This weekend various classic cars events to. Reading this thread, you might think that is all I do, bum from one classic show to the next. Truth is, both my wife and I have lots of hobbies and interests and we tend to combine a lot of them into a single day or a weekend.
I like to get up fairly early, especially on my days off. More time to do stuff. So yesterday morning, Saturday, I was up and behind my laptop searching the internet at06.00am on what to do, where to go. In the afternoon my wife and I had some social engagements and in the evening a birthday party to attend too. But till 13.00 I could do what ever I pleased. Weather forecast was excellent, with temperatures up to 30oC and a clear blue sky. So that usually means I will go cycling or touring in my spider.
I came across a nice little classic car event in a village about 55 km to the east of us. So I quickly put together an interesting, windy, route with help of MydriveTomTom. (
https://mydrive.tomtom.com/nl_nl/#mo...,13,0,-0+ver=3). Very handy, you can set the route planner to quickest route, obviously. Or use the various windy and interesting settings. That usually gets you across little B-roads and you can still make adjustment if you want to pass certain specific points along the route. Once you’re done, click and it will be stored in the iCloud and automatically appear on my TomTom!
So by 08.00 me and my Spider turned on to the Lingedijk and started heading east. This part of the Netherlands is known as the Betuwe. Very pretty, rural and lots of fruits gets grown here. (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batavia_(region) )
Some images along the road. It’s all about little road along dikes, through meadows and along many types of different fruit plantations/farms. Very little traffic other than local people on these roads. And of course cyclist. Especially on the weekends they tend to be out in force.
Lots of oranges!
Also, many people, who own classic cars, will do the same as I do. Enjoy the weather, go for a little tour or attend some event. And during this time of the year, there are literally dozens and dozens of classic car events all over Western Europe.
So you tend to meet fellow classic car enthusiasts.
I passed this farm, with a Peugeot 504 and an original Mini parked on the road.
This is a Dutch phenomena, a Cycle Street. Cars are seen as guests and must be on best behaviour!
Some more gorgeous little roads
Took me almost an hour and a half. You never go particularly fast in terms of absolute speed. But I do like to give my Spider the beans. It handles particularly well on these sort of windy rural roads. So you rarely top 80 km/hour, but due to the fact these are narrow and windy roads, it still feels as if you are going fast!
I was amongst the first car to arrive:
This was a very informal gathering. It is not even a club. Just some local car enthousiast who organise this event once a year. They are allowed to make use of the car park of the local church. Use their fascilities (e.g. toilets and plug into the electrical grid, use water etc)
They will set up a little market stall. You can get coffee, tea, make soups for lunch, offer soft drinks and some sandwiches.
At around 13.00 they would leave for a 2-3 hour tour. I only stayed about an hour. But as usual, it was fun. Talked to a lot of people. Lot of people talk to me, wanting to know about my Spider.
A Willy Jeep, hood open gets a lot of attention
Some interesing little classic cars
Two rag top sports car, roughly the same era as my Spider. A Fiat 124 and a Triumph TR6. The Fiat Spider shares some components with the Alfa Spider. E.g. the doorhandles!
Two Volvo’s
Any Dutch classic car event and there will be several Citroen 2CV's, or eend (Duck) as we call them. Two nice ones, although I do not think the double head lights were an original feature.
This is what these meetings are about. Getting together with your classics, opening the hood, bunch of guys, have a coffee, and talk about cars, engines endlessly
Soon it was time to head home again. Slightly different route home, but just as pretty.
As I have shown before, lots of rivers and canals in this part of the Netherlands. Which often means crossing with a little ferry, or finding yourself waiting for a bridge that has opened to let boats pass. About 6 kilometers from where we live the river Linge goes through a little sluice/lock. There was a big boat just about to enter. So I stopped and had a look:
It is a huge boat, what we call “rondvaartboot". These are boat that take tourist around the canals and rivers. You will find them in all sorts of shapes and formats. Very comfortable. They usually have a little bar and restaurant, good washrooms. Very enjoyable way to see a bit of the Netherlands. This one, was almost as big as the sluice it had to pass! Dutch skippers are the best!
From the little sluice, it is one long windy road along the river Linge, called the Zuiderlingedijk (Southern dike of the river Linge). Very pretty. This is what we experience every time we drive home
I mentioned the fact that my Spider is leaking gearbox oil. Here is the evidence.
Quite the puddle. I would love to do this job myself, but without a lift and just by myself it is just not feasible. So it will go to my friendly local Alfa Specialist in a few weeks
Tomorrow another small, but enjoyable classic car event!
Jeroen