So why did we go to the Netherlands and Belgium this spring? The original plan was to go to Greece. We could go through Amsterdam or Paris en route. Trout chose Amsterdam because we'd been to the Paris airport before. But, if we were going to be there, he wanted to see the racetrack at Zandvoort.
I said if we were going to do that, we were going to spend a week in Amsterdam. Then the topic of Spa-Francorchamps came up, as did the Bloemencorso and Keukenhof gardens. Add in Bruges and the Kroller-Muller in Arnhem, and the next thing you know, you've got a month in the Benelux countries of the Netherlands and Belgium.
We flew to the Amsterdam airport, picked up our car rental and drove directly to Zandvoort where we had rented an apartment within walking distance of the track. Trout drove over most days because the parking was cheaper than feeding the meter outside our apartment.
This is the entrance to the Circuit Park Zandvoort.
This is a car on the way back home the 1st day he was there.
Others lasted a little longer.
These are all pictures taken from around the track. He could go just about anywhere. If you look closely, you can tell that it was cold.
He didn't spend that much time there each day he went, but I think he enjoyed it and learned a lot.
We were supposed to go from Arnhem to Spa-Francorchamps, but Trout was too sick to drive. We stayed an extra day in Arnhem and drove on to Bruges. But, since it was a pretty short drive on the freeway from Bruges to S-F, we decided to do it on a day that they had track tours.
We did hit a little traffic on the way.
But we finally got to the main exit.
We got slightly lost trying to take a route in that was suggested on the track's website. We did see some pretty farmland and more than one sign telling us where to go.
We found our way there in time to park, take a couple of necessary pictures and walk over to the Pit Brasserie for lunch. I think we were the only ones there who weren't part of a group of people having fun on the track. By the quality of the yummy food, we knew we were in the French part of Belgium.
We walked through this tunnel under the track to the restaurant.
We saw this monument to Ayrton Senna on the way.
And we saw the famous l'Eau Rouge-Radillon turn more than once. The first part of the name is because of the "red" water (which has a high iron content) in a little stream near it.
This is the entrance we came in which turned out to be the place to meet for the tour.
One guy was already heading home.
This is a very rural area except when the Formula 1 Belgian Grande Prix is here. It's convenient that there is a significant police presence here.
This drivers club building was the original hotel here.
This old farm building is now the medical facility. You can see the Pit Brasserie in the background.
Our tour guide spoke English, French, Dutch and German that we know of. Unfortunately, he is sideways here. There were only 4 of us on this tour. I felt like such a dunce later when I realized that we didn't tip him. Aaargh! Ugly American.
No doggy pooping in that spot at the facility.
When you see these pits on TV, they are all fixed up for the teams. Each team has 3 of these bays. Trout had me go to the other wall while he stood against the track side wall to give an idea of the size of the things.
Here is pit lane and the hot pit area.
We were surprised at how plain and small the area is where the winners stand.
We weren't surprised at the size of part of the press area. They watch everything on TV and report from there.
We had to do it. We had to stand on the steps while the guide took some pictures. This one shows the track name on the left in the background.
And here Trout is the winner!
These TVs show every turn on the track. During a race, there is one person monitoring each turn.
And this is one of the stranger cars driving the track the day we were there.
We both had a great time on this day trip, but Trout got to go to his favorite F1 track in the world. It was time and money well spent.
Sidebar: On the way to S-F, we made a pit stop. Trout found this chocolate milk drink in a cooler with the bottled water, juice and soft drinks. It is sold in the Netherlands under the name Chocomel, but we never saw any dark chocolate ones in Holland. If you are ever in Belgium, you gotta try this. The word for milk in Dutch is melk.
