Entry 7--September 13

When we left the campground south of Amsterdam today,img_1841_textmedium we had the goal of securing a storage place for the winter.  We had the name of a facility near the airport and fed the address into our GPS. The first turn we made put us on the A9 in the wrong direction, but  were able to get off and turned around without too much trouble.  The sign had simply said “A9,” not mentioning east or west.

We found the storage facility easily, but knew imediately that it would probably not be able to handle a 24 RB. The owner suggested another storage place (caravanstalling) nearly next door. That road seems to be a popular place for them, old greenhouses turned into camper storage--there are at least a half a dozen places on this road. It was a tight fit to turn around in his driveway, several back and forths and one moved bicycle. The next place said they would have room for us and that they already had 3 or 4 Americans’ motorhomes. So we went into the office and filled out some papers.  It will cost us €500 (around $740) to store from the end of October through March in inside storage.  Everything is costing about half again as much as we expected because of the current exchange rate. This storage place is particularly handy because it is a taxi ride from Amsterdam airport. When I told the woman in the office that we were Dutch, she offered us coffee. And she was delighted to see the old money (guilders) I had brought with us. 

Now we will have to figure out insurance. There is only one company that we know of that insures US registered vehicles in Europe. We are reluctant to pay the $1500/ 3 months that we have to pay for liability and collision while we are on the road. But the insurance company does not offer a “storage only” reduction. And since we have already lost a valuable vehicle once before in a flood while in storage, we are not eager to leave it uninsured in a country that is already below sea level.  It is a problem that does not have to be solved today.

We then continued on the ring motorway around Amsterdam (we are heading north to meet siblings in a few days) and got ourselves into a fairly tight spot along a canal in a little town, parking, I believe, in front of a noparking sign. IMG_1843 Then we found a big parking square where we stopped for lunch.  We drove on the the quaint town of Volemdam where there is a lovely camperstop with electricity right by the marina.  We have seen none of it. It has been pouring rain ever since we got here.

“Camperstops” are stopover places for self-contained motorhomes at little or no cost. There are some services here: a dump, fresh water, electricity, but no toilets or showers for €13. Some places offer no services except a place to park for the night. We chose not to use a free one in Ghent because we did not like the neighborhood and traffic. 

Maybe tomorrow it will stop raining.