Since arriving on Monday we have slept lots, been awake at odd hours, been hungry at even odder (yes, I know that’s not a word) hours, visited my relatives and bought a new home!
My dad, who is here for 2 months, arrived a week before us and had been looking for a campervan for us already. He found a great one on the way down from where he was staying to my Oma’s and we picked it up on Friday. It’s a red Mercedes- probably the only one we will ever own in our lives. Dad was very concerned with finding one that had a long enough bed, which is a common problem for tall people like my dad and Aaron. What he didn’t think about was that with our campervan Aaron is actually too tall for the driver’s seat due to the oversized steering wheel & that you can’t move the seat back very far because the kitchen bench is directly behind it. We thought about trying to sell this one & buying another one but everything else about this one is great & that meant delaying our trip until we found another good one so we’ve decided to keep it. Which means that I will be doing all the driving! Having never driven on the other side of the road before (well, Aaron hasn’t either but males are supposed to pick this sort of thing up quickly, aren’t they?) it was quite daunting at first. Dad gave me a quick driving lesson & it felt exactly like the first time I drove a car on the road when I was 17. I am starting to get the hang of it though, haven’t crashed it yet & even did some overtaking at 120kms so I think we’re going to be ok.
After picking it up it was already quite late so we found a caravan park nearby & stayed the night there. We had bought some things that we needed but still needed a few basics like an electricity cord so I think the park owner thought we were a bit crazy. Nevertheless we survived our first night quite well. The first thing we did the next morning after getting lost on the way to the shops is buy a GPS! Her name is Serena & she is my new best friend. After that we drove to my Opa’s, spent the afternoon with him & then drove to my uncle’s caravan park. His caravan park is in the north of Holland in a small town called Vierhuizen, which directly translates to Four Houses. While it does have more than that, it is a very small town with not much to do but we’ve been enjoying the small bits of sunshine & are looking forward to eating out in my uncle’s pub tonight. Today being Sunday all the shops are closed so we have to wait till tomorrow to stock up our camper with some more essentials (like the electricity cord that we still don’t have- stupid tourists that we are!) and then if everything is in order we will probably leave here on Tuesday.
Well, I think I’ve probably bored you enough with all those details but at least there were no obscure movie references :-p
Till next time, Elky
