We are in Amsteram :) Sleeping in the camper!

ok, I know it's been a while since we last blogged, but if you knew the circumstances you would forgive us :)

We planned to leave the UK on Monday 2nd July, and duly arrived at the ferry terminal to be told that the ferry was cancelled, and we would be put up in a hotel for the night, with free "eat as much as you like" breakfast, and would have to catch the ferry the next evening. We eventually did get to the ferry terminal the next evening, but instead of taking a taxi at 4pounds, we decided to walk to the terminal....we made quite a picture. Jesse and Tanner were dragging suitcases on wheels behind them. I had to larger cases on wheels, one in each hand, while Marielle pushed Jetan in the pram, which had a carchair perched on top, on which Jetan found himself strapped to under my big jacket, and some surboard stretchies....haha. The ferry was a great experience...but Marielle didnt have much sleep...Tanner woke at 4, and then I snored all the way till 5:30, so she couldnt sleep, and ended up with sea sickness ;-) I enjoyed a fantastic breakfast, along with the kids, while Marielle sat looking a little blue...I fed her tea and watermelon...*grin*. Here comes a story that will make you laugh..... I let the kids go and get their own food from the buffet, so they decided to make melted cheese on toast. Unbeknown to me, they lumped a bunch of cheese slices onto their bread and sent it through the rotary toasting maching, which is a bit of a conveyor belt device that ends up sliding your toast down a slope so you can extract it. WELL..... when the boys cheesy toast flipped over to slide down the "ramp" all the cheese ended up smeared on the ramp, with none left on their bread. I noticed the panic on their faces, and ran to help, took one look at the cheese smeared ramp, grabbed their messy bread, and ran away..hehe. I could see people for the next 30mins, surpised to find that when they put in their bread, it came out as bread and cheese! ;-))

We got to Amsterdam from the ferry by bus, and actually saw BW Campers offices as we drove into central Amsterdam. (Thank God...hehe...for a while we thought they didnt even exist and we might have given all our money to a Nigerian scammer. :) But they do exist, and were very thorough in everything they gave us. The camper is by no means top of the line. More bottom of the line...but it has everything that we seem to need. We managed to drive it to a nearby campsite, which has Wifi Access at 5euro per 24hrs, or 15euro for a full week. The price for staying one night has been 29euro....although they are found in the ACSI campsite booklet, they dont actually give any ACSI discount. I know it's pricy, but I'm just relieved to be online, so I can keep things up to date on the business side, and we have electrical hook up, water, and the rest. The campsite isnt anything Bev would cope with....*grin*. In fact I have only seen 2 people on the entire campsite....the owner, and a lady walking buy an hour ago...although there do seem to be about 20 tents roundabout.

We dont know what our plan is for tomorrow. I have to plan that tonight. We went to a supermarket this afternoon so Marielle was able to cook us macaroni and mince for dinner tonight. Jetan is now passed out in a single bed at the back of the camper, and the 2 boys are over my head (above the driving compartment), drawing, and moaning non stop at one another...Today was hard, tiresome, and expensive, but on the other hand, we are sitting 15mins from Amsterdam, in the middle of Holland, in a remotely wooded campsite, as a family. Quite an accomplishment I guess :)

Will send pics once I resize and upload them.

Dean:)