Maastricht 12th June 2013.

I have always wondered what this place was like given its importance in the history of the EC and John Major. I thought we might see some marauding, wide-eyed Tory backwoodsmen roaming the streets chanting some slogan or another about the awfulness of Europe and what a hateful place it was. 'Get us out of here, I'm a Tory' might be the correct form.

As well as looking at the ordinary, visible and somewhat superficial lives of the Dutch we have noticed various other things. Now it may well be because we are not fluent in Dutch, that we do not understand more than a very odd word, that perhaps we are just plain stupid (I mean, of course, 'I' am just plain stupid). However, we have had a few problems here that have proved to be challenging at times.

Our first problem lay in finding shops: that is food shops. Now it seems that the Netherlands, unlike 'advanced' countries like, say France or the UK, maybe even Spain, have not yet progressed to the giant, out of town supermarket a la Sainsbury, or Tesco, or Leclerc. Thus, looking for food items has proved to be a bit of a problem. In Vollenhove, and indeed Maastrich (actually just outside the city in a small village), we have been able to find a small local shop, a sort of mini supermarket. We have even found a butcher and a greengrocer! Twice we have entered sophisticated towns like Assen looking for the big shop and have found….nothing.

Actually we found a DIY shop. The outside of the building, in reality a very large metal shed, look impressive, it had many cars parked in its lot, and we choose to ignore the fairly obvious icons of drill, ladder and wheelbarrow stuck to the outside walls. Similarly today we were again on the look out for a Dutch equivalent of Morrison's and, joy of joys, there it was we thought. Again, one might think that the big symbols looking like flowers all over the outside walls would suggest it was a plant shop. Never mind, won't make that mistake again - we are off to France!

Another curious problem is the finding of petrol stations. It seems the Dutch keep them hidden away, are ashamed to admit that they use petrol and make us drive around their towns in ever decreasing circles. Then we find, one and the fuel is a good price; but it won't take our Visa card. In fact, Visa seems to have a bad name here and in Germany. It seems it's too expensive and shops and camping sites won't accept it.

Given that we have fled from the flooding of central Europe we still see how it is impacting on people. We have crossed several major rivers on our drive and all were in some form of flood. Water had reached the banks and in some places their was lying water in the fields. Thus, the water rushes to the sea so soon the beaches of Kent will be flooded!