I had taken a liking to it. It appeared closed, and when reading the sign, it would have been too expensive at 20 euro a night so we wouldn’t have stayed there anyway. Another fifteen minutes away and over some more bumps and into some more potholes we reached another campsite. Yippeee, at 12.50 euro a night it seemed cheap! Although it isn’t really. A nice site though, old fashioned and relaxed, there was a rabbit, who we named Francis who seemed wild and trusting, and many dogs of all different sizes camping with their owners.

There also appears to be a resident British couple in a tiny caravan with many canvas out houses. On returning from the shower the man of the couple, in his sixties with long grey hair was oil painting and listening to opera, he waved as I went by. I want to photograph him, maybe tomorrow?

I decided to make a proper tea, so made pasta with wine and courgettes and garlic bread. Yummy. Then it was laundry time as Bob has been pant-less for at least two days. It is not drip drying in the cold evening. It is much colder in Belgium than in France. It isn’t as pretty, the towns remind me of lego land and the streets lack signs, and then there is the bumpy, bumpy, bumpy roads. I have already lost 3 tea cups and a teapot to these roads, je suis un appy. I would like to like Belgium more, but the stresses of getting around I think are tainting my thoughts. The Belgians are extra friendly though which makes up for the frustration of being on the road here. Tomorrow we are going to cycle and explore some of the surrounding area we drove through earlier in the day, it looked quite interesting and quirky, and and un-plastic.

Goodnight Francis, goodnight Bob, x.