Europarcs Het Amsterdamse Bos, comfort large pitch with electric, water, Wi-Fi at the waters edge, €121.89 for 3 nights, so just over 40€ per night.

Site was pretty empty when we arrived, 3 staff on reception and still couldn’t give us the correct code for the barrier.

Very tranquil, with a picnic bench on a pontoon at the edge of our spot.

We headed straight for the service point to fill up and empty, which was a bit of a job as it was one square grate by the recycling bins, with a good covering of broken glass which I swept up before we got near. No sign of an elsan, so I went back to reception to be told there was another service point at the far end of the site with an elsan point. That info would have been helpful at the start or on the map they gave me. Getting information was hard work, the reception closed at 5, also closed for an hour at lunch; nice if you work there, not so convenient if your holiday doesn’t run to office hours.

The camp was a lovely quiet spot, filled with wildlife. We saw the by now obligatory heron, but also cows, horses, grebes, even parakeets. It’s worth saying that this campsite is less than 10 mins by road from Schipol Airport, so is definitely under the flightpath, and during daylight hours every 5 to 10 minutes there’s something coming in or going out again.

The weather was warming up enough for us to eat outside and enjoy the sunshine. About 16 to 18 degrees, getting warmer each day.

Who wouldn’t love bacon and egg butties outdoors?

In the camp info bundle it said about heading in to Amsterdam by bus and train (bus stop right outside the camp) and as we had no plans for our 2nd day here we considered making a day of it. In the end we had a quiet day instead. It looked like 21€ each for a single day travel card, making it 84€ for the 4 of us. I hadn’t done any research, so I’m sure there would be a cheaper way to do it, I just didn’t have the willpower to find it.

The kids had fun on the site hooning around on go karts whilst we enjoyed some peace and quiet from the constant bickering.

Well, mother if you’re reading this, by now you will be desperate to know about the state of the facilities. I didn’t  take any pictures. They were OK. Heated, clean and tidy (as you would expect in NL) but functional and portakabinesque. Toilet paper and soap all in order. Weird arrangement for washing up sinks closer to the toilets than the handbasins though.

Wednesday was Keukenhof day. I prepaid tickets and the car park €70.50 – 15 of which was the parking fee for the van. I decided on Wednesday, as it is apparently very busy at weekends.

It was absolutely heaving by the time we arrived at 11am for our time slot.

Lots to look at and admire, many pathways, pavillions, options for food and drink, gift shops, play area, a maze, a windmill, but only one ice cream wagon  with one acceptable flavour and a cost of 15 euro for 4 single scoops.

The boy was distressed as the gift shops did not have toot to his taste, and the cutesy walk over the stepping stones in the lake were like queuing for the checkout in Tesco. We did see someone fall in, though, which was nice.

The campsite got steadily busier, as did the picnic bench in front of our pitch, folks coming from miles around to sit there for us to look at them.

There’s lots of shed type cabins, mobile homes, a glamping village with canvas safari tents and lots of grass and hard standing pitches. Clearly using this place for a base when going in to Amsterdam is a popular option, and one to remember for the future.

Next stop is the beach, and the Corpus museum, one of the main inspirations for this trip.