Tschüss Germany, Hi Holland

6fartsinacart
Aug 28, 2017
4 min read

10 August 2017, Thursday: At 7.15am we are all up and out of bed as Mum wants to take a final photo after breakfast before Robert, Uschi and Liam depart. At 10am we are ready, fully rejuvenated, and leave reluctantly as their hospitality has made us feel very welcome. We lunch near Ochtum on the edge of the Weser River where a smaller side river joins up and a sluice is situated. We complete the next 15km to Lemwerder and park up next to the river for the night. As travelling South Africans we can’t believe our luck when Dad starts braai-ing chicken and pork kebabs/sosaties. We are blessed. Sitting out we watch big ships and small boats, going up and down the river, until the sun disappears and we retire inside.

11 August 2017, Friday: A gentle rain causes us to lie in without feeling guilty. We leave our stop overlooking the boats passing by at 11am. We stop for a late lunch at a camper stop near Esterwegen. We discover that there are warm showers. The ladies’ side is locked and we all have a shower on the men’s side. Not quite what you think as the shower facility leads off the main men’s area. We are also able to dump and fill up with water as a result of an Italian couple’s generosity. The allocated 100 liters on payment being too much to fill up their camper, we get offered the rest. We leave (filled up and all clean) for Haren on the Ems River. On this site there are already 9 to 10 campers parked and during the rest of the evening 6 more arrive. Mum, Dad and Emile go for a walk through the town, while us girls prepare a cabbage stew. After a hearty meal and devotions we settle for the night.

12 August 2017, Saturday: It’s another wet morning as we awake. The rain is still coming down ever so gently as we leave our spot for the night next to the Ems at 10am. Half an hour later we cross the border into Holland. We make our way to a camper stop at a small marina next to the canal in Gorredijk to make use of the dumping services. We continue west to the Afsluitdijk. This is a major causeway in Holland, constructed between 1927 and 1932 and running from Den Oever to the Dutch village of Zurich over a length of 32km and a width of 90m, at an initial height of 7,25m above sea-level. It is a fundamental part of the larger Zuiderzee Works. It consisted of two parts. In the first stage the Zuiderzee (a saltwater inlet of the North Sea) was dammed, turning it into the fresh water lake of the IJsselmeer. The second part of the plan was the reclamation of new land. After the Zuiderzee had been closed off, the entire new province of Flevoland was reclaimed from the waters. After a 5km drive from the start of the Afsluitdijk, we stop for lunch at a parking/picnic area with a view over the Waddenzee. We see the swing bridge open, causing the motorway to come to a halt to allow the boats and ships to go their way. During our lunch break this happens twice. We continue and stop a few more times to take photos and read the history and interesting information of this famous motorway. With 300 000 visitors per year, the Afsluitdijk is one of Holland’s most popular water engineering constructions.

As it is Sunday tomorrow and we would like to make use of the hopefully lesser traffic in Amsterdam, we mosey on to a park4night stop close to Amsterdam. Driving south we pass some very beautiful landscape. Very noticeable is that everything is VERY flat and green as far as you can see. Passing through villages the beautiful houses are intertwined with canals. We end up at Monnickendam at 6pm. Nikita and I start preparing a pasta-dish for supper while the rest go for a walk to explore the park and close-by ‘beaches’ overlooking the Markermeer. After supper we turn in to have a proper rest for the day ahead of us.

Chilling with my siblings

Group cuddle

Stop for the night on the bank of the Weser River at Lemwerder

Bonding time

Oh those kebabs were so good (drool)

Just passing by

Lip-lekker

Our stop in Haren - on the River Ems

Popular spot - many neighbours

St. Martinus Church (Kirche Sankt Martinus) - Haren

Into Holland (the Netherlands)

Waddenzee - lunch-stop on the Afsluitdijk

The Afluitdijk is damming off the Waddenzee, a salt water inlet of the North Sea, from the fresh water lake of the IJsselmeer

Hover time - IJsselmeer

Statue of the 'Steenzetter' (Brickmaker) on the Afsluitdijk

A statue of Cornelis Lely - he was a Dutch civil engineer and statesman who oversaw the passage of an act of parliament authorizing construction of the Zuiderzee Works, a huge project - designed to his own plans - that turned the Zuiderzee into a lake and made possible the conversion of a vast area of former seabed into dry land