[Jeroen]

I visited my home country the Netherlands over the Christmas period. From December to January a pretty special exhibition took place in the Brussel’s Autoworld museum. Auto world by itself is a very interesting museum and in addition for these two months they had a special exhibition about Italian cars.

http://www.italiancarpassion.be

Our home is in a small village near the Hague in the Netherlands. I went together with my long spanner mate Peter. I have written about our car adventures before ( e.g. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...es-eiffel.html )

It’s less than a 90 minute drive on mostly excellent motorways. The museum is located very near to the centre with ample parking place right in front of it. We took Peter’s car. All of my cars are in storage. He and I both owned and still own Jaguars. It was a treat to drive his Jaguar XJR (X350) model. He knows I love to drive and don’t get to drive much in India, let alone drive a big luxurious fast sedan, so he let me take the helm! Thoroughly enjoyed myself!

Apart from my friend and spanner mate, Peter is also one of the most knowledgeable professional (classic) vehicle valuators in the Netherlands. That’s what he does for a living, so there isn’t much he doesn’t know about cars. Walking through these sort of exhibitions with him is a bit of a revelation. His knowledge is just phenomenal.

Auto world by itself is always worth a visit. If you visit it on a Sunday you might find a classic car club or so in the parking lot as well. It’s a popular destination or starting point for (classic) rallies.

It comes with an excellent cafe/restaurant and a very nice car model shop. You can easily spend 3-4 hours just for the permanent exhibition alone. The permanent exibition has some very unusual and interesting car models as well: American Presidential motor cade car! With said president and sometimes first lady present, see below.



As you will see the Italian cars are from just about all era’s. And they were beautifully displayed against Italian village background.

So without further ado, I will let the pictures speak for themselves. I’m sure you will recognize a lot of these cars, but still there were quite a few that I had never seen before and even a few Peter did not know too much about.



























































I was surprised to see the Police Porsche 911.

I always thought that the Dutch Police were the only ones that had used the Porsche 911. See here http://www.politievoertuigen.nl/Avd/Porsche%20911.html

But apparently, so did the Belgium Police.

Before we went back home, we drove further into the centre, parked and had an excellent lunch before heading home. Most people will rant and rave about France when it comes about good food. And it’s true. However, I actually find that it is even better in Belgium! A of course, Belgium bonbons (chocolates) are the best!

If you ever have the opportunity to visit Belgium, Brussels is definitely worth a visit. You can see a lot in one day, but you can easily spend several days. Plenty to see and do. And don’t bring your diet sheet.

Jeroen

[howler]

Lovely pics! Could you help in identifying the cars you put up with the exception of the red Alfa and Bugatti I can't tell the rest. Btw you should move this to the classic / vintage car section , the commercial vehicles in India thread seems a bit odd

[Enobarbus]

Beautiful Machines Jeroen. One wonders how misery survives (and thrives) in a world that contains so many things of beauty; by now the world should be overflowing with joy.

The cars (as Jack Burnham would have put it) are a microcosm of the entire socio-artistic-technical-biological evolution of the societies that produced them. Thanks for sharing.

PS: What is my Dad's Vespa doing there?