ACSI Camp Hindeloopen Our adventure today took us to the European City of Culture 2018, Leeuwarden (Hull is the city for 2017!). The boats around the city were pretty spectacular and as it was a nice day there was lots of movement on the water. Between our parking and the city there were about 4 bridges and all were up as we passed to allow boats through. Our parking at the aire near the casino (was free but now you have to pay except on Sundays) was almost 2km from the city. On approach we thought the city was going to be like Groningen, however we were wrong. Once in the old part of the city it was quite small but quite delightful. We even happened across some kind of event in the park, even though we attend we have no idea really what it was all about but provided a nice walk. We had lunch at the Walrus Café, Mark had Mustard soup and Walrus toast and Penny had Dayderam which was Curry Soup, Croquette on bread and Carpaccio and it was all very nice and traditional. After lunch we walked back to the van, Mark tried to watch sport on TV and Penny sat outside waving to all the boats passing (there were loads, she didn’t get to read her book). Once Mark had given in trying to get sport we set off to the coast to take  advantage of the forecasted couple of days of sun and to do the washing.

For once the weather forecast was correct and we picked a nice campsite to have a day off. To call the place a seaside was a bit of a stretch, there was probably space for a dozen people to sit on the beach, but the coastline was very nice so it was still a popular place. The town itself was very small with 00s of canals and bridges. All the streets were cobbled and very narrow, cars only went on the outskirts of town. It was packed with tourists but still a lot of the shops and restaurants only opened at the weekend which was a bit of a shame.