pastevs126

PAST EVENTS PAGE 126

DUTCH MR2 CLUB JUBILEE 20 YEARS of the MR2 in the NETHERLANDS - FRIDAY to SUNDAY 17th to 19th JUNE 2005

The “Toyota MR2 Club Netherlands” celebrated the introduction of the MR2 into Holland on the 17th, 18th and 19th of June 2005, what a celebration it was too, Doris and I are proud to have represented our club and taken part in this fabulous event in Friesland in the north of Holland.

The event started for us on Thursday the 16th of June when we left home around lunch time and headed for Hull to join the 2100 ferry to Rotterdam. The sea crossing was very pleasant starting by sitting on the upper sun deck watching a wonderful sun set with the obligatory brandy slowly diminishing in the glass, an excellent meal followed and then off to bed.

We disembarked from ‘The Pride of Rotterdam’ around 9am and started our drive to Leeuwarden. Once clear of the industrial area around Rotterdam and The Hague we travelled through lovely and very unexpectedly beautiful villages and countryside. I would say at this point that we search out country roads and narrow tracks when we travel and this always pays off with breathtaking views and charming villages where time seems to have stood still.

Having decided on a route we found ourselves in Den Oever, a small town at the south end of the Afsluitdijk; this is a dyke separating the Waddenzee which is to the seaward side of the dyke and the Ijsselmeer, the dyke is 19 miles long, the drive across has you wondering how was it constructed across such an open area of sea.

We arrived in Leeuwarden at 5pm and met some of the Dutch club committee together with club members from around Europe from as far afield as southern Italy, the highlight was meeting Wolfgang Klein, one of our club members from Germany. Doris enrolled him last year at the Bruntingthorpe MR2004 event.

We spent a very pleasant evening meeting all the guests from the various clubs attending.

Breakfast was a brilliant affair with every type of breakfast food that you can imagine so there was no excuse for anyone to not have a good start to the day.

The order of the day was for everyone to assemble at the Toyota dealer's premises for photographs and an introduction to the event.

The Toyota dealer Valkema hosted the introduction to the event, and local breakdown service, Theo Faber was on hand the whole weekend to assist anyone who had problems and this was a free service.

The run on Saturday was 250 Kilometres through eleven towns, the route that was chosen was one that is traditionally followed by skaters in the winter time, there is a great deal of water and many canals in Friesland, instead of railway crossings the road is raised to allow tall mainmast yachts to pass through. The scenery is very pretty with windmills and colourfully painted houses.

We were arranged in groups of five to six cars for the tour, we often all met up in towns where we were having our cards stamped, we often pulled up at garages but didn’t take any petrol, cheeky or what! Lots of us went into a Pizza place that was very quiet, as we entered the chef put his apron on and all we wanted was his stamp, in Holland every business has a stamp.

We arrived back at the hotel at 6-30pm having completed the full tour which took us through some lovely farmland and woods, our card was fully stamped and so we received a certificate as a memento of our achievement, not everyone managed to complete the route, we must thank Jurgen and Christiane Caspar from Germany for navigating us safely on the run.

Shower and change and we joined the rest of the guests for pre dinner drinks. The event took place on the first floor of the hotel and such a surprise was in store for us, in the party room there were three MR2s, one of each mark - to get them there they simply taken a window out and with the use of a crane put the cars on the first floor, WOW! Money no object. We enjoyed a wonderful evening together with lots of food and drinks, a disco was in full swing for any who still had any energy left to join in, there was also a solo singer. At midnight cake and ice cream were served, there was hardly any room left for more food. It was a wonderful event put on by a club that has only 160 members; it was a real credit to them.

All our goodbyes were said after breakfast on Sunday, we have made many friends in Holland and no doubt some will attend one of our events in the future. We left Leeuwarden with the group that we did the tour with and headed into Germany separating on the way as our direction took us towards Duisberg on the Rhine where we spent a few days with friends. Would we attend a function in Holland again? Yes is the answer to that without any doubt.

Doris and Fred Sanderson