We decided to have a less active day on Wednesday, so after a leisurely start we spent quite a while bringing the blog up to date, and then walked the 2km into Zoutelande mid afternoon. We’d read about a restaurant here which looks really good so we thought we’d do a recce. The restaurant found (not hard as Zoutelande isn’t a big place) we stopped for some alcoholic refreshments and then we walked back again!
What’s struck me about Zeeland is that they seem to cater for the Dutch and the Germans, and no one else. I’d expected English to be the second language here, as every Dutchman we’ve met speaks excellent English, and they’ve told us that most of their TV and movies are in English, so everyone learns it almost by osmosis. And they do speak English back to you when you speak it to them, but mostly all written word is in Dutch or German only. Occasionally we’ve been given a menu in English by special request, but otherwise we have to translate, so Google has come into its own on occasion. In fact when we were in Domberg on Saturday the waiter was very surprised that we are English, and said that very few tourists from the UK visit this area. Odd really as it is totally unspoilt and very accessible from the UK – a hidden gem! We’ve been a bit surprised by this as we hadn’t expected language problems here! And again, we are the only Brits on the campsite!
The weather has been overcast but dry, although it is forecast to be much worse towards the end of the week and into the weekend. We’d been watching the weather for a while, and as it wasn’t particularly promising we decided to book our ferry crossing home for Monday 11th September. We had a choice of sailing from either Zeebrugge in Belgium, which is only 28 km south of us as the crow flies, or Rotterdam in Holland, about 65 km to the north. However because of the lie of the land it’s a 90 minute journey either way, so we plumped for Rotterdam.
The weather for Thursday was still forecast as dry, but a few degrees colder, so we decided to get on our bikes again and cycle the 10 km to Middleburg which is the largest town on the peninsula. We’d chosen Thursday because it’s market day, and we do like a good market. However before we set off Karol got chatting to the Dutch couple (or rather the very chatty Annemarie) in the tent next to Stavros. We spent a lovely 90 minutes or so chatting to her, and learning about her impending holiday (alone) in Iceland and then in Scotland. She wanted to pick our brains about where to visit in Scotland particularly, so we gave her the benefit of our experience (I told her to avoid Dundee!) for which she seemed grateful. We then exchanged email and phone details, as Karol had offered her a helping hand should she find herself stuck when she was in the UK. All the time she was chatting her partner Rob was packing up their tent as they had decided to leave before the weather turned wet. He’d almost finished by the time we said our goodbyes, having covered Brexit, health provision, and care for the elderly amongst other subjects.
Our journey to Middelburg was through some lovely countryside so we kept having to stop to to take photos.
We eventually arrived at lunchtime, so stopped for a coffee and a sandwich before exploring further. Middelburg is a beautiful town – bigger than we expected – with lots of cafes, shops, and dominated at the centre by the stunning town hall. This is at one end of the market square so also the location of the market, which had dozens of stalls selling everything – huge cheeses, fish, rolls of cloth, and two bike accessory stalls!
It’s really quite incredible how much the bike dominates society here. On the outskirts of Middelburg we passed a school where there were literally hundreds of bikes parked outside, but not a car in sight. I’d hate to be on the road when the bell goes though! Because it’s so flat, and they use them as their main mode of transport, the bike design is very different to ours. They all have rear panniers and many have a basket on the front too; if you’re going to do your shopping you need lots of storage space! Most are very upright so your posture is better, and they are built like large luxury sedans (built for comfort rather than speed) with huge well sprung saddles, a limited number of gears on a twist grip as you don’t need many with no hills, and all have stands and built in locks. And everyone rides them, young and old alike. There’s no lycra snobbery here! Our bikes look tiny alongside. Karol is very taken with these super bikes, but I’m not sure how practical they would be outside Holland – like a Lexus saloon in a ploughed field? Still, here they are perfect, and as many are now electric as well, with charging points in each town centre, who knows we might well see more of them at home in due course?
But back to the market. As there were so many wonderful stalls, Karol had the brilliant idea of us buying some pretty panniers for her bike so we could stock up. She chose some rather nice looking blue panniers at the accessory stall (there were over 50 different ones on offer) and we set about filling them with fruit and vegetables, some meat, and of course cheese! Fully laden we found our bikes and after a bit of fiddling fixed the panniers to the rack on Karol’s bike. There were four ladies on a bench looking highly sceptical and giving us the benefit of their advice as the rack wasn’t horizontal, but instead leans down towards the saddle. However, it was secure so we set off back, got lost, retraced our steps and at the second attempt got on the right road and followed the numbered signs. Karol had all the extra weight, so it was more difficult to get going and had a greater stopping distance, so after we’d stopped at a farm shop to buy some of their homemade cheese we swapped bikes and I took a turn with the heavy load. Sods law dictates that the wind is always against you on a bike and Thursday was no exception so it was slow progress, but we got back to the site just before 6 p.m. The weather had improved as the day wore on, and got warmer, so we decided to barbecue once again – this time the curried chicken breasts we’d bought at the market – delicious and very healthy to boot!
Overnight the wind got up and gusted until dawn, buffeting the caravan all the time, so we both had a bit of a broken night. Then the rain joined the wind, so that by the time we got up everything was wet. Neither the wind nor the rain let up all day, and it’s forecast to remain like this until tomorrow. Our pitch is waterlogged with standing water on the grass, and I’ve had to re-peg the canopy as the wind was pulling the pegs out of the ground. However this is the first day since Lagos in Portugal back in March when it’s rained all day, and even then the rain stopped there late afternoon and the sun came out. So one day of being rained off in six months isn’t too shabby is it?
