Holland

The road to the Netherlands was long. Very long. (We took the coastal route)






We saw plenty of windmills ......

(yeah, yeah, I know they're wind turbines)

Both old and new ........

On our way to Amsterdam ......

While we were there we did some of the tourist things ......




Rembrandt and ..... some other chaps (I'm good me, I really pay attention) ......





But I was a bit shocked in Amsterdam, as I've always considered myself pretty crude but it turns out I'm actually quite a prude. The sex and drugs culture there was a little too in my face (and the RBD's), and I felt quite uncomfortable. Hence 007 didn't come out much and stayed mostly in a bag.

Can't. Breathe.

But once again, I did like the architecture .......

And the cycling culture .......

The girls were keen to get an MSN fix in an internet cafe .......

And for once I was keen to get back to camp, where we humiliated 007 a bit in the kiddies play area (don't worry, there weren't any kiddies around) ......

I may be smiling but inside I'm crying

Don't you know who I am?? Last time I was sat like this I was having my monkeyhood tortured with a knotted rope

Right. That's it. I'm going to have to kill you.

RBD2 also humiliated her father again on the badminton court .......

While RBD1 found it quite challenging playing against 007 .......





Don't you just hate it when people insist on showing you their holiday photos? Don't worry, we're nearly done, just a few more snaps tomorrow then it will all be over.


Hang in there.


Right, I'm off cos I have a hot date with a coffee mug and a muffin shaped cake. Happy weekend everyone.

Belgium

RGH and I loved Belgium, and in particular Brugge. And in particular the chocolates .....

(well, 007 and I did)

...... the beer ......

....... although 007 found it quite tricky to get served ........

...... the cycle lanes and cycle-friendly motorists .......

..... and the architecture ........

Also, the friendly people - especially the very nice guy who worked at the garage where we filled up with Diesel, who paid for our fuel with his Mister Card (we had the wrong type of payment card) and then we gave him the Euros. Good customer service or what?

But I must confess that after getting flooded out of France then arriving in Belgium to find our tiny pitch also waterlogged we cracked. We parked up the Bongo, grabbed an overnight bag, hopped on the bus and flashed the plastic at a hotel in Brugge.

And it was FAN-bally-TASTIC!! (007 came too) ......

Not a soggy pillow in sight - oi, get your mitts off my chocs!

007 had never seen his 'n' her basins before and didn't know which one to use (neither did we)

And he had concerns about not being able to reach the taps

Gather round children, I'm going to tell you a story

Right after I've finished looking mean and moody

Ahhh, it was so lovely that they had to scrape us out of the door the next morning. It was just a shame that we had two kids and a knitted monkey in z-beds at the end of our bed, if you know what I'm saying (and I think you do).

Anyhoo. Back at the camp 007 seemed to have forgotten the whole camping routine .....

A little help here please

But he soon got back into the swing of camping duties. Like cooking our tea .......

Meanwhile, back in town we saw some slightly scary sculptures .......

But 007 didn't seem worried .......

Giddy-up horsey

In fact he seemed quite attached to one of them .......

But in his short life he had never seen anything like this before .......

Quick someone! Get that woman a breast pad!!

And he was intrigued by some of the locals .......

Cos it's not like he ever strikes a pose in public

Sometimes he even refused to come out of the back-pack .......

Nope. Get lost. I'm not doing any more. Someone call Unison!

On other occasions though, he was more than happy to work it ......

(ah yes, we spent quite a bit of time in teen fashion stores. RGH LOVED it!)

And finally we had coffee. But not as we know it - where's the muffin???

..... while the waffles were quite tasty they weren't a patch on the classic raspberry and white choc chip muffin (roll on tomorrow! *drool*)

Tomorrow ...... on the road to the Netherlands

France

Where the weather lulled us into a false sense of security ......







This is our camping set-up. RGH and I sleep in the awning (we tried sleeping up top in the Bongo a couple of times but the lack of loo facilities combined with the tiny trap door that you have to negotiate plus clambering down onto two sleeping children made it somewhat impractical. And as the testy teens have refused to sleep up there, we're relegated to sleeping under canvas. Fun!)




Fun while the sun is shining anyway. Did I mention we got fooled into thinking that our days would be spent sunbathing ........




...... and eating outside .......





...... well, we were wrong .......






Still. Next day was sunny again and we trogged off to the beach ......

...... on the way we saw some french ducks. Le quack le quack.

007 has recently learnt to spell his name .......

....... we're very proud of him

He's also got a diploma in rowing boat helm-man-ship .......

Although he's not too sure about the foreign cuisine .......

Hold the moules please, I'll just have the frites

Ahhh, what more can one want on holiday ..... wine (and beer), sun, your favourite knitted monkey (don't tell the others) and your knitting bag

Oh yes, shade. Can you believe I complained about the lack of shade?? Fool!

Cos then the rain came again ......

But RGH didn't give up the camping faith .....

It rained for 17 hours straight. He lost the faith then. Especially when we woke up and our pillows were soaking and had to go in the tumble drier. I accused him of excessive dribbling (again) but when we broke camp we realised that our air bed had turned into a water bed and we were sleeping on a puddle in our awning bedroom. Like I said ...... fun!

Tomorrow ...... the home of chocolates and beer ...... Belgium.

Hello! Bonjour! Hallo! and Hallo again!

We're back!

And didn't the grass get long while we were away!

After realising that in fact there wasn't actually room for all those monkeys plus two adults and two teenagers in one vehicle, we decided that we'd better take the kids instead of the chimps on holiday with us. (Tough choice).

So it was decided that only one monkey could come with us on our European tour and a straw poll was taken to see who the lucky (or possibly unlucky?) monkey would be. 007 drew the short straw.

While we were away I took 634 photos, but don't worry, not all of them have a knitted monkey in, so I won't bother sharing (all) of them with you, dear monkey-made-of-knit lovers.

Here, and over the next few days is 007's holiday ......

WTF Friday! ..... Whoa, those Floods Friday!

You may or may not know that quite a lot of the UK suffered from terrible flash floods a week ago last Friday. Thousands of homes were flooded and the road networks came to a standstill. We were sat in that standstill for quite some time.

It took us 3 hours to get to Swindon (40 miles away) and 6 hours to get across to Kent. Bladders and tempers were quite strained during that time. Luckily RGH had pre-booked us into a local hostelry for the night, ready for an early morning channel tunnel crossing the next morning.

And even luckier, we arrived in time for last orders.

007 had his customary pint of lager, bacon flavour fries and Appletise chaser. Nice.

Not so luckily, in said hostelry there happened to be a fruit machine. As a teen, RGH had a teeny tiny gambling habit. I say teeny tiny because it was short lived, and it really only involved him selling an award his brother had won to finance his addiction. Oh, and there was that time his mother gave him money for new shoes and bus fare and he accidentally spent the fund on something other than shoes and bus fare and had to walk the 12 miles home.

So since then, it's been better if he avoids the temptation of gaming machines.

Oh-oh.

Worse was when he got the RBD's involved .....

But I really had to draw the line when he enticed 007 to the dark side .....





And instead I suggested a nice game of darts ......



Although 007 didn't seem to enjoy it that much and went off to bed in a huff .....





..... where he bagsied the best bed. He proceeded to sleep like a baby but it was only later, when he woke up in a shock, to realise that the reason he'd been sleeping so soundly was this .....

..... he was being spooned by No. 1 (RDB1 had smuggled him into her bag). Now that would never happen to Daniel Craig, I'm sure! (Although ..... if he ever has trouble sleeping, I'd volunteer to spoon him, if that would help!)

Anyway, bright and early next morning we were off, on a little European Bongo jaunt .....

Tune in the same time tomorrow for the next exciting instalment of 007 on the Continent.

Au revoir!