First week in Netherlands !

The last few days have been a little hectic, but we've explored a few far corners of the globe:) We left our "wired up" campsite on Friday morning, because by then M was getting a bit irate at being in Holland but not seeing anything yet, due to me having to sit and sort out a few work issues all Thurs, which was a bit of a nightmare, but...on Friday we eventually killed the myth that Holland doesnt have any shopping malls, much to Marielle's delight and relief! We parked our van in the shop parking, and paid R2 (20 euro cents) per hour. We stayed there hours , stocking up on silly things like a wash bucket, a squeegee thing to clean the camper floor, etc etc. Marielle had a whole new happy look, and told me "this shop is the Dutch equivalent to the Crazy store!" I nodded in my all knowing way, but to me all stores look the same....
We found the store in the Tom Tom GPS ...clicked on nearest supermarket, and it guided us there. Problem is that we forgot where it was, so we cant put the info back into the Tom Tom and go back there....which is very strange. In fact, the Tom Tom is a lifesaver. Half the time we dont care where we are, or what road we are in, as long as the Tom Tom keeps shouting out directions, like 300 metres, turn left, after the roundabout, take the 2nd exit, and turn left...you have reached your destination!!!! :)))
The Tom Tom we got 2nd hand from BW Campers only gets you as far as a street number, which works well if you know the street number, but not if you're looking for an Aire in the middle of a farm, so we are still trying to figure out how to download the GPS module and install it...hopefully soon.
The heater in the camper is not working that great, so we'll be asking BWCampers to help with that. Everything else in the camper is working ok, but M is having issues with the water speed...almost impossible to have a shower, but somehow she is managing. So far I have only used the shower at the campsites, at about R5 a shot. (50 euro cents in Holland).
We managed to wild camp for a night and save ourselves 35euro, somewhere in a small back street in Alkmaar we think (not sure where it was actually). We were a little worried at first, but exhaustion set in and we slept right through the night, without a problem.:)
We made our way into Alkmaar central town on Saturday for a look around and found it to be the most fantastic small old world of flea market, fruit stalls, and really cute old buildings, small cobblestreets, music in the streets, a really old big church, and a TOYSRUS..haha. Actually the ToysRUs wasnt in the old part of town, but was a major part of the day for the kids...lots to see, and they could ride the bikes and things around the shop :) The poor sales lady had to keep putting stuff back on the shelves, but I didnt care:) M was stressed because Jetan had lost his one shoe somewhere between parking the camper van (down a side street), and the store. She came back relieved, having found it at the entrance :) We ended up eating 2 pancakes, (which we divided into 4 pieces), and 3 cokes, which all came to about 15euro...ouch... but we "had" to do it, simply because they had this large square with millions of chairs and tables, and M was looking at me with "that"look.
Sunday we woke up late and drove the camper to Haarlem, caught a train from Haarlem to Amsterdam Central Station, a tram from Central Station to the last tram stop (because we didnt understand the woman telling people where to get off), and then caught a tram back, to the Artis Zoo....got in the gates at 2:30pm, and left at 6pm. Kids had a lot of fun, and we made the journey back to our camper, which we had left in a side street in Haarlem (free parking on a Sun), 100m from the Haarlem station. We kept getting lost on the way back to the Houtrak campsite (Halfweg), because we had selected Halfway (Britain) on the Tom Tom and it kept telling us to go the wrong way :))) We worked out our mistake, and got back by 8pm (sun still shining), to the campsite. Tried hooking up on the Internet, and had a problem with the WiFi. Woke up at 6am this morning, had more luck, but have to wait till 9:30am when the office opens to correct the user/pass login on the wireless network.
In a nutshell, we have had a whirlwind weekend. Catching trains has been an interesting achievement.We spent a fortune yesterday, so the next week we are eating noodles:) Jetan is in a good mood this morning, but not much to do at this campsite. I have to whizz through my emails, and sort out the remainder of any issues, while M and the kids entertain themselves. Forgot to mention, we stayed in a different campsite close to Amsterdam on Sat evening. Very nice, but not Internet. Jesse made friends with 2 Italian kids and I ended up running around playing soccer (I realised that at 40yrs old, I am no longer the lean mean soccer machine I used to be)...any way, it was good to show solidarity with my 12yr old, rather than see him getting thrashed by two mafioso kids :) In fact I kicked the ball into a stinging nettle patch, and they ended up fetching it out for me...I pretended to be stung too, to show I wasnt scared, but actually I didnt suffer anything, while they were scratching their legs like mad..*grin*. (The things a person does when in a strange place). At this point we heard Tanner screaming, and I rushed back to the camper. He had gashed his head on a tree branch, but luckily a plaster sorted it out. (he might have a scar for life, but we aint paying for a doctor in Holland, so he can always wear the scar as a momento of his travels :))))
ok, chat sooon. Bye.