To The Netherlands with Inside Track Holidays - "A Load of Borkum".

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Wednesday 21st May 2025

We travel Wilmslow to London by Avanti Pendolino. It is much delayed by an HGV hitting a bridge somewhere north of London.

Two clock towers visible from our London hotel room; Kings Cross station clock on the left, St Pancras Hotel on the right

Thursday 22nd

Eurostar took us to Brussels Midi, then by Netherlands train to Rotterdam, and another to Lelystad. From there our coach (50 seater for 16 of us so plenty of room) took us to the superb Hotel Van Der Valk at Sneek. 

This picture taken from the coach indicates the original water level (the ship on the chimney smoke) before the land here was reclaimed from the sea.

Friday 23rd

We drive over the 32 kilometre dam built to separate the Zuiderzee from the North sea, forming today's Ijsselmeer on our way to the Stoomtrein Railway

Aboard our steam train on the Stoomtrein Railway from Hoorn to Medemblik (did you know that Cape Horn was named after this town as that is where its discoverer came from?).

Our steam locomotive tram engine

At Medemblik we boarded our vintage boat for Enkhuizenfor the Zuiderzee Museum

On board our boat

The Zuiderzee Museum comprises buildings brought to this site depicting life on these shorelines prior to the building of the great dam

In the Zuiderzee Museum. Most 'windmills' in The Netherlands are not 'mills' at all, but wind driven pumps; part of the land drainage system.

Chris relaxes in the small ferry to take us to nearby Enkhuizen

From Enkhuizen we had this ferry to ourselves, across the Ijsselmeer

to Stavoren. Then we took a train back to Sneek where we visited the National Model Railway Museum, before our coach picked us up to take us back to the hotel

Saturday 24th

We packed our bags and left our Sneek hotel by train to Leeuwarden, another train to Meppel, and a third train to Hoogeveen where we met our coach for the journey to the Industrieel Smalspoor Museum which is dedicated to the Peat industry. We took a ride on a bumpy narrow gauge railway around the peat workings (above)

Here's a video of the train: 20250524 123235

Our guide explained in detail how the peat industry (now largely run down) had operated. Here is a peat shredding machine

Our coach took us on to a windmill (this one IS a mill, not a wind pump!) by a canal at De Wachter-Zuidlaren (view from the top of the mill above) which was working. I climbed several sets of steep narrow wooden stairs to get to the millstones at the top of the mill

The hopper, millstones, Damsel, and drive shaft

Here's a video of the mechanism working: 20250524 161311

On the canal was a small paddle steamer which we had a sail on. It is powered by a 2-cylinder steam engine driving a hydraulic pump, which in turn drives the paddles through hydraulic motors. Each paddle can be set to forwards, neutral, or reverse by use of two control levers

Here's a video taken on board: 20250524 153735 - YouTube

Aboard the paddle steamer

Our coach took us on to to our second hotel of the holiday at Veendam, the Hotel Parkzicht

Sunday 25th

By coach to Veenpark at Barger-Compascuum. This open air museum showcases life in the peatlands in the 1920s. The train above took us around the main site, while the one below went out into the peatlands to show how peat was cut. Here's an on-board video on the round-the-site train: 20250525 113732

This second train stopped for about 20 minutes out in the peatlands while the guide explained how peat cutting was accomplished

Here's a video of riding this train: 20250525 130059

Peat cutting

A stationary steam engine powered the peat cutting machinery

Cut peat turves

Soon we were on the coach again headed for the S.T.A.R. Railway in Stadscanaal, where we had a privately chartered train. But first we had a look around the sheds.

2-10-0 freight locomotive

Fireless locomotive

The diesel locomotive for our chartered train

The Netherlands flatlands from our train

Afternoon drinkies and snacks were provided!

Then it was back to the hotel on our coach

Monday 26th

On our coach to the port of Eemshaven where we boarded a ferry for the one hour sail to Borkum Island

Aboard the ferry to Borkum

This was a surprise! Our transport from the quayside at Borkum into the town was this pig-nosed vintage railbus (it has a 'nose' at both ends). I have a model of one on these on my 009 model railway.

Being vintage, these are somewhat rare so I didn't expect ever to see one for real, let alone get to ride on one.

Here's my 009  model of the railcar. It's about 3 inches long.

Here's a video taken on board: 20250526 113207

We did a tour of the island in this vintage Mercedes bus

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We joined our private chartered steam train for a run down the line to the quay and back, with a run-past on the way. Here's a video of our locomotive, Borkum, using the station platform to run around its train.  20250526 145741

Borkum ready for its run-past

Here's a video of Borkum doing the run past: 20250526 152641

Aboard our steam special. Once more, drinkies were provided.

Here's Chris enjoying a typical evening meal in the hotel. It was rather good!

Tuesday 27th

Our coach took us to Groningen for a train to Leeuwarden, from where another train took us to the port of Harlingen for what was, for me, the highlight of the holiday - a day sailing on a tall ship.

Our tall ship Larus, built in 1893

This is our Captain, Tom, who gave me the helm for about 20 minutes. The last time I took the helm of a tall ship was about 30 years ago when I spent a week on sailing trawler 'Leader' out of Dartmouth.

With the Boat heeled over by the wind, the sounds of the swish and slap of the sea; salt spray carried aft as she butted through the small waves of the North Sea, it was a superb experience. The varying wind on the big mainsail wanting to yaw her windward balanced by one's hand constantly working the wheel, with an eye on distant coastal landmarks to maintain our course.

And as for the 2nd mate's superb home made mushroom soup...

Magic!

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Wednesday 28th

Homeward bound....

An 8am start from the hotel by coach to Assen, from where we caught a train to Lelystad (2 hours), then another to Brussels Midi (another 2 hours), and finally one of the original but refurbished Eurostar trains (so nice and comfortable) whisked us at high speed in 'Eurostar Plus' class to St Pancras.

We enjoyed a night in London before returning home the next day

Thursday 29th

The 12:41 Avanti Pendolino left Euston on time and by 12: 50 the complimentary drinks trolley had come round and our lunch orders have been taken. we arrived right time at Wilmslow.

What a contrast to our Southbound journey just over a week ago which was almost 2 hours late at Euston (because of an HGV hitting a railway bridge) and resulted in a total refund of our fares by Avanti.

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And so ended our superb week with Inside Track Holidays in the Netherlands