They say you spend 1/3 of your life in bed so that was the first priority. The Hobby Premium comes with a very comfortable Queen sized mattress but no bedding. Thanks to the internet we had already tracked down the nearest IKEA so off we set. I’d think IKEA would like to be known for their modernist simple, yet functional designs, provided in easy to construct flat-packs and offered at reasonable prices. But we know them for their cheap breakfasts Looking of the IKEA catalogue tells you they have the same goods in the same place in every store world wide, but did that apply to the food in the restaurant? Well it does for lunches, pasta, smoked salmon, Swedish cakes and of course the inevitable meatballs and mashed potatoes, but not for breakfast. In Brisbane you got scrambled eggs, thin bacon, snags (sausages) half a tomato and hash browns. In Edmonton it was similar but you could supersize to 9 items to increase your intake of saturated fats. But at Neuss it was cold cuts; salami, smoked salmon, cheese and a portion of strawberry jam all to be eaten with 2 Broetchen (German rolls). So we now look forward to how IKEA in Italy, Spain and France are going to ‘break our fast’. Oh, and by the way we collected our bedding on the way out.
Next was the kitchen and washroom. We brought a microwave oven, electric steamer together with items of cutlery and crockery with us. All that was missing was the food. The richest man in Germany was, until recently, not a financier, motor manufacturer, electronic of factory magnate as you might expect. He was the founder of the Aldi supermarket chain. That’s not actually true because Aldi was founded by 2 brother but they fell out over the issue of selling cigarettes at the checkout. Not being able to agree they split the company into 2, now Aldi North and Aldi South. We would never have noticed this if it had not been for a geopolitical quirk. Our local Aldi in Waldniel was Aldi South but just over the border in the Netherlands Aldi North held sway We are fans of the Aldi business model which uses their buying power to obtain existing brands but sell them under their own label at much reduced prices. So with 2 Aldis and the German and Dutch varieties of Lidl to play with we soon stocked the larder with food and the washroom with cleaners. Now all the ‘interesting’ things were bought we had to turn our attention to the ‘boring’ things like, power, water supply, heating, waste disposal and Health & Safety items such as extending wing mirrors, fire extinguisher, steps and a breakdown kit.
There are slightly fewer Dutch than Australians but the big contrast is that the Dutch are shoehorned into a country about the size of a postage stamp. it’s small, flat and sticky when wet. So it’s not a surprise that the Dutch want to get away from home from time to time just to see hills, lakes and mountains. This makes them the world’s greatest caravaners. At the start of the school holidays caravans stream out of Holland to fill the Autobahns and Autoroutes heading south and east like Orcs out of Mordor. Back in England apart from a few specialist shops, caravaners have to rely on Halfords for their bits and pieces. The Dutch on the other hand have Caravan Mega Stores. On most Saturdays German shops literally shut up shop at lunchtime. Those still in need of retail therapy head over the border into the Netherlands. On one such Saturday we headed for the border town of Roermont and found the shopping complex which seems attached to most towns these days. It was raining so we found an undercover car park attached to a large store. As we got out of the car we noticed they had tents in the shop window so we thought we’d have a look inside. Well it was about the size of one of those electronic stores in Tokyo or Marks and Spencer on Oxford Street. It would be no exaggeration to say it had everything a caravaner or camper could ever want. It had a whole department just for hiking boots! You could buy a tent that would house you and your camels on the Silk Road to China, or keep you snug on Mount Everest. There were enough chemical toilets to satisfy an army. There was even the battery powered caravan mover that the Germans had just sold us for double the price. The store was not just packed full with goddies it was also jam packed with people. We had been to the British Caravan Show in London’s docklands back in February and there were more people in this shop than at the show. OK it was raining but the Dutch school holidays were only a week away and it seemed that the locals were in final preparations for the invasion of the Shire.
Water resistant electric cables, toilet chemicals, water hoses and gas bottles were bought. We even had a choice of 20 types of car wing mirrors extensions. But the best buy was a pair of wellington boots in the Dutch Delft pottery style of blue on white, complete with windmills and winter scenes. Guess who had those? We were now kitted out and ready to experience the joys that caravanning would bring.
