The rest of my trip...

Travel log - Brugges 2000

My brother Blair and I flew into Amsterdam, arriving on Thursday April 27th. Robin Setzpfand did a great job of helping coordinate a Miata rental for me, and even managed to arrange pickup at Schiphol airport. Everything went very smoothly. Thank you, Robin...

After picking up the car we drove down to Delft, known for their blue-and-white pottery, copied from Chinese porcelain. Then we headed to Gouda, to see the cheese market and museum. Then it was on to Antwerp, the home of early 17th century painter Peter Paul Rubins to find a hotel for the night, and to take in the sights.

The next day began with a drive down to Brussels, and sight seeing for the day. Spending most of our day walking through the Grand Palace, a magnificent central square of baroque guildhouses and fancy outside cafés. Where medieval tournaments, and public executions once took place. The area is also home for many museums and the famed statue, Manneken Pis.

From there we headed west to Brugge, the site of the event. We arrived just in time to check into our hotel, and attend the opening dinner where we met Joe Portas "Knobmeister" his wife Mary, and a very nice couple from New Zealand, Mike Saint and Clare Byrne. 

Saturday's breakfast for Blair and I began with a visit to the "Straffe Hendrik" (Strong Henry) brewery. An informative tour about how they brew their beer and a history of brewing in Belgium. Later we all sat down for drinks in their pub room, and had a grand time getting acquainted with some people from Britain (Mike, Emma, Andrew, Gillian, Pete, Annette, Tim ...) joined us at our table. Later registration for the event began, followed by the opening dinner.

Sunday started with the first of three roadbooks, pictures of intersections and distance counters to follow which took you on a picturesque tour of the countryside with names like Sluis (Holland) and the Belgian seaside town of Knokke-Heist. The trick to not getting lost was to follow the measurements exactly, even if it looked like you were driving into a pasture, or onto a bike path. Most road signs were either missing or couldn't be read until you had driven past them. Many people looked lost, as cars would converge from all directions at intersections with puzzled looks on their faces. It was great fun. 

Monday started with a drive to the 't Zand" a square in the middle of town for every one to admire each other's cars, and later another road tour to the "Themae Place" in Oostende, on the beach at the North Sea, for the closing dinner. Then it was time to say goodbye to new friends, and pack up. Move on, in hopes of meeting again at another event, at another time somewhere else in the world. 
The next day Blair and I headed west and stopped in Gent, a beautiful town full of museums and cathedrals, then headed to Waterloo, to see the memorial where Napoleon's invasion was defeated on June 18, 1815. Then on to Maastricht, another medieval city near the German Border whose walls survived from the 13th century, and some architecture dates back to the 6th century.

On the following day, we drove north toward Arnhem to see the Kroller-Muller Museum with an extensive range of works by Vincent van Gogh and a large sculpture garden. Then farther north to stay the night in a quaint, typical Dutch town called Sneek, in the northern most area above Amsterdam known as Friesland.

Our trip was heading to a close the next day as we drove south over "The Afsluitdijk" (barrier dyke) a large 30-km dam separating the Zuiderzee (inner sea) from the North Sea, back toward our final destination. While heading south we stopped at Ijmuiden, to see the locks at the mouth of the North Sea Canal - the largest being 400 meters long and 45 meters wide. Then the sun broke free of the clouds as we headed to the Keukenhof near the town of Lisse, the world's largest flower garden, where over 800 thousand people per year visit to see millions of tulips, daffodils and hyacinths burst into bloom each spring over a mere 8 weeks period. It was amazing! 

Then it was time to return to Amsterdam, check into our last hotel, drop the Miata off at the airport, and settle in for our last three days. Amsterdam has become a popular place for tourists' world wide, full of bicycles, canal boats and where just about anything goes. Our hotel was situated near the Leidseplein, one of the liveliest squares in the city and the undisputed center of nightlife, where we were able to find great food, sit in wonderful cafés, watch street performers and absorb all that was around us. Besides nightlife, we also expanded our culture with a visit to the Van Gogh Museum, consisting of Vincent's younger brother Theo's collection of about 200 paintings and 500 drawings by Vincent and his contemporaries such as Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec and Monet. Containing famous works as " The Potato Eaters" and "Wheatfield with Crows" And we stopped at the Rijksmuseum, home of Dutch history, art and the most important Dutch and Flemish masters, works such as Rembrandt's huge "Nightwatch". Yet, no museum experience in Amsterdam would be complete without a visit to the Heineken Museum, for a tour of the former brewery where you are treated to a walk though the history of Heineken, the old fermenting vats, and free samples at the end.

It had been an enjoyable ten days, and I was saddened to leave Europe once again, but it was an enjoyable experience that I will never forget, and I made some more new friends. The world is a large place and it may seem overwhelming at times, yet I've realized that it's much smaller and friendlier than you may think because you have an extended family out there, Miata friends in every corner of the world who share a bond with you, and are apart of you, because of the phenomenon of a shared love of a little car.