Want To Ride A Classic : Drive Dutch Drive Deutsch

Nevertheless, I surprised myself by agreeing to join a driving team in a three-day classic car run. Well, I reasoned, it’s not often that I get to play with toys for the boys and this ‘Drive Dutch Drive Deutsch’ jaunt promised to be a feast of driving experiences through two countries, Holland and Germany and included burning rubber in a  Porsche 911T, an Aston Martin DB6, a Suffolk SS100, a Triumph stag and a TR6 all in 72 hours.

The driving team (complete with support car) met at Harwich to board the Stena Line Superferry for the overnight journey and by 8am I was behind the wheel of the gorgeous blue Suffolk disembarking at the Hook of Holland.

The drive through the ancient town of Delft of ceramic pottery fame and home of master artist Vermeer was pleasant enough. Our route took us through back roads passing myriads of greenhouses and the occasional windmill reminding us that we were indeed in Holland. We stopped briefly to enjoy coffeea , a stroll along the riverside cobbled lanes  and to swap cars in the historic town of Oudewater renowned for its Heksenwagg – a witches weighing-house.

The next 90 odd miles took us through wooded and mildy hilly terrain before we set down at our hotel for the night at the seemingly aristocratic town of Oosterbeek. This small town with its elegant architecture and gardens just on the outskirts of Arnhem is probably most remembered as a place devasted in the Second World War.

We took lunch at the nearby De Hoge Veluwe National Park, the biggest in Holland and spent the afternoon discovering and admiring the outstanding natural beauty of the heath and and picking up snippets of interesting pointers about the fauna and flaura of the mature forest. De Hoge Veluwe National Park is also home of the Kroller Muller Museum which houses an impressive van Gogh collection and a range of impressionist paintings. An outdoor sculpture park complements the art show.

The next morning, we did the car shuffle again and this time I arrived in Germany in the 911 stopping all too soon at the elegantly awesome 12th century Bentheim Castle an exceptional landmark of Bad Bentheim in Lower Saxony. As we enjoyed tea and home-made cake at the castle’s caf? Kaffe and Kuchen the Prince of the castle came to join us – ‘prince’ in title only granted, but his imposing form had a right royal presence. As the afternoon vanished all too quickly I am not sure who was more impressed; us with the prince’s castle with its alchemy museum and superb views over the Bentheimer forest or indeed the prince who seemed extremely taken with our convoy of classic cars.

The next point on the route was to Hamelin a town that features in the Brothers Grim fairytale and also the Robert Browning poem of the same name. Browning wrote ‘a pleasanter spot you never spied’ and he was right. The Weser river runs through it and to add to the charm we were led a merry walk around the town by a dapper looking guide clad in a colourful Pied Piper get up who literally skipped the way forward.

Back on the car carousel I ventured into Hanover in the Aston Martin to visit the 300 year old Baroque gardens of Herrenhausen, an elegant arrangement of living art from France, Netherlands, England Italy and Germany. The largest garden the, 17th century Grosse Garten, is surrounded by a moat, harbours the highest fountain in Europe and has the world’s only existing baroque hedge theatre. Arrive at the right time and you could be enjoying Shakespeare, Moliere an Brecht. Sadly we didn’t but we did come away with new ideas for our own humble back gardens.

On our final day, we were told to meet up at the undeniably attractive town of Bremen and park up in the old marketplace of this ancient hanseatic city. This is the land of the Grimms’ Bremen Town Musicians. You can see this motley band – the donkey, cat and cock, stacked on the west side of the 560 year old Rathause (town hall). Legend has it that touching this statue makes you fertile and many tourists take time out for a pregnant pause by its side just in case. If you have never read the story you can always catch a re-enactment which takes place each Sunday from May to October.

The final leg was to Cuxhaven for an overnight journey back to Harwich. There was a cabaret show but most enjoyable was the cameraderie and the animated exchange of mini adventure stories that happened en route and the quirks of each car. Five days earlier I would have baulked at the idea of driving 480 miles but here I was putting the bones together of another driving adventure en famille. Surprises never cease.

Further information about ways to experience the delights of Holland and Germany visit:
www.seemoredriving.com

14 August 2005