Thursday August 11th - Hook of Holland to Bad Bentheim, Germany (260km’s)

The view ( a little watery) just 50m from our campsite.

I am sitting writing this tonight with a glass of bubbles (only .99 euro for a small bottle and very good) celebrating a particularly good day when everything went to plan, the navigator along with the amazing “Jilly the 2^nd” and a very relaxed driver just cruising along.

Woke to rain, the first we have had in the 5 weeks we have been away, apart from a morning at Steve and Kathy’s when we first arrived. So guess we can’t complain about that.

It was 10am before we set off. I had set Jilly to take us to Oldenzaal near the German border, as suggested by Michael and Sonny, which put us on the motorway route. This took us on the ring roads around Rotterdam and the other bigger towns further east, but it was so easy as Jilly the 2^nd has been improved and now shows exactly which lanes you need to be in, so we just cruised through it all. There are so many trucks on the road which meant that we could go at their speed. The motorway system is great, much of it 4 lanes and so much easier driving than on single lane roads where us slow coaches need to pull over all the time. And those doing high speeds could just move on through.

We have formed excellent first impressions of Netherlands, considering we were driving on motorways in the rain. Somehow we anticipated it being much more built up, but were surprised at spending much of the trip driving through farms in the countryside, which has many more trees than we imagined. Saw sheep and dairy cattle out grazing, as well many animal barns. Homes, sheds and pastures are really beautiful. Ian, ever the farmer, noticed the silage stacks covered in polythene then topped off with soil, a system that he remembered from way back, but without the polythene. I think Andrew should be here, Craig!

I had been online this morning and found a smallish town just off the motorway called Bad Bentheim, less than 3 hours drive away, and saw that it had several Stellplatz’s. Have been reading lots of blogs about people travelling through Germany, and they mainly stay in these. They are a paved area, right near the centre of town, set aside for overnight parking for motorhomes. They vary in facilities, and prices, some are completely free but offer no services, and others have a small charge.

So Ian decided to keep driving until we got here. It was 1 oclock when we arrived in town, decided to check out the supermarkets first to buy some fresh bread and cold meats for lunch and saw an ASDA store and were able to park there. Our first introduction to supermarket shopping in Germany, and this was a real experience, especially as it had a limited range of good products at quite cheap prices. Loaded up Ruakiwi and sat in the carpark and had some really nice bread, salami and cheese for lunch. Couldn’t be better. We had seen another store beside it, and popped in after lunch, only to find that it was more of a traditional supermarket, a little more expensive but a huge range of products along with a butchery, deli and bakery. We will learn!!

Had the address of the Stellplatz which was not far away and utterly amazed to find this area, already with about 20 campers parked right near the centre of town, with beautiful gardens and park beside it, and the huge Bentheim Castle on the other side. It was only 8 Euro for the night (can’t find out how to get the Euro symbol to work on my laptop??), and extra 1 euro for electricity and there are showers, toilets and a dump for the loo and grey water and fresh water. Unbelievable.

So we paid our fee and put the ticket in the window, put our raincoats on and headed into town, such a shame that it was raining as I am sure we would have been waylaid at one of the many little watering holes with tables and chairs outside.

Found the bank to get some Euro’s, then the info centre who sent us in the right direction to get a better more detailed map of Germany. Also picked up a sim card that I hope might work for us while we are on the road. But discovered when we got back that we can hook into the towns free wifi while sitting in the van….such a perfect sort of a place to stop.

Took a few photos but all a bit wet weatherish, hopefully the rain will stop soon and I can get some better ones as this is such a pretty place.

Our first day on the road in Europe has gone so well…a great start to our trip.

Tree lined motorway

Jilly showing the speed limit at 130..and we were doing 96.

An interesting line up!

Spot Ruakiwi!

So many bikes parked in the town square

Cobbled streets in such a pretty town.

Today's journey.