Norwich 1 – Colchester 7
As an Ipswich Town supporter, I don’t wish Norwich City too much good fortune. Who in Suffolk does?
But for Norwich to go lose by seven goals to one on the first day of the season shows there must be some problems at the club. Unless of course they had seen that Ipswich were playing tomorrow and thought they were as well. So half their players didn’t turn up!
I just looked on the Internet and they beat Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in a warm up match. That wasn’t too bad or are Palace even worse!
Delia Smith seems to have created a wonderfully chaotic new pudding!
A Bad Bet
Camelot are in trouble for selling lottery tickets to people abroad, who because of the rules won’t win.
I thought that the whole point of lotteries was to remove money from mugs, so it surely doesn’t make any difference. They’ll lose anyway.
Poor Belgium
As we enjoyed yesterday in Antwerp so much, I thought I’d get a tourist guide to Belgium, when I went shopping this morning. Not obviously, in Newmarket, as there were guides for most European countries.
But not Belgium!
Urine Cures Athlete’s Foot
As I drove back from Dover last night, someone brought this up on Radio 5.
It might be even be true! But I suspect, it’s one you don’t try at home!
I think though that late night radio is sometimes very weird. But then how many listeners at that time are both sane and fully awake?
Fuel at Brentwood on the M25
As I drove past the Dartford Crossing, it was obvious that I would need to fill up with fuel. No-one in their right mind goes into a motorway service station to buy fuel, although I’ll admit that in some the toilets are clean. Some too have Marks & Spencer, Simply Food outlets and these are worth visiting too.
But at Brentwood, close to the junction is a Total garage on the A1023 that leads into Brentwood.
So I filled up there. It was convenient and cheaper than the fuel on the motorway.
I did make one mistake in that I bought some nuts. But they were KP’s new salt and vinegar variety. They are not gluten-free!
Night Crossing
I left Dunkirk just as it was getting dark last night.
Maerske Dover at Dunkirk
I did sleep a bit on the trip over as I was in VIP class and the seats are wide enough for a lie down. But I did have a couple of free coffees and then spent the last few minutes of the crossing on the blunt end of the boat watching it dock at Dover. So I did arrive fairly refreshed.
Dover Docks at Night
This picture shows the moment we docked.
To our right was the new LD Lines, High Speed Ferry that goes to Boulogne.
We need more like that. Hopefully like they used to be on Harwich to the Hook of Holland. I use it on my trips to Holland.
The Dunkirk Signs
Several times now, I’ve taken the Norfolk Line ferry from Dunkirk to Dover. Sometimes I’ve been late and have hurried along the coastal motorway, but yesterday I was on time and didn’t particularly push it.
There is a problem with the signs. At one point, Dunkirk was showing as fourteen kilometres away and I had 107 miles on the odometer. When I got to the port, the figure was 126 miles.
That means that the port was almost 30 kilometres not 14 or sixteen more than the signs for Dunkirk said.
So be careful.
Note – To convert miles to kilometres multiply by 1.609344. 1.6 is usually good enough for an estimate. I hope you learned your 16 times table at school!
A Late Flowering
I had thought that when I left Antwerp the roads would be a lot clearer than other Friday nights, when I’d done this trip. They were but they were still crowded.
I should say that the main route from Antwerp to Ostend is to take the road to Gent and then the E40 motorway to Ostend. It is not as quick as it should be and sometimes is blocked either by accidents or just too much traffic. So I prefer to take the E34 towards Brugge and then cut down the N44 at Maldegem. It’s probably a few kilometres further, but on most days it is quicker and probably a lot safer. When coming direct from Holland, I also cut across from Breda and through the Liefkenshoek tunnel. That route is usually traffic-free as the tunnel costs five euro.
But within ten minutes of leaving my parking space near the station, I was on the E34 and heading towards Brugge. The weather was good, so the top was down on the Lotus and I was enjoying the rather weak evening sunshine. But the road was busy and it took me quite a few minutes to get out of the right-hand-lane with the trucks at a hundred or so kilometres per hour and into the left at a lot faster.
I often say that the Lotus Elan is the Second Best Car in the World. I did in this piece.
When you are in fast traffic it is in its element and it proves my description.
With the top down, the vision is superb in all directions and you’re never in danger of cutting anybody up, as you can use all three mirrors and even turn your head to check blind spots. I don’t want a coming together at about a hundred miles per hour or more. You don’t come out well.
When I made the left hand lane, it was either stick there with the mad Belgians in their BMWs, Mercedes and Porsches at speeds of over a hundred fifty kilometres per hour or tamely get stuck with the trucks. I chose the mad Belgians!
But I did watch all the dials; turbo boost, temperature, oil, water and fuel. They are so much more instructive than a set of anonymous lights, which generally go red for every sort of engine problem and then present you with a large bill for the technician to plug his computer into the one in your car. Incidentally, the Lotus has its own engine management computer which is as old as the car. Why can’t PCs last a bit longer? I do wonder though what will happen when one of these computers needs replacing on a classic car in say thirty years time.
At speed with the top down, there is little wind noise in the Lotus. There’s even less with the top up! Could this be because the car is actually aerodynamically clean and doesn’t create all the vortices that occur on the average car, where interior space can’t be compromised for the dynamics and you tend to end up with all sorts of wings and spoilers. Not that the interior space was minimised in the Lotus, but it was designed first and foremost as a fast and stable sports car.
And on the subject of interior space, the Lotus may be a very short car, but because it is front-wheel drive and it has been intelligently designed, it can pack a vast amount of luggage for such a small car. All of the books, maps, tools and safety equipment actually fit in the space under the hood, which because it is manual doesn’t take up half the rear of the car and add significantly to the weight. I can also get two soft cases and a Brompton bicycle in the boot.
I’ve tended to think lately that the cars acceleration is getting a lot slower than some of the modern BMWs and Mercedes, but on the road to Brugge, there are several sets of lights and she performed well. Perhaps, they have a lot more power, but they also have a lot more weight. Cars are getting obese like people!
At Maldegem, I slowed on the E44 and transferred to the main motorway before picking up pace again towards Ostend and Dunkirk. The pace was less frenetic and the road was also a lot less busy, with a lot of British registered vehicles going towards the Channel Tunnel and the ferries.
But the car finally showed it’s superb design credentials in an unusual way. There appeared to be very dark clouds over Dunkirk and it would have not been very prudent to raise the hood. Luckily, there was a handy service area and I stopped, got out the car, lifted the cover for the hood, raised and clipped it into place and drove off, all in about twenty seconds.
Try doing that in anything with an electric hood.
A Triple Decker Station
Antwerp Central railway station is considered one of best stations in the world.
In fact Newsweek called it the “4th most beautiful station in the world”. They rated Saint Pancras first, Grand Central in New York second, and in Chhatrapati Shivaji in Mumbai third. So I’ve now seen the top four!
Antwerp Central Station
It isn’t as old as some stations having been built between 1895 and 1905 and it was originally a terminus.
Antwerp Central Station – Trainshed
This view shows the outside of the enormous trainshed.
Inside it is no less spectacular and extremely unusual in that through trains between Brussels and Holland, now pass in a deep level station underneath the original.
Antwerp Central Station – Inside of the Trainshed
When you look down, you see all three levels of platforms.
Antwerp Central Station – Three Levels
The train in the picture is a Thalys, one of the high-speed trains between Paris and Amsterdam. Unfortunately at present they dawdle from Brussels onwards.
Antwerp Central Station – Looking Up
Note how it is good blend of traditional and modern.
Museum Plantin-Moretus
I said in my post, Letterpress Rules OK, that there weren’t that many printing museums in the world.
But in Antwerp, there is the Museum Plantin-Moretus.
Museum Plantin-Moretus
The actual museum and contents are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
They have a large collection of machines, type and all the other things that proper printing entails. For example, they explain how printers in the 16th and 17th centuries actually made the movable type.
Museum Plantin-Moretus - Printing Machine
Note the virtually all wooden construction.
Museum Plantin-Moretus - More Printing Machines
There were six machines in the room. They were displayed down one wall with desks for the compositors on the other side of the room.
The building itself is immaculate with a vast collection of old books, maps and paintings, including a Gutenburg Bible and several portraits by Rubens.
Museum Plantin-Moretus - The Garden
It is a museum that is well worth a visit. Allow more time than we did, as the staff were rather hasty in chucking us out.
The Anonymous Widower 