Iniitial blog posts

content/blog/day1.md

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+---
+title: 'Day 1: Almere NL, prep work'
+date: 2013-06-08T14:31:01+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+## Day One - Almere NL, prep work
+
+On Friday June 7th the road trip started, but Paul was unaware. I drove from my house in Zurich Switzerland to the picturesque town of
+Tengen Germany where I have a weekend retreat camping site and a happy RV unit full of RC units to play with. At around 9:15pm I left and at
+some 10:15pm I arrived at a rather calm campingsite.
+
+This morning, I got up at 7:00am (which I normally don't do), and I made it a point to go to the reception to pick up a mail package that
+was delivered to us this week. Unfortuantely last night I got there at 10:15pm and it was closed, but low and behold it was closed also this
+morning (opens at 8am). To make a decision, and to further my happy-time in Almere, I decided to pick up the package another day and drive.
+
+I drove an average of 123km/h through Germany and The Netherlands. It was a great trip and I landed at Almere NL at around 2:15pm. I had
+gained some time and thus when I hit Ede NL (where I used to live and work at BIT), I went to the Mac Car Wash (a hard core car wash), and
+got the full nine yards on the Merc. The rims were white again, in a somewhat presentable state for Paul who hadn't seen them yet. Of course
+I'd have to show him also the rather significant scratch in the Left Rear wheel, all my fault, from parking in the garage in Bruttisellen.
+
+We went shopping, we got Chicken, a staple food while roadtripping (we got a mere 16 chicken leg+breasts - hope it will be enough). We also
+went to Albert Heijn to cop some groceries, mostly fresh fruit to eat underway. Also some chips, drinks and other necessities.
+
+Because we can't go with damaged rims, we went to Halfords. Of course because Halfords are kiddie wannabe idiots, they had no idea what we
+were talking about and everything was "moeilijkleverbaar.nl". So we went to Brezan which is a profi car repair/tools shop, and doshed out
+11.20 euro for a black gloss repair paint bottle. I promptly cleaned and repaired the rims. You can't hardly see how hard I fucked up, which
+is nice.
+
+Now that the rims looked nice, we must of course also see to it that all the chips and Gipfli that Alexis almost finished, but didn't quite
+finish and thus lie in the car in various stages of decomposition, would be cleaned. We took out, once more, to a car wash with industrial
+vacuum cleaners, and Sucked The Crap Out Of The Car (STCOOTC). Result was a lookin-as-new! vehicle. I was very proud.
+
+When the topic of dinner came up, I mentioned Rodizio, but our place in Almere had shut down (possibly because they serve insane amounts of
+meat for insanely low prices!), but Paul had an idea along these lines. We went to Zaanstad. While driving there I got somewhat confused
+because I don't know this city as Zaanstad but as Zaandam. Paul enlightened me - it's the same thing. Consolidation drove several
+communities to form one City (Stad), one of them being Zaandam.
+
+The place we went to was [Castell](http://www.castellzaandam.nl) - and they have a meal for 2+ called Cote de Bouef. It was very tasty
+indeed, and the owner Ozgur came and said "Hi" as well. But I save the best thing for last -- really one of those things that touches the
+heart[tm] while in itself being quite easy. So, the netherlandics really like their rules and in particular fines. We parked the car around
+the corner of the restaurant on a public parking lot and paid until 9:23pm. At 9:30pm (just before the desert which was a delicious cheese
+platter), I ran out to extend our parking for half an hour. But then we chatted with Ozgur, paid and rocked up to our car at 10:15. The
+parking guard was still there and he walked up to me, so I asked him "hey what's up do you have a question?". He said "you guys are kind of
+late, so I have to give you a fine (60 Euros typically)". I said hey that's kind of sad cuz we've been here for a few hours and I actually
+even went back to pay twice and extend. I showed him both parking receipts, and against all odds he replied "you guys came a long way (ZH
+plates!) and obviously did the right thing having paid twice and applying yourselves. I'm going to delete my report. Have a good night!".
+
+And with that, I leave you - ready to trip the road, and with a great Zaanstad^W^W^W^Wdam memory (of ~1000gr steak and parking guards). Good
+night!
+
+**Posted by Pim van Pelt at 2:17 PM**