Dutch
Courage
We visit the
BMW Club
Europa bash
and come away
impressed.
 The last time Total BMW
did a BMW
all the way to La Roche in the
Belgian Ardennes – an absolutely
idyllic part of Europe... only to
discover that it was actually a BMW bike
meeting with the oddest smattering of cars
from a ‘Baroque Angel’ 502 saloon to an E12
518. We didn’t make that mistake again and
the 2007 meeting in Holland included 350
entrants, a big chunk of which were fourwheeled
BMWs.
It was a very pleasant Thursday evening
when snapper Pullen and I drew up at Hull
ferry port to board the ‘Pride of Hull’, a ship
so large it resembles a luxury Bismarck. The
11-hour return crossing costs a whopping
£300 but to be fair it’s much nicer than your
average ferry, with a two-man cabin, a very
pleasant rear deck to catch a quick fag, a
schmoozy bar area complete with a bloke
playing piano and even a cinema. Your holiday
really would start here with £18 each for an
excellent evening meal with as much as you
can eat without actually dying.
 The following morning we drove on to
Dutch soil at around 8.30, slightly overcast but
getting better by the minute. From here our
destination was Leersum which is between
Utrecht and Arnhem. Like most European countries except ours, Holland is spotlessly
clean and tidy and our base for the weekend
was the Ginkelduin holiday village comprising
of several three-bedroom houses set out in a
forest – and it’s about £30 a night each and so
much nicer than the usual travel tavern.
The Club Europa meetings are definitely
events for a bit of relaxation and this year’s
event included daily road runs out to explore
Holland. Day one was a trip out towards
Kinderdijk where some of the oldest windmills
are still up and running. This was followed up
by a trip to a glass factory and later on that
weekend a trip to the Zuider Sea museum
which involved a boat trip. We gave most of
these a miss in order to photograph some
stunning cars which you’ll see soon enough...
 Evenings were spent in the main hall
at Ginkelduin where they set up a strange
system of buying beers. Now, most of us will
just go to the bar, order, pay and consume
but for some reason here you had to buy a
certain number of beer tokens (no, really)
to be exchanged for beer or wine – and the
European idea of a large beer is nothing like
mine and involved several trips to the bar.
But the food was excellent on both nights as
was the hospitality two interlopers from a
BMW magazine received.
 Cars? We found plenty from a pair of
2002 Turbos, at least five Baroque Angel
V8 saloons which always look to me like an
unholy cross between a garden slug and an
Austin Somerset. Add to that a gorgeous
1600GT Frua, the best E30 M3 Convertible we
have ever seen and the new M3 too. We have
to say the BMW Cub Nederland organised
everything to perfection and nobody had a
bad word to say. The drive across the N302
causeway from Lelystad to Enkhuisen –
literally a long road across the sea was pretty
spectacular. Next year’s event is scheduled
for Lower Bavaria and we’ll be there.
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