Wot I Dun On My 'Ols

[eddyramrod]

I'm a bit late with this, sorry; blame indolence and DIY, in any order you like.

So, now the promotion is running again, as it does every year, I think it's safe to talk about the 9.50 holidays the Sun newspaper offers.  We used to take these before we left the country, and now we're back, we're doing it again.  So in 2013 we decided we'd have a bit of a treat and go somewhere we hadn't been before, which was Holland.  Several caravan parks were on offer.  We managed to get in at our first choice, as there is an element of luck involved.  Likewise with dates: we got an April booking, a couple of weeks after the now-legendary Coniston day.

Booking a Monday-Friday break effectively gave us near-enough a week, as we worked in two overnight ferry crossings, which also gave us a handy little roadtrip to Hull and back.  Damn, should have used that as the title!    I can report that the ferries are pretty comfy, and travelling with a wheelchair does get you that bit of extra help, such as in the onboard restaurant.  No complaints about the meals either.

So, a shot out of the window as we came into Rotterdam; our first view of Les Payes-Bah.

And off the ship, driving my own car sur le continong for the very first time!  Can't believe it took me this long, and when I finally did it, I did it in a cheap old emergency-purchase Peugeot 406, of all things.  So here it is at the local beach...

We found our caravan park and were pretty impressed with the quality.  I think we'd got some kind of upgrade as the van was in lovely condition and pretty well equipped.

Unfortunately the layout of the park meant we had a fair walk from car to caravan, but MrsR handled it bravely on her crutches.  Much of it was on grass, so there was little point using the wheelchair.

Now when we go away, and especially abroad, one of our favourite pastimes is driving randomly around the towns.  You find some nice restaurants that way, but more importantly for this forum, you also find a LOT of old cars.  I'm not even going to caption these photos, just enjoy them.  You can always ask questions later.  Location: every one of these cars is in the Delft/Amsterdam/Den Haag/Rotterdam/Scheveningen area.  We didn't stray very far.

Now at this point, there's a little break in the street spottings.  We found a car museum.  Oh boy did we!  This is the Louwmann Collection, which is housed in a huge modern building set in landscaped grounds.  I didn't think much of their disabled parking, which was poorly-arranged and poorly-signed, but even worse was the cobbled access from there to the museum itself.  Lost marks there guys.  But when you get in...!  As we approached, they were lining up some cars outside for photos.  Alfa Romeo had lent them some of their own prototipo collection for a temporary exhibition.  This is the quality of museum we're dealing with (which makes the access issues sharper!).

I didn't shoot everything in there, by a long chalk, and these are just a few severely-edited highlights.  If you're in the area, visit.  Unless you're using a wheelchair of course.  OK, back on the streets...

Now, see how the weather changes in April!  The following are from the last day, which was the day we had set aside to visit the model village.  As you see, we didn't.  It wouldn't have been much fun in the rain, especially for MrsR in the wheelchair, so we just went driving.  And stopping for photos...

And finally, I've never seen one of these before, didn't even know they existed!  So obviously I had to follow it around the streets of Rotterdam until it parked beside the canal...

Lada Samara cabrio.  Just OMG.

[mercrocker]

Brilliant stuff and well worth the wait!   Love the blue number plates and the museum is going on the must-do list.  I spent a lot of time in NL as a kid in the sixties and took my first shite-spot on a borrowed Instamatic - a blue Volvo 544.  They have some great gear over there still by the look of things.   Lovely country....Was the model village Madurodam?   When I was a kid they had a model skid-pan with a Simca 1000 weaving about on a rack and pinion track.   Fave spot of yours - the 142!

[vulgalour]

This could be Rotterdam or anywhere, Liverpool or Rome.

 

 

Seriously though, ace spotting action, finally a good use for that miserable rag the Sun.

[Rusty Pelican]

GR8 pics , thanks for sharing , 

How is your beloved Mrs Rs recovery .  

[michael1703]

Love the louvred back window on the chevette, that made me laugh thinking about why people made there car look like bathroom cupboard doors*

 

*ive just drunk a fuckload of alcohol and that stator out the moist

[HMC]

Some great spots!

 

I too have never seen or heard of a lada samara cabrio, Though I bet theres a delivery mileage one in the garage of delights in york

[eddyramrod]

I don't buy the Sun any other time of year!    But we're not going to miss out on these cheap hols, they're just right as taster breaks for somewhere you haven't been before.  This year it's East Anglia...

 

BTW, I don't know how that Espero got itself in twice.  I posted it twice by mistake, but then deleted one.  Anyway, it's an Espero, we can stand it, right?

There were many more cars that I didn't manage to shoot.  Lots of older Citroens, Peugeots and Volvos, none of which was unexpected really.  I was a bit surprised at the American content;again, there were many I failed to get.  I suppose they sold better there than here because LHD won't be such an issue...

I was also amazed to see a grand total of ONE Daf!

[eddyramrod]

RP, thanks for asking!  She's coming along.  Now that we have NHS support, we have access to a lot of help we couldn't get in Cyprus.  It was a bit unfortunate that just before this trip, she had actually been laid-up for a couple of weeks with a rampant cold, so she wasn't up to much while we were away.  We're hoping for better this time; we're going a bit later too.

[laser wheels]

GR12 pics! I was surprised on my first visit to Amsterdam 12 years ago how much old metal there was about. In fact, the only time I have ever seen a MK2 Jetta coupe is in Hamster Jam. A very cool car! It's nice to see some countries aren't so hung up on having their pants pulled down once a month just so they can have a nice* new appliance on the drive every three years.

[drum]

Great post ER!

 

That's an amazing amount of chod/classics to see in one trip.

[Lord Sterling]

These are great spots Eddy! Thanks for sharing, Holland has charm and appeal for me, I feel like I should be living there somehow. When I lived with Fatha_Sterling in Brussels, we did visit Holland a few times but that often, same with France. I think he did go more times than I did as I was studying at the time.

 

Funnily enough when he was on his way there last time a few months back, he did say that if I moved back to Belgium (which I will) I will be living near the border with Holland, so I reckon I will be going there a few more times for random drive arounds and shite spotting operations hopefully.

 

I like how Holland has this 1960s well-kept charm about it still. It almost looks like how England used to be in the 60s/70s, but actually still well maintained.

[Rusty Pelican]

  On 05/01/2014 at 22:23, eddyramrod said:

RP, thanks for asking!  She's coming along.  Now that we have NHS support, we have access to a lot of help we couldn't get in Cyprus.  It was a bit unfortunate that just before this trip, she had actually been laid-up for a couple of weeks with a rampant cold, so she wasn't up to much while we were away.  We're hoping for better this time; we're going a bit later too.

Glad she is coming along , hopefully 2014 will bring further improvements and no rampant colds.

I wish you both the very best.

[quicksilver]

A diverse selection there and that museum looks well worth a visit. That LHD Middlebridge Scimitar is a fine spot (there were only three built apparently) and the Lada cabrio is all kinds of awesome.

[Tayne]

Great pictures but how does the £9.50 holiday thing work?

I always thought that £9.50 and a month worth of collect and keeps bought you a long weekend in a mouldy caravan in Ryhl or Saltcoats surrounded by people with too many children and not enough brain cells.

[Spiny Norman]

Excellent spots, you just don't see that amount of chod on the roads in this country, which is a great shame. Loving the powder blue Renault 12, my mate's dad had a 6 the same colour as that when I was a pup.

[eddyramrod]

  On 05/01/2014 at 23:36, Tayne said:

Great pictures but how does the £9.50 holiday thing work?

I always thought that £9.50 and a month worth of collect and keeps bought you a long weekend in a mouldy caravan in Ryhl or Saltcoats surrounded by people with too many children and not enough brain cells.

£9.50 is the per-person price for four people.  If less than four go, you still have to pay the four-people price.  OK, so that makes it £19 each for a couple.  For that you get three nights (over a weekend) or four (taking the Monday-Friday option) in a caravan, in a choice of parks.  Park quality is variable, admittedly, but the vans themselves tend to be fine.  There's a pretty good choice of parks around the country, and as you can see, abroad too.  We did Italy on it in 2002!  You don't have to be surrounded by knuckledraggers, your van is your own space and you aren't committed to hanging around the park all day unless you want to.  We get out in the car and explore...  As  for kiddiwinks, nearly all the available dates are outside school holidays, so you won't have too much trouble there.

Token collection takes about a fortnight.

[inconsistant]

Godverdomme, that's some top chod right there, thanks for posting.

 

Where was the museum, and what was it called please? 

[Tayne]

Thanks Eddy, I'll have a rake through the sun's website.

[eddyramrod]

  On 06/01/2014 at 12:29, in con sis tant said:

Godverdomme, that's some top chod right there, thanks for posting.

 

Where was the museum, and what was it called please? 

 

That's the Louwmann Collection, at Wassenaar near Amsterdam.  I'm sure it'll have a website, but tat the moment I can't find the leaflet I brought home. 

 

Tayne, happy to help!

[DVee8]

Some great spots there,i don't think i have seen a  Megane estate before.

[eddyramrod]

I agree, I don't think the UK got that variation, certainly not in the mk1. 

[Shep Shepherd]

  On 05/01/2014 at 22:18, eddyramrod said:

I was also amazed to see a grand total of ONE Daf!

 

I was in the Netherlands in November and only saw one DAF, a 66 De Luxe pretending to be a Marathon in a town just outside Den Haag. Didn't see many Dutch-built Volvos, either.

[beko1987]

We did a sun holiday to camber sands last year, was a right laugh. About £90 for me, swmbo and sproglet in an ok caravan for a week.

[Junkman]

What? Not Pontins?

[eddyramrod]

Some of the parks are Pontins, but there are many other operators in the scheme.  Park Resorts is a big one.

[DSdriver]

Love the pictures, I was reading somewhere that the Dutch have decided to change their road fund licence rules so that you now have to pay on cars between twenty and forty years old. So lots of old luxobarges in the highest tax brackets have mysteriously left the country. It didn't say where to though.

Found the link http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2014/01/classic_car_exports_rise_as_ro.php

[eddyramrod]

We're back.

 

From where, I hear you ask.  From this year's Sun holiday, I reply.  This year we chose Norfolk, for no significant reason, and ended up with a park just beyond King's Lynn.  Hmm, taking Lynne to Lynn... strange boy!

 

So, on the way down I had a couple of deliveries to make, which held me up for various reasons.  I was completely happy to make the stops, the reasons were incidental.  Who decided to do all those roadworks on the M1?

So here we are at Vulgalour's, to deliver a box of models...

And thence to Benno's with a couple of Polski Fiat doors...

So, two more Shiters met!  Good to put faces to names at last.

We were very late arriving at the caravan park, so just went to bed, then in the morning I picked up some leaflets to see what was worth looking at around us.  We decided to have a drive along the coast and see what time the Cruise would be, at Hemsby; see if we could make it back in time for Eurovision, or at least the voting.  Naturally I had the camera to hand for random spottings...

BGT in Cromer, where we stopped for lunch:

Then just before Hemsby we found this lot, and turned round to follow them:

This turned out to be the Cruise!  I was expecting an evening event, so it was a good thing we didn't linger over lunch, wasn't it?  The line of cars finished up on the seafront at Great Yarmouth where we parked up and shot some pics.  There was a live band too, playing proper old Rock'n'Roll.  Never seen so much greased hair!  Have some snaps of lovely old cars...

That's the 56 Chevy I was following on the Cruise.  Now this next one had a For Sale sign on it.  Fortunately there was no price, and nobody around to ask, or you might be reading a collection thread now...

   Stylish though, ain't it?  Anyway, we haven't finished yet...

Coming away we spotted this...

Which leads us back into the random stuff we found on our drives out.

Now I have a very soft spot for Bedford CFs, especially in mk1 form.

I just wanted to take it home and give it a cuddle!  Never mind, I soon found this instead...

Those are not For Sale signs; it's a raffle prize!  I'd have bought a ticket if there'd been someone at home...

 

You might think all I do on holiday is take photos of old cars.  You wouldn't be far from the truth...

[Junkman]

Those yanks are depressingly cheerful, though.

[Skizzer]

Brilliant stuff.

 

I can't believe you spotted a Daihatsu Charmant!

 

I shall go to bed now and dream naughty dreams of that 2-door Vauxhall Velox shooting brake thingy.

[Ratdat]

I'll wager that Charmant was heading for Lidl. Dunno why... it just seems right somehow. Amazing spot!