"We will either find a way or make one."Hannibal
At the end of November, the Dutch Centurions League hosted a reunion for Centurions in Amersfoort. We assembled at the top floor of the Dutch Cavalery Museum. Piet Jansens, the organizer of the event, welcomed all Centurions and their family members. Then we went round the museum, which showed the history of the cavaly of the Dutch army. From horses in the middle ages to the modern Leopard tanks and armored vehicles. After a while the Centurions amongst the group were called outside for photo opportunity with a Centurion tank.
Some of the Centurions posing with the Centurion tank.
The driver of the tank (a friendly old man who looked as if he had fought in both world wars) explained what the tank's top speed was, what engines it had and that it used 10 liters of fuel per kilometer on the road and 24 liters per kilometer of the road. He manouvred the tank into a comfortable position for taking a picture (nearly knocking over some signposts in the process) and after that drove off.
The official ceremony in which all new Dutch and Belgian Centurions received their number took place on the top floor of the museum. Also, the President of the Centurions, John Eddershaw, held a short speech and presents were handed out to Christina (fastest woman), Marcel (fastest new Centurion), Piet Jansens (for organizing the reunion), John (for visiting us) and Gijs den Ouden (president of the RWV, for winning the team prize and for the presence of their support team in London).
After the ceremonial part of the afternoon everybody went to the Kabouterhut, a restaurant near the museum. (Hut means cabin and a kabouter is a friendly dwarf that lives in the forest, according to the fairytales.) The restaurant was quite hectic and crowded, but very comfortable and the food it served was good. The chicken raised some eyebrows, being sufficiently big to feed an entire orphanage, and the chocolate mousse created some envy amongst the Centurions. The president of the RWV, Gijs, received a large portion of mousse, while Ad Leermakers, organizer of the 15 hours of Loon op Zand, only got a small portion.