Holland 2012, Day One

May 14th Day One

Off the ferry in Europort about nine, we were in no hurry though, as we thought we could not occupy our room until around four in the afternoon. We headed towards the campsite anyway, the traffic in Holland is a very much like the UK, too many cars crowding the same roads. There was a Lidl not far from the site so we made it our fist port of call, to get food and drink for day one.

I managed to miss the slip road off the motorway, twice but as we had plenty of time it didn't mater that much. We arrived at Lidl and got all we needed and there was a very nice booze shop there as well, got a few new beers there. Then thought we may as well go to the campsite and even if we couldn't use the room, we might be able to use the facilities. I think I took another wrong turning and we did about a mile on a cycle path, it wasn't busy and we did meet another car along the way, we didn't do that again.

Thompson's reception was closed when we got there but there was a contact phone number, I called and we were shown straight to our mobile home. Got settled in and went to get photos we needed for the park/site passes. We had taken photos of each other and took the SD card to get passport size photos from a machine next to the camp store. The route we chose took us passed the fun fair, it all looked very good but we needed our passes first. The photo printing machine would not work so we had to use the passport photo booth, more expensive but it had to be done. We had been given the passes at reception and all we had to do now was attach the photos.

Got a couple more things from the shop and headed to the rides. First Dot and Amber went on the big wheel, all free as park entry was included in the holiday cost.

 

Next we did a full tour of the park, with Amber going on many of the smaller rides, until she persuaded Dot to go on one of the faster ones.

Had a look at geting the satellite working but with trees all around it didnt look promising and we didnt succeed but we did have one DVD in the TV. After a long day we had supper watched the film with a beer and had an early night.

Holland 2012, The Journey

May 13th

Met Ralph and Amber in Leven (where Ralph was leaving his car) about 5 pm and headed the last few mile to the ferry terminal. We took sandwiches to have for tea while we waited for the ferry but drove straight on to the Pride of Rotterdam.  So we had the sandwiches in the cabin with a drink before heading down to the bar.

We sat in the bar on the floor above the entertainment but with a balcony seat overlooking the stage. Dot spent a lot of time entraining Amber and sat outside the ball pool. We eventually moved up the the Skylounge, where it was quieter and slightly warmer.

Here Amber could drive the boat (she did say, "I am not really driving") and access to the outside for fresh air was better.

 

Holland 2012, Why?

Why Holland and why a Mobile Home and not the Van?

We had already made the decision at the end of last year's September holiday in France, to book something very similar for 2012 and have booked with Siblu again for this year. Again we will be taking the car but we did not use Tesco vouchers this time as we got a very good deal anyway.

Then one day in Jan or Feb, I did something unusual, I opened an email from Tesco, I would usually just delete them but this one caught my eye. It said "latest clubcard deals", I opened it and found an offer for a one week holiday with Thompson Alfresco, in exchange for £50.00 in Tesco vouchers. I had £50.00 in Tesco vouchers, so we looked to see where we could go, the answer was, all over Europe but to keep the cost and driving down to a minimum, we chose Holland.

After some though and calculations we then chose the longer more expensive ferry crossing, from Hull to Rotterdam, all in all not much difference in total cost. Although with a 760 mile saving in driving, the overnight ferry is much better for me.

Next we added young Ralph and Amber to the booking for no extra cost but in the end, changes to plans and ferry bookings did add another £70 or so to the final bill.

The Duinrell campsite in Wassenaar, is very large with a water park and funfair so there should be plenty to do if the weather is as poor as it is forecast to be.