F-Body Europe

Nick, my son, Linda and I are planning on doing a cruise in July and would like to invite anyone who would like to join us. We plan to depart the Den Haag/Scheveningen Netherlands area on 12 July and take 4 days and end up on the French Riviera between Cannes and St. Tropez on 15 July. North Sea to the Mediterrean. Total distance around 1000 miles or 1600 km. We will divide it up into approximately 4 equal days. If any of you have heard of the Hot Rod Power Tour in the US, this will be similar but without all the sponsors, unless I can find some. We plan to go up to Scheveningen a couple of days early to enjoy the beach and possibly go into Amsterdam. We will also spend a few days on the Riviera when we arrive. Feel free to bring your wife, children, significant others, etc.

If we can get several American cars involved, I think this should be a lot of fun. If you can only make a day or two of the cruise, that is fine too. I will have definite locations identified prior to the cruise.

If you are interested in joining us, please email me at either SS35LE@camaromail.com or kc10a@t-online.de. If you have friends who have American cars, feel free to invite them. I plan to contact as many American car clubs as I can find to invite them to participate. Hope some of you will come join us. The more the merrier.

Hm... sounds nice ... tough week though - Fri-Sun Bitburg, then off on that cruise ... though, could go to K-Town area instead of heading home after Bitburg ...

Sorry Jerry. I know you have talked to me about it at the races and I thought that it would be a good time, but we(the fam.) are going back to the states at that time and will be there the whole month of July. Maybe next time. Any news on your contact in the states?

No, he was out last week. Hopefully I will get an email from him on Monday. By the time he gets to work, I will be in a class. I'll let you know if I hear anything from him.

Thanks man. I hope that he can do that for me. I am so wanting to get the car back on the road.

Rod, I didn't hear anything back from him. I won't get a chance to call him until Wednesday. I'll let you know if I find out anything.

Hm ... I was wondering a bit ... ran the trip through Map&Guide ... could it be you're off slightly? I got about 2800km for the quickest route from K-Town through Den Haag, Cannes and back ... and that's without any detours to take a look at nice places on the way ... !?

I did not figure round trip, just one way. It definitely is not a short trip.

I wish I could make that one, sounds like a real nice tour.
But Kamilla's school ends on 16 July for summer vacation, and I will not leave her with the grandparents that week because her birthday is on the 14th.
I checked with school if I can take her with me, but the school won't release her for a whole week before vacation.

To bad you don't plan the trip a week earlier. On saterdaynight 3th july there's the Saterday Night Cruise (Cruise Brothers) in the Hague.

Would be nice to meet some of you German/americans.

There are way too many people already taking leave during that period Jerry. My wife wants to go to Rome in August, and then Greece in October, so my year is pretty full.

That does sound like a great time, though.

Cancel the plans. Our son just got back today and we may totally change where we are going and when. Guess we'll just do our own thing.

TBI88 - We may try to make it in either July or August. It looks like it would be fun. I do have a question, but pleast don't take it as rude or offensive. I don't mean it that way at all. I've been to some cruises/shows and didn't feel at all welcome. Part of it may be the language barrier, I don't know. Do you think we will feel welcome at Den Haag? Like I said, please don't take offense at this question. We'd both love to do it if people will talk to us.

Well that's kind of hard to answer. All kind of people come there. On the one hand the most wild bikertype kind of guys, on the other hand ordinary familymen who just love to cruise their old fifties Buicks and Oldsmobiles.
Everybody fits in en respects eachother.
It's up to you if you want to talk to people or not. Everybody is welcome.
It surely helps if you have something special under the hood to show off.
Just open the hood and people will come and speak to you.
Are you running american licenseplates? That would help. The people that visit the Cruise in general really like americans. Everybody in Holand speaks english so there's no languageproblem. If you run german plates it just might be that people think you're German. A lot of Dutch people can speak German but just don't like to do it. It's not that they dislike Germans, but a lot of the Dutch folks still have bad memories when they hear the language ever since WOII even after three generations and simply refuse to speak german. (no offense to to the German readers, my own grandmother is German, it's just the way it is).

If you decide to come, it's best to be there early, say 17.30. That way you can park in the mainstreet and have a lot of attention. If you arrive any later than 18. 30 you'll have to park in one of the sidestreets.
Let me know if you'll come. Than you have at least one person to talk with.

Every Dutch person I talked to spoke English, and quite well I must say. I was extremely impressed. I was there for 3 weeks, and every person I tried to talk to spoke English much better than they thought!

Much of the Dutch TV is in english with dutch subtitles ... just not enough people in the country to make translating movies worth the money Guess they just need to know english to enjoy movies (some programs are broadast in german and french, too ...)

That's right, just so they can understand television we teach our children english from age 10 and German and French from age 12

We have to because Dutch is only known in Holland and parts of Belgium, Suriname, the dutch Antillen (aruba, curacao and bonaire) and South Afrika. So you won't get for if you only master Dutch.

Good point man! BTW, do all Dutch have coffee breaks like every two hours or so?

I'll be up there sometime this summer but not sure which one. I'll let you know ahead of time. I'm just a familyl man who loves cool cars. My son is younger but he is basically the same way except single. We'll see you sometime.

Every two hours? At the office where I work we have free coffee all day long!!!


The same here, only my 11 yr old daughter isn't into cars (yet). I'm not much of a racer with an almost stock 305TBI. Just like to cruise to all kind of american car meetings.

The Saterday Night cruises are every first saterday night of the month from april until september, so three to go this year. Let me know if you want to come. I'll pick you up somewhere than.

Will do.