I went along to the International GT6 weekend, with my GT6, this time held in Egmond am See in Holland. The annual GT6 weekend is a small private event not affiliated to any particular Triumph Club with limited numbers as it’s based around Hotel accommodation and also runs out every day so anymore than 25 to 30 cars becomes unmanageable. It is therefore by invitation only. I’m fortunate enough to be on the list now and have attended a couple of the events previously in both Germany and the UK.
There were 8 GT6s attending the event from the UK this year, 6 of us were on the same overnight Ferry from Harwich to the Hook of Holland on the Thursday night. The Harwich to the Hook Ferry was very convenient as Egmond am See is only about 70 miles up the coast from the port.
I had quite a long run from home to Harwich though including running around half of the M25 so left home very early to miss the busiest times on the M25 and arrived in Harwich about 7 hours before Ferry check in and took the opportunity to have a good look around Harwich. I visited the Redoubt Fort museum which was very good and also stumbled across some Banksy Graffiti art on a gun pill box on the headland between Harwich old town and Dovercourt.
The Redoubt Fort
A Banksy on a gun pill box
I then met up with the other GT6 travellers from the UK in a pub restaurant by the port for a meal before checking in and queuing for the ferry.
Queuing for the Ferry at Harwich
After arriving in the Hook of Holland in the morning I made my way to the event Hotel in Egmond am See then checked in and had a swim before meeting up with the other GT6 owners from all over Europe. There were Dutch, German, Swiss GT6s and owners from Austria as well as the UK contingent. We had a meal in the Hotel Restaurant and then plenty of beers in the Irish themed pub in the basement of the Hotel.
After breakfast the following day there was a run out to the Dutch Naval Museum at Den Helder which was about a 70 mile round trip, everyone was issued with route instructions and we tried to follow each other as best as we could although it's really not possible to have a convoy of that many GT6s (there were 28 cars) so we got split up.
Sadly, one of the GT6s owned by Ron Breukelman had a bit of an incident early on in the convoy. Ron and his partner Greiteje were lucky to escape without injury. I was about 3 cars behind him in the convoy so witnessed the scary incident. A VW Beetle (new shape) travelling in the opposite direction, lost a front wheel. We saw the wheel bounce up to a good 30ft in the air and it came down right at the front of Ron's car, damaging the bonnet, bumper, valance, grill, headlamp, spot lamp etc quite badly. It could have been much worse if the wheel had gone through the windscreen TBH.
Ron’s Car after the wheel incident.
The Beetle that lost a wheel which damaged Ron’s car.
The GT6s parked up at the museum in front of the bridge and 3D Radar tower from HLNMS De Ruyter.
The museum was really interesting and included a Submarine to explore.
At lunchtime we were booked into a local restaurant and then returned to the museum to look around some more before following a different route back to Egmond.
In the evening we had dinner in the Hotel Restaurant and then retired to the Bistro bar in the Hotel basement. One of the traditions of the GT6 weekend is to share whiskey from a Scottish Friendship cup, I don’t like whiskey much (Rum is my Spirit of choice) but I did have a small sip to keep up with the tradition!
On the Sunday after breakfast there was another run out, this time to a Hotel for lunch. The Hotel De Rijper Eilanden was a rather interesting place, with lots of classic vehicles, classic machinery, classic motorbikes and scooters, other antique curiosities, and a Meccano exhibition on display in the hotel and outside. We then walked around the corner to for a specially arranged visit to the hotel owners workshop and storage area crammed full of mainly classic commercial classics and busses plus a few classic cars, mostly unrestored and sitting waiting for someone to awaken them from their slumber. It was just the sort of place you would see on the “Shed and Buried” TV programme!
GT6s at the |Hotel De Rijper Eilander
Some of the vehicles on display at the Hotel
The Hotel had some real curiosities on display inside
Some of the Mecanno in the exhibition at the Hotel
The Hotel owners private workshop and storage area was cram packed with vehicles.
After lunch some of the GT6s left for home, many had a rather long drive. Some including myself, stayed a further night though and followed a different set route in convoy back to Egmond. In the evening we went out as a group to a rather nice beach restaurant in Egmond.
