The next morning we drove on to Arundel which is touted as the prettiest little town in the south of England. It was quite lovely with all the old wooden houses, castle and river, however I was not really in the mood for sightseeing this morning. We have parked our van nearby at a tiny town called Littlehampton. We were hoping to go to Portsmouth today to see some big ships, however there does not seem to be a caravan park within a bull’s roar. Tomorrow we will tackle trying to park in the town on our way towards Salisbury. The standard of caravan parks here so far is superb. We are using the chain ‘The Caravan Club’ and they all seem to have very clean and beautiful parks with lots of room and play equipment for the kids. We plan to drive to Portsmouth tomorrow and then on to Stonehenge.

We had a relaxing day today. Caleb and I had some father-son time in the morning with a bike ride to town and due to the rain we had to take cover in a café where we had a cappuccino, hot chocolate and a shared apple pie ala mode! We had a lovely time in the café and Caleb relished working out how much it was going to cost, checking the bill and paying for our morning tea. The boys spent the afternoon at the adventure playground next to our camp site followed by some soccer. It was the 3 boys against Dad and with a healthy gift of 5 goals to start with the boys scraped home with a 25 – 22 win. They were thrilled with the result and recounted their valiant moves for the rest of the evening.

We ventured into town on bikes and foot (Daniel and I) tonight to see the last post played at Menin Gate. It takes place every night at 8PM and draws a large crowd. Wreathe

s were laid along with 4 bugglists playing the song. It was a good education for the boys and I think they found it quite interesting. We followed that up with a gelati before heading home for the night.

Tomorrow we head for Calais before hopping on the ferry Wednesday. We need to head back a little earlier than planned as we’d forgotten Ireland is part of our EU 90 day visa allocation. We’re ready to head back to a familiar environment but I’m sad to see the first phase of our adventure come to an end. We’ve had such a fantastic time with so many great memories. It’s been a real privilege to see so much of Europe and the kids have really grown from their experiences. We’ll spend the day in Calais visiting some of the shops (including my much loved Carrefour) and spend the night at our municipal camp ground that overlooks the ferry terminal which is where we started our continental European adventure.

Brugge is a really pretty old medieval town. We had a great time today wandering around and getting lost more than once in its cobbled streets. There were masses of people everywhere. We visited a chocolate museum where we sampled some Belgium chocolate and learnt how it was made. I bought more than my fair share of chocolates from a few of the chocolatiers around town. A boat ride through the canals was fun, and we saw Michelangelo’s ‘Madonna and Child’ statue at a church. I love how he was able to make the clothes seem so real when they were carved out of marble. We finished off our Brugge experience with dinner out at a lovely little café. Belgium specialties seem to be chocolate (of course), waffles (delicious!), croquettes (yummy deep fried cheese), Flemish stew (the one I had was a tad watery compared to my mum’s casseroles), and amazing pastries and cakes. They seem to have a bit of everything here – sausages and meats like the Germans, pastries like we saw in France, waffles and pancakes like in Holland. Altogether it is a wonderful mix. Tomorrow we will head off to see the WWI memorials for Tim.

The temptations of the pastry shop

Often it is hard to tell when you cross the borders. Usually the only way we notice is the state of the roads or the different road signs. Josh and Caleb do a lot of reading in the car. Caleb is now reading proper chapter books, and proudly finished off Stuart Little today. He was gorgeous to listen to while reading this book – he obviously found it amusing and kept giggling most of the way through. Josh finished yet another book. I am looking forward to getting to England to get him some new material!

First stop in Belgium was Mini-Europe on the outskirts of Brussels. Mini-Europe as the name suggests, is Europe made in miniature with little replicas of the Eiffel tower, Big Ben, Leaning Tower of Pisa etc. Tim sniffed at it disdainfully, claiming that we did not need to do the tour around Europe, we should have just come here. He stayed in the campervan for a snooze (amazing that you can just flop down on a bed in the carpark!) while I took the kids. The models were really well done. They even had a mini Eurostar train that went through a tunnel from London to Paris. Daniel particularly liked all the train models they had, while Caleb enjoyed the boats and ferries that moved around the water. You could also do things like launch a rocket and get the Spanish bullfighters in Madrid to yell ‘Ole!’. I saw some things that made me want to go back and do some cities that we had missed – namely Melk in Austria and Alkmaar in the Netherlands. It has been a juggle to see what we want to, while finding things interesting for the kids, and some towns have had to get the chop. Another time!

After we went back to the van and woke Tim up, we drove on to Brugge. It was very busy on the motorway, perhaps because it is a Friday afternoon. Belgium traffic also seems not to flow as well as other countries thus far and we got stuck in a number of places. Brugge is one of the best preserved medieval towns north of the Alps. I am glad that we phoned ahead for our campsite here, as we would not have got in otherwise. I made sure I picked one this time with shower water that you were not timed for – Tim thinks I put too much of a high emphasis my showers! Josh and Tim rode to the nearest supermarket for more supplies before tea. Tim was happy because he found a Carrefour. Carrefour is the name of a big supermarket chain that have superstores all over France. He came back with all sorts of things we had missed from France – most of all their delicious butter – along with some Belgium chocolates for me.

We spent the morning doing some ‘school’ while waiting to see if it would clear up. Eventually we had a few moments of reprive, and we hightailed it to the train station and caught a few trains to get to Haarlem. Haarlem is a medium sized city west of Amsterdam, only about 20 mins away by train. It was another lovely old place with cobblestone streets and canals. We spent most of the afternoon dodging more rain, and spent some time in a little museum called the ‘Corrie ten Boom Museum’. For those who don’t know, Corrie was a Dutch lady who was the leader of the Dutch resistance movement. Corrie, her sister Betsy and her father, hid thousands of Jews and sympathisers in their home in the war years. They set up a system where Jews would hide behind a specially built false wall whenever needed. Tragically, someone betrayed the ten Booms and they were sent to concentration camps. Only Corrie survived, and she spent the rest of her life evangelizing about Jesus, forgiveness and peace all over the world. I had read her book previously and so knew the story, but it was so inspiring to see where it all took place. The old Dutch lady who was a volunteer (the museum was free), took us around on a guided tour. She had experienced the war in the Netherlands herself, and her insights made the tour that much more meaningful. She was fascinating to listen to despite the horror of the war, and held the kids’ attention for over an hour. Dad, you would have liked the clocks there – Corrie’s family were watchmakers and some of the clocks were still there in the house. Tim and I were so inspired by the tour that both of us rate it as one of the best things we have seen so far.

In the 'Hiding Place'

We found a great restaurant on the banks of the river on our walk back to the train station, complete with sand for the kids to play in while we had a late lunch. The toasted sandwich and chicken soup I was served up were one of the best I have ever eaten. All through the town there was a pervasive smell of chocolate – nice at first but it became a bit sickly! We soon discovered why. The town is home to a large chocolate manufacturing plant. Unfortunately it was not open for tours. I am still in awe of the bicycle tracks here. I thought it might have just been good in Amsterdam, however even in this small town there are still lots of tracks for bikes. The train stations even have little grooves next to ramps so that you can wheel your bikes up and down, and everywhere you look there are bikes parked on bike racks. What a fantastic way to get around. I haven’t seen too many overweight people here either – I wonder how much of a difference it makes. Another easy train journey, and we were home. We may take another trip tomorrow to Haarlem from here as it is so close to Amsterdam.

The perfect Restaurant

Today we did Amsterdam’s Science Museum. It was somewhat expensive and extremely busy, but certainly worthwhile. There were masses of interactive things that the kids enjoyed playing with. Poor Daniel was a bit hampered in the water exhibits with his plastered arm, so he was feeling a bit sorry for himself. Caleb and Tim also visited a replica of a trade ship that had sunk (the standout feature of the ship for Caleb seemed to be the number of cannons that it had!). After lunch at the promised McDonald’s (of which there seem to be hundreds) we rode the train home. Tim has unfortunately picked up a cold and is not feeling the best. Amsterdam is an interesting place with fantastic public transport, heaps of museums and the most amazing bike lane network I have ever seen. Almost every road seems to have a two-way cycling lane next to it. Josh was amused to find that they even have pedestrian crossings! I enjoyed the canals and the old houses with their pretty gables. However, it would not be on our top list of cities. There were masses of people and rubbish everywhere, and we found it too liberal for our liking (as expected). We are looking forward to taking a trip to see a small town from here tomorrow. It seems easier to just take a train there rather than drive and set up camp again, and we also have another day to use on our Amsterdam cards of free travel.

On the canals of Amsterdam

Today we had another hospital excursion and all is well with Daniel. Whilst at the hospital, Karen, Josh and Caleb went to one of the nearby castles which was fantastic. It was full of underground tunnels and caves that could be explored with a torch. They had no torch so they explored as much as they could in the darkness.

Caleb attacking me at the castle ruins

This afternoon we managed to fit in a cruise along the Rhine from the town near our campsite (St. Goar) to Bacharach. The Rhine cruise was interesting as we passed many castles along the way. Both St. Goar and Bacharach are lovely old medieval villages, the later being particularly quaint with its tiny leaning houses. Josh marveled at the width of one house which was barely wide enough for 2 people to stand in with arms outstretched. We had a wander along the streets, found a playground and indulged in yet another gelati before our return to St. Goar. The boat returning from Bacharach was a big old paddlesteamer. Being the cheapest cruise, it was tough to get a seat! Although the busy season seems to be waning, there was still a big crowd for the boat. We finished with dinner in St Goar which was remarkably good value. Restaurant meals in Germany seem to be much cheaper than in Australia on the whole. Caleb is desperate to see inside one of the castles on the cliff that we can see from our campsite and Daniel also needs the hospital again, so we plan to stay another day here.