Mini Clan Holland 2000

TO have 5 fun filled days travelling to/from Holland including participating in the biggest Annual Dutch Mini Event - the Noordwijk Mini Marathon.

And what a story!! We all had fantastic fun, with lots of excitement, variety and adventure! For me it was a fantastic break and one of the best holidays I've had in my life. A Big "Thank You" goes to Arno for organising this event!

All the pictures below can be clicked on to enlarge and please also go to Arno's website at www.minispace.co.uk and the Mini Clan site at www.miniclan.freeuk.co.uk for more photos.

I met Graham, Shairen, Calum, Arno and Keith at Calum's house where we got ourselved organised into our 2 Minis - Graham's "Zebedee" (Black sports pack Cooper) and Arno's "MiniSpace" (Red Cooper). Everything seemed to be going to plan until Calum asked if everyone had everything... to which I replied "what do you need except a credit card and passport?" at which point Keith went pale, swore, and rushed for the door... he'd forgotten his passport. The MiniSpace crew (Me, Arno and Shairen) then went ahead to Bothwell Services to meet the others.

Mark and Chris had brought their gorgeous green (?) 1963 Mk1 Mini De Luxe "Orinoko" which had won best car at the Thistle Run earlier in the year. The Chivas family somehow squeezed themselves and all their luggage into their tidy 1992 Cooper (J66 TOY) without need for a roof box while the Hunter Family had a roof box attached to "MIIINEE" - their blue Cooper Sports Pack. Kenneth and Judith had brought their very original bright yellow 1988 Mini City 1.0 which apparently had never left Glasgow before.

We left Bothwell Services and headed for Hull. The Minis were festooned with Scottish flags, Nessies, Jimmy Hats and Graham's car had an over-excited sheep "Big Jugs"... so the 6 Mini Convoy attracted a lot of attention! Zebedee and MiniSpace are fitted with CBs but this proved not entirely successful due to the fact that Zebedee's aerial is about 10 times longer than MiniSpace and some funny/frustrating conversations were had as we struggled to get ourselves understood. Who is Roger anyway and why was Shairen completely unintelligible (even more than usual!)?

The trip was largely uneventful with everyone getting to know each other at each stop and trying to work out what everyone was called! We travelled at a leisurely pace and arrived in Hull in good time for the ferry.

Once the Minis were all lined up safely in the car deck, we headed for the cabins (except for Calum who zoomed off to the Cinema) where I discovered that I'd be sharing with a strange man ... which didn't seem to bad until later on when I saw/heard him later - the grunting and groaning from the bottom bunk made it sound like he was either going to expire or just freak out so I didn't get much sleep!

We all went to the bar for some drinks and to watch the ship leave harbour. 2 hours later we were still waiting!! We had thought it was moving because things were moving past the windows but it turned out just to be turning round to get into the sea lock. Eventually however we set sail over 2 hours late. The ferry itself could do with better announcements and better catering as the only way to get any hot food was to go to the expensive restaurant for an "all you can eat" buffet.

Shairen arrived back at her shared cabin late at night much to the horror of the lady already in the room who nearly had heart failure when someone broke into her room! The entertainment on board was cheesy but funny and just what we all needed to get in the mood for a holiday - The BeeGees, Billy Ocean and the Spice Girls all made an appearance, as did the scary "Uncle Wally" although Nick and Sophie Hunter seemed to enjoy dancing with him!

After my sleepless night with the stranger, I was only too keen to leave my cabin so I went up to the bar and joined Judith and Kenneth for some breakfast. Most of the others appeared before the ship docked, but Calum, Shairen and Keith were missing. We found Shairen's cabin (we knew it was hers because her alarm clock was still there...) and eventually she appeared too but still there was no Calum or Keith! The Minis left the ship in Convoy and then stopped while we waited for the pair to appear!

First stop was for petrol when we realised that Judith and Kenneth's Mini could not run on unleaded and they had no LRP! Petrol difficulties were later to become a major obstacle of our trip!! We carried on our journey towards Zandvoort and realised that Arno's tiny CB aerial works perfectly in Holland! We were able to keep the Minis in order by having Graham's Zebedee at the back of the convoy and Arno's Minispace at the front so that we didn't get broken up. Some exciting moments were had on Holland's fast motorways as, unlike Britain, they have a minimum speed of 80kph. Dipped headlights are required and Dutch drivers like to be invited to merge instead of just forcing on as they do in the UK. The most exciting bit was when we saw the first of our electric wheelchair racers take on a bus in the middle of the dual-carriageway and win! We were all holding our breaths!

We eventually arrived in Zandvoort - home of the famous racing circuit. This is where Arno had arranged our hotel. It turned out he chose well as the guesthouse was just a walk (or stagger) from the beach or the bars & restaurants or the train to Amsterdam. The town itself is beautiful and we headed straight away to the town to have a light lunch after we met up with Arno's friend Judith Dalma. This is where we realised we were under attack! Bicycles would come at us from one angle while suicidal electric wheelchairs would come at us from another - all at high speed! After lunch we headed for the beach via the lovely shops & boutiques. It was a lovely sunny day so we sat in the beachside bar for a while to watch the fisherman in their tractor (!) and sample the local delights. After this we headed back to the hotel to prepare for dinner which Arno had booked in Haarlem.

		One Mini convoy later we were in Haarlem. We went for a stroll around the town seeing the lovely cathedral and some quaint canal fronted streets and narrow alleyways with more pubs & restaurants. More bike dodging was required while we waiting for a table for 21 to be prepared! Dinner, as everywhere during our holiday, was superb. After dinner we had another quick tour of Haarlem including its miniature "red light" district and then jumped back in the Minis to return to Zandvoort. We had an early start the next day, so didn't stay out too late but we headed for the beer festival (Heineken of course) in Zandvoort and a fun evening was had by all. Graham and Shairen managing to dance a gay gordon with a local "Politie" officer was something worth seeing!

A very early start was required for us to get to the starting point for the Mini Marathon on time. Nearly everybody was ready on time outside the hotel, but Calum appeared on his balcony obviously not ready! Finally we were all kilted up and ready for the off. We joined some other Dutch Minis at a service station and then headed on down the motorway attracting lots of attention en-route.

The Start - Castle Loevestein

We arrived at the start along with over 200 other Dutch Minis. Arno had told them we were coming so they had prepared a special area for us to park in away from the main parking! We drew lots of attention especially with our matching T-shirts with a fabulous design on thanks to Judith, our resident artist!

Zebedee's crew for the day (Graham & I) joined The Mini Clan Minis heading out to join the marathon to loud music and a dancing sheep - much to the everyone's amusement. Somehow we managed to keep this up for most of the day and at least some of the people smiled and waved - although the reaction was much more muted than when we've done similar things in Scotland. All the Mini Clan Minis had Scottish flags attached somehow so together with our clothes I don't think anyone was in any doubt about where we'd come from!

The weather was beautiful, spirits were high and everyone had great fun driving around the stunning scenery of this part of Holland (don't ask me which part exactly, we had no map!).

Eventually we arrived in Gouda (pronounced Hhhowda I believe) the town famous for its cheese. We passed alongside the canals in scenes reminiscent of The Italian Job and then arrived, flags still flying, in the beautiful town square to join the hundreds of other Minis gathering there. Once again the banners and flags were attached to the cars and we drew an intrigued crowd.

We got our pictures taken and interviewed for the local paper and enjoyed a fantastic lunch at a little cafe nearby. The best omelettes any of us had ever had I think!

Noordwijk Seafront

We drove some more (its all a blur now to be honest but it was all beautiful) and arrived in Noordwijk. Most of the Clan couldn't understand why we'd been driving so fast but Arno had a surprise for them. Waiting for us at a local service station was "Steve the bagpiper"!! Much to the amazement of the locals (I'd say delight but they weren't smiling) we all gathered on the forecourt in our tartan and looked on as he played all our Scottish favourites!

A short jig later by some of the members, we set off for the seafront, piped all the way by Steve in Convoy. Subtle? No! We parked up at the front while he played some more folk tunes and a large crowd gathered to watch. The main sponsor for the event asked us to move our cars (and Steve) to a prime spot which we were only too glad to do!

Heading home to Zandvoort after a fun-filled day

These pictures were taken while hanging out of the window of Judith Dalman's "Enie Mini" while zooming into Zandvoort in pursuit of a DB Aston Martin. Look at all the model Minis on her rear shelf! To say that Judith's car is unique would be something of an understatement!

Another night out was called for in Zandvoort so off we headed! Another fun night involving laughing at the locals while very drunk ensued... the Bier really should come in bigger glasses as we ended up ordering 2 at a time each!

We walked from the guest house to the train station to meet the ticket machine from hell!! Even with Judith and her "magic card" we still failed to get tickets for us all in 20 minutes. There is no facility for a tourist to use the ticket machine nor is there any facility to ask for more than 1 ticket at a time. There is also no sign to tell you that you HAVE to buy a ticket or that you can buy a ticket from the shop in the station!! So its not just British Rail that's not perfect! Poor Sophie Hunter got stung by a bee after her brother Nick got stung the previous day - after w

Boat Trip

Upon arrival in Amsterdam, Arno organised a boat trip on the canal - an excellent idea as it gave everyone a 1 hour overview of the beautiful city.

Red Light District

We had a wander around the red light district for an hour or so in the bright sunny afternoon, but I think its atmosphere was lost at this time of day! We decided to head for the more touristy areas and find a cold beer. I had a close shave with one of the bollards because I was busy reading my map and not looking where I was going!

Pedallo

We thought we'd hire a Pedallo to round off the afternoon before meeting the others so wee headed to the area at Anne Frank's house. We pedalled slowly out to the middle of the canal before speeding things up a bit and discovering that it was sinking! Graham's side was filling with water and he didn't want to get his feet wet pedalling (new shoes!) so I had to pedal the 4 of us back to the start on my own - very exhausting!!

Pedallo 2 was fine but I was too tired by then so I retired to the back seat and let the others do the work while I took some more photos. At one point we went up a very narrow canal to get away from the big boats only to discover that we were being chased again! This time there was nowhere for us to go so we clung to the canal side while it powered by (photo below)

Dinner in the square (what was it called Arno?!)

Zandvoort (again)

We returned to Zandvoort by train and descended upon the Scotch Bar for our last night out there. A good night was had until the wee small hours when we descended on the local chippie who we managed to persuade to give us chips with salt & vinegar!

Day 5 - Zandvoort -> Ferry

This should have been a fairly straightforward trip to the ferry but was made more exciting by a series of breakdowns and also the fact that a blockade of Rotterdam was going to be happening as a protest against the price of fuel.

Breakdowns

First of all Arno's clutch fluid disappeared and the AA had to be called, then one of J66 TOY's headlight covers fell off and went under Zebedees tyres, which in turn had a problem with its steering rack. Then Orinoko suddenly overheated dramatically due to a failed hose (which looked to be the original 1963 one!) and the AA had to be called again to fix it. At this point everyone got split up and made their own ways to Europoort.

Day 6 - Hull - Glasgow

This day should have been a boring drive home, but it turned into an exciting journey while trying to find fuel! We didn't know whether to head for big petrol stations which were about to be re-stocked, or little ones that hadn't run out yet. We decided to stick to a steady 40mph as this gave us a chance of making it home if we didn't find fuel. It also meant that we formed a rolling blockade, much to the amusement of passers by who waved & hooted at us in support! We removed the roof box from MIIINEE and me from Zebedee onto the yellow 998cc Mini which didn't seem to be using any fuel! On the A66 we were amazed to discover a petrol station with 1000 litres of unleaded thereby saving our bacon and letting us get home!