Our original plan after we left Germany, was to repeat a journey we made 3 yrs ago in the opposite direction- along the dyke which separates the Ijsselmeer from the north sea. There is a MH aire at the end, at den Oever, which we quite fancied.     
  We had to leave the main road to get diesel, and had to wait for a bridge to be lowered, then on our way back had to wait for another to be raised and lowered again!

However during the journey the weather deteriorated badly and by the time we got to the dyke it was raining heavily with a strong wind blowing. We had a 'planning meeting' high up in the middle of the dyke and decided it was far too windy to stay by the North Sea.
We decided to travel on to the cheese market town of Alkmaar.  The ACSI campsite there had 2 nights left at the ACSI rate - just what we wanted.

We had a lovely welcome from' Mr Happy' who relieved us of the fees straight away and then informed us a shower would cost 50cents each, but he would not charge us the tourist tax!
We later found out that hot water in the washing up and washing sinks cost 50c a go and he also charged 1e for water at the pumpout!
The campsite was very pleasant - even though he allocated MH pitches with us all crowded together, surrounded by acres of open space!
A canal ran through the site with ducks and coots with babies and a visiting heron.