Spring Weekend 2024 - April 5th to 7th

[kees]

Hotel booked from Thursday evening to Sunday morning. We will travel from Heerjansdam to Calais by the quickest way, Channel tunnel and from Folkestone we will follow the secondary and back roads to Rye where we will stay in the Mermaid Inn after having spent our wedding night there 50 years ago, then Hever Castle, Horsham, Petworth, South Downs, some hotel in the New Forest, Lyme Regis and to the hotel in Sidmouth, about 775km.

[Chris_R]

I would have thought the overnight ferry to Harwich would be a more leisurely crossing, then a gentle wander down from Harwich to Rye during the day. Admittedly you'd need to use the Dartford crossing but that wouldn't be too bad during the daytime.

[kees]

Takes too much time as we can only depart from home on the Tuesday morning. It is also a lot more expensive, even considering the save on petrol. Anyway, the Dartford tunnel and M25 during anytime of the day is not something I enjoy. Very boring.

[kees]

The total driving distance to Rye is actually very similar on both routes, I just discovered. So no saving on petrol if I would travel H.v.H.-Harwich.

[Chris_R]

Takes too much time as we can only depart from home on the Tuesday morning. It is also a lot more expensive, even considering the save on petrol. Anyway, the Dartford tunnel and M25 during anytime of the day is not something I enjoy. Very boring.

I would have suggested an overnight crossing. You don't have to use the M25 at all, take a leisurely wander down through Essex to Thurrock, nip over the river and then wander down through Kent. Going north to south it's the Queen Elizabeth bridge, not the tunnel, which is not part of the M25 and there are junctions either side that allow non-motorway traffic to use the bridge across the river. Anyway, was just a suggestion to avoid the Belgian motorways which are worse than the M25 (in my opinion).

[kees]

Chris,
Thanks for the suggestion. Forgot there is a bridge now. Used the tunnel a few times in the early seventies when we lived in London and Anne Marie worked in the Sydenham Childrens Hospital. When we drove to the Netherlands to visit relatives or friends, it was either through Harwich-H.v.H. via the Dartford Tunnel or Sheerness-Vlissingen. I worked in Harlow for BOC-Aviation at the time and used the Blackwell Tunnel or London Bridge.

There is not much between Essex and East Kent. Both have a multitude of beautiful locations, gardens, villages, houses etc.

If sailing or taking the train from Duinkerken or Calais, I usually take the West passage from Bergen op Zoom to Zelzate through the harbor area of Antwerpen. I hardly ever encounter very heavy traffic on this route.

[zacmarshall]

For anyone that read Karan's chairman bit in the magazine, the Spring Weekend is at Sidmouth in Devon, not in Cornwall

Surprised John Pym hasn't commented

We have 17 rooms, 30 people attending so far, space still available but please contact me asap.

[Pymmie]

For anyone that read Karan's chairman bit in the magazine, the Spring Weekend is at Sidmouth in Devon, not in Cornwall

Surprised John Pym hasn't commented

Oh dear !

Happy to advise on how a proper Cream Tea is made …

Will catch up with everyone over the weekend

John P

[kees]

We thoroughly enjoyed the weekend at the excellent Hunter's Moon Hotel. Really a great place to be, in beautiful surroundings, well maintained, very good food, friendly, easy going and helpful staff and of course a fantastic Jensen crowd. A real credit to Zac and his team. A big thank you!!

We got home safely yesterday evening after a rather unpleasant journey over the UK roads. I have seen only very few stretches of decent road surface. Literary hundreds of large potholes and very bumpy road surfaces, even on the main roads. I have been travelling in the UK since the 1970s, but never saw the roads in such a bad condition.

[Martin R]

Oh dear, I had hoped that the roads might have improved in the UK over the last 5 months since I've been in Australia but it seems it is not the case.
They were absolutely disgraceful when I left, so I can't begin to imagine how bad they are now
Sorry you had to endure them Kees.

[Stuartjensen]

More thanks and appreciation for all Zac's efforts, excellent hotel and great food. Good to catch up at the beginning of an epic Jensen year

Gill and I seized the oportunity to cross to Brittany, taking the long crossing during Storm Kathleen was not the best move in retrospect

Roll on the Swiss meeting, International Meeting in the Black Forest, Le Mans, the 541 weekend and Dutch weekend. Phew!

[VFK44]

Literary hundreds of large potholes and very bumpy road surfaces, even on the main road

The one consolation is that when the work is finally done, British workers (possibly also throughout the world) do a REALLY good job. I'm not talking about the temporary bodge filling, I'm talking about the master craftsman skills in tarmac, where the seams are almost undetectable and the surface is completely smooth and expertly cambered. How they manage to do that in the conditions they work under amazes me. If only they didn't have a 20 year backlog.