It’s a cold and misty morning today. Sandra arrives, says to Ali ‘I think you came here before’, and apologises for not being around yesterday. She has a coach parties from Germany and USA this morning but if we wait until around 13:00 we can see the flower houses. Ali and Grete go for a walk and we loaf about and have an early lunch. In the growing houses Sandra bursts into bloom with numbers; they plant 8 million bulbs each year in their 40 hectares....

Last night we had the mummy and daddy of all thunderstorms. When we check out the owner tells us about the flower parade on 21st April and asks if we would like to reserve spaces for that weekend, which we do. The cloud is still very low as we drive on the motorway past Schiphol Airport with our elevated position looking down on the runways. Scores of airliners stretch across a huge area and one takes off alongside us before disappearing into the grey gloom. ...

Nick W expressed a wish to have a chill out day at an aire he found which is right beside the Rotterdam shipping channel so we check out of the campsite, join the busy motorway system for a few miles before arriving at Maasluis. There are only three camper places and all are occupied, but a hippy-like French couple in an ancient ‘been-everywhere’ truck tell us they are preparing to leave. A few minutes later we have fitted both vans in, ours in the camper p...

The camperstop in Schiedam is free on Sundays but charges again from 09:00 Monday morning so we and most of the other vans are leaving before the deadline. In the rain, and out onto the motorway in Rotterdam’s rush hour. We only have 10 miles to travel today but as we are going to a campsite we cannot arrive too early so at the first rest area we pull in and indulge in cooked breakfast of duck eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes and bubble and squeak with lardons. The...

As per last night’s plan we are up and ready to leave before 10:30. As we leave Middelburg it turns grey with showers and rain. The A57 road crossesflat grasland before starting across long barrages. We are driving only a few metres above the sea, with long rows of sluice operation gear flashing by on our left. For twenty odd miles we are either on these dykes or spits of land with dunes and shellfish farms. The industrial mass of Rotterdam looms ahead and...