Olympic Stadium

The 1928 Olympic games were held in Amsterdam, and for many years the Olympic site was the location of an Amsterdam campsite, identified by a high, vertical sign. We saw the sign but we missed the turn on the street to that campsite the first time we were here, so ended up at the campsite in Amstelveen.

How we found it a few years later, was interesting. When we cashed some Traveler’s Checks in the bank, the lady told us about a new campsite, and told us how to get there. When we got on the Autobahn, we found ourselves in stop and go traffic that was mostly “stop.” At one point we talked to the driver of a restaurant supply delivery truck “parked” in the next lane, and in answer to his question, told him where we were going, and confirmed the off ramp name.

Since we were rapidly going no where, we stopped for gas at the freeway gas station, but before I could even start the gas pump, the man in the truck got off the freeway, came up beside us and asked why we were going to “that place.” We said that the people at the bank had told us to go there, but he said, “That’s a bad place (drugs), don’t go there.”

He said if we followed him, he had one more delivery to make to a nearby restaurant, then we could follow him to the proper campsite. He seemed unaware of how difficult it was to keep up with him in the RV, but we (very) soon found ourselves at the campsite next to the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam.

I recognized the huge sign with the word CAMPING positioned vertically on the 30 or 40 feet high sign. We had seen that sign in the distance during our first visit, but had driven right past the campsite entrance. One other year we had driven past here, on our way out of the country, when we weren’t looking for a campsite.

Later that same year we drove into Wroclaw, Poland, through the downtown area, and found the campsite right next to what the sign said was an Olympic Stadium. Why was it called an Olympic Stadium?

Well, we found that Wroclaw, then called Breslau, was part of Germany in the 1930’s (incorporated into Poland in 1945), and a portion of the 1936 Olympic Games were held there.

Over the years we have visited 15 of the 21 different cities that have held the 25 modern Olympic Games since 1896. Four cities have held them twice, and three times the games were not held, because of WW I and WW II. In 1989 we visited Olympia, a city of ancient Greece, that was the site of the original Olympic Games.