It continued to rain all Friday night and most of Saturday morning, so our pitch is like a mud bath – the carpet is definitely for the bin once we leave!

Pitch on Friday
Pitch on Saturday!

However, as forecast it brightened up after lunch, so we cycled to Middleburg once more to finish off our sightseeing.  As much as anything it was great to simply get out of the caravan for a few hours and into the fresh air!

This time we didn’t get lost, and having parked our bikes we headed for the market square in glorious sunshine.

Middelburg canal bridge – in sunshine!
Dutch version of parking

Whilst there was no market, the square was full of vintage and veteran cars – most fully restored, but quite a few ‘work in progress’ too and we spent a happy hour wandering round and looking at them all.  New exhibits were arriving all the time too so it was an ever changing display.  Somewhat worryingly we remembered, or had even owned, many of the models on show!  There were two Daf 66’s, an old Ford Taurus (Cortina to us) and a Granada, an original Fiat 500 which Karol was very taken with, and numerous Datsuns, Volvos, VW’s and Saabs.

Karol’s favourite

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then had a browse round the town hall which today was open to the public, and then stopped for coffee and apple cake.  We’ll miss afternoon tea when we get home!

We cycled back late afternoon, and then cycled into Zoutelande for dinner.  We’d originally booked a table at this Trip Advisor No 1 local restaurant for Friday night, but had changed our booking to Saturday because of the weather.  The reviews were accurate and the food was delicious.  However we did have a bit of an issue with the fact that our waitress didn’t speak English, and was trying to tell us what the daily specials were!  We eventually worked out with the help of Google Translate that ‘Sea Devils’ she was trying to tempt us with were Sea Urchins, which neither of us fancied!  When we got the menu – all in Dutch and German, we were able to work out what everything was quite easily and did actually receive the food we expected!  It was one of the best meals of the trip.

We left the restaurant and cycled back using our bike lights for the first time, although it was very dark and quite chilly.

Sunday we awoke to a lovely bright sunny morning so after breakfast headed to the beach for a walk on the sand. We spent an hour or so walking south and watching the boats heading to and from Rotterdam, and then after coffee retraced our steps and back to the campsite.  The forecast was that the rain would return later afternoon, so we made the most of the sunshine and then set about taking down the canopy, and cleaning and storing the muddy chairs and tables ready for tomorrow.

Karol on beach walk
The many steps up the dunes

Overnight the wind got up, but our last day dawned bright and sunny, if only for about 30 minutes, before once more turning on the taps.   We leave at 4.30 this afternoon for our windy drive up the coast to Rotterdam and a ferry home to Hull tonight.

As I was checking the paperwork from the campsite I noticed they’ve knighted me – very kind of them, so I’m only answering to ‘My Lord’ from now on!

Sir Ellis’s confirmation

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