Zeeland and Brabant

Stage one in Holland was to head down the coast to the province of Zeeland. We stayed a few nights at a camp site near Veere and visited Lianne’s old friend Saskia.  As is traditional, the first thing we did on entering her house was to find something to tear apart.  This time it was a metal mini- shed which I happily dismantled , bent into bits , and drove to the local recycling centre – Sas and I have frequent fly-tipper membership there.   (NB  The Dutch refer to a tip as an ” environment street” :  so much more positive, doncha think ?). Yes, that is how she chose to spend her birthday with us.  So if  anyone is short of ideas for a loved one’s present, that’s a sure way to a girl’s heart. In my (admittedly limited) experience, anyway.

We also did a lot of cycling across Walcheren , the lump of land housing Veere, which  protrudes lumpily into the North Sea . Along the coast we found this rather sombre monument to a battle apparently on a par with the Normandy landings, if much less well-known…

These days it’s a beautiful long strip of beach behind broad sandy dunes, with swish “strandpaviljoens” where you can shelter from the fierce westerly gales behind reinforced glass panels , and watch the sun go down….rude not to.

We also met up with Henk and Maria, who have a holiday house just south of there , at Dishoek

And then back inland to the province of (North)  Brabant , ancestral home of the Verdaasdonk clan.  Should you ever spot strawberries in a “Hoogstraten” box, they may well have come from her brother’s farm… See below ..

Two days being tuckered out by entertaining the next generation of Verdaasdonks ( Generation V ?) …..

So now it’s off on the serious part of the trip – a long drive down to Switzerland, broken up over the next couple of days . 

What bits will drop off on the Autobahn ? Stay tuned ….