A day of subtlety

Today began with saying goodbye to our friends, and then a fine day of riding into a gale that ended with routine (for us) strangeness-

We have been trying to get to Middelburg in Zeeland because it has been described as being very special.  In typical fashion (for us) the city hall and “finest example of gothic architecture in Zeeland if not all of Holland” was completely surrounded by carnival rides and huckster games for the same plastic junk as can be found in an Oregon county fair.  We did wander about some, and found a fun restaurant for second breakfast that served the long sought-after Dutch Pancake-

A thick crepe, but good to get that checked off our list for the boy who loves pancakes.

We also found the most amazing store, which we are thrilled is not closer to home, else we would be penniless but well fed -

It was a store completely devoted to the sale of oils and vinegars.  Olive oils from all over the world, in bulk for container filling.  Flavored vinegars of all sorts.  And samples of all of them.  We barely escaped with Ruby having consumed most of the samples in the store, and vowing to try more.  If it weren’t all glass, we would be carting home some real treats.

Then we finally got a chance to sit down and ride for a while, something we have been missing. There is a fairly long ferry from the last island to the mainland, which the kids liked because they could read their books uninterrupted (we checked out several new ones from the library with a good WiFi connection last night).

On the mainland we stocked up at the supermarket and struck out into the wind for our campsite.

We have heard from some Dutch families about the Nature Camping Federation, which has a series of wonderful campsites through the country in nicer settings, without so many caravans, and usually quieter and more pleasant.  There is a membership involved, but we have not yet had a chance to join nor a place that required it.  Today, nestled in amongst several huge industrial campgrounds by the beach was a little nature camping site on a farm with nice pictures of tents in amongst the trees. Perfect for us.  An hour fighting into the wind, and we were greeting the nice farmer’s wife and negotiating for campsites using several broken languages.  Her English was rough, and there were several false starts, but it sounded like we could camp either in a field, or maybe at the beach, or something, but the regular camping was full.  We are good at smiling and nodding and making agreeable noises about how much we had been looking forward to a nature camping experience.

Much like your first visit to the Esta Noche in the Castro in San Francisco where you note without detail the fine fresco of Trigger up on the wall, I saw the stack of pamphlets for Belgian nude beaches on the counter and thought that it was very considerate of them for folks who were camping and looking for that.  And then the lady returned one more time to the topic of Nature Camping, and the subtle distinction between folks who like to camp naturally and those who like to camp in nature became apparent.  Apparently there is some subtle difference in the spelling of the words (being Dutch, there is probably at least one additional ‘J’ randomly tossed into ‘Naturej” somewhere) but we missed it.  So, we are now comfortably ensconced in one of the quietest campgrounds we have stayed in, out by the wheat field, and ironically due to the winds, wearing more clothes at a nudist camp than I have worn in months.  Ruby got into the spirit of things at dinner and took off her pants, but even the paying nature lovers were mostly clothed while doing their dishes at the communal sinks when we went to do ours.  Lousy weather to be naked, I think.  Very affordable and a lovely spot -

It has been a while since we have had an opportunity to have a day like today, where things go subtly wrong but work out fine in the end.  It feels great to be back on the road again!

-Dave