DLOC International Rally 2010
Intro
The International Rally 2010 of the DLOC will be held on Sunday June 13th, 2010 at the Royal Palace "Het Loo" in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. Day trips will be organised on the preceding Thursday (June 10th), Friday (June 11th) and Saturday (June 12th). The traditional club dinner will, as usual, be held on Saturday evening.
Hotel
The Rally hotel is the Golden Tulip Hotel in Garderen, a small village to the West of the city of Apeldoorn.
A number of rooms had been reserved for us for the discounted price of €90.- per room per night, breakfast included. A mandatory local tax of €1.50 per person per night is additional to this. But: these rooms have all been taken now!
The Golden Tulip Hotel has made arrangements with another hotel in the vicinity to supply a few rooms at the discounted price that we originally arranged with them.
Next to the G.T. hotel a number of self-catering holiday bungalows (6 pers. and 8 pers.) is still available. They can be booked for the weekend (arrival Fri. afternoon, dept. Monday morning) or for the week (arrival Monday afternoon, Dept. next Monday morning).
For all these possibilities please phone the Golden Tulip hotel desk at 0031-577-461951 or send an e-mail to info@goldentulipgarderen.nl. Please be sure to refer to the DLOC or "Daimler Club" event.
The village of Garderen is situated in the Veluwe area, the most extended nature resort in The Netherlands. At close distance is the Hoge Veluwe National Park with its world famous Kröller-Müller Museum.
Club dinner
Dinner venue and menu have been negotiated and are described here. A booking form has appeared in The Driving Member Magazine.
North Sea ferry crossings
Many different possibilities exist to leave Britain's Splendid Isolation behind you and reach the solid continental soil. Notice that the first three in the list below sail directly to a Dutch harbour. If you prefer to make the longest part of your trip on British roads you should select one of these. Ferries and tunnel to the French coast (Calais, Dunkerque) require a rather long drive through France and Belgium. But they give the advantage of frequent crossings which may combine much better with your overnight stay planning.
| Britain | Continent | Operator | Distance to Garderen
in miles |
Remarks |
| Newcastle | IJmuiden (NL) | DFDS Seaways | 64 | IJmuiden is a small city west of Amsterdam. The Dutch vowel 'IJ' is pronounced as "eye". |
| Hull | Rotterdam (NL) Europoort |
P&O Ferries | 85 | Europoort is the South/West corner of Rotterdam harbour. P&O has quay no. 5805. |
| Harwich | Hoek van Holland (NL) | Stena Line | 94 | Hoek v.Holland is a village at the North/West corner of Rotterdam harbour. The name in English is "Hook of Holland". |
| Edinburgh | Zeebrugge (B) | Norfolk Line | 170 | Sailing from Rosyth near Edinburgh |
| Hull | Zeebrugge (B) | P&O Ferries | 170 | Hull-Rotterdam may be a more suitable choice |
| Ramsgate | Oostende (B) (Ostende) |
Transeuropa Ferries | 181 | Transeuropa Ferries is not expensive |
| Dover | Dunkerque (F) | Norfolk Line | 210 | The name in English is "Dunkirk". Frequent crossings. |
| Dover | Calais (F) | Seafrance | 240 | Frequent crossings |
| Dover | Calais (F) | P&O Ferries | 240 | Frequent crossings |
| Folkestone | Calais (F) | Eurotunnel | 240 | Car by train: more relaxed and no other car parked 1' next to yours. Short travel time; not cheap. |
The above list is exhaustive for ferries to the Dutch and Belgian coasts, and for France unto Calais. A good overview of all ferry possibilities can be found on the www.directferries.co.uk web site. This includes the ferries travelling to continental destinations further South from Calais, such as Dover→Boulogne, Portsmouth→Le Havre and many more.
Many ferry operators gradually increase their prices as the departure date approaches. Early booking may give a substantial discount. An example: in 2008, returning home after the Beaulieu autojumble, I (hjt) had no reservation when I drove to Dover harbour and booked a ticket on the spot. I was charged £100.-. In 2009 I had booked one month in advance and travelled for £38.- approx.
You may be interested to read the separate page with itineraries or the page with travel tips.
Planning your trip
I recommend Google maps to help you plan your itinerary. When you click on the link, its entry page will show. Near the top of the page, just under the Google logo, select Get Directions to open two text boxes instead of the initial single one. There you type your From and To city names, and Google will show you distances, itinerary and the like. Street names, postal codes etc. may be added to obtain a more refined description. A pitfall to note is that Google Maps is not good at North Sea ferries, so you may have to specify your trip in two halves.
Questions
For questions you can reach me at this site's webmaster contact e-mail, or via fax at 0031-24-3442374.
