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The Milavsky RV Letters
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Camping Europe in an RV |
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Letter 19
Note: This letter was written in Amsterdam but sent after we returned home. Hello again. We are back in the Netherlands, decidedly in the end stages of our trip. In October, Holland can be cold and damp - but nowhere is perfect. Actually, our last two days were just very fine-sunny, with temperatures in the 70's. We really like this country. It is compact so it's easy to drive. It is flat, so it is easy to walk. Everyone is taught English, so it is easy to communicate. And people are friendly, and helpful. Of course, all of the Netherlands is under sea level. In the city hall in Amsterdam we stopped to see how high the sea level really is. (The black arrow pointing to a place on the short tube in Picture 1 shows the actual height of the water at the nearby seacoast. The water level is over Adelle's head. The black arrow pointing to the longer tube shows the height of the water during a great storm in 1953 that caused a lot of devastation in Holland.) New Orleans isn't the only big city in the world that is under sea level. We've also had two very exciting things happen to us. The first of these really began in France. We had mentioned in a letter that we were winding down and returning to the Netherlands soon. We promptly got an e-mail message from a stranger who had been reading our letters as a member of the Yahoo group RV-Talk. The letter said that as long as we were returning to Amsterdam, we had to pass Utrecht - and how about coming for dinner. Of course we accepted the invitation - and we are glad we did. We live in the U.S. and travel in an RV through Europe. Karen and David live in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and travel in an RV in the U.S. And their RV is very similar to ours! That alone would be a good basis for friendship. In addition, they turned out to be people we like a lot and travelers who make our adventures seem less adventurous. After all, they have traveled the Silk Road from the Middle East to China (without the RV) and visited other more distant places as well. We've been in only some of the same places. Dinner, incidentally, was excellent. Conversation flowed continuously and effortlessly and ranged far and wide. We found these two complete strangers completely "sympatico". We appreciated the lovely evening and will definitely keep in touch with this interesting couple. They will come to Florida in November to start their RV trip in the US and we hope to see them on their way to the Southwest. The second exciting thing was at our favorite Amsterdam campground, Gaaspar Camping. Since we've been here a number of times, we are familiar to them, and they really do know our name. When we arrived in Europe this year, we showed them our book, pointing out the places where they were mentioned. An American couple was checking out this past Saturday morning. As they stood at the counter, they remarked that the Milavskys had said that this was a well-run campground and they agreed. Because she knew who we were, the lady in reception told them we are staying here. Not only that, but we had stopped at reception just a few minutes before, and she knew we had just left for the city. So we didn't get to meet these campers, but we do feel elated that there are people out there who are reading us and following our example. Anyway, back to Utrecht. We picked a campground from our book, and tried to follow the instructions. Unfortunately, the instructions were incorrect. So we pulled into a gas station to ask directions. As we parked, a man got out of the car just in front of us, announced that he was a policeman and began to ask questions about our license plate. That made three discussions with the police this trip! The results were the same. He understood why we don't have our plate on the bumper. And fortunately, he knew how to get to the campground. We've sent the campground guide new instructions. Utrecht seems to be a very nice city. It has the remains of a huge ancient cathedral, some of which was destroyed by a hurricane in the 17th century. Part of the cathedral is now a Protestant church - and some is an open square. Everyone in Utrecht now "walks under the Dom",i.e., the tower that used to be the entrance to the Cathedral and is now separated from it by the open square. The Dom shows its medieval origins in the architecture but the inside is bare compared to any other cathedral we've been in. The 18th century Protestants who turned it into a church instead of a cathedral took out any statues and decorations. The docent who showed us some of the church told us proudly that the "dollar" is a descendant of the Dutch "Doldar" which in turn is descended from the German "Taler". After visiting the church, we went into the post office. It was built in the 1920's in a very original style. (Picture 2 shows a little bit of this cavernous building.) Then we walked along the canal thru the city. This walk made us think about the ubiquitous bicyclists on the roads. The riders seem absolutely competent and confident in a way that is uniquely Dutch. They don't seem to be in a hurry. They are masters of their form of transportation, pedaling on narrow streets through chaotic vehicle and pedestrian traffic in total confidence that they are up to the challenge of keeping body unharmed and not harming any others' bodies. They are impervious to the possibility that some vehicle will do them harm. They are fearless. Our new Dutch friends told us that the Dutch are born on their bikes. (Picture 3 shows one of the parking lots for bicycles. When we look at it, we wonder how anyone ever finds their own bike!) We've been in Amsterdam for days. We go into town and walk around - visiting areas of the city that we like or where we haven't been before. We've had to run errands by bus and found ourselves going to parts of the city we've never seen. Of course we've been in several different outdoor markets and bought too much stuff to take home. It's going to be quite a struggle to pack! The only tourist stop we made was to a canal house museum. When the canals were built in Amsterdam, the wealthy built houses on the canal-front. One such house was occupied for the first 300 years of its existence by seven different families. Since the late 1800's, it has been a museum. The last owners had no children, and when they died, the house was bequeathed to the city of Amsterdam on the condition that it become a museum. We went to see the Willet Holthuysen Museum so we could view a canal house from the inside. As an added attraction, there was a very complete and interesting exhibit on clothing styles in the past. The house itself was very impressive and the displays of the collections of porcelain, glass, silver and the other "collectibles" of the era were beautiful. Whenever we see old buildings, we are interested in seeing how the inside is arranged, and this house is carefully preserved and annotated so that visitors will understand the lifestyle of the people who lived there. An added attraction of an exhibit of upper class women's clothing was even more fascinating. They not only displayed the beautiful dresses, but had exhibits of how the garments were made - showing the various styles of hoops, bustles, petticoats and corsets that women wore over the years. One little video screen showed a young woman being helped to dress. She must have worn 30 pounds of clothing in eight or ten different pieces. You really did need a maid to help you dress in those clothes. All that beautiful clothing must have been painful and difficult to wear, but knowing that still does not detract from its beauty. (Picture 4 shows one of the gowns and a covered hoop undergarment displayed in the museum.) Monday morning was scheduled to be our last day at the campground that is most convenient to downtown Amsterdam. We moved to the campground that is close to the RV storage area and the airport. On Tuesday we went once again to view the amazing wholesale flower auction/market. This time we brought a videocam so we can capture the amazing speed at which everything moves and the noise of so many people going every different way. As those who read our letters in 2002 know, this building is huge (its size is the equivalent of many football fields). It handles incredible number of flowers. There are thousands of trucks waiting to be loaded with flowers for transport everywhere. They travel to markets here and to the airport for shipment to America and other non-European countries by jet. (Picture 5 shows a small section of this huge complex.) At the end of our trip the speedometer told us that we have driven 4503 miles since July 19 when we drove out of the establishment where the RV had been stored. Our tour took us from Amsterdam through Germany and then over the Brenner Pass to Italy. There we reached as far south as Pompei before returning north and entering the French Riviera. From there we drove through Provence and Langedoc to Perigord, then north to the Loire valley. We visited Paris before continuing north to Belgium before returning to Holland. As those who have been following our letters know, we visited a large number of cities and it all amounted to the aforementioned 4503 total miles. Compare this to our 2001 trip in the United States when we traveled over 11,000 miles in fewer days. The fact that Europe is so compact goes a long way toward keeping travel by RV in Europe equivalent in expense to traveling in the U.S. by RV, even though gasoline is considerably more expensive in Europe than in the U.S. If we can find the time we will try to figure out how much we spent on various things on this trip and write another letter with such details. Some of you RV'ers might be interested. Our last two days were spent preparing the RV for storage in its greenhouse, and in packing. I like to change the oil before storage so that the engine bearings get coated with clean oil for the duration. (By the way, we did not use a drop of oil driving the 4503 miles. Nor did we have any other trouble except for the left brake light, which worked sporadically during most of the trip.) There is a garage with a pit for changing oil less than a half-mile from the campground and Mr. Meier, who is the proprietor, changed the oil and repaired the brake light. Europeans apparently do not change their oil as often as we do in the US. We have been told that oil is changed every 15,000 to 20.000 miles in Holland because they use synthetic oil, not the natural product. I asked Mr. Meier about this and he confirmed what we were told, except that he uses a mixture of half synthetic and half regular oil. He was genuinely surprised when I told him that in the US we change every 3000-5000 miles. I fill the gas tank and put a quart of regular oil into it so that the engine's insides get coated a little. I am not sure that it is necessary, but the engine so far has started without any problems, even after a lay-up of over a year and a half. After we drain the black, grey, and fresh-water tanks, we put bleach and water into the black water tank. Then we drive around a while and drain it again. Before we store the RV, we make sure that we leave no food in it for mice. Finally, we disconnect the battery that runs all the 12 volt light fixtures. Mr DeWit, the proprietor of the storage greenhouses, disconnects the engine battery after he drives it into its winter resting place. We always make a list of the things we need to bring with us next year. The list includes brake pads, just in case we should need them, spare light bulbs, and an oil filter. On our last few days, we parked the RV near the new sanitary block in the Amsterdamse Bos campground. There is also a pretty large group of caravan campers there, many of whom are British and/or North Africans, probably here to work on the many construction projects in and around Amsterdam. There is also a large group of British campers, also in caravans, all looking brand new, with equally new-looking cars and SUV's parked near them. The people are mostly young parents with many children. Adelle struck up a conversation with one of the young women and immediately was surrounded by lots of children curious about who she was and where she came from. Adelle learned that these people all were together in some sort of combination family and friend social group. Since this was October she wondered why the children were not in school in the UK. The kids told Adelle that they had tutors - and their mothers said that the English schools give them traveling packs to do their homework. We asked how long they were going to stay, and the answer was always "until the weather changes". We spoke to the young man at the reception desk, and he referred to them as "gypsies". Maybe so. We've heard lots of stories about the English gypsies. We enjoyed meeting them, especially the children. Adelle did all the packing, while Ron kibitzed. Everything fit into four large duffels which were checked. We each had two large carry-ons. We made a list of the clothes we are leaving behind so that we do not duplicate them when we pack for the next trip. On the morning of our departure we drove the RV to the DeWit's greenhouse, and had a cup of coffee with them. After that we transferred the luggage to the DeWit vehicle and he took us to Shiphol Airport. Both the plane for Heathrow and the plane from Heathrow to Logan left on time. Our daughter and son-in-law picked us up and drove us home. We feel extremely privileged to have had the opportunity to make this trip - to visit so many places, to see so much and to meet so many interesting people in foreign lands. Au revoir Europe. Adelle & Ron Adelle and Ron Milavsky, Authors © Adelle and Ron Milavsky, 2005
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