Pleasures of NOT Flying
I have come to Utrecht for a weekend away at a wedding.
I did think about flying, but although the drive would take nearly ten hours, I thought it would be the best way to do it. It has its compensations in that I can get the suits I’ll need and the smart jacket in the car without cramming them into a suitcase. And I can get my Brompton in the boot of the Jaguar estate.
I’ve just been for a ride around the city. It seems much like most Dutch cities; water, bicycles and windmills.
Utrecht
As to cost, well because I couldn’t be sure that I’d ever get here, I couldn’t book until a few days ago. Norfolk Line cost me about sixty pounds one way and easyJet would have been over a hundred and twenty because of the late booking and the luggage. So on balance the drive was a little bit more expensive, but it was certainly hassle free and I had the bike.
The only hassle was the difficulty of getting diesel at Total garages on the Belgian motorway. You had to pay first and I think they keep the card. I’m not doing that, because if someone skims it, it’s my fault, as I gave the card to someone else.
Safety Fast
This morning I was up at a quarter to three and on the road to Dover by twenty past. The road was dry, the weather was clear, the full moon was shining, the hood on the Lotus was down and there was little traffic. Except for the road works on the M25 between the M11 and the A12, there was nothing to hold me up. Even the tolls at the Dartford Crossing were free! Is there another crossing in the world, with a bridge one way and a tunnel the other?
So I pulled in to the docks at Dover at five past five after just one hour forty five minutes of travelling. The car may be seventeen years old, but it hasn’t lost its verve and long legs.
The title of this topic is the old slogan that MG used to use with their sports cars and saloons for many years. It is still the name of the MG enthusiast’s magazine. My father had many MGs in his time from pre-war Midgets to mid-fifties Magnettes and thought it was a slogan that suited the now-gone marque. I like to think that I drove the Lotus that way both to Dover and afterwards on the three hour trip to Holland.
The ferry was half-an-hour late due to a mechanical problem, which was a first for Norfolk Line, and the captain apologised, but I still had visions of hairy and oily mechanics trying to replace big-ends or something even more serious. But they did make up some of the time and I left Dunkirk exactly on half-past-nine by European Time.
In front of me on the ferry was an AC Cobra. Not a copy, but a genuine one from the 1970s and we started off in convoy towards Ostend. He was going to the Nurburgring, to see a classic Grand Prix. One day, I’ll take the Lotus there on one of their experience days. Sadly it won’t be this year, as someone has a wedding on that day.
One thing that was a bit wrong, was that the couple in the Cobra were using a Sat-Nav. Surely that is wrong!
But is it wrong that Colin Chapman named his car after a flower, with names that showed spirit, like Elan, Esprit and Elite? Not for him Cobra, Miura, Panther or Thunderbird, which exudes power, but something that is more about class and agility.
A word of warning here. If you are taking a ferry to Dunkirk, don’t do it with an almost-empty tank, as filling stations are some way over the Belgian border. The Cobra stopped in the first one and I carried on to Ostend. The fuel also seemed expensive at €1.41 a litre. So perhaps fill up at Tesco at Dover.
At Ostend the fun started.
The traffic along the coast had been light and generally proceeding at about 120-130 kph. But after the Ostend traffic joined the road was very busy and Mercedes and others were storming about at well over the legal limit. It is in traffic like this that the agile Lotus comes into its own.
With the top down, you have perfect vision in all directions and because the road-holding is so good, you can almost drive sideways to avoid someone who isn’t looking. In one instant a big 4×4 pulled out on me and I’m sure he was looking right over the top. And the Lotus is bright yellow! Norfolk mustard is the actual name.
Gent and Antwerp followed in succession without any holdup and I was quickly through the latter city and on the road to Breda and Rotterdam. And just as the road had got angry at Ostend, it calmed at Antwerp. It must be the Belgians.
And whilst on the subject of the Belgians.
Can they please use consistent road signs with the same name for the same city throughout the country? I don’t care if they call Bruxelles, Timbuktoo, but please be consistent. I wish the Welsh would do the same too. I don’t care what name, but every town and village in Europe should only have one name. To make things fair it should be chosen by those that live there.
The last part of the journey past Breda, Dordrecht and Rotterdam was busy, but again my speed was well-up and I finally arrived in Den Haag (Note the Dutch name!) just three hours and five minutes after leaving Dunkirk and eight hours fifteen minutes from home. I could have gone quicker by easyJet from Stansted, but I couldn’t have taken as much luggage and especially my Brompton. The difference is probably three hours.
Incidentally for most of the last part of the journey I was listening to the late great Dusty Springfield on the CD player. Wonderful! Especially, as through the Drechttunnel, with the top down, I was playing one of her songs at full blast and it was reverberating off the walls.
I did get slowed on entering Den Haag, so I turned off the motorway and followed the signs to Scheveningen. If you ask the locals how you pronounce that town, the answer is now very non politically correct, as it refers to shaving someone described by an N-word. But it is linguistically correct.
Albert Heijn
Albert Heijn is a supermarket chain in Holland.
Their stores seem to be everywhere and they mark all of the gluten-free products with the correct symbol. I’ve never had any problems with anything in their stores. Last night I had some salami and goat’s cheese thingies that were ideal for eating on the move.
Their stores are also in a lot of railway stations, so you can just pop-in and buy a salad for lunch.
Ragwort
To anybody who keeps horse or cattle, ragwort is a curse. It can kill, although there are various people, who say that it is not as dangerous as we think. That is an interesting attitiude, but what happens if an expensive horse, cow or other animal is poisoned and dies?
So I just don’t like it.
They’ve even got lots of it in Holland.
Ragwort in Holland
But as it says on the DEFRA web site.
Over 90% of complaints that Defra receives about injurious weeds concern ragwort.
To me there is only one thing to do. Make sure it isn’t there! We all need something to hate occassionally and ragwort is a good place to start!
Windmills and Ferries
We spent an enjoyable day meandering down the Waal, after viewing the Water Line and the castle at Loevenstein. We crossed it three times on an assortment of ferries.
Ferry Across The Waal
The ferries were of a similar design to those that you get in London at Woolwich. But those are free, as opposed to the Dutch ones which were a couple of euros. I don’t think I’ve ever used three ferries in one day! But here in the heart of Holland, you can do it a lot more than that!
We finally ended up at Kinderdijk, which is a World Heritage Site. If you see pictures of windmills on a Dutch tourist poster, it is usually a picture from this area.
Kinderdijk
Close by the windmills are some of the largest Archemedean screw pumps, I’ve ever seen.
Archemedean Screw Pump at Kinderdijk
This is just one of four sets of these enormous pumps.
The Waal is not the sort of place that tourists would normally go. But they should!
Back on the Ferry
It’s now 9:15 UK Time and I’m back on the Norfolk Line ferry to Dover.
This time I had the cricket all the way from Holland until I went past Antwerp. But this time it wasn’t so good. England contrived to go from 196 for no wicket to 364 for 6, by means of some sloppy batting. You can never trust an Aussie cricket team until they’re beaten.
We just gave them too many breaks.
But it was quicker to take the route through Bergen op Zoom and the tunnels at Antwerp and then down the parallel motorway almost to Bruges. I didn’t see much traffic and the lights on the latter part of the journey weren’t too unkind.
I made the ferry with firty-five minutes to spare, despite taking nearly an hour to get round Rotterdam. We may complain about the M25, but it seems everyone has the same problem.
On the down side, the Maerske Dover has a rather bad vibration.
Roaming the Netherlands
In July, I wandered around the Netherlands.
I learned a little bit about the Water Line and some of the fortifications are shown in the pictures. There are also pictures of the famous installations at Kinderdijk-Elshout.
Both are Dutch World Heritage Sites, although the Water Line is only on the tentative list.
Dutch Water Line
The Water Line is a series of defensive forts, towns, castles and dikes, that was built to protect the Dutch heartland from invasion in the 17th century. It was upgraded for many years, but proved inadequate in the Second World War as it was just by-passed by the Nazis.
This is one of the impressive castles, Slot Loevestein.
Slot Loevestein
The castle, and in fact the whole Water Line, is definitely worth a visit.
740 Euros to Remove a Tick in Holland
This was sent to me by a Dutch friend.
Ziekenhuis rekent 740 euro voor weghalen teek door Cees Jansen
Breda – Een simpele medische ingreep bij de spoedeisende hulp bezorgde een 34-jarige man in Breda een woedeaanval.
Translated this becomes.
Hospital charges 740 euro to take away a tick by Cees Jansen
Breda – a simple medical intervention at the hospital provided to a 34 year-old man in Breda provoked a lot of anger.
As you have to have compulsory medical insurance in Holland, he was probably OK. But if you’re going to Holland make sure you take your European Health Insurance Card.
The Anonymous Widower 