I am sitting outside a McDonalds in Thisted Denmark and it's hot in the sun.. I gave up on that stupid thing that shows where you are on the map.
Episode 3 Well, finally some progress so it seems. A ferry booking has been made so I'm told for Sunday the 28th April, and on the way to Dover we are going to visit a couple who were part of the motorbike group in China last year, they live at Gravesend in Kent. What a name for a place!

On Saturday I hopped in the car into my favourite possie; I had to make sure I got it before it was overtaken with stuff. Boy, the car is packed up more than last year or so it seems. With the amount of heavy gear are we expecting to be caught in blizzards or what? I still am waiting for that thermal underwear that was mentioned last trip.

So, on Saturday morning we finally set off and drove up to Gravesend arriving much later than we had planned due to a long hold-up on the M25. Robin and Keely made us very welcome and we had a lovely overnight stay with them. I got a big hug from Keely that I thoroughly enjoyed, could suffer many more of them. It was interesting to hear that although R and K came back from Mongolia by train much of the way they crossed into Latvia just a few hours after David at the same border crossing.

We took our leave of R and K on Sunday morning and headed off to Dover, caught our ferry without problems and arrived in Dunkirque after a very smooth crossing. The wind was cold but the day was very clear and sunny. My humans found the shopping centre was closed, they had planned to get some lovely French cheeses here before heading north into Belgium.

Taking a road that would lead up the coast to Oostende we could see that the bright spring sunshine had brought everyone out despite the fact that they were still wrapped up in heavy winter coats against the bitingly cold wind.

It was cold and overcast as we walked around the old city of Gent, and we had to dodge a few light showers, ducking into Mcdonalds for a cup of hot chocolate thus avoiding a much heavier downpour. Harder to avoid were the bus loads of school kids, getting near the end of the school year they seem to multiply in number.

The city is flat with several canals crisscrossing it, and the old city is quite compact. There are some wonderful old buildings and a castle that dates from around the 11th Century, though nothing that old exists now. The quaint old buildings lean into each other and are well maintained; many border large open cobbled squares. In one a big sound stage was being disassembled. Several churches are dotted around the city and their spires dominate the city skyline. No great modern structures have been built, at least not in this central are, that dwarf them. Just as we got back to the car the rain started in earnest.

Next we visited Antwerpen. This is a bigger city than Gent but with a much smaller preserved old city, or so it seemed to D and L. Maybe they were just lazy and didn’t want to walk too far. It was bright and sunny here, no hoards of school kids, and I got to try a couple of different bicycles. Not sure just how well I could cope on the one with the books. Again the church spires dominated the skyline, there are modern highrise but they are a good distance away, and not nearly as high as they could be. The layout and buildings are similar to Gent, the cathedral spire much higher, the cobbled streets just as rough. Both cities are very flat and a haven for bicycles that appear to have right of way over everything else, except the horses and carts perhaps. They have their own lanes and as a pedestrian one has to be careful not to stray into one, being run over by a bicycle is a serious possibility, even for motorists who appear to have almost no rights what-so-ever.

The bicycle situation got even worse in Holland: We arrived there on 30th April, and that turned out to be a somewhat special day for the local, and a bloody nightmare for D who was driving. The sat-nav (Gerty) is playing up for some reason, can’t really decide exactly where we are often so says one thing then contradicts itself, got totally bamboozled with the many closed off streets in some of the Dutch cities we passed through.

With a great deal of effort, and an absolute wonder we weren’t arrested for driving in places we shouldn’t have, we eventually found our way onto the 'flower route’. What a waste of effort it was too. Between Haarlem and Lisse we did see a few flower fields that were wonderful splashes of colour and when we got out of the car the perfume filled air was intoxicating. Probably from the bright blue/purple hyacinths. There was also Deep burnt orange coloured tulips, and yellow ones too, along with some late yellow daffodils and jonquils. Fields of pink flowers and white one too, but don’t know what they were as there was no place where we could stop for a closer look. I was sat on a barb wire fence to have my photo takes; the indignities I suffer!

Overall there were very few fields really and after Lisse almost nothing although we went as far as Den Haag. We came back a similar route and then north from Haarlem. It was in this more open countryside, just inland from the dyke that runs along the shore that we saw far more fields of flowers. They were intermittent; between them were fields with cows, sheep, horses, and pasture. Much of the way we ran beside a canal where pleasure craft motored along at a sedate pace.

It was in this area that David became concerned about the alternator on the car, believing that it wasn’t charging as well as it should do. He’d had it checked in the UK and been assured it was OK but now decided he was not happy with it and would like to have it replaced. So in the smaller city of Leeuwarden we spent a day after David had found a garage and ordered a new one. It was a pleasant enough place except for the rubbish strewn everywhere, the end result of all that partying the day before.

I forgot to tell you why there were celebrations and street closures didn’t I: Well, this is how it was explained to us; The Dutch people have changed from having a Queen to having a King. Now L thinks that probably the quite elderly Queen Beatrix has abdicated in favour of her son who has now become King. As yet we haven’t had a chance to explore this theory on the internet.

With a new alternator, and the battery charging much more to David’s satisfaction we drove over the border into Germany on a lovely sunny afternoon. That cold wind is still with us:

© Lynette Regan 2nd May 2013