After a frankly dense and bottomless sleep on the field of Berk, we awoke to sunshine and the desire for a cruisy day to readjust after our travels thus far.

We scrambled a heap of eggs and snaffled them in the sunshine and I checked in with Natassja and Margret at the office as requested.

Natassja informed me that the following day, our scheduled departure day, was the town’s big celebration of liberation from the Spanish, and as such, the roads in town would be closed between 8am and 7pm. Hmm. Plans were discussed, but we had a reservation at the Europarcs Amsterdam Forest, so didn’t really want to be held hostage until sunset.

We meandered into town nonetheless. It was very quiet, despite being market day. Eventually we found some signs of life and had an al fresco lunch with a side order of sunburn.

We paid about 85€ for 4 main courses, drinks and coffees before walking back via the Jumbo supermarket to get supplies for tea.

We enjoyed a cous cous/chicken scenario and a round or 7 of charades with an early night, but not before realising that we would need to return the 20€ worth of odd-shaped John key. And reception was already closed. And wouldn’t be open again before we left.

Ohhhh it was an early get up to be clear of town.

We decided on a side-excursion to Gouda, as we were out so early.

I googled parking options and saw some good reviews of Klein Amerika Camperplatz, which is at  ///memory.remember.century and was about 45 minutes out of Brielle.

We had to skirt the edges of Rotterdam and the motorway was a bit intense in places, but generally the navigation was good. (Brian! Where are you??)

Payment was contactless at 2.30€ per hour or 11.50€ a full day. You pay 9am to 9pm and when I reckoned up, allowing for a meander and lunch we were better off paying for a full day. Aaand there was a Jumbo in the car park.

First stop was the Gouda Cheese Experience. 61 euro for the 4 of us, which seemed steep, but it was a joyous and bumptious experience. We were regaled with a cup of goodly Dutch milk, sundry cheese samples, full audio description, a movie Experience and countless interactive novelties before ending on an actual cheese tasting, with badge and certificate for answering the quiz questions.

We wandered past the ornate town hall, Sint Jan’s Kerk and many shops for stroopwaffels and orange toot before stopping for lunch on the main market square.

80 euro on lunch, another wander followed by a dang fine gelato (9.60 for 4 x single scoops, bargainous!) and a return to the van to head north to our next campsite, Europarcs Het Amsterdamse Bos.

More to follow…

#campervancapers