{"id":409,"date":"2015-05-31T19:23:48","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T19:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwihoods.com\/?p=409"},"modified":"2015-05-31T19:31:47","modified_gmt":"2015-05-31T19:31:47","slug":"from-new-zealand-to-the-old-zeeland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kiwihoods.com\/?p=409","title":{"rendered":"From New Zealand to the old Zeeland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Travelled out of Maastricht Wednesday morning.\u00a0 Can never get away early enough but always a good sleep in.\u00a0 After restocking the larder off we went to our next destination which was the province of Zeeland \u2013 a large island closest to Belgium.\u00a0 Looked at a few camps but decided on Janse campsite as it looked larger and immaculate compared to the first one we saw.<\/p>\n

It was quite a long trip coming to Zeeland from Maastricht (bottom of Netherlands).\u00a0 We travelled on the main highway as it would have taken us twice as long travelling on the minor roads (took us about 4 hours anyway) like we have done on other occasions.\u00a0 It was interesting on the highways though as there were hundreds and hundreds of trucks.\u00a0 We figured they were travelling from Belgium or Germany up to Rotterdam perhaps to take the ferry over to England or up to Amsterdam or on further up to Scandinavia.\u00a0 There were just as many coming back towards Germany and Belgium most likely from Rotterdam.\u00a0 We stayed in the slow lane most of the way as Vicki was driving and trucks aren\u2019t supposed to move into the passing lane on most parts of the highways.\u00a0 This is great if you are in car and can go the 130km speed that\u2019s posted.<\/p>\n

Seemed to take for ever to get to the west side of the country, but as we found when we were riding our pushbikes here, the kms seemed to glide by as it is so flat.<\/p>\n

Where we are staying is right on the beach (a short walk over the dunes) and then miles of beach to walk along which is awesome.\u00a0 They have sand erosion\u00a0prevention in the form of\u00a0vertical logs in lines (see photos) and little surf club type cafes every 500m for miles along the beach.\u00a0 Great summer beach pub crawl :-).\u00a0 The weather was lovely when we arrived on Wednesday and went for a walk along the beach.\u00a0 We even toyed with the idea of a swim the next day but the weather turned a bit crappy so didn\u2019t get the chance.\u00a0 On Thursday we biked down to Westkapelle where there was a small Bosch service centre.\u00a0 We spoke to the guys there about our fuses blowing (it blew again when we arrived at Zeeland) and they said to bring the van in on Friday to have a look at it.\u00a0 There are both pushbike lanes and walking lanes everywhere. Pushbikes definitely have more rights than cars and you see the cars watching out for pushbikes all the time.\u00a0 The only bad thing is that the scooters are allowed to use the bike lanes too and they wiz past at high speeds nearly taking out anyone in their way.\u00a0 Gave us a hell of a fright coming back from Westkapelle when they screamed up behind us with horns blaring \u2013 we wondered what the hell was going on.\u00a0 Really scary when you go to cross the road.\u00a0 You have to look in the opposite direction for the cars, bikes and scooters plus any other vehicles coming from whatever direction you forgot to look!\u00a0 You do have to look out for all push\u00a0bikes as they don’t look out for you – they just keep on riding on regardless of who is in their way.<\/p>\n

Westkapelle was heavily bombed towards the end of the war when the yanks liberated Zeeland by bombing and breaching the dikes to flood out the Germans and then staged an amphibious assault. They have a monument with all the names of those who died with a Sherman tank and assault craft. I am always reminded that, when walking around admiring the beautiful buildings that they were nearly all destroyed and remarkably rebuilt still with a sense of history. You have to admire all the countries rebuilding efforts and the will of the governments and people to not let the devastation remain. Wandering around you really don\u2019t get a sense that it was all smashed up 70 years ago.<\/p>\n

Friday \u2013 we took the van in to the service centre and had a look around Westkapelle which is a nice little village, but doesn\u2019t take long to look around.\u00a0 The go here is to have Frites (chips) \u2013 they are everywhere and you get them served up in a paper cone with either mayonnaise or ketchup.\u00a0 We took the van in at 10.30 but ended up having to amuse ourselves until 5.30 when they had finished looking.\u00a0 They were only looking at the van in between their other jobs which is why it took all day.\u00a0 The weather turned bad and started to rain so we had to pass the time having soup\/beer (guess who had what!!) at the pub all afternoon while waiting.\u00a0 We have arranged for the van to go back in on Tuesday to have a reversing cable replaced which was what was causing the indicators and dash lights fuse to blow.\u00a0 A really nice garage and everyone very friendly and only too happy to help us.\u00a0 Only hope it\u2019s not too expensive, but I guess we can\u2019t do anything about it, it\u2019s a fault that needs repair.\u00a0 At least they can speak a bit of English and they know what the problem is.<\/p>\n

So we have to stay here until Wednesday, but it\u2019s not a problem as there is lots to explore and it\u2019s a really lovely part of the country.<\/p>\n

Yesterday we took the bus into Middleburg \u2013 the main city centre closest to where we are.\u00a0 Another lovely town with neat narrow cobbled streets and the typical canal layout around the outside the town centre.\u00a0 It has the typical market square you see in most towns or cities in Europe.\u00a0 There was an large automated musical organ playing continuously at the start of the market square and the vendors shake cans of money wanting you to contribute to their cause \u2013 which is their own back pocket.\u00a0 However I would rather have given them money to shut the f*** up as their music just went on and on.\u00a0 We think the guys were most likely eastern European as they were doing nothing and expecting to get money \u2013 happens a lot in Europe.<\/p>\n

Today we played musical vans where we had to shuffle our parking area in the camp to satisfy the new arrivals. We feel that the Germans (mainly) are not very flexible and like what they like and if they have stayed in that spot previously then that is where they will be, some have been coming here to the exact spot for 30 years+. Go figure. Strange we don\u2019t see to many English mainly Dutch & German, maybe cos dogs aren\u2019t allowed everywhere like the other places we have been.\u00a0 Smokers here are the most inconsiderate shitheads possible.\u00a0 They smoke everywhere \u2013 in the showers, toilets, restaurants, anywhere they can and it\u2019s really quite shitty if you are a non-smoker, makes it so unpleasant.<\/p>\n

We read for most of the day and Vicki did the laundry as the weather was pretty fowl , finally cleared a bit so walked to the beach club had a few wine & beers played dominos & euchre and then home for tea stuffed chicken with brie & mushrooms with vege stirfry so now relax watch a movie and tomorrow into Domburg as we can bike and have a look around.<\/p>\n