48. Europe Bicycle Trip-Day 13--The Caravan

On the morning of April 29th, I packed, had a morning cup of tea with Dick, Carla and Marnix and headed off on Silver from Hoofddorp to Alphen aan de Rijn where my Ome Jan and Tante Betty from Gouda have a "caravan" set up in an NCC campground. Here I was to spend the next week visiting with them.touring the area and learning about "knooppunten".

All set and ready to go

I talked to this "timmerman"-carpenter  to verify my direction.

Arriving at Oldshoorn -one of the many sites of NCC (Nederlandse Caravan Club)

There were quite a few caravans set up already. They are half the size of the ones in Canada.

My Ome Jan and Tante Betty Heeremans are well known in the NCC Club. They have been members for many, many years and have served as trip planners and leaders as well as raters for various campgrounds. They have camped all over Europe and have traveled all over the world, including several trips to Canada where they rented motor homes to see the west coast and central Canada where I live.

Home Sweet Home for a week-Thank you Ome Jan and Tante Betty for the use of your caravan.

The door in the kitchen of the caravan is full of emblems of various walks, bicycle routes, campsites, and anniversaries from all over.

I worked on many blogs while I stayed here.

The kitchen

Children playing on pedal carts by the caravans

The toilet (WC) area, shower area, dish washing area, office , computer area and outside and inside common rooms. I was impressed with the facilities. Everyone is expected to keep it clean. Each person must wipe down their shower walls with a squeegee and then a cloth and also the floor with a squeegee. Each shower runs for 4 minutes and the water is nice and hot. There are group activities like cards, coffee hour , and happy hour. Everyone is very friendly and they really warmed up to this Canadian.

For supper, we went out for Chinese food in the nearest little "dorp" , called Ter Arar.