11 August 2005
Set off to somewhere called Huijbergen in the Netherlands - but the Convent where I should have found the madonna appears to be closed, the windows were boarded up and there was a "for sale" sign.
So off to Leiden to spend a glorious day in the Museum. A long drive, not helped by getting thoroughly lost in Den Haag (a city that doesn't believe in direction signs). After a couple of hours there, including a wrong turning which involved paying nearly 2 Euros to get out of a car par I never wanted to enter in the first place, I finally reach the campsite I've been looking for - very near Leiden. A disapproving woman took my money and grudgingly allowed me to camp on her site. The longed-for cup of coffee wasn't to be had as the camping shop had sold me the wrong gas cylinder, so I went to bed with a bottle of water and a bag of crisps. To look on the bright side, after the baptism of fire that Den Haag proved, at least when driving I no longer have heart failure every time I have to turn left or approach a roundabout.
