With the arrival of May, it was time to head back to Dulles for the flight to England. On landing, we retraced our taxi/train/taxi tango and picked up the truck which started the very first time. And, there were no signs of water leaks.

The next morning we headed off to spend a weekend with Denise’s brother and sister-in-law near Chichester. A family gathering including Denise’s sister and brother-in-law on Saturday was wonderful. We also walked through and admired local bluebell woods, which brought back childhood memories for Denise.

We then headed north to Atkinson Vos for two spa days for the truck.

We were greeted as old friends and got all manner of service and work done. The list is getting shorter and shorter, but the oddest things take the greatest effort – like reorienting the water pump so that it is right side up.

While the truck was worked on, we stayed in an old coaching inn in Bentham.

Then our trip really began as we prepared ourselves for a ferry crossing from Newcastle to Ijmuiden, near Amsterdam. We left early giving ourselves lots of time for the boarding and it was just as well, as the Tyne Tunnel was reduced to one lane in each direction and there was a huge back up. But we made it on time, boarded, and found our rather small but totally adequate cabin.

So far we have found camping to be a little more challenging in the Netherlands than in France. After a bank holiday in UK, we arrived in the Netherlands to a series of holiday weekends. When a few attempts at reservations were met with “Sorry, we’re full!” we have been very careful to be sure that we have confirmed reservations. And even then, we have been in overflows or had to extend extra days. The Dutch are out and on the road! But the campgrounds themselves have been lovely. Our first campground included a grocery truck which came every evening and sold all necessary products. As we have not found any large supermarkets (more on this subject later), this was a bit help!

The Keukenhof is one of the largest flower gardens in the world, covering some 79 acres. (https://keukenhof.nl/nl/) It opens every spring for a flower and tulip display. We were a bit late in the season, but it was still amazing. Naturally, we had tickets for the cloudy/rainy day, but we cycled the 10 Km to the park wearing multiple layers. It was chilly enough to keep our jackets on all day! It was the very end of the season and most of the tulips and other spring flowers had finished. We do give them credit though for replenishing a lot of the beds with new blooming tulips and daffodils so that those coming during the last four days would still see some color.

We also took a fun ride on the Whisper Boat, which included seeing the only field with tulips which had not yet been shaved (cut). So we did have a pleasurable experience.

It was our first trip on the bikes and it was clear that bike riding in Holland is not the same as in the US. The Dutch cycle very fast! The infrastructure is amazing, even out in the country. There are separate lanes for bicycles and these lanes have their own traffic lights and priority rules. Amazingly, electric bicycles and powered scooters are allowed with no restrictions. We are getting better and loving it. The Dutch are WAY ahead of the US or UK and even France.

We realized that one of the electric bikes was not working well and so we decided to head to Leiden where there was an authorized dealer and managed to get into the closest campground by agreeing to be in the field, rather than the campground.

We actually had an interesting first afternoon as we ended up winching out an English double decker bus, that had sunk in the dirt up to the body. Digging was required as well!

Took a while to get all of the toys put away again! And the bicycle saga is only beginning!