Sunday
15-Sep-2019 (Fehmarn)
Blogging….
and enjoying not travelling… and watching the world go by…
It
was quite breezy too, and there was a little bit of rain too… and, behind the
dyke… lots of kite surfers… which I found very difficult to photograph. They are
quite far away, travelling very fast, there are quite a few in the frame at the
same time (to confuse the auto focus system… which do “I” track), and their “aspect
ratio” is inconvenient – they should use shorter ties between man and kite! And
then they fly! One of these characters
(who does not look very young if one enlarges the image to pixel level) was
probably getting 25m or more above the water (though it is hard to estimate).
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| Kite and wind surfing on Fehmarn... in a Wellington breeze |
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| Some possibilities of lift here too. |
The
camp site was nice too… while it was very large (608 “pitches” – of which half
were “touring” pitches (the rest being permanent “annual” pitches)… each pitch
was very large, and the facilities were as good as we have seen almost anywhere.
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| Entry to one of the "Services" buildings at the camp site. |
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| Children's bathroom |
Monday
16-Sep-2019 (Fehmarn (Germany) – Midwolda (Netherlands))
Another
one of those “transiting” days… 410km to get into the Netherlands – nearly all
on autobahns (i.e. “blue” roads), which in Germany means 100kph for Fiat, but
only 80kph when in the Netherlands. The “breeze” continued until we left the coast…
and as we have noted before – we provide a good barrier to the wind – which does
have an impact on the directionality of travel!
But
along the way… some interesting bridges, and even the scenery was OK (mostly).
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| Interesting take on bridge construction... form over function? |
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| Yes it is a "blue" (autobahn) road - but not unattractive. |
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| Ten kilometres of overhead lines. installed in both directions along A1 near Lubeck to power freight traffic trucks equipped with pantographs (we didn't see any being "powered" as we drove by). Trucks must not be going faster than 100kph... and when it comes to the end of the line... "it can continue by drawing power from its own batteries etc." - or so says the marketing material. |
Of
course – when things go wrong (or, when they are doing maintenance, they change
the number of lanes available for traffic on these roads, the backups can be
very long. At such times the “trucks” are restricted to the right most lane…
which leads to a wall of (mostly stopped) trucks – one of these near Bremen
must have been 20km long. Of course, at
such times Fiat is not a “truck” – so can travel on the (mostly) moving lanes.
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| A wall of trucks.... 10 (or 20)km long... |
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| A truck with an interesting "wall" design... not sure what they are selling! Swedish meat balls? |
And
after a "bit of driving"… we reached a very peaceful campsite in the Netherlands…
Tuesday
17-Sep-2019 (Midwolda - Workum)
Our
“planning” for this part of the trip was not very “complete” – prior to
departing NZ… but we did have some places that various guides suggested we
should visit. So we asked GPS to take us to the first of these towns via a “short”
route, which of course means the possibility of some dodgy roads – with the
potential to be embarrassed when in a large vehicle like Fiat (sorry, Izzzy).
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| Our first Dutch camp site... calm among the trees (of course there was a water filled ditch just be hind us). |
As
you might now expect…, while it was “sunny” when we arose, by the time we were
ready to leave, quite a few rain drops had fallen on both our heads, and on
Fiat. It does seem that the Dutch have a great fondness for trees, and plant
them along the roadside (on both sides)… And many of them seem to be oaks –
which at this time of year, at least, when rustled by gentle zephyrs – shed acorns.
The sound of these hitting Fiat’s roof, and, from time to time, windscreen too is
quite impressive… and sounds like major damage is being done. Then on occasions, when stopping at a light, one
of those acorns that had lodged on the roof roles forward – with a great
clatter – immediately bringing to mind the acorn-obsessed sabre-toothed squirrel, Scrat from Ice
Age series… chasing his acorn across some precarious landscape.
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| Acorns keep falling on my head... |
This
is our first visit to the Netherlands and we had little understanding of the
landscape (especially the “built” landscape). We “knew” about the dykes (and “dams”)
keeping the sea at bay… but we had no concept of just how much surface water
there is in the Netherlands, and how it is perfectly normal, for example, for
the water level in the canal on the right hand side of the road to be 5 or 10m above
the floor level of the houses and farm land on the left hand side of the road. Yes – the road is a dyke… and they are
everywhere! We read somewhere the
comment that, while God made the Earth, the Dutch made the Netherlands. 20% of
the current land area has been reclaimed from the sea.
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| Typical road along a polder dyke... build a dyke around an area, drain the water, farm! |
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| Three features of the Dutch landscape: water (here and there), high, and high pitched buildings, and wonderful cloud! |
And
the built landscape is so different from what we have seen in other countries –
nearly every house is constructed from brick, and they have very steeply pitched
rooves (Hansiatic-like) - 60 degrees, perhaps?
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| Our first windmill... |
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| Driving into Geirhoorn… beautiful houses, canal and bridges - and a riot of colour in the gardens... and everywhere... water. |
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| Just beside the house above... many of these homes seemed to have boats in the "ditches" between / behind the houses. We wonder how they manage to build on what looks like such boggy(?) land... especially as most are in brick - which is not known as a "light" building material. |
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| What is interesting for us in this photo is the road... it's surface is brick - and arranged in clever patterns. We did not encounter cobble stones in the Netherlands - indeed we really didn't see houses made of anything other than brick. We presume(?) that the Netherlands has a lot of material to make brick from... but not much rock (to make cobbles & buildings)… and we wonder where they got their timber to build there vast array of naval ships in the past? |
The
day had some minor driving challenges too… as we set GPS to take us to a couple
of towns that we thought might be interesting, Geithoorn (called the “Venice of
the Netherlands), and to Blokzijl – an old “port” town – which today, is far
from the “coast”. I expect the locals
must hate the reality of idiots in campervans invading their (broad) streets! But traffic was light, and GPS had a way
through (even if we had to pass through the same narrow streets twice… once on
the way in, and once more to get out of the town.
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| Yes, we need to drive down that street (and back again, as it turned out...) |
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| Quick photo-stop in Blokzijl… another port "city" - far from the coast. |
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| Canals, boats and trees, all apparently manicured, - a very typical landscape |
Another
curious feature of farm buildings – is the “house-barn” combination. Very often a very ornate house with some
particular style of roofing, attached to a much larger barn (we assume) with a
different type of roofing. Along some canals, we saw whole rows of these structures.
Hose barn
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| Thatch for the roof.... each bundle is probably around 2m long... and the depth of thatch on the roof is 30cm. |
Our
campsite for the night, Camping It Soal, was on the shore of the Ijsselmeer –
which it claimed to have “clear waters”. To our eyes it looked like much of the
other standing water that we had seen on our travels – unsafe for human
contact. But to be fair – the canals did
not smell – so maybe they were better than their colour suggested. From a distance, the beech looked like white
sand – but that proved to be only partly true…which was good, because I could
walk across it in socks and sandals with little risk of getting sand between
these two surfaces! The sunset was nice
too.
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| Nice white beach - of sand. No... but it is white even if it is not made for bare feet. |
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| Sunset over the North Sea... |
Wednesday
18-Sep-2019 (Workum - Amsterdam)
Workum
is in Friesland, in the north west of the country, from where black and white
Frisian cattle, black and white Stabyhoun and the black Frisian horse originate.
We planned a less than direct route to
Amsterdam so that we could travel over the 32km long Afsluitdike, then on to
the west coast of Noord-Holland (the region at the south-west end of the Afsluitdike)
– to see the sandjunes, followed by a “short” route to Edam (of cheese fame) –
then onto Amsterdam.
Workum,
like Camping It Soal has its own canals too – along with lift bridges and lots
of canal traffic. We can’t imagine how the people of the Netherlands deal with
the mosquitos that must be rampant in summer!
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| A "street" in Workum... |
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| And a "house" in Workum... |
The
Afsluitdike Dam (or dyke) – was constructed between 1927 and 1933, following planning
that began in 1886., and runs from Friesland to North Holland. It is 30m wide and
initially the top was at 7.25m above sea level. It dammed off the Zuiderzee
(previously an inlet of the North Sea), leading to the formation of a freshwater
lake (IJsselmeet) on the inside of the dam, and the Waddenzee on the outside
(between the barrier islands and the North Sea).
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| The Dutch landscape... water, fields, animals, cloud |
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| Looking along Afsluitdike from the point where the two halves met... in 1932. |
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| The Netherlands really is vertically challenged looking across the IJsselmeet to the "main land"... |
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| And in the opposite direction over the Waddenzee. |
From the location on the Afsluitdike,
at which the Zuiderzee was finally closed – it is quite hard to see any of the
Netherlands – even though it surrounds you on all sides… as we have noted – it is
“quite flat” – apart from some Church Spires and the towers of very many wind
turbines (but even those are hard to see!).
At
Callantsoog, on the west coast – we did see some very large sand dunes, an
important waypoint for migrating birds… and close to the “flower bulb fields”,
which apparently like the resulting calcareous soils of the region… and the
salty breezes.
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| Natural sand dunes at Callantsoog. We learned here - that Nieuw Zeeland was 18,700 km distant from this point, |
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| Looking into the anti-solar direction from the dunes... note the cloud! |
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| Two kinds of wind turbine. |
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| Lots of travel on roads on the top of dykes today... |
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| And passage through small towns... |
We
had set Edam as a waypoint, which means take us to the centre of the town. As
we made the penultimate turn to get into Eden – we saw a sign for Camper
Parking, but as the time was late, and we didn’t want to arrive after “closing”
at the Amsterdam campsite, we ignored the parking opportunity – and followed GPS. Which turned out to be quite interesting.
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| GPS makes clear - water water everywhere |
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| So does the satellite image |
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| We didn't see a lot of windmills that were in operation - but we did see a lot of windmills! |
We
did get to drive through the “centre” of Edam… and it was very pretty – but our
presence pretty much filled the streets we passed along (as much or more so
than the photo above from Blokzijl… and for a much longer length of road… which
also included a couple of 90 degree corners!
But we made it, and Fiat suffered no additional scars! Sadly – we could not “stop” to take photos –
as we were thought we were probably wearing out our welcome quite quickly – but
no one seemed to scowl at us – and a few seemed to enjoy the spectacle!
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| Edam - but not the prettiest part. At that part - we were quite focused on not adding any further wounds to Fiat to be taking photographs! |
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| We assumed it was good for 4.5 tonnes... and it was. |
The
campsite in Amsterdam is a peaceful oasis on the south-east side of the city.
We are camping on grass – in fact it would be better to call it a manicured
lawn – much better than the dusty surfaces that you face when you arrive at a
campsite that has been occupied by a long stay camper who has killed the grass
with their under-awning matting. No “carpets” are allowed here!
Thursday
19-Sep-2019 (Amsterdam)
Fine
weather! Blue skies even.
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| The morning sky above us in Amsterdam - the contrails are somewhat evident... |
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| Trusty public transport to the city. |
We
applied our usual “2 day approach” when visiting large cities. The first day is
more a familiarity exercise, with a broad focus on what the city has to offer “tourists”…
while the second day is more focused on what we would like to explore more
fully. So after using the metro to get
into the city (these trains are a very nice way to travel – but I think I would
become quite weary of them should I have to do it every day… so many people…).
You
may recall (from 26-Jul-2019!) that we commented on the outcome of one of the
Danish King’s visit to Amsterdam, where he liked the canals so much that he
wanted to emulate these in Copenhagen.
Well we have seen both now… and we both would dare to suggest that the
Danes came
up with a more beautiful set of canals!
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| And off we go... on the Original Amsterdam Boat Tour. |
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| Another canal.... |
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| The "Seven Bridges" canal = considered to be the most beautiful canal in Amsterdam... |
Apparently,
Amsterdam had a housing crisis in the 1960’s which lead to a new type of
housing – house boats. Apparently there are around 2500 of these – with “running”
water and electricity etc.. Some of these are restored ships that hail from Amsterdam’s
sea faring past through the 1960s/70s “boxes” to more modern, architecturally
designed floating homes. It does seem
like a good insurance policy to build your house on water in a land constantly
threated by water. The other options are to build on “sand” (probably more
accurate to call that “coastal sediments), since rock would seem to be in short
supply. And there is a Bible story about
those who build on sand… and rock.. and the likely outcomes!
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| House boats... |
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| More House Boats... and interesting cloud. |
Just
to put that point into context, at high tide on the North Sea, Amsterdam is 1.5m
below sea level, while Schiphol (the major international airport) is 5m below
sea-level.
After
the water, we moved to land for another view… and immediately ran into one of
the big contrasts of Amsterdam… walk out of the Old Church (the oldest building
in Amsterdam), and you find yourself beside Coffee Shops (apparently, some of
which are marijuana smokehouses), Sex Workers on display in “shop” windows, and
the Princess Juliana Nursery School (one of the best in the Dutch capital!) –
all within a few metre of each other. Indeed the sickly sweet smell of
marijuana was everywhere (we only learned what this smelt like when we lived in
an apartment in Washington in the early 80’s (where it seemed that quite a few
of the tenants were Pentagon personnel) – and when a friend visited one night,
she commented on the source of the smell in the hallways…. sigh…). As were what
looked like some quite spaced out people.
This does seem like another curious experiment that the Dutch (and the
world in general) is running… introducing yet more toxins and mood altering
drugs into our society – for what purpose?
There have to be a lot of $$$’s involved here somewhere… and the tax
payers will get to pick up the cost of the rehabilitation (just as in the case
of tobacco smoking, and cost of lung cancer to the health system.
Sadly
the “Old Church”, consecrated in 1306, and the oldest building in Amsterdam which
after the reformation became a Calvinist Church, is now a centre for
contemporary art and heritage. The “New Church”, consecrated in 1409 (because
the “Old Church” was no longer big enough), is used as an “exhibition space”.
Meanwhile the Basilica of St. Nicholas, the Catholic Church remains open and is
still functioning as a church. Ironic, don’t you think – given the role the Dutch
played in the Reformation. Perhaps this
is Erasmus’s revenge?
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| Basilica of St Nicolas |
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| Christ on the cross, and the resurrected Christ. |
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| One of the large stain glass windows in the Church |
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| Two Stations of the Cross - but the interesting part for us was the Old Testament references above each station |
From
land, you get a different sense of the canals, and the buildings around them.
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| The Amsterdam Railweay station... built on 9,000 (wooden) piles... |
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| Amsterdam... |
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| Boat, water, bridge, cloud... |
And
other sights of interest… Dam Square (because there used to be a dam over the river
Amstel here) – pigeons and bubbles, clothes to go, and bicycles, bicylces,
bicycles (everywhere, but not many ebikes) – and ridden (in the most part) in a
very recumbent style, and at speed!
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| Making money out of the pigeons in Dam Square |
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| Please, choose whatever clothes you would like - and please be careful to put them back what you don't want... where you found them...? |
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| Speedy cyclists |
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| Cool, blue cyclist... |
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| On the way home, intent cyclists. |
With
respect to our more focused activity – we visited Rembrandt’s House (built in
1606), and The Resistance Museum. Rembrandt’s House is a reconstruction, made
possible because in 1656 (he had livedthere from 1639) – when he went bankrupt
(for not paying off the mortgage), all his belongings were auctioned. The positive
aspect of this event is that the auction list enabled the reconstruction of his
belongings, and hence the content within the house. Even if not “authentic”, it
was nonetheless very interesting. For example,
as well as his own painting (for commission?), he was also an art dealer
(selling his and other artists paintings), a teacher (he trained 40 students),
and a collector of “objects of interest” (to learn how to draw/paint them, and
to provide subjects for his students – cheaper than live models..). This
collection included things like busts of roman emperors and Greek gods, a crocodile,
armadillos, feathered necklace… all told around 7000 different "objects" (or perhaps that was the number of items in the auction - we forget!).
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| Rembrandt's entrance room - and "shop window" display of paintings for sale... |
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| His painting studio... the Night Watch (See tomorrow) was too big to paint here - so was probably painted under a lean-too at the back of the house... |
The
Resistance Museum is relatively new… and a response from an older generation to
a younger generation that seems to be forgetting the lessons of the past. It clearly
has a focus on educating school children – and confronts visitors with the challenge:
would you adjust (to a new life under occupation – and go on as best as you
could), collaborate (actively engage with and support the occupier) or resist
(the occupier). A very mollifying
experience… especially given statistics such as: 107,000 Jews were transported,
but only 5000 returned. This visit was a
little like that to the “Topography of Terror” museum in Berlin. The methods
used to subdue the Dutch were very similar to those that Hitler used in Germany.
Then
on our way “home” (yes, Fiat/Izzy does feel like “home” now) what should come
into view but a large number of carriages – each pulled by two horses. Somebody
in the crowd said this was to do with Ambassador designates presenting their
credentials to the King/Queen.
To
quote: "Newly appointed foreign ambassadors are received by the King at
Noordeinde Palace shortly after their arrival in the Netherlands. A state
coach, drawn by two horses, collects the ambassador-designate from his or her
residence in The Hague or from a hotel if he/she is resident in another country".
But
that happens in the Haig, not Amsterdam – so maybe it was something else
altogether – given they drew up in the forecourt of “Gassan Diamonds”.
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| Carriage, and two horses.. |
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| Coach (for midgets?) and two horses. |
And that nominally ended the day… another 13,000 steps over
something like 8.5km (according to Mr Job's).
Friday
20-Sep-2019 (Amsterdam)
One month today... we fly out of Munich on our way home...
Today
– it is the Rijksmuseum. We did try to
visit the Ann Frank house – but I could only get one ticket – so that was easy
(and we had already visited the Resistance Museum – so had some first hand
information about how the Dutch dealt with the German Occupation).
The
museum is old – having started in The Hague in 1798, before it was transferred
to Amsterdam in 1808 (Courtesy of Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother, king Louis Bonaparte).
The current building dates from 1885. It is primarily filled with the work of
Dutch artists (though there is an oriental section too). It is the Rijksmuseum
that houses the “Night Watch” painting by Rembrandt… which at the time didn’t
go down so well, it would appear… as it was a long time before he got another
commission. Today – I think it is considered to be comparable to the Mona Lisa
( or perhaps better… - especially if you are Dutch).
But
I start with another comment on the different things that Karilyn and I see
with our “cameras” (recall the troll under the bridge, versus the red berries
from Birksdal Glacier!
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| Michael: House and Boat |
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| Karilyn: House and Boat framed by flowers. |
Quite
apart from the colour differences (sun in one, not in the other too) each camera renders, I saw an interesting
building and boat, Karilyn put both of those in the context of the ever-present
floral decorations (bunches of flowers in planters). I know which one I wish I
had taken!
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| The Rijksmuseum (front... and hard to photograph the entirety). |
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| Rijksmuseum (back... but perhaps it is really the front??) |
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| Rijksmuseum in the background... beyond the canal, flowers, and ubiquitous bicycle... |
The
museum had a really thematically driven nice audio/visual aid (a bit like a
tablet) to help us both get around the museum, and to understand (a little, at
least) of what we were seeing. It had a GPS (which meant it could show you where
to go), then options to listen to some analysis of the painting, and the
meaning of various elements that the artist was communicating to the (informed!)
viewer.
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| The main entrance gallery (or a part of it!) - restored to its original decoration |
The
decoration of the building was not without controversy at the time (1880’s), and
between the 1920s and 1950s – most of the multi-coloured wall decorations were
painted over. Fortuntely, we were seeing
it pretty much as originally conceived – the white paing having been removed in
a renovation carried out between 2003 and 2012.
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| Two of the many stain glass windows in the entrance gallery - referencing the importance of culture and learning (and Dutch contributions to both) |
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| Frans Hals: Portrait of a Couple (1622) - with lots of "messages" relating to love, devotion and male fidelity. |
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| Vermeer (!632 - 75): The Milkmaid... everything is still... except for the milk - a study on light. |
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| Isaac Israes (1865-1934): He worked rapidly... "Never work to much, no more than two hours at a stretch, do not fuss, otherwise you will lose your freshness"... so much for Rembrandt - who took more than year to paint the Night Watch |
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| Jan Asselijn (c1650): The threatened Swan. (defending it's nest)... it is full size (this is just a section) - the only "animal" the painter ever painted... but if you have ever seen an upset swan - you will appreciate the painter has captured it well! |
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| Frans Hals (c 1582-1666) and Pieter Codde (1599-1678) Militia Company of District VI - known as "The Meagre Company"... everyone is in the limelight. |
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| The good gentlemen charged with caring for those less fortunate than themselves.... (see the ladies on the right) |
Sadly,
the “Night Watch” is currently undergoing restoration (by the way, its official
title is: Civic Guardsmen of District II under the Command of Captain Frans
Banninck Cocq) – but at least they didn’t take it off display… they have just
added a lot of objects in front of the painting! And you too… can watch this
restoration live, at this link.
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| Section of the Night Watch... a significant difference from that above... not everyone is in the "limelight"... did some pay more than others? |
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| Another view... |
The
Dutch, like the English – have a rather long maritime history too (including
fighting each other) and this is characterised both in paintings (the ones we
noted seemed to be where they “beat the English” fleets – but they also had a
remarkable (i.e. spectacular) collection of ship models – the more so for
someone interested in such things.
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| Model of the 74 gun William Rex - 1698.approximately 1/12th scale... which means it is 4.1m high, 14.5m long and 2m wide... it is very imposing! |
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| Another view of the William Rex. |
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| Just a few of the ship models in a very large display case (the largest is probably 1/4 the size of the William Rex. |
Other interesting (to me, sorry) paintings included a self-portrait
of Vincent (he does look troubled…) and some paintings of the Dutch landscape –
which as the commentaries note… generally need to major on the meteorology, as
the landscape is so flat – and the Netherlands has some truly beautiful skies
(and in particular the various forms of cumulus
cloud)!
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| Rusidael (c. 1628-82) = the key Dutch elements.. low lying land, water, expansive sky... and a windmill (So I claim this makes it OK for me to use a lot of "cloud" photos...) |
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| Roelofs (1822-97). The beauty of the Polder (drained) landscape - verdant meadows, panoramic landscape and sky (the latter filling 2/3 of the painting!) |
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| Beerstraten (1622-66) Battle of Terheide, where the Dutch fleet beat the English fleet (… again...) |
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| Vincent (self portrait) 1887, after moving to Paris... a mirror was a lot cheaper than a model or him to experiment with different (i.e., "new") painting styles. |
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| Wellens de Cock (1505-30 - died young…) Calvary: depicting the episodes of Christ's Passion. In the background he collapses under the weight of the Cross, next he is stripped (lower right) and mocked (left), then the soldiers cast lots for his clothes (bottom left). In the opening at the upper centre, Jesus hangs on the Cross. Some curious ordering - but it provided the information needed by believers who could not read. |
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| The Library: The most extensive art history library in the Netherlands - but we noticed that those researchers using the library, all seemed to be working on PCs. |
Other curiosities in the museum included a dolls house (but
not really a touch on Titania’s Palace in Egeskov
Slot on Funen), and a Nazi Chess set – look what the Knight and Bishop have
become… (and much more).
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| A Dolls House - used to entertain visitors. |
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| A Nazi Chess set... |
After
that, Karilyn had fun with water – a fountain in the gardens of the Rijksmuseum
– she started a trend – some younger participant were not so aware of the sequence
– and got a little wet!
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| In the fountain |
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| Behind the curtain |
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| A real washing! |
Other points of interest… a roll around the park.
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| I hope it was a while since lunch... |
And a walk through (another) market…. Where I got to replace
my €15 Tropea watch (because my watch failed – when the crown
wheel came out!) which was no longer telling the time with a new €10 version…with a “genuine leather” strap, waterproof… and an
allusion to Japanese manufacture, but no
statement to the effect that it was “Made in Japan”. Still for €10 what more can you expect?
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| These markets all tend to look alike... just the detail differs... |
And that was Amsterdam.
Saturday
21-Sep-2019 (Amsterdam to Hellevoetsluis, via s-Hertogenbosch)
We wanted to look at the Delta works (which is west, in Zeeland),
but had read that s-Hertogenbosch
had a very lovely old town – so decided to go to Hellevoetsluis, via said
lovely town.
But
before that we had an interesting experience with Fiat. For the first time on
our travels, we actually managed to empty the freshwater tank (or nearly
so). So I took this opportunity to clean
out the fine sediment that has been collecting in the tank over the last 5
months (remembering that we have probably refilled the tank at more than 70
campsites in this period). That went well – and so we proceeded to refill the
tank before leaving Amsterdam. I will come back to this later.
The
side trip to s-Hertogenbosch should not have added too
much time – as we were travelling by Motorway (South, then West to South
Holland (north of Zeeland) … we started on 5 lanes… and free flowing traffic… then
it all came to pretty much a halt.
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| A five lane highway + another lane for an exit... great advertisement for a country that has a good public transport system! |
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| And then it all came to a halt... |
The reason became clear… much later… about 1h later and
perhaps 10km down the road. All 5 lanes were closed for re-surfacing – and the
technique used is, over a number of kilometres to remove first the left lane, then
the one next to that etc – until all are closed, and you are on a 2 lane side
road. Never mind though – we are on
holiday, so time is not of the essence. But GPS is always trying to be helpful,
by offering up opportunities for a new, and “faster route” (it can listen to
traffic announcements, you see…). In almost all occasions we press the “ignore”
prompt and carry on – but today we chose to ”accept” – which led to perhaps a 60km
detour west, then south, then east to avoid perhaps 10 km of motorway. As it
turns out - we should have persisted with our usual approach to GPS’s helpful
hints – by pressing ignore… because I suspect that some of those “traffic
announcements” are as clever as those on the “Smart Motorway” into Wellington, completely
wrong… as the announced event cleard 30 or maybe even 60 minutes earlier!
But we were looking forward to visiting s-Hertogenbosch – and to assist, I had put a
Park4Night specified Parking place into GPS. We eventually arrived at the
parking place… it was full, and indeed, hard to imagine a motorhome could ever
park at that location. So drive around and look for a space. Can be tricky in a town with narrow streets –
you might end up in a place where you can’t go forward, and can’t turn around…
and backing becomes problematic – if there are drivers behind you, keen to get
to a location beyond your “sticking point”. So after driving down the main
(narrow) street of the old-town (not sure people were entirely pleased to see
Fiat fill the roadway), and deciding that we had seen “similar” towns in other
parts of the Netherlands – we exited on the other side
– and headed toward South Holland.
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| "Beautiful s-Hertpgenbosch" - as it passed us by... |
This parking problem is curious to me. The Netherlands has what
looks like a vast number of camp sites, which must imply a lot of caravans and
motorhomes on the road – but they seem to have made little provision for these
vehicles to park any where outside of those camp sites. Curious? Perhaps Jack can explain – should he read
this page.
Some curiosities from “along” the road to Hellevoetsluis.
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| What the young lady saw: An old codger taking a photo |
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| What the old codger saw.. |
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| We did wonder why the Dutch liked making bulls-eyes on their roads?? |
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| Now this is a clever round about... it even has a right angle turn in it,.... and "hard" lanes! |
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| Quite a few, and quite large glass houses... |
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| I wonder why we couldn't have had such elegant looking power poles when the poles were replaced on the Wellington electric train network?? |
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| And you thought Smart cars were small! |
Back to the comment about a tank of fresh water in a clean
tank. We plugged in the 230V supply, and turned on the taps… and after a certain
amount of spluttering, the water (hot, cold and everything in between) started flowing
just as it was meant too… The pump only ran as needed to provide the required
pressure – just like it was meant too.
So in draining and refilling the water system – we seemed to have solved
the problem that has been with us from day 1. 😊.
Sunday
22-Sep-2019 (Hellevoetsluis)
Listened to the Sermon from Newlands Baptist (from 12 hours
previously). We both seem to have come
down with a “cold” – so are not functioning at our full (corrected for age)
capabilities – so decided on another day here – so we could rest a little, and go
for a walk, and take the bikes out for a ride (they have not had much use since
Burtrask – as Sweden and Norway are extremely motorhome friendly – and provide
parking spaces (for motorhomes and cars/caravans) at the major sites and places
where we need services (e.g. supermarket).
So we walked to the old “port” of Hellevoetsluis – to look at the fort there… and
the old town. It turned out to be rather more impressive than we had
anticipated (as our plan to stop at Hellevoetsluis was primarily driven by the
rating on the camp site – and its description). We now know that “during the
time of the Eighty Year's War (Dutch War of Independence… which obviously took “time”
to complete!), Hellevoetsluis was the naval port of the Admiralty of de Maze
(Rotterdam) and could accommodate an entire fleet within a special
land-enclosed fortress with harbour and dockyard facilities, accessible through
a canal. Thanks to its strategic situation the town grew from the beginning of
the 17th century to be the homeport for the Dutch war fleet. In later years the
port was fortified more and more and Hellevoetsluis became a unique combination
of fortified town and naval port”. The
fort is there, as is the canal – beside which we enjoyed a lovely lunch.
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| The entrance to the Port of Hellevoetsluis |
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| And a Windmill... overlooking the entrance to the Port of Hellevoetsluis... |
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| Part of the old fortifications... with what look like some newer (WWII?) additions on top. |
On returning
to Fiat… guess what – it started to rain again – so no bike riding occurred in
the Netherlands- which seems a crime!
No
significant improvement in our “colds”, but nothing to prevent us from carrying on...
Monday
23-Sep-2019 (Hellevoetsluis to Zele (near Ghent))
We carried out a scientific survey of locals in Amsterdam (we
restricted the sample size to one, to avoid too many diverse views) as to places
we should prioritise to visit in Belgium – led us to plan a visit to Ghent, rather than Bruges (which was
based on a large sample of web based opinion). But first a trip through
Zeeland, and the Delta works… before taking the motorway (and hoping) to the
campsite outside Ghent.
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| We are now in Zeeland |
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| One of the Delta control gates... the flow was better than any maelstrom that we saw in Norway... |
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| Feet in the North Sea... |
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| Changing sheds? Not quite as interesting (from the point of view of colour as I would expect one might see in an equivalent setting in Sweden??) |
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| Some evidence of the breeze... along the beach |
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| Same place … clouds and verdant landscape... |
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| And a touch of rain too. |
Tuesday
24-Sep-2019 (Ghent)
The
weather forecast for the day was for “rain”… and sadly, it was correct (unlike those
for the previous two days). For €3 each,
we got a 40 minute bus ride from the Campsite to Ghent Damport. In other cities
where we have used public transport – the terminus tends to be in the “heart”
of the city – but not so for Ghent. (I notice that the Guardian refers to Damport
as decrepit – with which we agree). We
exited – and (as we had no map at that point) and headed toward the location
with the highest spire. I was beginning
to think our scientific survey of whether to go to Ghent or Bruges may
have led to a biased outcome!
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| "Outer" Ghent.... |
For
background… around 650AD, Saint Amand founded two abbeys in Ghent: St. Peter's
(Blandinium) and Saint Bavo's Abbey at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and
Lys. Over time Ghent became one of the largest and richest cities of northern
Europe, although the Vikings did come by an plunder the place in 851 and 879,
with some 50,000 people by 1300. It was second only to Paris. And, based on the
commentary we heard while on a canal boat ride… as a result of Ghent being a “port”
even though it is quite far inland(!), and some monopolistic trade practices
(with wheat initially, and cloth, later) Ghent merchants and guilds became very
wealthy.
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| A view from the Belfry - to give a sense of the architecture. |
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| St. Nicholas's Church |
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| Closer view... |
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| Our guide... with the Gravensteen in the distance |
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| Bad symbolism for a Hotel - the swans facing outward were considered and indication of what went on "outside" a marriage (of facing inward... then what went on within a marriage). |
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| Classic architecture |
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| Ghent's skyline: St Nicholas's Church in the middle right background. |
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| Do you agree... more attractive than the canals of Amsterdam |
As
we understand it, most of the old buildings are indeed “old” – with such as St
Bravo’s Cathedral dating from …. and likewise Saint Nicholas’s Church – which was
begun in the 13th Century, and the Belfry – which define the
medieval skyline of the city… and a skyline that you can actually see, from
ground level (e.g. unlike St Stephens in Vienna, where you can’t really get a
sense of its scale and grandeur, unless you are a drone).
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| The Customs (collection) house - among the houses of the different Guilds... |
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| The Medieval skyline of Ghent. The towers from Left to Right are St Nicholas , The Belfry (with the clock), and St Bravo's |
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| Saint Nicholas Church |
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| Large candle sticks! |
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| Saint Bravo's |
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| Baroque(!) pulpit in St Bravo's - what can one make out of that! |
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| Saint Michael's - this church was meant to have a steeple that would tower (no pun intended) above all the others..... so now it is just called a "modest church". |
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| That "Modest Church" does have a work of great value though - this one by ANtoon Vsn Dyck! |
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| A facsimilie of the "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb", by the Van Eyck brothers - the "Ghent Altarpiece" (in St Bravo's Cathedral) - said to be very famous (but something was clearly missing from my classical education - as I was unaware of it)… The guide notes: "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb is arguably the most influential painting in history, and it is also the most frequently stolen artwork of all time (Noah Charney)". You re not permitted to photograph the original. But we can say that we came away incredibly impressed - not just by its size, but also through an understanding of the symbolism in it. It is also very beautiful. |
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| The theme continues elsewhere - this is a wall covering. |
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| Stain glass of the presentation of Jesus to Simeon and Anna in the Temple (in Jerusalem). |
There is a castle here too… which looks like a “real” castle…called
the Gravensteen. It was built by Philip of Alsace (1143–1191), and may have
been inspired by crusader castles witnessed by Philip during the Second Crusade
It was the residence of the Counts of
Flanders until 1353. It was subsequently re-purposed as a court, prison, mint,
and even as a cotton factory but was restored in the late 19th
Century.
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| A bad image of the Gravensteen... |
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| We don't know what the sculpture means... but it looks like Karilyn is going too... or has just emerged from prison ("behind" bars, so to speak! |
So –
although the weather was not kind to Ghent during our visit – we are happy to
accept that our scientific survey produced a good result – even if we do not plan
to test the null hypothesis (by visiting Bruges too!).
