Return to Houten, Netherlands

We are not currently in Houten, Netherlands.  We are in fact waiting patiently, but in great comfort in Emma and Steve's house, for our flight back to Australia. 

This blog relates to our week in Houten, three weeks ago.   We were supervising the packing up of our house in England, the day after the last photo was taken for this blog.   How time flies.

After we left Camping Manjastre, in the south of France, we arrived back at Camping De Vliert in brilliant sunshine.    This camping ground has immaculately groomed grounds, bright green grass and hedges between each site.    Quite a contrast to the bush setting in the south of France, but then the Netherlands is generally green and immaculate.

Our caravan was parked in a lovely sunny spot, opposite the bike shed, toilet emptying shed and ablution block.   Could not be better.

All ready to unpack the car.  

Abi and Raphy came to visit each afternoon after school, and Mia also joined them for dinner on Wednesday afternoon.   After that it was too hot to comfortably play there.    The Netherlands can be very unpleasant in hot weather, probably due to the flat ground.

The camping ground is very well set up for children, with go karts, a playground and games room.   All free to use.

Abi, busily drawing, and Raphy, playing games on my Chrome book.

It takes about ten minutes to ride a bike to Aaron and Kylie's house.   Very convenient.    Abi and Raphy's bikes standing on the lawn in front of the caravan.

My English bike, which I now leave in the shed at Aaron and Kylie's house.

The self help boxes, full of boxes of eggs, apple juice and potatoes.   It is a matter of putting money in the slot, pressing the relevant number, and hey presto the little door opens.

The front of the sheds, which they use for caravan storage, amenities block, games room, relaxation room plus a small apartment at the top of the far shed.    The camping ground used to be a dairy farm, which the owners converted into a camping ground.    They also grow crops on the remaining farmland.

Plenty of hens and little chickens.

The narrow road back to Houten.   Very flat.

The large empty space at the Rond in Houten, which is currently having a facelift.    They have extended the shop fronts out, and providing more terraced area for the cafes.   They are also building a raised brick area in the centre, and have planted a huge tree in the centre of it.   It is so definitely more attractive now.

I took Mia, Abi and Raphy swimming at the outdoor pool, which was definitely preferable to swimming in the heated pool inside, which is very chlorinated.   Raphy thought otherwise.   After a quick swim in the cold water, he spent the rest of the time inside. 

And what I love about Dutch swimming pools, is that one can eat and drink within the pool area.   So we enjoyed our containers of chips, together with cans of soft drinks, in the sunshine beside the pool.   There was one mother there, plus a staff member, smoking cigarettes which I thought was a bit naughty.

My birthday, celebrated on the Sunday, was a very special day.    Walter, with a great sense of humour, gave me a dog card, plus a collar and lead as I have been talking about getting  a small dog when we live in Adelaide.    I currently have the lead, but not sure where the collar is.   I have a feeling it found its way into the chest of drawers that was packed two days later.   I wonder what the packers thought!

I also received two games from the Dutch family, which I am looking forward to playing in Adelaide.

We went to a Chinese restaurant in Utrecht for my birthday lunch.    Delicious food.

Raphy looking very happy.

Looking good:  Kylie and me.

Three very happy customers tucking into the Chinese food:   Aaron, Abi and Mia.    My apologies to Walter for the lack of a photograph, which was due to me looking terrible in the one taken of us together.

We went for a walk around the streets of Utrecht, always interesting.

There had been a running event that morning, with a good supply of portaloos around.   We were fascinated by the conveniences for men, the pissoirs, so practical.   This one had been left outside a pub, where a great number of men had gathered to celebrate the occasion.

Bikes, bikes and more bikes,

and a neatly arranged double storage bike rack.

The railway station, and the area around the station, is being redeveloped, with new shops, offices and open spaces. The canal, which had been made into a through road, is being reinstated as a waterway.   So looking forward to seeing it all finished.

After saying sad goodbyes to Aaron, Kylie, Mia, Abi and Raphy, we repacked the caravan in an orderly way.  Everything that was going to Emma and Steve's house in the back boot, and anything that was going to our house, in order to be packed the next day on the back seat.   We did appreciate our precise organisation as it made it easier when unpacking the car in England. 

We were loaded up for sure, as we had our clothes, bedding and anything else we wanted to keep from our touring caravan, plus Emma and Steve's bedding etc from their caravan in the south of France.

I am not sure if we mentioned that we sold our English touring caravan to the owners of Camping De Vliert in Houten.   They will use it as a rental caravan.   And yes, we will be able to rent it back when we return in the future.    We were very pleased with this sale.

Walter standing in front of our caravan, just before we left Houten.

We had a very easy trip back, again in sunny weather.    Our last ferry trip from Calais to Dover was  made in calm weather, thank goodness, as we have experienced some very rough crossings.   However, the ferry was full of coaches, which seems to be the way of ferry crossings these days.

Our view of the white cliffs was superb.    What a lovely memory to have for our last English channel crossing.

Altogether a lovely four weeks away, and we certainly came back to England feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the last few weeks in England.

House completion at long last!

The house sale has finally been completed, after nearly five months.    And we thought it would never happen.

On the 11th June we returned from Europe, and the removal people arrived at 8 am on the 12th June.   We had been ready since mid April.   Everything that had been outside, or was dirty, thoroughly washed and disinfected.   Anything that looked rusty had been cleaned with WD40.   Great stuff that WD40.   We had had a massive clean out of all our goods and chattels, so we did not have to do anything on the morning of the 12th June except take everything out of the house that was not to go to Australia.    That consisted of our handbag or manbag, cleaning materials, relevant paper work, and items that needed to be left for our buyer.    Plus rubbish.   The packers are extremely efficient, but they do pack everything in sight.   So we made it clear to them.   Everything in the house would go.   Nothing outside of the house.   Easy.

Walter stayed in the house while the packers were there, luckily he did not get packed up too.   But I went back to Emma and Steve's to make telephone calls, and to have a much needed coffee.  Sadly Walter missed out on the coffee.    When I got back at 12 o'clock two rooms had been packed up.   Then I went shopping and when I returned everything had been packed except a few items in the kitchen and the furniture in the conservatory.   Very speedy.

Everything we owned was packed, either into boxes, or wrapped in five ply heavy duty packing paper.   Amazing.   Also they emptied drawers and cupboards, and took the pictures from the walls.   This is the type of packing up that I like to see.   No involvement.

The study, with the office chair on top of the bench.

Our bedroom.

Walter's bike, all wrapped up in paper. 

On the second day, they flat packed our conservatory furniture, as we were running out of space in the container, and started taking the wrapped and boxed items outside,

where they were packed inside a truck,

and taken around the corner to where the truck with the container was parked.   Double handling, I know, but it was impossible to get the truck and container onto our street.

By 2 pm all had been removed, and we were left with an empty house to clean.   And it was a matter then of giving everything a quick clean, as we had cleaned the house thoroughly in April.   Except where the washing machine and fridge had been sitting, for years.   Those areas were embarrassingly very dirty.

We made a tour of our bare and empty house, reliving our times when we renovated, and painted and changed appearances.    Unfortunately some of our botched jobs were now all too plain to see too.   Oh dear.   Too late now.

The empty lounge room, still with the furniture marks on the carpet.

The conservatory.   We cleaned our sticky finger marks off the inside windows.   We had not noticed them before.

Our bedroom, with the paint splatters on the vertical blinds.   We forgot to take them off when we arranged to have our ceiling replastered.   There were also tea splashes, due to throwing a cup of tea in the air, because I caught sight of a spider on my shoulder, which looked huge in the magnified part of my varifocal glasses.

And finally our last photograph of the house, taken after we had dropped our keys through the front door, after we locked it of course.    No going back now.

We felt very sad leaving our house, after 26 happy years there, but relieved that the sale had finally gone ahead, the removal firm had been in, and it was ready to hand over to the next person.

I hope our buyer is as happy there as we were, as it is a lovely house, in a beautiful area, and with very friendly neighbours.

Every onwards.

Walks in the bush - Camping Manjastre

Walks in the bush, in the magnificent hills, around Camping Manjastre.    Always beautiful but at this time of year, there were still wildflowers around, just to add to the scenery.   And the cooler weather meant we could walk during the day, not just early in the morning.

The early morning walk on the circular path behind the campsite.    First we had to get across the creek, through long grass and then balance on the small concrete ledge which acts as a sort of dam.   One slip and then a splash.   It did not happen thank goodness.

A view from the track, with the campsite, hidden amongst trees, on the other side of the valley.

Always a gloomy part of the track, early in the morning. 

A view along the valley path.   Another early morning walk.

The brilliant red poppies on the side of the back road.   

One afternoon, Emma, Jackson, Isabel and I went for a long circular walk.   We first crossed the main road, and then scrambled up the side of the hill opposite the campsite. 

A view back towards the swimming pool.

After the scramble up the side of the hill, we walked along the well maintained fire track on the ridge.

Time for a photo,

and another one.

Interestingly it was uphill along the ridge, and Isabel and I were getting very hot, and needed to stop and have a drink and a chocolate biscuit.   Any excuse.   Jackson still has his long sleeved top on!   Emma did not want to stop because it messed up the distance being recorded on her watch!

Time for a bit of fun when Jackson put his cap on me, back to front.   To help me look 'cool'!    Very funny. 

When we reached the road to Bormes village, we had to walk in single file, as there was no path and the road is narrow and full of mad cyclists, and cars.

We found a very large caterpillar which was heading for the road, in order to be squashed by a car. 

I forgot to comment on the invasion of caterpillars dropping from the cork oak tree in front of our caravan.   These little caterpillars are brutes, as their hairy bodies cause an allergic reaction should they walk on one's skin.    We spent quite a bit of time flicking them off chairs, clothes and the table.   They were even found inside the caravan, at times. 

But back to our walk.   After crossing the main road again, we started the downhill stretch to the valley path, and then back towards to the campsite. 

The creek crosses the path at one point here.    Such a beautiful and tranquil walk here.

A hen came out to say hello as we passed a house.  It objected to being patted, and ran off home.

We also went for a walk around the hill at the back of Bormes village.   We first walked up the steep road to the castle ruins, where we left Walter who walked leisurely back along another road, and then clambered up a steep concrete path which led to the fire track.   

A view from the castle ruins.

And another view of the big hotel on the edge of the village.

The three fellow walkers laughing at my photographer's pose.   But I achieved a well balanced photograph!

Looking back towards the roads to Le Lavandou, to St Tropez and to Toulon.   I can imagine what this valley looked like before the invasion of holiday houses and tourists.

A different view Bormes village, taken from the point where the fire track meets a street below the village.    Our starting point, the castle ruins is at the top of the photograph.

The final blog, and photographs, from our trip down south. 

And a final note.    Counting the steps.    I was managing more than 15,000 steps per day during the time Emma, Jackson and Isabel were there with us.    Plus a swim in the pool each morning.    However not quite up to Emma's standard in the pool - 100 to 120 laps each morning.   All freestyle.   Amazing feat.

Now I need to get back into the fitness thing here.  Riding a bicycle is not counted here.  Leisure riding on flat ground.   Too easy.