Todays mission: Fix Berties mirror

We had a great night sleep in the carpark in Belgium but we woke up to freezing! Well, not quite, but it was pretty cold. Our first stop was a Mercedes dealership just outside Ghent… only to find out they don’t deal with vans or stock the parts we needed. Luckily, the kind receptionist called their city branch and confirmed they had what we were after.

A quick detour into Ghent, and Bertie was soon the proud owner of a shiny new side mirror. The best part? Fitting it was a easy. A quick pop-in job and Bertie was as good as new, ready to hit the road again. 

But no road trip goes completely to plan. Not long after we left, a warning light flicked on the dash. Time for another detour, this time to Antwerp and another Mercedes dealership. And, you guessed it, they didn’t handle vans either. The nearest van specialist was 30 minutes away… in the wrong direction. Strangely enough, when Mike restarted the van, the warning had vanished. Mysterious, but we weren’t complaining.

The rest of the day was a fast-paced sprint up the motorways, bypassing Belgium’s and Holland’s major cities – Antwerp, The Hague and Amsterdam.

Since freedom camping is banned in the Netherlands, we pulled into a campground north of Amsterdam. It’s not cheap at €27 a night, but the showers and toilets are super-flash, and it seems like a peaceful place to rest up.

Right now, it feels like we’re racing through Europe, but with limited time and many miles to cover, we’re skipping over the countries we’ve explored before. Things will slow down once we reach Denmark.