Hi Kevin,
I was working in Holland last week, and didn't see this until today.
If you are going in September, I'm assuming it will just be the two of you and you want want to visit places like the Efteling Fairy-Tale Theme Park?
Dover - Calais / Dunkerque or Harwich - Rotterdam. Difficult choice, one route obviously cuts out most of the driving, but the shorter crossing will be cheaper and you'll have the advantage of extending your visit with a stop off in Brugge or Gent (Camping Blaarmeersen is the "best" camp-site in Belgium)
For me, with a UK Buckinghamshire address - it's about 2 hours by car to both Harwich and Dover. Then 3 hours to Rotterdam from Calais. But the advantage for me of the Dover route is the much, much greater frequency of crossings. Coming home on a Friday night (or Saturday) I can't predict arrival time and like the ability to just get the next crossing.
Holland:
I wrote a brief guide to Holland and Belgium - which is posted on some other forums that support file downloads. But if you go to my Eriba web-site (www.eriba-amiga.co.uk) and navigate to the "About Us" page - you can send me an e-mail.
Basically, from the moment you arrive in France and head North East - you won't see a hill or anything higher than a mole hill for hundreds of miles. So if you do walk up a church tower, you'll get some fantastic panoramic views of beautiful towns.
I'll list the cities and places as a drive from the ports to Middle Holland:
Brugge (B) - just beautiful - the view from the canal around the city is just so pretty. Stunning city centre - but a tourist trap too
Gent (B) - industrial city with large factories around the outskirts, but the centre is every bit the equal of Brugge - and not a tourist trap either.
From Gent you can travel into Holland by either the "Terneuzen Toll Tunnel", which crosses the Scheldt river just inland of the river mouth - and explore "Forgotten Holland" - the coastal towns of Vlissingen (Flushing), Middelburg, Renesse and Brielle are great. Many good camp grounds in the sand dunes.
Alternatively you can drive into Holland via Antwerpen (B) - modern city, interesting to visit - diamond and gold centre - but skip if you are limited for time - and the traffic on the East section of the ring road can be a nightmare. The Toll Tunnel under the Scheldt (ring road just west of Antwerpen) is always free of traffic. The road North of Antwerpen is uninspiring, but you'll soon arrive at Rotterdam.
A good place to stay and investigate "Holland" is DelftseHout camp-site just 10 minutes walk outside Delft - good restaurants, caf
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