The Netherlands -- Day One

Yesterday we returned from a three-night trip to the Netherlands. I have a lot to write about so I will blog this trip in installments.  I will write a bit about each day and then add some miscellaneous comments at the end.

Day One: Wednesday, 28 April
We left Nordenstadt around noon and headed for the Duinrell campground where we had reserved a trailer from Eurocamp. Google Maps said it was a four hour trip but I knew it would take us longer than that -- traveling with kids is slow but traveling with a two-month-old baby is even slower.

Gas in Europe is expensive -- €1.48 per liter (that's $7.44 per gallon using today's exchange rate). If you were paying $7+ per gallon for gas, you might drive a Smart car too. Fortunately for us, the US Government sells gas for less than half that price -- about $3.30 per gallon on the military bases. There is a monthly limit on how much gas each car can purchase but we have never come anywhere close to the limits on our cars. The limit is based on the size of the engine (or the weight of the car?). For the minivan, the limit is 600 liters per month (158.73 gallons). The price we pay for gas is set by AAFES. AAFES says it sets prices based on the Department of Energy's monthly average for each grade of gas (plus a local dispensing costs). The local dispensing costs must be expensive because the last time I checked nobody in the states was paying $3.30 per gallon for gas. So our gas is expensive but it is hard to complain when the Germans are paying more than twice as much.

Filling up with gas on the military bases is easy. But when traveling, gas can quickly become a big expense. To help with this, the government has an agreement with Esso (the international version of Exxon) to allow people with military IDs to pay the cheaper prices. The catch is that the agreement is only valid in Germany. So part of our trip planning was locating the closest Esso station to the Germany / Netherlands border. I found one that took us about 20 miles out of the way but it was well worth the trip. The goal was to fill up before we left Germany and then to try to make it back without having to add any gas in the Netherlands.

There was a nice little playground adjacent to the Esso station.  The boys spent a few minutes playing while baby Sara had some milk.  Calvin liked the swing and the slide (not pictured); Oscar liked helping the dandelions reproduce asexually by apomixis.

  When we made it back to an Esso station on Saturday afternoon, we had about 1/8 of a tank of gas left. Here is a photo of the receipt that shows I filled up 63.55 liters (16.8 gallons) at a cost of $53. Without the AAFES gas card, it would have cost €93.99 ($125).

 One of the first things I noticed when we crossed the border into the Netherlands is that they use a different font on their road signs.  German road signs use a modern version of DIN 1451 -- they call it DIN 1451 Mittelschrift.  Here is a photo I took on the A3:

Bonn is the former capital of West Germany.  Köln is better known to Americans as Cologne.  The font is classic, stately, and instantly recognizable -- almost as much a part of the Autobahn as no speed limits (more on that later).

The Dutch signs use a font called ANWB-Uu.  Like DIN 1451 Mittelschrift, ANWB-Uu is a sans-serif font.  But it just looks a bit cluttered and disorganized.  It is harder to read from a distance because the letters get crammed together.  Here are two pictures I took:

The OpenType blog has noted some differences between the German and Dutch traffic signs.

We got stuck in rush hour traffic on the way to the campground so it took longer than it should have.  We arrived a little before 6PM.

We stayed in a two bedroom trailer.  It was not large but we liked it because it was much cheaper than a hotel, the boys had their own bedroom, and the fact that it had a built-in kitchen meant we could bring food and cook our own meals.  Here are some photos of the trailer:

The trailer had a small deck.  The weather was nice so we ate dinner outside.  It wasn't long before we were joined by two very hungry ducks:

We had a conversation that went something like this:

Oscar: Can I feed some bread to the ducks?
Me: Yes, but not too much.
Oscar: I'll just feed them until they are full.
Tina: I think we better feed them only one piece.
Oscar: Why?
Me: Because ducks are always hungry.
* Short pause; I thought that would be the end of the conversation *
Oscar: Daddy?
Me: Yes?
Oscar: Why are ducks always hungry?

After dinner we settled in for a good night of sleep.  We had a big day planned for Thursday...