Our usual trip but this year in a rather nice motor.
My non bike owning mate has just collected a new Range Rover, so when I said to him earlier this year he would have to travel up on my pillion he said a straight no. In his immortal words “ I’m going to drive”
With that 3 of us abandoned bikes and hopped in with him.
Knowing Range Rovers reputation for reliability, we did ensure he had recovery booked but as it turned out, all went rather well.
We linked up with 4 others at the port who were also travelling by 2 additional cars and onto the ferry we went.Quite a few bikes going on with us, nearly all piloted by old and grey fellas, hardly a young lad in sight.
Departed UK from Harwich on the Thursday night ferry and arrived in Hoek Van Holland around 08.00 on Friday.
We managed to find the car on ferry deck 4 despite looking for a few minutes on ferry deck 3. …..I’m blaming the eurofizz we were drinking the night before.
I have to say being woken up by Bobby McFerrin singing “ don’t worry be happy” over the ships tannoy in our cabin was a bit of a shock and was the ear worm for the whole holiday…,agggh I can still hear the bloody tune now…! I’m blaming that for the loss of the car momentarily..
So off we sped (once we’d found the car) to Arnhem. One of our group had not been to see the museum and graves and it was a moving stop.
Beautiful weather.
On up to the hotel after Arnhem in air conditioned comfort, not worrying and being happy..!
A few more glasses of eurofizz and then a few more and then a fantastic dinner and off to bed .
Saturday
Sprint race and Qualifying.
We stay in a small hotel about 8 miles from the circuit so we took the car down to the circuit , parking it in a handy campsite that does park8ng as well and then commenced our walk / route March into the circuit. On the way we passed the huge camp sites that are getting bigger and bigger every year with the fans organisation impressing us more and more.
There’s a drinking team whom I guess come from the Dutch town of Zeijen. Their pre fabricated drinking platform would not looked out of place at Glastonbury. Each time we passed later in the day there was some partying going on…..
We first saw this team about 25 years ago and they have moved with the times…!
I guess those that like MotoGp will have seen the results by now but needless to say it was a bit predictable..!
Back to the hotel after the race past all the bars and campsites, most of the inhabitants were obviously all Marc Marquez fans judging by the the celebrations going on… We all agreed that most were not going to wake up “not worrying and being happy…!”
Usual shenanigans with water pistols and beer cans being thrown but all in all good fun times being had by all.
Another great meal at the hotel, a few more eurofizzes and more waffle being spoke.
One new thing this year was a quiz that I devised regarding the area and the hotel. This was done to celebrate the fact that the hotel was into its 60th year of family ownership and that my brother has been going to Assen for 40 years.
This gave me the opportunity to pass on a photo book as prizes to the winners who just happened to be my brother and the hotel owner.
A great night with much celebration and almost as much beer drank as at Team Zeijen Peest….!
Race day dawned on Sunday with fuzzy heads and thankfully no Bobby McFerrin.
Back to the circuit to repeat the day, same parking, same walk, same campsites, now somewhat quietened for some reason…….Also pretty much the same result in the MotoGp but a much better race.
Moto3 was awesome.
Moto 2 was a good result for Darren Dixon.
The final day.
As @Dawsy has rightly called it:
The Last of the summer wine Euro tour 2025.
We had one more day left in Holland so hired some e-bikes and rode from our hotel into Groningen. A beautiful city about 40 minutes steady cycle away.
One of beautiful things about Holland is how geared up they are for cycling. The cycle paths run from town to town and through lovely countryside.
An easy cycle on a beautiful day.
Some of our cycling may have not conformed with the EEC Cycling Proficiency Test Guidelines but we all survived unscathed. Somehow….
A few cold beers were consumed to stave off the heat and thankfully all the bikes made it back in one piece…
I’m glad you enjoyed visiting our country (again ). Great choice to visit Groningen - like you said, a beautiful city. I have a vague recollection of “watering” the Martini Tower when I was (much) younger…
Hat’s off 
). Great choice to visit Groningen - like you said, a beautiful city. I have a vague recollection of “watering” the Martini Tower when I was (much) younger… 
