Tuesday, 8th April
The day began with an icy sheet covering the water in the bucket – not that any of the ducks or birds had shown any inclination to dive in, but the ducks still needed to be fed. At least, that’s what they tried to tell us.
It was a beautiful morning, with a clear, blue sky from horizon to horizon.
We weren’t sure how to score the showers here. They needed a 50c coin to operate them, which normally marks them down, but since we were only paying €16 a night to stay here, we didn’t mind an extra half a euro each. But the showers were lovely and clean, and very hot water (although the shower block itself wasn’t heated), so I suppose a 9 would be fair.
We had thought of cycling to Kinderdijk, some 15 kilometres distant, but the thought of all those kilometres just to see a few windmills wasn’t terribly exciting for me (although the Lonely Planet guide says it’s a site to behold). We may try to ‘pop in’ on the way to Delft, if it’s not too difficult.
Anyway, back to Plan B (or was it A?), and we cycled back to Dordrecht for a slightly more relaxed look-see. We visited a World War II museum (small in size, but crammed full of memorabilia), and it was an interesting insight into what it must have been like to live through the occupation. One of the proprietors followed us around, telling us stories about some of the exhibits in his rusty but helpful English. Both Annie and I have felt rather shame-faced at our lack of any Dutch at all. We have school-remembered French and I speak German (the result of a three month apprentice exchange years ago) but Dutch is a mystery to us both. The Dutch people put us to shame with their linguistic skills. Anyway the exhibition was interesting and well worth a visit.
As we strolled around the town, we looked in shops that were empty of customers, or just plain empty. You really begin to wonder how some people can make a living from the retail trade. We began looking for somewhere to have a bite to eat, but we were unused to the habits of smoking in confined places, and we rejected a couple of likely eateries for this reason. The café we did find was nice, although once we were seated with drinks and orders for food in, people lit up around us. How spoilt we are in the UK.
After lunch, we strolled around some more, but the clouds which had started to appear made us think about heading back. Pausing briefly at a tiny shop for some tomatoes and chocolate (bought from a shopkeeper who supported Manchester United, and assumed that because we were from London, we supported Arsenal), we cycled gently back to the van, and were greeted by very warm and pleasant sunshine, and several indignant ducks who had been waiting (so they said) for several hours for their bread.
We spent a few hours reading in the sun, on the internet a bit, and generally making sure the local wildlife didn’t go hungry. Indeed, one duck kept returning with a different ‘mate’ stringing along, presumably having been told about the copious amounts of free bread available at the big white van.
Annie performed splendidly in the kitchen for tea, making gnocci (kept frozen from home until today in our lovely freezer), with a sauce made from griddled courgettes and onion, with red wine and tomatoes. We invested a hefty 20c in hot water to wash up the copious amount of dishes in the campsite washing area – much better than trying to struggle with the little sink in the van.
Sometime during the evening, our €4 investment in WiFi ran out, although the faintly amusing “U bent uitgelogt” message was some compensation.
