MGF Treffen 2002 day 10 + 11

Monday 9th September – Day 10 (penultimate day) :-(

Breakfast over, Patrick, Ann and myself set off for a quick walk around Celle (in my case to get some Coca Cola for the journey). Stocked up for the trip we returned to the hotel and said goodbye to Michael, whose wife had arrived to take him home. Thus, depleted in numbers we set off once more, heading for Potsdam. Shortly before we got there Alex waved us goodbye and started his return trip to Switzerland, we carried on through Potsdam (where we were hassled by a ‘local’ ZR) and then onto the Autobahn for the blast through to our lunchtime stop. The journey was high speed, but otherwise uneventful, being mainly motorway and therefore ‘run of the mill’. The weather was however still with us, being gloriously sunny (more Mexican waves!) Lunch was nice, Strammer Max in a small town on the German, Dutch border. Erik and Fran planned to leave us about 30 kilometres from Amsterdam, so we said our goodbyes in the car park before we set off again.

The last leg was again high-speed autobahn stuff, however the traffic got steadily worse as we got nearer Amsterdam. We also had our first drop of rain on this journey, only Mike Satur and Erik and Fran had their hoods up as we drove into a cloudburst at speed. I dropped the driver’s window a fraction and maintained a reasonable pace so that 95% of the water stayed out of the cabin. As soon as it started, it stopped, revealing the blue skies we have grown accustomed to. True to their word, Erik and Fran left us on the outskirts, lots of tooting ad waving as they took the slip road on the trip back to Antwerp. Their F appears to be running fine now so they should make it safely (in time to do the laundry!) but they need to replace the radiator bleed screw ASAP (As Soon As Possible Erik!) :-) Looking forward to seeing the pictures mate. :-)

So now we were down to the original group, less Art, 8 UK MGs trying to stay in convoy through the Dutch traffic before we hit Amsterdam. When we entered the city we were a bit fragmented, I was relaying directions to David and Jackie at the back, but their reply of, We know where you are, but Patrick, who is in front of us doesn’t!” didn’t exactly inspire confidence! Ted meanwhile was relying on ‘Betsy’ (his GPS system) to guide us right to the hotel. Mike Satur managed to upset a moped who had cut him up and was on the receiving end of a ‘less than polite’ gesture and I was struggling to keep up with Ted as the city traffic was making life difficult. Betsy did us proud and took us directly to the Hotel, and by a mixture of good driving, luck and the odd radioed instruction we managed to all arrive safely and were shown into the hotel’s garage where the cars were unpacked and put to bed.

The Hotel Rho is rather nice, in a Victorian railway station kind of way. We unpacked and then after a quick shower, Stefan, Jenny, Patrick, Ann, Ted and myself went out to do the tourist bit. We had a city tour on the canals and then wandered through the (in)famous red light district until we found a restaurant. Who should be sitting in the window (advertising their wares?), Jackie and Vyv, with Husbands, Richard and Mike Satur as well. As we arrived in 2 groups we were seated away from the others (riff raff!) at the rear of the restaurant, which was Malaysian cuisine. Two tables were pushed together and we had an excellent meal in good company. Half way through the main course, David approached us with an invite to the Banana Bar, having seen the place on the walk to the restaurant we declined (I’m just too tired at the moment anyway!) Ultimately we returned to the Hotel, it is half 11 as I write this and I am just about to go to bed. Last day tomorrow, the Dutch coast road to Calais awaits us and then back to ‘dear old Blighty’.

SF

Last report coming up...

Tuesday 10th September – Day 11 (last day) :-(

We left Amsterdam this morning after a good night’s sleep in the Hotel Rho (with no X rated incidents, as far as I know!) Once more I failed to bypass the Hotel switchboard and now the last few updates will have to wait until I get home later on today.

Ted received a message from Peter Roos, a Dutch MGF owner / BBS regular who would like to join us for part of the journey today, he would be meeting us near the Haag and we were to look out for a BRG F. Also, the hotel, being in the very heart of Amsterdam, was pretty extortionate for over night parking – 20 Euros per car per day. Ted very nearly got lumbered with all 8 cars’ parking bills when we checked out this morning! Luckily the error was spotted in time. :-) A quick trip to the cash point (there are ferry crossings today) and we set off, 8 MGs strong in pretty much colour sequence, BRG, BRG, BRG, Trophy Yellow, Flame Red, Solar Red, Flame Red, Amaranth as we threaded our way out of Amsterdam, pre-rush hour. The road became a motorway and we started following the signs to the Haag. As we left the motorway heading for the ‘ditches and dykes’ coast road, I looked in my mirror and saw that we were now 9 MGs – Peter had found us and joined on at the back. When the opportunity arrived, he skipped to the front to let Ted know we were all here and we stopped briefly to say our hellos.

Today’s trip was quite spectacular, following the coast of Holland along some impressive dams and passing loads of windmills. We stopped for lunch in a small town (who’s name escapes me at the moment) and then set off once more along the coast. After a ferry crossing and then a brief stop on a beach for a photo opportunity, we set off once more through some spectacular scenery, the sea and some incredible cloud formations on our right, rivers, windmills, flood planes, towns and estuaries on our left until we came to the last ferry in Holland and we said our good byes to Peter before entering Belgium.

It was at this point that the group started to fragment. The original plan was to get to Calais for 5:00 ish and do a little shopping before catching the 6:30pm ferry to Dover. Patrick and Ann wanted to stick to the plan, whilst David and Jackie had decided to do a little sight seeing in Dunkirk. The rest of the group wanted to try to get an earlier ferry, whilst Mike Satur and myself, having the furthest to drive once we hit England, were keen to get the earliest ferry possible. So, when we hit the Belgian motorway the group split into 5 groups, Mike Satur and I out in front, loud pedal firmly depressed, David and Jackie close behind us, then Ted, Stefan and Jenny, Mike and Vyv and Richard in the main party with Patrick and Ann being ‘tail end Charlie’ taking a more leisurely drive on their own. A superb high speed run down to Calais saw Mike Satur and I arrive as 4:40 ish, we checked in and headed for our boarding lane. Ted’s group arrived shortly after us, much to the amusement of Stefan as they were only 2 cars behind us in the lane, despite having a less frantic drive and being 10 minutes or so behind Mike and I. This was the final group of Treffeners for the last crossing at 6:30 or so.

Ted
Mike and Vyv
Stefan and Jenny
Richard
Mike Satur
and me; Andrew

The ferry crossing was calm, with the sunshine we had enjoyed staying with us all the way. Mike Satur had his arm twisted by Vyv in the duty free shop and bought an expensive prezzie for Trish :-) and I got ripped off in the foreign exchange booth converting my spare Euros for Pounds. But in general spirits were a little depressed as the realisation that the Treffen was pretty much over. We clubbed together and got Ted a little token of our appreciation, he really pulled the rabbit out of the hat for us this year, it was by far the best Treffen yet and everyone had a fantastic holiday. Well done Ted, your hard work was very much appreciated. :-)

All too soon we had docked at Dover and Mike Satur and I headed off together for the drive to our respective homes. We passed Stefan and Jenny en-route, they were the last of the Treffeners we saw and finally only Mike and I remained in convoy, through the Dartford tunnel (which was good, but would have been better if Scarlet’s exhaust had been 100%), before entering my home turf where we diverted off the motorway to my local pub for a rest stop and a quick bite to eat. It was on this journey that I clocked up 97,000 miles, making 1000 miles since the Nurburgring and although I didn’t keep a record of the mileage before I started I suspect it was over 2000 in total. After a nice (small) meal, I said my goodbyes to Mike and then drove with him to the Duxford entrance to the M11 where he set off on the 150 mile trip to his home. I headed back home to find my Brother, his wife and my new Nephew (Josh) waiting for me. A nice way to round off one of the best 10 days of my life. :-)

Thanks to everyone involved, the Belgian MGFs, especially Luc Devisch for the drive to Anhee and Erik and Fran for the fantastic rally the following day and also for their company through the trip, it wouldn’t have been the same without you. The German F people also, they looked after us so well, before and after Berlin and then the MG-Club Berlin itself and in particular Mike Standring for putting together such an incredible event and making us feel so welcome. Thank you. Lastly Peter Roos for his company in Holland. It is the participation of the local people that makes the Treffen so special.

Finally, thank you once again to Ted, for putting it all together and guiding us around Europe so well.

OK, that’s it from me, I have a day off today (Wednesday) to try to download some/all of the footage and also to arrange some parts to fix Scarlet with! :-)

SF <---- Tired, but very happy. :-)