a less adventurous adventure?

Despite having already visited five countries in 3 weeks (6 if you count the five minutes we were in France) this leg of our Grand European tour feels distinctly less adventurous than our last. This may be for purely superficial reasons - we're used to being on the road now and the novelty of living in a campervan has worn off, while for my part I have been to all five of these countries - Belgium, Luxembourg, The Nertherlands, Germany and Denmark - before. However I think the reasons are more cultural.

Northern Europe simply is not different enough to feel as much as adventure as, say, traveling through Thailand would (though we're guessing here as neither of us have been to Asia). The towns and cities, while beautiful, new and exciting are not alien to us despite the little differences: indeed Ribe in Denmark reminded me strongly of my home town of Cirencester, except with a Viking Museum instead of a Roman one. For all the intricate canal systems, decorous Rathauses and ancient city fortifications we have seen little that we cannot relate back to our English experience, unlike the tiled houses of Portugal, the relics of Moorish Spain or the Roman ruins in Italy and France. The landscapes we have driven through haven't evoked for us a way of life all that different from our own, pretty as there are. In the south there were countless times, in France, Spain and Portugal, when the surrounding countryside and vegetation reminded me strongly of African vistas, while the lack of traffic on the roads (unlike the busy North) increased the sensation of other-worldliness and exploration.

Plus, we have to admit, we're being totally spoiled up here in North Western Europe. We don't just mean Fran and Henning's wonderful hospitality at their flat in Kiel, but in general. Campsites have been cheaper and yet better equipped: showers hot and strong, camp kitchens available for use, and toilet seats and loo paper a given. None of these was guaranteed at campsites further south, even those in Italy and France. Linguistically we've been having no problems either, for even though we speak even less Danish, Dutch and Flemish than we do Spanish and Italian (that's to say none at all) EVERYONE speaks English. We've hardly had to try at all to get by.

So, basically, while we're having a wonderful time and have been to some brilliant places we're not feeling like we're being particularly adventurous at the moment. We're hardly heading up the Inca Trail or even crossing the Carpathians. Still, we'll be in Poland soon. And after that Slovakia and Hungary; if being vegetarian in Hungary isn't an adventure I don't know what is.

Culture Vultures

As a rule, we're not big on museum and exhibitions. It's not so much a lack of interest in art or culture (current reading- Theo : "A History of Europe" J. M. Roberts, Kate "The Master and Margarita" Mikhail Bulgakov) as an unwillingness to pay the high entry fees, when there's beautiful architecture to admire outside, or to be indoors when the weather's nice (and there's beautiful architecture). Plus, too much gallery gazing would clearly impinge on our European-wide backgammon binge.

However, yesterday we vultured the culture to the max. Picking up an Amerstdam Card each (€33 per card which included free public transport for the day) we hit five museums, as well as availing ourselves of the free canal tour, multiple tram rides and a tea & coffee the card also entitled us to. While we haven't totted it up, the card probably saved us in the region of €30 each, which strikes us as a big of a bargain and probably means we now wont feel too guilty if we don't go into another gallery this side of Venice.

As to those we visited yesterday, I think we both preferred the small Vermeers in the Rijksmuseum to the major attraction, Rembrandt's The Nightwatch, remarkable though that is. I think we both find more affinity with paintings executed according to the artist's own desires, rather than those painted in order to flatter the vanities of the commissioning patron(s). Neither of us is particularly sold on Van Gogh, though it was interesting reading about his life and seeing the progression of his style though the years; Kate found the Fauvist paintings in the Van Gogh Museum's permanent collection far more captivating. The digital map demonstrating the growth of Amsterdam over the centuries in the Amsterdam Historisch Museum was fascinating as were many of the displays, despite their obsession with cesspits. They may be archaeological treasure troves but they are still a pile of old shit. Give me maps goddammit!

In the Nieuwe Kirche - itself a gorgeous attraction - the temporary exhibition, Black is Beautiful, was fascinating from a cultural viewpoint, showing the differing roles and representations of black people in art, even if some of the art itself was fairly mediocre. Finally, we made it to the FOAM Photography museum where there was a retrospective of photos by the Dutch photojournalist Jan Van Ekom, a wonderful juxtaposition of social realism (striking builders, immigrants from Surinam), escapism (theatrical portraits) and intimacy (photos of his, apparently naturist, family).

And so ended our day of ultra-culture. We didn't think much of the restaurants offering a 25% discount with our Amsterdam Card, so plumped for a delicious South Indian restaurant instead. Yum!

Oh, and we still found time to play a few trios of backgammon. Most of which Kate won. For a change.

Frustrating Times in The Netherlands

The Dutch are lovely, helpful people. We've found this everywhere we've met them (which is everywhere) on our travels. One of the reasons why we've met them everywhere, we've come to realise, is that their own country can be a deeply frustrating one - they clearly just want to get out of it.

Take shopping for food for instance. Now, neither of us is a huge fan of supermarkets generally, and in an ideal world we'd shop at farmers' markets or have organic, seasonal vegetable boxes delivered to our bumper. However, as we've yet to find a campsite providing such a service, we've found supermarkets have been an invaluable source of our daily travel rations. This would also be the case in The Netherlands - if we could ever find one. Elsewhere in Europe our shopping technique is simple - get on the ringroad or bypass of a sizeable town and, voila, (or, presto, as the case may be) there's a Carrefour. Often they are signposted from a good 10kms away. Not so in The Netherlands. If big, out of town supermarkets exist here, we haven't found one. Instead we've been reduced to finding tiny town centre mini-markets (which means, of course, finding parking) which have a small range of produce and aren't easy to find in the first place. Then we have to pay. Environmentalists would probably salute this hypermarket-sparse landscape, but we certainly burn a lot more fuel trying to do our shopping in the Netherlands than in other countries.

Here's the next annoying thing about The Netherlands. While good old chip-n'-pin has worked everywhere else - meaning we can use our no-charge-for-use-overseas Post Office credit cards for groceries - very few places in The Netherlands seem to take Mastercard (or Visa). The Dutch have their own bankcard system (also, ironically, called PIN) and thus many places only accept Dutch cards. This has included campsites, aside from the one in Amersterdam which I presciently booked in advance. This wouldn't have been such a huge problem if: a) cash points were easy to find - total mission and b) both our Nationwide debit cards hadn't been swallowed by ATM's. This latter occurrence is no way the fault of The Netherlands of course, but it has naturally added to the frustration and means we'll have to pay commission every time we withdraw cash (from our Alliance & Leicester account).

In addition, Kate has caught a cold, the weather is rubbish and our laptop screen has developed a big white line down the middle. Again, none of this is the fault of The Dutch. But we're having a bit of a frustrating time of things here in The Netherlands.