The last thing of our trip dawned on us: Drive to the Netherlands and visit dear friends of ours for a couple of days before returning to Frankfurt in one go. Thus, today was a driving day. We wanted to get from North-east France through Belgium and into the Netherlands.

The sat nav told us that it’s about 400km which is 50km more than we did on long driving days so far. Better to get going then!

Despite the grey, low hanging clouds, we managed to pack everything dry. We had another hour to go in France which left plenty of opportunity to stop at one more Intermarché and buy some more pain au chocolat. In a combined effort we even got Number 3 to stay awake until we reached the supermarket so he could roam around before passing out in the car. So far, so good.

We made good progress until Number 3 woke up and it was about lunch time anyway so we stopped at a motorway rest. Having our own bread-and-cheese lunch felt slightly odd but it was definitely tastier than the McDonald’s option of the rest stop.

Things started to go slightly wrong from here. Back on the road, the ring road around Antwerp, we were instantly in the first traffic jam. What had been an 8 minute delay because of roadworks before we stopped for lunch was now a full blown jam, probably with an extra accident thrown in just for fun. It took f.o.r.e.v.e.r. For the next 45 minutes, we drove maybe 15 kilometers. The sat nav found other ways for us, off the motorway, but these started to clog up quickly as well and they also had roadworks. Baby was not amused with the whole situation and started screaming on top of all the other stress we already experienced.

Finally, finally, we were through this blockage and back on the road. However, Belgium had two more traffic jams for us and the Netherlands one small one. If you are wondering, why we were in so many of them…yes, traffic around the big cities is usually bad. However, we chose the Friday before a long weekend for our longest driving day so really, we should have known better.

Instead of arriving around 4pm, we met our friends at 5.30pm, dead tired and stressed out. Things got a lot better from here on out. We spent most of the evening at out friends’ flat, meeting their little boy (to be known as Mini van Bartang) and just generally catching up and eating pizza. Back at the camp site, we set up in record time and were in bed by 9pm.

There was a storm warning for this part of the Netherlands for the evening and night. Just in case, we left it to the tent and storm cover, planning to set up full camp tomorrow.

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