Go-Karting

We were happy that the Niederriter family was able to join us last month in Holland for part of their European vacation.

We did some of the regular stuff when they were here…. Anne Frank House, Zaanse Schaans, and of course a drink on a cool day on the Grote Markt. We also had a very memorable night at Frank and Natasja’s house. It started out at 5:30 with a gigantic paella for dinner and ended up eight hours later with karaoke to some unknown 50-Cent rap number. There must have been a few bottles of wine in there somewhere…......I don’t know where else all those f-bombs would have come from ;-)

But the real highlight of their time in Holland was the go-karting. We had been planning this for months in advance and after the Niederitter’s returned to Haarlem from a long haul trip through Belgium and France, the boys were ready for some fun on the speed circuit.

This Go-Kart place was like nothing I’ve ever seen in America. The huge warehouse complex held two serpentine race tracks, complete with bleachers and a large bar and restaurant. There were also plenty of video games and funky 3D reality-rides scattered throughout the place. The closest thing that I can compare it with is a Dave and Busters on steroids….but everything was oriented toward auto racing.

Let me tell you…they take their go-kart racing seriously. When we entered the hall, karts were screaming around the track at speeds that looked more like street racing than a kiddie ride. It was immediately apparent that his was NOT your average karting place found in the beach or mountain resorts in the states.

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After watching one race, the younger riders looked a bit nervous about what they had gotten themselves into.






















Now that the skid suits are on, they are looking a little more confident




















Lined up and ready to roll!



















What? You didn't think that we'd let the kids have ALL the fun, did you?



















This was really a blast! The cars zipped around the track and it was pretty cool skidding into the banked turns. But you know that you are really getting to be an old fart when you start to hope for the ride to end....not because it's scary anymore, but because you are getting motion sick from following the same serpentine course...over and over and over and over and over....