Netherlands is one and a half times larger than Albania and we've been here for three weeks now. No way will we see everything there is to see.
I brought this up because our European RV friends The Chouters who we met in Warsaw have already made their way to Finland, which meant they didn't spend much time getting through Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
But the problem is that traveling RV'ers are always planning the future based on the weather. So in order to see some of the northern countries you have to scoot up there fairly fast because by mid September you need to be starting to head south again.
Something like when we return to Germany from Canada at the end of September. We will need to get through Germany, Austria, and Slovenia fairly quickly because things will be starting to cool off in October.
As I said, you can't see everything.
We took a day off yesterday. Max remained parked here at the municipal lot, and we went for a couple more walks around the town of Bolsward.
So we're walking along and Ruth spots something in the grass...
It's a big crayfish!
I don't think we've ever seen a crayfish that big. Normally an adult is about 3" long, but this thing was around 6". Ruth tried to pick it up, but it fought back and she didn't want to get pinched!
The weather forecast isn't reliable here. They kept calling for rain and thunderstorms, but fortunately that never happened. It turned out to be quite a nice day.
Somebody asked yesterday if everything is as neat and tidy as it looks in the photos. The answer is "yes". Everything is immaculate and most home and public gardens are really well maintained.
This mom only has one little one.
Public park.
We walked through the whole park and didn't see another person.
Very strange. A park like this in Mexico would be packed with people.
Everything is immaculate.
I have to admit, and it's just personal opinion of course, but I like things a little more rough around the edges. No, the trash situation in Albania (or Mexico for that matter) isn't nice, but for a variety of other reasons we like those countries better.
And of course the standard question we ask ourselves when in a new country is "could we live here?" and the answer with regards to Netherlands would be "no".
But, it's a nice place to visit.
Most shops are closed on a Sunday, so we found it odd to find a liquor store open. In the Netherlands, beer and wine can be bought at the grocery store, but liquor has to have it's own store. We hadn't been in a Dutch liqor store yet, so we popped in just to have a look around.
They had a very extensive collection of scotch and bourbon!
Which was nice to look at, but it's pricey. We didn't buy anything.
We relaxed for the afternoon and played a few games of cribbage and yahtzee. After dinner we went for another walk around town.
Another church. The interior was locked up.
Street in Bolsward, Netherlands.
The boaters are all parked up for the night.
Max, in the middle of the row on the right.
Once again, they called for rain... and the sun is shining this morning. How long it will last, nobody knows. Even the weatherman can make an educated guess, but he's just as likely to be wrong!
Today, we head up to the coastal city of Harlingen.
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And in Canada...
I thought our weatherman had made a mistake with the Ottawa forecast this morning. They had predicted sunny skies but it was completely overcast. Turns out it wasn't cloud, it was smoke from forest fires in northern Ontario :-(
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't seem to take long for the smoke from the forest fires to travel. We remember that well from working at Cabri Park when the smoke from the fires out west made their way to us. We are hearing that it is a bad year for forest fires. We hope the smoke clears up for you soon.
DeleteJust for info - be aware that some countries insist that you have snowchains in your vehicle during colder months - know Italy did for us. We were so glad that we had bought some as we had to use them on the Milau Viaduct when we got stuck on there in heavy snow ... and they still charged us the toll fee to get off the bridge!
ReplyDeleteThank you for mentioning about the snow tires but we were well aware of it, especially in Italy! We remember renting a car there back in March 2017 and we had to pay extra for the snow chains as it was mandatory. We have looked at the requirements and both Austria and Slovenia require them but not until November and we will be through both those countries before that. Besides we have no intentions of taking Max anywhere near snow. :-)
DeleteIs the primary reason you couldn't live there because it's so flat, so the hiking isn't really good? Or too neat and tidy? I think I'd like that, and the flatness wouldn't bother me (I could ride my bike well into old age), but I'm sure it's colder and darker there for longer in the year than I could handle. I would looooove the cycling infrastructure there.
ReplyDeleteNo that is not the primary reason although it is definitely one of the reasons. The main reason is that it is just too expensive for us to actually live here, plus they still get winter and we don't want to do winter. You are right though the landscape really is too flat for us and not great for hiking although I know that we would both love the biking here, as you said the infrastructure for cycling here is amazing.
DeleteWe have been enjoying our visit here to the Netherlands, it just isn't somewhere that we would want to live.