The Simonhoeve owner comes early to ask everyone to be away on time as today is busy with more than 50 coaches expected.
We have only 31 miles to go but cannot arrive before midday so we set off at 09:30 as required and plan to stop somewhere and mark time.
Soon after leaving we are driving beside the pretty canal on the edge of Monikadam and through wide green flatlands. Then it’s the busy morning motorway around Amsterdam and Schiphol airport, where the road dips under the main runway. South of the city we pull into a service station have coffee and find a place near our destination to while away time.
The route takes us past the campsite and then down to the canal at Leimuiden. We cannot cross to the windmills as planned because the lifting bridge has 2.7m height limit so we drive on and find parking on the bank. The water appears quite deep and is busy with pleasure craft, some quite large. Squadrons of ducks perform noisy formation splashdowns, grebes dive and resurface with beaks full of fish and terns screech above hoping for any dropped fish to come their way. In the warm sun it’s the perfect day-by-the-water setting. We continue to Weteringbrug and park again where the canal is much wider. A large barge/coaster of around 1200 tonnes rumbles past and the dual bridge is raised for it. One strange outfit is a motorboat towing a rowing boat and a mass of twigs that looks like a nesting platform.
At around 12:30 we complete the loop around back to Het Groene Hart, the farm we stayed at 10th April. Signs at the gate say ‘full’ in 5 languages and many vans are already in place. Owner Evelyn shows us to our places. She tells us there are over 60 vans here this weekend.
After lunch Nick and Grete bike off to a nearby motorhome shop for some spares and we spend a leisurely afternoon reading.