The Scent Of Hyacinths In The Morning….

When you have nothing else to do, do something.

 

Four years ago we were campervan novices, but now we feel like seasoned veterans. That is until a policeman on a motorbike pulls you over and, rather dangerously, makes you back up the hard-shoulder of a freeway to the previous junction and asks you to follow him to a police control centre.  Blimey, were we nervous and completely at a loss as to why he would have demanded this?  Thankfully it turned out that we were picked at random for a spot check and all was well, so we re-joined the motorway north and headed for Rotterdam.

Prior to our altercation with the Dutch police, we had enjoyed a perfectly flat, smooth and “are we moving?” crossing of the English Channel. After landing at Dunkerque in France we joined the constant flow of traffic heading north.  We have never before seen so many trucks in one day.  The slow-lane seemed to be one continual line of chunky vehicles, for hours on end.  Czech, Polish, Belgian, Dutch, British, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Irish, Romanian, French, Italian, German and Swedish trucks were all filling the motorways in all directions.  We had to wonder how on earth all these laden transport vehicles will all move around, if the border controls get restored between the European countries.  Everything will come to a standstill !!!

We crossed into Belgium, and then around 3:45pm we crossed into the Netherlands……. not a tulip in sight!!!! Not until we reached the area we were aiming for.  We checked into camping Op Hoop Van Zagen in Noordwijkerhout; no I don’t know how to pronounce any of that, but boy it sounds really silly when Rodney says it.  I would now suggest to everyone that Antwerp, Rotterdam, Delft and The Hague should be avoided around late afternoon and the rush hour…… we didn’t.  So with the police stopover and the horrible traffic, the journey from Dunkerque to the campsite took us all of 4 ¾ hours.  Google said it would take us only 3 ½ hours.  But finally, settled in the campsite, we are surrounded by fields of bulbs in various stages of flowering and the smell from the hyacinths drifting over to us, is delicious and cheering.

 

 

Sadly, despite an unexpectedly warm evening and a glowing hot pink sunset, we woke up to rain which continued for most of the day.  In the afternoon, we managed to get out for a short bike ride around the local fields, enjoying the many stripes of colours of the tulips, daffodils, narcissus and hyacinths; when in Holland, get on yer bike.  And I know there must be some sunshine behind these grey clouds, so maybe tomorrow we’ll get to Keukenhof.

 

 

And we did, we got there at 8:15am and didn’t leave until sometime after 1pm.  We were only the second van in the motorhome car park, but by the time we left, there must have been fifty plus!!!  So hours were spent tiptoeing through the tulips, pottering around the greenhouses and being dazzled by daffodils.  Nature at it’s very, very best.