Thursday May 4 – Tolkamer….on the Rhine

View from our campspot.

It is now Sunday and have finally found a loop hole with my wifi issues - too long a story to go into but can now load my daily blogs....

 

As we generally have no itinerary people often ask us how we decide where to go. As we need to be in Dusseldorf by Sunday night we had four days to meander across Netherlands. We were keen to find a camp right on one of the major waterways so checked out camping spots last night and found this great location that google earth showed was metres from the Rhine.

We didn’t want to take the motorways and ended up having a great drive skirting around the major cities and through the countryside. We have really got to enjoy the Netherlands, everything seems so clean and tidy with so many modern buildings. The waterways are everywhere and are used like roads, today we even saw a huge tank being transported on a barge with a tug forward and aft. With it being spring everyone seems busy on the land, getting crops planted and silage cut. There were many orchards, all very orderly and the farm buildings are immaculate. 

The “navigator” got into a bit of strife when we stopped in a small town for groceries, missed the turning into the supermarket and ended up in a very quaint village – but there was nowhere to park and had to inch ourselves around to get out. Eventually found the supermarket with plenty of parking and a well deserved coffee!

The later part of the trip we put the GPS location of our destination into Jilly and let her take us through the motorway system – all very simple. Arrived at the motorhome camp spot and pulled into a park facing the river. 

Such a great location and we have seen endless action, evidently over 800 ships a day pass by – everything from wee small pleasure boats, to endless barges carrying sand, coal and oil amongst other goods. Yet to see a cruise boat, but will be watching out.

Went for a good walk along the river and into the nearby town, but the weather is less than tropical, grey skies, and a biting cold wind. Here’s hoping spring is not too far away.

Last year we noticed all the barges had cars on board and often wondered how they were removed, well today we finally found out as we are parked beside a dock. Many barges have pulled in, raised a derrick that was on board and lifted a car off to the jetty – no problems. Would be interesting to know a bit about the life that these barge guys live as they go up and down the waterways of Europe.

Not many photos today as had a blond moment and left one of the cards out of the camera. The photos are still there but won’t be able to take them off till I get home….obviously still a bit of jet lag!!!

……After writing this, we saw three cruise boats on the river, one looked to pretty upmarket but they all looked great cruising by with lights on in the dining rooms and bedrooms. A very easy way to travel and see the sights of Europe.

Removing a car off the barge.

One of the cruise boats from Amsterdam.