The Netherlands -"Winging It"- Day 2

Google Map of Day 2 Route: Click Here!

*A quick note on the Holland trip reports - Dawn drove the whole time as I was still pretty out of it from my surgery. I was merely a passenger, watching the countryside roll by.

Day two of our trip had us heading out from Valkenburg in SE Holland to our intended destination of the night before - Haarlem and the beaches of the North Sea. Haarlem is a fairly well-known city 20km due west of Amsterdam. We had decided before embarking on the trip that we would avoid Amsterdam this go-around and would instead visit the city at some other point when we could devote enough time to explore it properly. The drive up was a fairly straight shot on the A2 expressway. At least it looked this way on the map I had purchased. What we didn't know was that the expressways in Holland tend to have a few kinks, twirls and whoop-tee-dos along the way. I've been a fair amount of places in the world, but this was the first time that I had ever seen a roundabout on an expressway/autobahn/interstate. I generally like roundabouts and wish they more widely-used in the US. However, when you're zipping down the freeway doing 80 mph and encounter one of these crazy-ass, divided lane monstrosities, it's hard to know what to do the first (and second and third and ...) time you encounter one. Number one - the traffic in Holland is nuts. Number two - the drivers in Holland are fairly aggressive. Number three - most of the A2 seemed to be under construction meaning our GPS unit was not as accurate as we would have liked. Number four - trying to read signs in Dutch is....impossible. What in the heck does Voondoopranspoglingtoo mean anyway?

We had figured that the drive to Haarlem would only take us two hours at the most. Instead, it ended up being more like 3.5 hours due to some unforeseen detours, traffic jams and navigational mistakes on mine and the GPS unit's part. Yes, I am going to blame the GPS for one of the biggest detours we took. You see, our GPS has this neat little feature where it receives traffic updates from God or some other unseen source and when a traffic jam is reported, it will re-route us around said jam on a supposedly quicker path. This works perhaps 10% of the time. This was not one of those times. When this happened to us near A-Dam (this is how the cool kids refer to Amsterdam), it took us off in to the nether lands (see what I did there?), along some canal with stately mansions reminiscent of some long-gone era in South Carolina and then down a road with more roundabouts than should be allowed by law. I was starting to get dizzy and Osu was turning a bit green from all of the turning left, but we eventually did pop out somewhere near Haarlem and were then able to find a parking spot where we could easily walk in to the center of town.

Haarlem turned out to be a super-cool city to check out. We spent approximately 2 hours wandering around and exploring the more touristy areas of the town, snapping pictures and just enjoying the beautiful weather. Most importantly, however, Dawn was able to get one of her most favorite treats in Europe - a Belgian waffle smothered in chocolate. I personally am not a big fan of these, but I know Dawn loves them and it always makes me smile to see her reaction when we stumble upon a place selling them.

The beach and the campsites that I had checked out online were only a 20 minute drive from Haarlem. Our next goal was to find a place to shack up for the night and then explore the European beach scene. I really didn't know exactly where to head since I had conveniently forgotten the papers I printed out on the kitchen table at home. So, we did the most logical thing and headed west where we knew we would eventually hit water. As we neared the beach we spotted a sign for camping and the name of the place struck a chord with me - it was one of the places I had researched previously. We pulled in to the campground and then proceeded to the reception shack only to find out that they did not allow dogs there. The guy at the counter was very helpful, however, and called up another campsite for us where dogs were allowed in the low-season. The campsite turned out to be, how do I say this nicely, a big pile of steaming Osu poo. But, we did reserve a spot, pitched our tent and then headed for the beach.

In order to keep this entry from approaching "War and Peace" length, I will keep my thoughts about the Euro beach scene short and just say this - not our cup of tea. Renting a private tent or chair and sitting on a groomed piece of sand while starring out at coffee-colored water just isn't what we had in mind.

We were both a bit dismayed and were even approaching the point of being bummed on the whole situation. We held a quick conference in the Rav and decided to go back to the campsite, pack up and bail for greener pastures. The guy running the campsite probably thought we were a bit crazy since we had just gotten there. His English wasn't that great so it was a bit hard explaining to him our reasoning behind leaving and we didn't want to flat out say "This place stinks" so we just left and probably left him and his cronies scratching their heads and uttering “Crazy Americans” or some such thing.

So, back to the A2 expressway it was. Our objective now was just to find a hotel somewhere, anywhere and just relax. It had already been a very long day for us. We eventually did find a place outside the city of Den Bosch that accepted dogs, was right next door to a McDonald's and had a big lake with a nice gravel path following its shores. To avoid dealing with having to find another place to stay the next night, we booked a room for two nights. This actually was our best move of the trip as Den Bosch and the surrounding area had plenty to offer and plenty to keep us entertained.

Not much else happened this day. We ate some food then went straight to bed. It was a stressful day but overall satisfying. We'd toured a cool city, made it to the beach, made camp, broke camp and took a nice walk around a nice lake. Not a bad day at all.

Day 3 report coming soon. Well, if anyone is interested that is........

The Netherlands -"Winging It"- Day 1

Google Map of Day 1 Route: Click Me!
With everything that has gone on the past few weeks, Dawn and I decided to take a bit of a break and to head somewhere where we had never been. Since the weather was looking really good, we decided to pack up our camping gear and head for Holland. We figured we'd do it like a road trip in the US - drive until we were tired and then either find a cheap hotel along the highway or find a secluded road to go down and make camp for the night. BZZZZZ - WRONG!!!

I've known for sometime that Europe isn't the United States. Heck, I've even got this cool piece of paper that says I have an MS in Geosciences so of course I know this. Well, I guess I skipped the day we discussed driving holidays across western Euroland in Geo 301 because I realllllly calculated this trip wrong!

Our goal for the first night was to make it to the coast where some beachfront campsites (so said the internets) existed. Um, yeah. We barely made it in to Holland let alone the beach, but we did make it! Woohoo! New country! Now we just needed a place to crash for the night. We first checked a city named Heerlen for hotel rooms only to learn it was an industrial city and tourists generally didn't go there. We then drove to Maastricht which I had actually heard of and had no luck finding anywhere to stay. It did look like a cool place to check out, however. We then drove to Valkenburg, a place that was more touristy and had plenty of hotels for people like us - so said the 30 year old pasty, chain-smoking lard-butt who worked as a busboy at some place in Heerlen and took exception to our living in Germany. Some people just can't let go.....

Anyway, we did end up finding a place to stay in Valkenburg quite easily, even though it was nearly midnight. The room was simple but was clean and had a bed. This was good as Dawn and I were quite tired and Osu was looking pretty drowsy as well. But, instead of going straight to bed, we all decided to take a walk and check out the old part of town. We'd been sitting in a car for nearly 7 hours so we did need to stretch our legs a bit. The walk was nice, the town was fairly dead but bed and sleep were sounding better and better with each step we took.

We did make it back to the room only to find out that the heat the proprietor of the hotel had recently turned on did not in fact 'heat the room in 5 minutes' as he claimed. The heater, in fact, wouldn't melt an ice cube placed directly on it - even after 3 hours of verbal motivation from Tony Robbins (melt! think positive! melt I say! melt!) . I was so tired that I really didn't care and found what little warmth I could in my portion of the bed. Dawn, a person who could be cold in Death Valley at high noon in August, struggled all night against the cold. Osu, well, he has fur. He was fine. Thanks for asking.

We awoke the next morning to another gorgeous day and took another walk around the city before the sun was even up. Valkenburg is a very nice town and it was fun checking it out. Of course, we never were there when anything was open, but it still was nice during the quiet hours too. After our walk, we went back and had breakfast at the hotel. The breakfast was included with the room and was actually not too bad. I could only eat the eggs and some cheese and yogurt (dang jaw) but it was enough to get us going for the day. We were going to need the energy considering what we were about to experience.......

Stay tuned for Day 2 - coming whenever I feel like writing about it!

Reservations for Dublin made!

Dawn and I have been going back and forth on where to go over the Memorial Day weekend for months now. Finding 130 Euro R/T tickets for the two of us to Dublin pretty much sealed the deal on that.

In preparation for this trip, I've decided to apply for a European concealed weapons permit so that I can be more prepared - just in case someone tries to use my face for batting practice again. Since it is well-known around the world that all Americans are rednecks, sleep with their hunting rifles and can shoot a fly off a fence post at 100 paces, I should have no problem getting this permit. Once awarded, the European Council of Self Defense and Alternative Weaponry (ECSDAW) will present me with a choice as to what type of weapon I would like to carry. The types of weapons offered change over time. In the past I've heard that such things as sharpened paper clips, 3 year old sticks of gum, emory boards and hardened clumps of mud have been some of the top articles picked for personal protection. I'm afraid that nowdays, the pickings may be even slimmer. A wadded up piece of paper may be all I can use, but I'll have to be careful. If the paper gets even the slightest bit wet and therefore heavier, I could be the one charged with assault when fighting off a mugger.

But, I digress. We're going to Dublin - Home of the Leprechaun, the place where potatoes were invented, and most importantly, the home of Guinness Beer. I've never told anyone this before, but I really hate Guinness. Hate it. I think it is one of the worst drinks out there. I'd rather drink Miller Lite. I'd rather take a 3 hour bike ride on a 100 degree day and then squeeze the sweat from my socks in to a cup and chug it rather than drink a pint of Guinness. I have kept this opinion to myself for years and years but I don't know if I can keep it to myself while in Dublin. Another reason for my applying for a European concealed weapons permit. I think the Irish may take their beer more seriously than the Canadians. Yikes.

In all honesty, we're really looking forward to the trip and have been wanting to visit Dublin for some time now. We'll definitely be putting plenty of pictures up when we get back!