Campsites,Netherlands #2of2

The band in the Gulpen campsite had a saxophone, drums, and a couple of other instruments, and played a funny type, or style, of music. The first song we recognized was “Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny,” and all the rest sounded just like that to us. They were still at it when we went to sleep at 11:00 or so.

Dutch campsites are often a problem to find, and after we discovered one closed and another full, we wondered if we would find a place for the night. At Nijmegan they let us camp next to the men’s room. They don’t get many transients. In the market place the next morning, a young woman’s sales pitch about the low price and good quality of her herring, was delivered in a sing-song manner.

We are on the way to Hattem, Holland (named after our friends in Canoga Park). It’s an upper class suburb with many expensive houses, many with thatched roofs. Had the usual Holland campsite problems. They just are not interested in taking care of people who are not permanent residents. That is funny, because we see many, many Dutch people camping in every country, all over Europe. In most every campsite in Europe, it seemed at least one RV or trailer was from Holland.

We found a campsite near Zwolle, had plenty of hot water. One year we had stopped at a garage in Amersfoot, where they worked on the 1977 Dodge Cobra Van. We needed to see him again, another year, for an electrical problem with a different Dodge, a 1978 Transvan. I showed the service manager a picture of the Cobra Van, and he remembered us.

While looking for the Amsterdam campsite, a man on the Autobahn, said “Follow me.” We soon found ourselves at the campsite next to the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam where we saw a huge vertical sign, 30 or 40 feet high, that said “CAMPING.” I recognized the sign from 1970 when we drove past here looking for a campsite. That year we had seen the sign in the distance, but never found the turn-off. One other year we had driven past here, on our way out of the country, when we weren’t looking for a campsite.

In Groningen there were many, many bike riders and they acted like they own the streets, and maybe they do. There was dog mess on the sidewalks, but the campsite was fine. In the morning the town appeared nicer than what we saw yesterday.