This is a view outside a wet Amsterdam CS station with a more modern tram departing.

I travelled to Holland on the overnight ferry (Stena's "Koningen Beatrix") from Harwich Parkestone Quay to Hoek Van Holland. This was in the days long before the Channel Tunnel, Eurostar or Ryanair’s cheap flights so the ferry, with a cabin overnight was the most productive way to travel.

On the second day of my trip I went to Amsterdam and actually did a boat trip around the canals before indulging in that other pastime all men do in Amsterdam, bashing locos between Amsterdam CS and Amsterdam Sloterdijk stations, known at the time as “slotting”.

13th November 1992