Return from the north: the Netherlands

The trip is made by 4 people in a camper van. At the end the complete itinerary of the journey to the Lofoten has been included, of which this is a small part.

Monday 07.08.95

Departure at 9 from the German campsite towards the Netherlands; on the motorway there are no petrol stations, in the end we exit at a town, Leer, to fill up after nearly running dry. At the D-NL customs, a stop in the service area to have lunch and change currency. We drive along the great dyke between the inland sea and the outer sea, with stops for photos and filming. We then arrive at Edam. The cheese auction is on Wednesday, so we have to wait. We stop at the campsite but there is no room for the following day. The weather is bad: there is a lot of wind and it is raining. The campsite is the usual one, near the very rough inland sea, and as usual immaculately kept and tidy. 462 Km

Tuesday 08.08.95

The weather is sunny. We stop at Edam and, while waiting for tomorrow's cheese auction, we visit the town. We then move the camper to a car park on the outskirts of the town, but much closer to the centre than the campsite. We manage to find an Italian newspaper as well as the shopping and little gifts to take home (pierced candle holders and porcelain clogs). 4 Km

Wednesday 09.08.95

At 9 we go to the Edam fair to see the cheese auction, a real event, a bit for tourists, but always nice. Besides the classic cheese you find all the typical Dutch products. For lovers of very fine pottery, here you find tea cups, and more, in BonChina. We buy 20 tea cups for 200 HF. At 10.30 we are already back from the market and, ready, we set off for Marken. The route to reach this little village is beautiful. Here you park and visit the town. It is famous for two reasons. The first is that, because of generations of religious isolation, the inhabitants married only among themselves, leading to the accentuation of particular physical characteristics. This is one of the best-known reasons. The second, perhaps more banal but certainly more interesting, is the beautiful little port town built entirely of wood and painted white and green. We buy, obviously, some tulip bulbs.

We then set off south and stop in an area 22 Km from Maastricht. 233 Km

Thursday 10.08.95

We move early, it is 7.20. In Maastricht we stop in the market square. We take the opportunity for a little tour of the historic centre; unfortunately everything is still closed and quite dirty because the day before there had been a big concert. We then pass into Germany and visit Aachen (Aquisgrana)…

ITINERARY COVERED

Läckö (S) castle Kinne Kulle (S) view over lake Vänern and lava rocks Varnhem (S) church and convent remains Falun (S) copper mine Rättvik (S) church 'The kneeling bride' Mora (S) the red horse Jokkmokk (S) blue church and Arctic Circle Lofoten (N) home of a Viking chief and ship Svolvær (N) cruise to the Trollfjord Lom (N) shopping, stave church, obelisk of Sagasoyla, Krossbu pass (N) Jotunheimen glacier Mo i Rana (N) Arctic Circle Borgund (N) stave church Edam (NL) market Marken (NL) the peculiar village Maastricht (NL) quick tour of the centre Aachen (D) town hall and cathedral Trier (D) city, cathedral and Porta Nigra Strasbourg (F) cathedral and clock Mont S.te Odile (F) convent, view of the Black Forest and the Vosges Riquewihr (F) medieval town Furka pass (CH) Rhône glacier Simplon pass (CH) view