1st Continental Z Tour

Ypres – Saint Omer (Wisques) – Cape Blanc Nez.(Calais)

Yes, the weekend was blessed with nice weather – Eddy’s trademark, seemingly - and the tours that we made were really fun doing and nicely put together..
The region in which we were is literally packed with war memories such as museum, cemeteries, honorary arches like the Menengate and places where the traces of destruction still remain painfully visible. The most impressive of the latter being “The Blockhouse”, which made a lasting impression on everybody.

Meeting various Z-owners and certainly the guests from our beloved MG’s country of origin was great fun. We had some cosy little chit-chat about the troubles with the Z-types, e.g. a rather technical remark by Eddy on the correct tuning of the motor with a luminous spark plug (yellow/blue) that can lead to CO 10 (when to motor is run down, of course). So, we look forward to Eddy’s contribution on this subject, so that everybody can finetune their motors.

After the first stage we had a wonderful dinner , which was extensively recorded by Eddy, who always seems to be running around with his camcorder. (we don't know him without -webmaster). This resulted in a near professional filmreport that can be seen on www.continentaloldzmeeting.com . It’s a great impression of this marvellous weekend, accompanied by some nice music.
We see the games of Golf, throwing cans and Kavel, where a newcomer who participated for the first time, came in first. Congratulations!

Anyhow, we hit our beds early that night and in the morning, after an opulent breakfast, we were ready for the second stage to our hotel in Wisques. There again, we were treated to the great French Cuisine. The hotel even had a very nice view over the garden, and thanks to the nice weather, you could see for kilometres. You could marvel at every detail of the scenery, such as the local farmers haying until late that night. A yellowish-golden setting in which little villages and roads seemed to be dropped at random.
How differently it looked the next morning; under a threatening grey sky. But, once we were off on our 3rd stage, the weather suddenly changed to “Eddy’s”-weather!!!

This stage took us through the picturesque French countryside and typical villages to Calais, where we said our goodbyes to our English guests and, surprise, had a great meal in a French restaurant. Here, in Le Thomé de Gamond, situated on the cliff of Cape Blanc Nez, we could even see as far as the White Cliffs of Good Old England, due to the clear weather of that sunny Sunday.

Well, all in all it was again a great experience to find myself in the midst of all those MG-enthusiasts. I would like to be present at one of the following Tours of the Z-club, which is a fun, small group, and combined with other nationalities, certainly ha sits right of existence. In any case, the experience stirred up a lot of things with me, and I hope to be in your company more often. Thanks for the nice conversations, and until next time.

Fred van Tienen