Owning
a Campervan in the UK.
Copyright not to be reproduced for commercial purposes without
written permission of the author.
E-mail [email protected]
Owning
a Campervan in the UK.
Copyright not to be reproduced for commercial purposes without
written permission of the author.
E-mail [email protected]
“Government, even in its best state is but a necessary evil, in its worst state, an intolerable one" Paine [1737 - 1809]
France and Benelux.
We had intended to return to the UK in late August to continue our touring, but were delayed for a week by a bout of influenza and arrived in London on Wednesday September 8th. This time travelling by Royal Brunei Airlines, an excellent service smaller airline that we had flown with a lot while residing in Brunei from 1981 to 1986 where I was employed by the Brunei Government as Engineer in charge of the planning of the outside plant network of the telephone network throughout the small Asian country.
We had decided to leave most of our heavier cold weather clothing in the van, and as we had bought some of it at charity shops during our previous trip in March to May 2004, there was not a lot of cost involved in accumulating most of what we needed. So we had plenty of room to bring things for our campervan from Australia which were either more convenient to accumulate at leisure while back home, or were considerably cheaper in Australia.
Among the items I brought were A 12Volt battery charger, (A$29.99 at SuperCheap Auto) which I fitted with a UK style mains plug before leaving home, a small solar panel which I hope may keep our van's battery charged when we leave the van over winter, which cost A$19.99 at SuperCheap Auto, a 20 meter extension cord which I will use to replace the 5 meter cord that came with the van, by simply changing over the plugs (A$11.95 at ALDI in Brisbane) a rechargeable torch that will be simply recharged from the van's 12Volt cigarette lighter socket, A$7.99 at SuperCheap.
I had also made up a pair of insect screens to attach to the drivers and passengers windows to provide extra ventilation to the van should we encounter hot weather on one of our future trips to the south of France, Spain or Italy. They consist of a fine mesh material called Tentex and a flexible canvas "frame" which slips over the top of the vehicles doors and attaches with Velcro on the frame to strips of stick on Velcro adhering to the inside if the door's window frame to keep it in place. I had also made up an insect screen curtain door on similar principles to enable us to have the van door open in hot weather but keep insects out.
08/09/2004. Wed.
The trip from Heathrow to Rainham in Kent takes about 3 hours and costs £14.80 one way on the train. After 9.30 AM a slightly cheaper off peak travel card would provide return travel and unlimited use of the trains for the day, but this would have been of no advantage to us.
The campervan battery had remained fully charged and the engine started almost first try, much to my surprise after standing for over 4 months. Everything started up fine, except the fridge was a bit hard to light the gas but after a number of attempts fired up OK.
09/09/2004. Thu.
10/09/2004. Fri.
The external filler fitting is visible lower left of the door. To this you simply connect the LPG bowser hose at a service station to fill the Gaslow cylinder just as simply as filling a LPG fueled vehicle.
I had to change over my 6Kg RED Calor cylinder for a 7Kg BLUE Calor to use as my reserve supply as the Gaslow refillable cylinder uses the same type of regulator as the Calor BLUE and my RED Calor regulator was no longer suitable. I was able to do this at a Calor dealer for only the cost of the gas in the new BLUE cylinder, and they only charged £10 as the red cylinder I returned was still almost full. I bet they will use it themselves if not sell it to some unsuspecting customer. We filled up with Autogas for £10.78 for 27 Liters, and I suspect that the bowser was giving short measure I don't think an 11.5 Kg cylinder can hold 27 Liters, more like 23 at most, based on the density of Butane.
The larger 13Kg RED Calor cylinder which the new refillable replaced was now surplus to requirements but although they cost £20 for so called rental when you first get one from Calor I was unable to get any refund from Calor dealers or even from the Calor depot in Gillingham. So I tried to sell it at a few service stations selling Calor gas, but without success. I even sold it, and the regulator for £10 to the other Australian camper van parked at Swalecliffe, but she changed her mind when it wouldn't fit in her gas cupboard, even though I assured her she could exchange it for a smaller 6Kg cylinder at a Calor dealer. Her van was bought in Germany and had a French gas cylinder, which of course you can't get filled or exchange in England, such is the great gas cylinder hassle in Europe. Hence the Gaslow refillable. I'll try and flog it at the local holiday park, and if that doesn't work I shall have to dump it, but that is against my religion, it is worth money to someone who needs it and Scrooge doesn't like to throw money away.
We travelled back through the Dartford crossing bridge (toll £1 same as the tunnel when going North) and headed for Whitstable to spend the night in a seaside boondock (SONP-WP) at Swalecliffe, where we found another campervan with touring Australians parked by the sea front.
I phoned the new Speed-Ferry company about a passage to Calais for us and the van that was priced at £88 return on their Internet site but it seems their ship has broken down and won't be back in service until the 14th and is then heavily booked. The other ferry companies charge around £120 return, so I will try them again in a few days after we spend a little time in Whitstable, Herne Bay and Canterbury.
11/9/2004. Sat.
Seafront SONP at Swalecliffe, near Whitstable.
A Cornish Pastie costs 54P in Whitstable and in main street of Canterbury, because there are lots of tourists, the same costs £1.50. Canterbury is a worthwhile place to visit with many old buildings and remnants of the city walls. Gardens along the river are a delight of vibrant colour at this time of year. However finding a place to park for the night proved a little difficult as the layby on the A2 we had intended to use was closed for roadworks, so we returned to Swalecliffe.The foreshore SONP at Swalecliffe is becomming popular and five campervans spent the night.
A camping park manager offered £3 for my Calor cylinder. I refused, the bloated capatilist exploiter wanted it for next to nothing, and I'd rather dump it than have him have all the profit.
12/9/2004. Sun.
We drove into Canterbury early and explored on foot but nothing opens until around 10.30 AM and then mostly caters to hordes of local tourists and coachloads of French day tripper tourists, so it tends to be rather overpriced for food. As we had seen a lot of Canterbury in 2000 we didn't stay long and headed towards Dover to begin out tour of Europe.
Along the A2 we noted several good laybys for overnight stops, and at one on the south bound side a couple of kilometers south of Barham found a great little cafe simply called "H's", frequented by a large crowd of motor cyclists where we had a simple breakfast style meal of sausage, egg, bacon, tomato or beans and toast and chips,l for two for £7.95 including coffee. Good value and recomended highway cafe.
I then managed to sell my surplus Calor gas cylinder to the cafe proprietor for £10, without the regulator.
At Dover we checked ferry prices and found Sea France wanted £135 and P& O Ferries £117.90, Speed Ferry were out of action due to a breakdown. Contrary to the erroneous advice on the P&O website "special" fares are available on the day of travel at the port. The staff were aware of the problem, and said that those responsible had repeatedly failed to correct the website error. We opted for a 5.30 PM sailing to give us time to look around Dover, but after an hour or two decided there wasn't much we wanted to see and arrived at the port in time for the 4 PM sailing.
[There is no consistent policy of ferry fares. In March 2005 P&O refused to sell a "discounted" fare at the Dover terminal and asked for £196 return. Seafrance asked £135. P&O suggested a discount ferry fare shop along the main road back in to Dover a kilometer or so from the terminal, but it was closed. P&O also suggested that I phone their booking center which I did and they offered a fare of £109 return which I accepted.
While in France I came across another tourist who told me of a company FerrySavers who sold him a ticket on Norfolk Line from Dover to Dunkirk, a week in advance of sailing, for £58 return, so that name is worth looking up. They may have a website, or be in the UK Yellow pages. Also as from April 2005 P&O are demanding a £10 extra fee to change a return booking if you want to change the date or time of your return from that originally booked. Previously they did such a change for free. So the SpeedFerry service Dover-Calis which costs about £88 return but also charges the rebooking fee is now that much more competitive.]
Dover Castle (English Heritage) charges £8.50 admission, more than the Palace of Versailles, and the White Cliffs site charges too. So bugger them all we are off to Europe, where we will pay for the highlights and enjoy the rest for free. You need to join either the National Trust or English Heritage, (around £50 a couple for 12 months membership, join via the Internet) and make full use of it on a specialised tour to make visiting historic buildings in England an economical proposition, as individual site admission prices are far too high.
Arriving at Calais we found that the area we had parked at in 2000 was not accessible, but found a free parking area on the seafront directly opposite the harbor entrance where over 40 campervans were parked and there were toilets and waste dump points. Not very attractive for a long term, but just the place to stay before or after a ferry crossing, or for a couple of nights if you want to explore around Calais. [In June 2005 this area is no longer free, but campervans now park free where disused railway tracks run along the canal closer to the town]
Stock up on wine in France before going into Belgium. Although wine is much cheaper all over Europe than in England, the price is almost double in Belgium compared to France, ALDI in Calais had numerous lines of French wine for under €1.50 a bottle, quite a few under €1.00. ALDI in Brugge had similar wines at mostly €1.50 to €3.00.
In Belgium the specialty is beer, with 330ml bottles costing anything from €0.25 upwards, with an almost endless variety of brands. Table beer ranging in strength from 1.5% to 3.8% alcohol is around €0.85 for a 750ml bottle in supermarkets.
13/09/2004. Mon. Calais.
The free camping park toilets are closed and the water point which requires €2.00 to start the flow doesn't work I am informed by a disappointed traveller who has lost his money. Better to fill up with water at service stations. [June 2005 one non-hose tap on the water point gives water without inserting a coin.]
A s we head north to Belgium we stop at an ALDI store in Calais and stock up on half a dozen bottles of wine ranging from a Spanish white for €0.77 to the more expensive Bordeaux at €1.25, the latter proved excellent, and underlines my oft made point that you don't need to spend a lot of money on wine, unless you want to be ripped off. Wine is priced for fools, of the kind that are soon parted from their money. So sayeth Scrooge McDuck! (blessed be his illustrious name).The Carrefore superstore in Calais yields a few more delicacies including 1L cartons of various soups at €0.82 to €0.99, which we have previously found to be excellent.
Heading towards the border we find a good SONP at the paring area of the Petite Synthe Fort near Dunkerque, but press on into Belgium, heading to Brugge.
Park overnight along the N34 south of Oostende.
We follow N1 and N39 to N34 and thence along the Belgian coast to Oostende. The sea front is heavily over built with high rise flats, built on the dunes, and is a perfect example of coastal despoliation by unbridled development. We followed this route to avoid the A18-E40 motorway to Brugge, and to actually see some of the country instead of just the motorway.
As usual in Europe the coastal areas are an environmental and town planning disaster area and have no appeal whatsoever to Australians, we are only here to get to Brugge. There are few places to stop but we eventually decide to park with another campervan beside the N34 road a few kilometers south of Oostende. The traffic is surprisingly light and we imagine it will be fairly quiet at night.
The official FREE camper park in Brugge.
14/09/2004. Tue.
The overall initial impression of Belgium is of neatness, cleanliness and order, with attractive street gardens and flower beds, in contrast with the over developed seafront south of Oostende. Arriving in Brugge via the N9 road instead of the motorwway, we find the tourist information office at the central station as usual. They advise there is a free camper parking area just outside the ring road at the southernmost point of the ring, and we find an attractive tree lined paved area where there are some 30 campervans. Overnight parking is permitted, but there is no waste dump station or water, just small rubbish bins. Maps of Brugge are €0.20 but if you ask for the free accomodation guide there is a slightly smaller version of the same map but without the tourist sites marked.
From the parking area to the central market square is only 1.1 Kilometers and we ride into town on our bikes.
Brugge is another of the must see cities of Europe, being the best preserved mediaeval town in Belgium, if not in all of Europe.
Apart from the free campervan parking area, there are two camping parks in Brugge, the one at St Michiels in the south west quarter is the cheaper, (around €13 for a camper and two persons) but is also by far the better with individual hedged plots giving ample space. The facilities are adequate but not at all salubrious by European campsite standard, in fact rather old and run down. The other perhaps better known campsite is crowded, has no hedged plots, all are jammed in as close as possible and charges are about €16 for camper and two.
Around the Market Square are many restaurants offering a three course menu at €14 to €18. Fritties (Belgian style chips) from the stall outside the town hall are a must to try at €2 for a small box including mayonnaise, the traditional Belgian dressing served with chips. On Wednesday mornings there is a farmers market in the market square.
Brugge is noted for its lace shops and you can buy a wide variety of machine made lace souvenirs ranging from small pieces of lace embedded in plastic key rings €2.50, bookmarks about €4, framed pieces of lace around €5 to €15, handkerchiefs from €2.50 to €15, doilies from around €5, to larger items such as table cloths, the range is endless. The cheaper souvenirs are machine made and many of the items are in fact made in China. Genuine hand made Belgian lace is considerably more expensive.
Belgian chocolates are from €3 for a 250 gram mixed box, and of excellent quality.
Brugge is a uniformly well preserved town, with the exception of the inevitable anomaly, a totally incompatible modern "sculpture" in the Burg square.
15/09/4004. Wed. Brugge.
So far Belgium has proved to be much like the rest of Europe, you seldom need to stay in camping parks and boondocking is the way to go.
16/09/2004. Thu. Brugge.
Our SONP outside Gent.
17/09/2004. Fri. Gent.
Melsele P&R, Antwerp.
While exploring the west side of the river Schelde we accidentally got on to a motorway leading to the eastbound tunnel under the river to Antwerp which is mainly on the eastern side of the river. We were unable to exit and had to undertake a long detour to get back to our overnight SONP. The westbound tunnel under the Schelde is several kilometers north of the eastbound tunnel. We failed to realize this and went south along the Schelde through predominately heavy industrial areas and relatively depressed suburban areas inhabited by many migrants. Unable to find any park and ride areas we undertook a long detour via Boom and the N16 back to the N70 to return to the Melsele P&R where we spent the night. It is a new P&R area planted with many small trees that should grow to provide an excellent sheltered SONP (Safe Over Night Parking) Shortly after we arrived a police car cruised by to check us out, but they only smiled and kept driving, so it seems there is no objection to overnight parking in the P&R areas.
18/09/2004. Sat. Antwerp.
Along the east bank of the Schelde about 500 meters SE of the pedestrian tunnel is a large parking area where we observed a number of campervans parked and some Germans advised us they had spent the night, and that Police had passed by without incident and that they believed the parking to be free. As it was the weekend parking may be free here but you may have to pay during the week. There are no facilities but some public toilets near a "little castle" a short way along the river bank. It is very central to explore Antwerp, although the P&R areas on the eastern side of the river along N70 are surrounded by greenery and are quieter.
Another SONP where we spent the night near Antwerp west of the Schelde R., off the N70.
The precise location of all SONPS in the Europe 2004 tour is given in the GPS waypoint file which you can download from here.
The waypoints are in OziExplorer format which can be converted to a variety of other popular waypoint formats with programs readily available fron the Internet.
Around the squares of Antwerp there are many restaurants catering to locals with lunch menus for around €15 to €20, for nothing particularly special, which means that a meal for two could easily come to A$70, making lunch an expensive proposition by Australian standards.
You will appreciate why you need to mainly eat in your campervan. We opted for a large helping of Fritties (chips) with mayonnaise from a Frittuur van at a carnival site that cost €2.00 (A$3.50). Belgian Fritties (chips) are really the worlds best. Always freshly cooked and hot due to the two stage cooking process and the mayonnaise is a savory egg and mustard based mayonnaise not really similar to salad mayonnaise
I deplore the now common Australian practice of keeping chips luke warm in bain-marie's with hot lights. They are usually only half cooked soggy and tasteless and I refuse to buy such rubbish. We need a few Belgian Frituurs in Brisbane. Frituurs used to be very common operating from small often mobile huts, but unfortunately as one Belgian Internet site chronicling the history of the Belgian tradition of the Frituur laments most have been closed to "clean up" towns. Unfortunately they seem to have overdone it as Frituurs of the traditional style are now a rarity, and most operate from shop premises now.
Supermarket prices in Belgium are not particularly expensive, and by the time you have a bottle of wine with your meal which should cost you less than €2 (even less if you stocked up in France on the way through) or a 700ml bottle of table beer for €0.85 in supermarkets, the overall cost won't be any more than a similar home prepared meal in Australia. 250ml and 330ml bottles of beer are around €0.25 to €0.45 depending on brand and quantity purchased, cheaper in 2 dozen packs.
Look out for LIDL stores and ALDI stores for good food prices. Carrefore superstores for a more extensive range of food and general merchandise. The best prices noted for Diesel fuel (€0.83 per liter) have been at JET service stations.
Belgium, Bicycles and Beautiful Girls.
A really serious attempt has been made to facilitate the use of bicycles in Belgium with almost every road having wide marked or physically separated bike lanes, and often special traffic signals for cyclists. The flat terrain certainly helps too, and the result is it seems that almost everyone rides a bike. Motorists treat cyclists with equal respect to cars, and in fact bikes often have right of way. The resultant physical activity must be one of the factors why there are very very few fat people, and practically NO fat children or young people AT ALL! Another factor is the relatively small number of junk food outlets. The contrast with Australia and the USA with their growing hordes of morbidly obese and diabetes ridden citizens barely able to waddle to McDonnalds for their next super-size-me fix of junk food is so striking as to be proof beyond any doubt of the debilitating effects of junk food on a nations health. The manifest evil, and I use the word with deliberation, of the global corporations, mainly American, that have foisted their insidiously health destructive fatty food products onto the weaker minded citizens through seductively glitzy advertising, is one of the great crimes against humanity of modern times.
Here in Belgium almost without exception average young women and men are slim and athletic looking as they cycle around the country by the thousand.Not only the young, people of all ages are seen riding bikes everywhere. Europeans have had the wisdom to more effectively resist the phenomenon of American cultural imperialism which has so debased our society and health in Australia. The image of Australia as Olympic champions is only one, not really typical, side of the coin, a growing percentage of our youth are unfit and obese, and contributing to it is the weak mindedness and subservience of our Australian leaders that has given free reign to the American corporations peddling their cultural and gastronomic rubbish. Wake up Australia!
19/09/2004. Sun.
Deciding to head toward Rotterdam we followed minor roads until joining the A29 for the final leg into Rotterdam. Being a Sunday we decided to drive into the city to explore a little while traffic was light on the weekend. Being a primarily mid 20th centuary city due to much of it being destroyed during W.W.II, most areas of Rotterdam lacks any old world architectural appeal, and most of the residential areas are composed of uninspiring blocks of flats, interspersed with quite a lot of greenery and canals, which give the city an open and green atmosphere despite the high density living. We were glad of the opportunity to do a fairly extensive driving tour, to enable us to decide that we had really seen all we wanted. As we have usually found, smaller cities and villages are much more user friendly, and as usual we will concentrate our tour on them. I would not recommend trying to tour Rotterdam during weekday traffic, or without the benefit of GPS navigation, or at least a very good city map.
SONP on A29 (north bound) 15Km south of Rotterdam. Picnic tables, rubbish bins, shade and greenery well off the motorway, separate truck and car areas. 24 hour stay permitted. A similar rest area is 12km from Rotterdam in the south bound side.
On the way into Rotterdam along A29 we came across an excellent rest area clearly signed for a maximum stay of 24 hours, soon after there was another on the opposite southbound side of the highway, and we noted another in the A15 ring road between junctions 19 and 20 eastbound. All of these rest areas had ample parking well off the road, plenty of shade trees and greenery, rubbish bins and picnic tables, and had separate areas for trucks and cars, which we assumed included campervans. All were similarly signed for a maximum stay of 24 hours.
I mention this in detail because I had believed from some information on the Internet that it was very difficult to find SONPS (boondocks or wild-camps) in Holland and that so called "wild camping" was illegal and that on the spot fines of about €80 could be levied for overnight occupation of vehicles. While this is I believe still generally correct, there are clearly exceptions in highway rest areas, and if it is at all like the rest of Europe the exercise of some discretion on where you stop, and not drawing attention to yourself, would probably keep you out of trouble. But here there was a clear statement, on signs, that you can stay for up to 24 hours. So it seems the place to find SONPS in Holland is along the motorways.
Notable so far has been the absence of any large supermarkets. Perhaps Holland is a bit like Germany where such extablishments are rare in comparison to France, Belgium and Spain.
So far the countryside had been similar to Belgium with no particularly distinguishing features.
In Rotterdam as in Antwerp the presence of many migrants of distinctly non European origin is highly obvious, and it is clear just how extensively the New World Order policy of racial integration has been persued in Europe too, without the original inhabitants of these countries ever being consulted as to their desire for such fundamental social change. What a mockery of genuine democracy it is when the fundamental social fabric of many nations has been irreversibly altered without a single democratic act of general consultation with the people affected, such as a referendum.
The BBC radio news carries an extraordinary amount of news about foreign elections, in the most obscure places, that would be of little conceivable interest to 99.9% of the population, and rambles on about the spread of "democracy". In fact it is all a propaganda smoke screen to obscure the fact that there is no longer any real democracy in the world, and that the myriad elections are now merely staged events, for the purpose of fooling the peasants into still believing they have some say in matters. The more talk there is of "democracy", the less there is of it in reality. The dictatorship of the New World Order is becoming clearer all the time, for those who have eyes to see. Will it be a benevolent dictatorship? The stealth with which the NWO seduces the ignorant masses of the world, to the point of making itself invisible to all but the most vigilant, suggests there is cause for great concern.
Clearly this has all come about since W.W.II, for only then did large scale immigration from Asia and Africa into previously white countries become widespread on a large scale, which has accelerated throughout the last fifty years. In no country that I know of were the people consulted, by rerendum, about their desire to have large numbers of racially and culturally incompatible people brought to live in their lands. This could not have happened all over the western (white) world in such a coordinated manner without massive international organization. Yet there was no consultation or real debate about it. Was it organized through the Bilderberg Group, the Council for Foreign Relations, The UN, or by whom, there is no clear answer? And why was it done, it is clearly no accident? Who benefits?
There are a number of theories, one being that to achieve a one world government the concept of national identity needed to be eliminated and that a program of immigration and encouragement of cross breeding of races would be the long term means to achieve this. An extension of the theory is along the lines that the creation of myriad racial minorities in all previously homogeneously white countries would provide a kind of camouflage for the Jews, who instead of being the most noticeable minority, particularly in Europe, would be only one of many racially and culturally diverse groups within society, and would maintain their fiercely defended "unique" identity, while preaching against any form of racial consciousness to society in general. To achieve the end that has been achieved would of course require vast wealth and power to influence governments to agree silently to such a plan. Such influence exists, as documented by Professor Carol Quigley in his book "Tragedy and Hope".
Whatever the case, Holland, like the rest of the western world, is no longer homogeneously Dutch, and the common people of Holland didn't do it to themselves! So, who benefits?
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance!
20/09/2004. Mon.
The Dutch road signs are mostly too small and often badly placed too close to intersections and are not in my opinion designed to make navigation simple.
In short I feel the Ranstad area of Holland is a waste of space as far as tourism in a campervan is concerned and think the sooner we head back into a more rural area of Holland or back to Belgium and France the better we will like it.
Arriving at a camping park on the southern outskirts of Amsterdam we find it is €16 for a camper and 2 sans eclectic, and we are directed to a grassed area, bypassing all the vacant hard standing sites, only to immediately become bogged as soon as driving onto the area we were told to use. They say they will tow us out in the morning. Fools, and we are expected to pay to be bogged in a muddy field. No wonder I prefer boondocking. Unless I had been told to use this area, thus assuming the camping park person knew it was OK for campervans to drive on, I would never have driven on to the grass in view of the recent rain. The bastards even have the cheek to ask €1 for 60 liters of water at the campervan fill point. I found an old blanket and a car seat cover in a bin and using these and some small stones was able to rock and drive the van back on to the paved road.
Amsterdam sounds as if crime is totally out of control according to the brochures in the camp office, advising to remove ownership papers and radios from cars etc. etc. I'm afraid I can't be bothered with such hassles and so bugger Amsterdam, they can keep it to themselves, we will immediately head inland away from the Ranstad, and thence south into Belgium and only visit smaller towns and villages. That's my usual policy, and I was tempted to ignore it by tourist hype about Amsterdam.
In my year 2,000 five month campervan tour of Europe, I left out Holland due to time restraints, and I see now that was the right decision, based on the research I did before the trip. If you are planning a European tour, in my opinion put Holland on the bottom of your priority list. There are a lot of far more interesting places in Europe.
The landscape is of course FLAT, so apart from the man made features there isn't a lot of interest. Not even a lot of windmills. Only in one area did we see a number of the traditional wooden windmills, so that is another tourist myth. For such a densely populated area the extensive use of landscaping makes it look very green, and if this is an urban jungle, then it is one of the more pleasant ones of the world. Most people live in flats, but all about are small woods and strips of greenery along the roads to soften the impact of high density living. While it is a model of how to improve a densely populated urban area to make it more pleasant and livable for the inhabitants, the Ranstad is in my opinion not a tourist area of any great worth. If you are a town planner in need of inspiration on how to humanize your urban wilderness, come here to be instructed, the Dutch have made the best of it, but beyond that other parts of Holland have much more appeal. It is a a bit like Canberra in Australia, over planned, so that shopping centers are hidden from view and hard for persons unfamiliar with the area to find, rather than being a glare of commercial signage assaulting the visual senses. Moderation is always difficult to achieve in the course of human endeavors.
The best cheapest stores to buy food on Holland are ALDI and LIDL. Other supermarkets are Albert Heijn, a wider range but more expensive. Signage on shops is generally small and inconspicuous, so they can be easily missed when you are not familiar with the area.
LPG is widely available in Holland at around €0.45 per liter, from most service stations, if you have a refillable gas cylinder like our Gaslow. This is generally cheaper than in France or Germany.
Diesel ranges from €0.85 at discounters, to €0.93.9 at BP stations that are always the most expensive. As there are NO large supermarkets in Holland there are no discount fuel outlets as there are in France, Belgium and the UK. In Holland the best place to buy your fuel is at the independent discount service stations or at Shell stations.
21/09/2004. Tue. Amsterdam Outskirts.
We headed east mainly along minor roads towards Arnhem via Hilversum, Baarn, Amersfoort and Ede, towards the De Hoge Veluwe National Park, touted as Holland's premier National Park. A bit like English National Parks, where it is partly farmland, there are some nice forested areas, but it isn't one of the world's great national parks. We noted some "Car Pool" parking areas along the road that would make good SONPS and stopped for the night in a forest parking area off the N304 north of Ede.
As we travelled east away from the Ranstad the quality of housing noticeably improved, to quite large detached houses in contrast to the blocks of flats that dominate the Ranstad. Obviously the peasantry live in the Ranstad and work as factory fodder in the extensive industrial areas, and the upper classes live inland, away form the urban grot. Travelling the minor roads and mid level N roads is far more pleasant than driving in the big cities, or using the expressways.
Dutch drivers seem extremely orderly and courteous, and pay extraordinary courtesy and attention to cyclists. Every road has its own cycle path, and often special cycle traffic lights integrated with the main road traffic signals, if Belgium was cycling Paradise, Holland is a cyclist's Heaven.
Arnhem the town in Holland to which we are heading, was recently in the news (Sept 19, 2004, BBC World Service), with a commemoration of the W.W.II "a bridge too far" battle, lost by the allies to the Germans. Prince Charles, no less, was there in yet another of the plethora of recent ceremonies around the world allegedly to "REMEMBER", but in reality to "glorify" the concept of war. The New World Order policy is for a state of continual "low level" war, outlined in the writings of American think tanks and documented in documents published on the Internet as "The Strategy for a New American Century". They PLAN at least 50 years of continuos low level war, to keep the populace terrorized and distracted, as civil and human rights are eroded and global government is imposed. You don't believe it? OK, research it on the Internet for youeself, the truth is out there. It isn't "terrorists" that are doing this, it is our own governments in America, Australia, The UK, France, Germany, Russia, Belgium, Holland, and in every so called "democracy", that are part of the system of global opression that is the NWO.
The peasantry (you and me pal!) are supposed to believe all the crap about the fight for "freedom" in W.W.I, W.W.II, and again now in "The War on Terrorism" so that we, or our children, will continue to be willing cannon fodder, to facilitate this evil manipulation and progressive enslavement of humanity.
Well I don't swallow that shit anymore, and neither will you, if you start to get a grip of some real history, by educating yourself about real or "revisionist" history, through Internet research. Read some of the books, and Internet search some of the names and terms referred to in other articles on this Internet site to get a start in understanding the reality of our times.
You might even start to wonder if the "good guys" really won WWII? If you think that's crazy, it's just because all your "knowledge" of history is based on the propaganda you have been fed all your life. History in a time to come, in centuries to come, when the truth can be told, will see both Hitler and his Germany in an entirely different light to the propaganda created images of an aggressive evil nation that have flooded our consciousness for seventy years. "History", that warped account written by the victors, as we all know it in the conventional sense is a gross distortion of the truth.
There is now a movement on the Internet to publish "real history" or "revisionist history" as it is termed by some, to tell the truth about the history of the last hundred years. It is not an understanding arrived at easily quickly or without long effort, to undo the effects of decades of ceaseless anti German propaganda and to be able to contemplate the reality of an entirely different view of history from what you were first taught, and have believed for decades. Only seekers of truth will ever bother to undertake such a study.
You need to know! - Knowledge is power!
22/09/2004. Wed.
Diesel is noticably dearer in Germany, at usually €0.96 per liter, rising to well over €1 with very infrequent discounting, although we saw one station selling at €0.86.
We stopped in Kalden Krutchten to shop at ALDI noting a poor range of beer, but 6 x 500ml bottles of ALDI Karlskrone Premium Plilsner, 4.9%, for €1.59, which tasted every bit as good as any other brand of beer, better than most. Proving again that in beer, as in wine, the pricing structure is designed for fools, to be soon parted from their money. We found also "Belgian" chocolates that proved not quite as good as those we had bought in Brugge, but acceptable for those not connoisseurs of such delicacies.
The price of beer in Germany proves what a rip off the cost of beer is particularly in the UK (where a pint in a pub will cost you about £1.80) and to a slightly lesser extent in Australia. Beer in supermarkets in the UK is astronomical in price compared to Germany.
Why is it so? Where does all the money go? There is a pattern to it all. The peasants (well almost every body really, except strict Muslims) are somewhat "addicted" to alcohol. (I make my own, brew my own beer and distill my own spirits, even tried making my own wine, not so good, but 2 out of 3 are fine) Alcohol is is a simple low cost product, only made artificially expensive because of LAWS, restricting the right to produce and imposing TAXES. So the money goes into the pockets of brewery owners, and into "government" taxes.
Look also at industries that have been "privatized" over the past 30 years or so. What are they, worldwide? Transport, railways, airports, city transportation systems, toll roads, electricity, gas reticulation, water and telecommunications. These are all things which are essentials, that the masses will use in perpetuity. They are also natural monopolies, thus resistant to any real commercial competition. They are also all things which in the earlier part of the twentieth century were almost universally (except in the USA) in public ownership. Then in the 1970's there is a pan global outbreak of "privatization", a virtual epidemic of capatilist excess, and ownership passes from public to private. Initially there are a lot of small mum and dad shareholders as governments flog off the national infrastructures, but shares soon pass from weak hands to strong hands, and the ownership of previously public assets is now becoming (globally) concentrated into the hands of the mega rich elite.
If you could trace the ownership of the alcohol, infrastructure and telecommunications industries of the world to their beneficial "personal" owners, the bloated filthty rich individuals who hide behind all the fundations, trust companies, trusteess and banks that are the nominal owners, I am firmly of the belief that you would find the global elite fat cats, basking in the fruits of their manipulations, among them the Rothschildes, Morgans, Schiffs and others of the global super rich that constitute the global elite.
Thus it is now no longer desirable to have war in Europe, (so we have the EU, to ensure pan European peace) the controlling elite have too much to loose, they now own all the public infrastructure in Europe that wars could destroy. Previously they made money by destroying the publicly owned assets, and then rebuilding them through private lending for reconstruction, so it was fine to destroy them. Now the global elite have worked out they can make even more money by owning the once publicly owned infrastructure and making the masses pay, in perpetuity, to use it. So there will be no more large scale wars in Europe, or anywhere else where infrastructure has been largely "privatized".
But war there must be, to give the peasants something to fear, there must be an enemy to distract them. So wars will be fought on foreign fields (where national infrastructure is still publicly owned by the state preferably) against shadowy enemies like the Ayatollah bin Whatshisname, or Saddam, whom the people are taught to fear. Hence the need for "terrorists" and evil baddies like Saddam. Who's next? They can't seem to find Osama! The propaganda is conditioning you to have suspicions about North Korea and Iran. When will American bombs fall in them? No too long off, methinks. Their crime, insufficient subservience to the NWO (New World Order).
When you, or your sons, die for "freedom", you die for the freedom of the mega rich elite to exploit the world, not for your freedom! That's what you need to REMEMBER!
So next time you are urged to REMEMBER, then be a good little peasant and REMEMBER! Won't you now?
23/09/2004. Thu.
Fuel prices in Germany are often over €1.00 per liter for diesel, and fortunately we could wait until finding fuel back in Belgium for €0.84.
Travelling south and back across the bulge of Holland, the prices were on a par with the German, although in most of Holland they are lower. We crossed into Belgium and thence south into the Ardennes hoping to find an overnight stop in the forest, but there was a complete dearth of parking spots and SONPs until we arrived in Marche-en-Famenne and found the Carrefore store has a wonderfully sheltered car park with large trees
The roads marked as scenic in the Michelin road atlas N638, N831, N929 although passing through a lot of forest country have no facilities for parking, walking or cycling whatsoever and as the scenery is not particularly inspiring are a waste of space for campervan touring. There are no good SONPS. This is in contrast to the Luxembourg Ardennes referred to in our 2000 tour report, where around Wiltz there are better facilities.
24/09/2004. Fri.
Rochefort Belgium
We stopped in the picturesque town of Rochefort, which boasts a small but grand Hotel de Ville. Headed south towards Neufchateau and then to Virton. Along the roads marked scenic N86 & N40, there are a few good SONP's and we found an excellent place to stop in a concealed forest parking area just off the N87 at the junction of local road 310 E of Robelmont and N of Virton.
Our new GPS, a Global sat 307 branded "DConnex" Compact Flash unit we are using in a PCMCIA adapter in the Toshiba laptop has performed faultlessly, never loosing fix, even in cities and under heavy tree cover. It has an external antenna which is mounted on the roof of the camper using stick on Velcro. The improvement over the Garmin Etrex is highly significant, and mainly due to the external antenna, which is almost essential if you have a campervan with a bed over the cab, which tends to obscure the view of the sky for a GPS mounted on a suction cup bracket inside the windscreen, and relying on an internal antenna.
However to use a CF unit in some laptops you MUST have an external antenna connected by a cable to the GPS because of RF interference from the laptop CPU. Apparently some Toshiba's are particularly bad RF emitters and the CF GPS will not work at all using its internal antenna. A re-radiating antenna would not help as the local antenna of the CF GPS is swamped with the RF noise from the CPU. I have tried it with the Garmin Etrex and it too looses all signal if operated within about 200mm of the laptop CPU. The Compact Flash GPS units are primarily intended to use with PDA's but are often sold with a PCMCIA adapter to use in laptops. So if you buy one make sure it has a cabled external antenna to use with the laptop. Maybe some laptops are better in respect of RF emissions, but with the Toshiba you must have the external antenna.
25/09/2004. Sat.
Black Pusy, Balls, Big Rubber and Devils.
I don't quite know what these Belgian boys and girls get up to, but we have seen a number of cryptic signs along the roads all over Belgium advertising various parties. Now the first we saw was touted as a "Black Pussy Party" with the date and a phone number. Maybe the cat protection society was having a shindig? Next noted along the roadside was a "Patry with Balls", OK, the footbal club was having a fundraiser?
Then we came across several makeshift notice boards advertising a "Big Rubber Party", with an illustration of an erect very large condom! Next was a "Devil's Party" again with a date and phone. By now my theory of the Cat Protection Society being responsible for the first advertised party wasn't looking so believable. I think these Belgians are into some sort of semi public orgies in the form of theme parties, and advertise them along the roads. Well, giant condoms and "Black Pussy Party", what would you make of it all? Some sort of black humour on the electoral system? Whatever it is, I'll bet these Belgian "Devils" have a ball!
"The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves". Hazlitt [1788 - 1830]
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