Holland and Germany

We crossed that rickety wooden bridge from Holland to Germany, no man at a little wooden hut to check passports, (would they have done in the  past?) and suddenly there is a different feel and everyone speaks a different language.  In Holland most people have some English, across that bridge and in this part of Germany very few people do.  There was less greeting of people you passed.  In Holland people sitting in their gardens or mowing the lawn would great you but in Germany, they are more like the English, and pretend you are not there.  Cyclists do greet each other and it took a long time before we found out that what sounded like "morning" said at any time of the day, was a local word "Moin" but it stops being used as we go East.

The fields also have a different flavour.  In Holland every inch of land seemed to be used, with neatly ploughed fields, or rows of tulips  and other crops.  In Germany many fields were left and there was a lot more grazing of cattle.  We are still in Friesia so plenty of Fresian cows.  The gardens are less well tended and lawns grow dandelions and daisies instead of neatly mown grass. There is litter by the side of the road, so generally a feeling of being more like England.

Camp sites also have a different feel.  Both countries have campsites with mainly static caravans.  In Holland they tend to be surrounded by neat gardens with a good stock of gnomes.  In Germany they are often on concrete bases and closer together.  In one site we saw the gnomes growing out of a window box.  In both countries camp sites can be enormous, where you need a bike to get to the toilet block. In Holland they also have mini sites which can be in a field at the back of someones house, or extra large garden.  Price is no indication of what you are getting and in some of the most expensive you have to pay for showers. One of the cheapest mini-sites in Holland brought round blankets to campers on the night it went down to 3 degrees.