Letter of complaint to Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands re quite frankly OUTRAGEOUS price of their tents.

[Slubberdegullion]

So far have got

Dear Mr Rutte,

Hi.

I am writing to complain about the price of the tents made in your country.

Now for example look at this darling little <a class="break-all" href="http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=nl&u=www.esvocampingshop.com/en/tenten-en/lichtgewicht-katoenen-tenten-leichtgewicht-baumwolle-zelte-en/eskimo-tent-en.html&sa=X&ei=kxrfT5zWIMm_8wOJo_yXCw&ved=0CGkQ7gEwAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Desvo%2Beskimo%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26tbo%3Dd" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ESVO Eskimo. How lovely is that, and so light, 3875 g, amazing! And yet made of canvas. Genius. But at ?415,20 they are having a laugh.

If you could sort something out on this front that would be awesome. Have a word with the total crazers at De Waard too while your at it.

Lots of love,

Yours sincerely etc

PS Great Hair.

yes thank you Kveta, that would be very helpful.

Why would you want a tent with no windows?

DH is Dutch...Unfortunately he's married to me, and as much as I aspire for the effortless smugness grace of the catalogue perfect tents etc I fear he has gone native with us Brits, with our collection of scruffy practical camping gear rather than glossy perfection

I could get him to translate for you though?

as the now proud owner of three (yes, you read that right three ) De Waard albatross/zilvermeuww I say 'Get Thyself off to the Marketplatz' site, armed with google translate. This is where the bargains are to be found.
that, and an offer to arrange a courier.

I have used myparceldelivery.com and they collected for very reasonable prices (although the last one wasnt SO reasonable grrrr)

so said tents have cost me £300, £100 and £300 and they are all fantastic.

Why do you need 3? Are you the camping equivalent of a buggy Hun?

I think I must be. To confess I have 3 de Waards, 1 5m soulpad, 1 albion canvas 3m bell tent and an 18ft full size tipi with 24 ft poles (NOT SUITABLE FOR A WEEKEND CAMP reminder to self.....) recently I have been eyeing up tentipis.

am I a tent hun.
OMG....

To my defence we did use 3 of these when we did a luxury campsite on our farm last year, but I do think I have a problem

(I had a Stokke and a quinny zap and an off road all terrain when it was buggies, and far-too-many designer nappies when it was nappies.......)

OH has just headed our volunteer off at the pass after I had been talking tents to him and he started seriously considering tentipis for occassional use.....

and I only went camping twice last year......
and once the year before

Tbh I spend ages looking at de waards and similare despite having a camper.

To be a proper tent hun you need to sell me one of your de waards and then we can spend months fighting online about how you sent it full of fag butts and cat sick

[Anagnorisis]

I am a tent hun.

Oh the shame

arf at fag butts and cat sick.

Nettle can you take me through step by step how you did it on market plaatz. I would dearly dearly love an Albatros with the side panels and the bionic variolufiel wot not. Having seen and stroked them in real and proper true life in the store in Holland I was totally smitten but the price has kept me from purchasing. that and the size of the things.

I have on occasion had a shufty round market plaatz the the whole concept scares me a lot little.

and seriously if three dewaards is just madness and also sociologically destabilising.

If you went to the Netherlands to buy one it might be much cheaper. You could just leave your old English tent there ...

I do not have an 'old english tent' I have a Cabanon [affronted]. she's not being left anywhere.

Think for us it would be cheaper with a courier rather than travelling.

What is this market platz? I can translate dutch by simply speaking the words out loud in a shouty voice

albatross search
If that works then I have taken you to an albatross search. you can open a page in google translate, although tbh sometimes its not too tricky to work out what they are on about. most dutch people speak wonderful english. some are open to bids. some have a price they want. contact them, in English, explaining that you want to buy their tent and you will arrange a courier to collect if they are happy with that. some will do paypal. some will do a bank transfer. some will let you send a wodge of cash in a brown paper envelope (although Id recommend airsure/special delivery to be really safe) If you flatter them uncontrollably and say how impossible they are to get hold of here it plays to their dutch tent superiority and they are usually happy to obligue!

the funny sun canopy you want is the varioluffel.
the big sister of the albatross is the zilvermeuww. it also has a varioluffel.
i, alas, only have a sun canopy.

and you dont want to hear the sad tale of the sabotage by NIMBYS that happened to my woodland zilvermeuww just before a planning committtee visit. Surfice to say I am looking on the bright side and considering putting in a woodstove.....

hahaha and we got the planning permission in the end

Blimey ? 150

Indeed. though that could just be a starting price. sometimes you have a nosy and see some bargains. they last for ever and ever and ever. someone was saying ' Im sure you dont want it, its old and will cost as muc to send as its worth' (that was the £100 one - courier cost me £30....) we made that back on it renting it out for 2 nights.......

and its gorgeous.

am I allowed facebook linkies to show off our dewaards?????
I dont want to get in trouble...... (tho we are not renting them this year due to council restrictions on us, tho next year we have a lovely bit of woodland in our sights.........)

Please do! We are probably selling the camper next year so this would be good consolation

yes the old google translate is a bit hit and miss isn't it. Those prices are much more affordable though aren't they.

deffo want the varioluffel, that is the best bit.

Did you really just contact them in English, did you not have a stab with a reverse google translate english-dutch and then hope like mad they came back and said "let's talk in english as your dutch is shite"

Did you make them an offer or just pay what they were asking?

English and Dutch should be merged to form a super language

yes pliz to FB piccies

Meer fotos

I think I just went for a straight offer on the cheap ones, or what they were asking.
all the photos
should be all the pics

what do we think 'twee zijluifels' means.

google says 'two pipes ware'

Ik begrijp het niet (I do not understand)