Off the beaten tram tracks

"Don't sit on the window seat. Your face will become black..!".

My Periyappa (Paternal uncle) used to shout. He should know better. He was a Ticket Collector...

It always fell on our deaf ears that were muted by the loud whistles of the steam engine. Clinging on to the window and treading the foothills of western ghats through and across the rivers, coconut grooves and water falls is a sight to behold before the Shencottah-Quilon express begins its slow but steady ascent through the impregnable mountain ranges; Its a journey of highly rewarding experiences.. Via ducts, dark long tunnels, coal dust swollen eyes and blackened face and arms.. !

Apart from the Newton's laws of physics, Steam engines - the wondrous locomotive of my childhood, operate based on two rules..

1.) They are capable of exciting kids;
2.) If you are not one, it will make you one

You would agree with me, Its this excitement that keeps the steam engine close to one's heart. However on an Easter weekend, I was left wondering why the Dutch tourism board didn't apply these rules to me while pegging the ticket fares!

Behind the hype of Keukenhofs and the Zaanse Schans', lot of graceful gems of Holland are usually lost. The historic triangle of Zuiderzee towns: Hoorn-Medemblik-Enkhuizen is surely one of them; This trip is certainly not in the check list of maddening tourists nor the locals who always look for something 'Gezellig'. At least the modest crowd turnout on a holiday weekend coupled with an empty returning tram suggested as much - much to our delight, if I may add!

In hindsight, traveling this route by the unique combination of Road, Steam Engine Tram, Boat and Train not only makes you feel like Phileas Fogg, it also rejuvenates you in such a way that you might actually consider blogging about it at the end of the day :-P !!

The best part about this trip is the way its designed. Five stars to the planners of this program.

Consider this..

- The tram station at the Hoorn is slap bang at the footsteps of a huge parking lot that charges you 2 Euros to park your car for the whole day;
- Vintage tram coaches leaving Hoorn to Medemblik pulled by an even enigmatic steam engine from the 1920s in all its full glory, chugging along a scenic Dutch country side at a speed of 15-20 Km/hr, providing every bit of romance it promises.
- After a leisurely 1 and half hours, The tram stops at Medemblik under the nose of a Jetty where a ferry is already waiting for you;
- With no reason to hurry, you are given a sizable chunk of an hour to extend the picnic on the banks of IJsselmeer to have that home packed Lunch or to walk around and explore the compact village of Medemblik.
- The next 75 minutes sees you in an Old fashioned steamer with its Saloon deck sails ferrying you to Enkhuizen, on the quite waters of the largest fresh water lake in the Western Europe.
- You may then alight at the Zuider Zee museum if you are a "touch-and-go" kind of a person or take a stroll around the pretty little harbor of Enkhuizen. Eitherways the ferry drops you at the door steps of your next point of interest;
- A fast double-decker Intercity train leaves Enkhuizen quite frequently, bringing you back to the 21st century as you arrive at your car park in Hoorn 20 minutes later.

The interoperability of this scheme seem to put the software I develop to shade !

Clearly the most alluring part of the trip was the Tram ride of 20 Kms from Hoorn to Medemblik; As the tram thunders away from the station every passer-by is waving at you. Waving back at them you feel like a certain Atal Behari Vaajpayee accepting the ceremonious welcome on a state visit, although it takes a while to strike to you that its the heritage of the tram that they are waving at and not at its measly passengers. The tram in the meanwhile is busy slithering through vast scenic stretches of canals and farm houses among which I was told a few were tulip fields as well. But we were probably a bit early for them.

Before the trip I had promised my son that we are going to go in the Thomas the Train Engine and I joked to him that I will introduce him to the Fat Controller. While my son was busy concluding that the engine pulling us is more a Skarloey than a Thomas (Becase Thomas is Blue in Color while Skarloey is red it seems. Our's was Red!!), the ticket collector indeed turned out to be a befitting personality whose prosperity was visibly exuberant romanticizing the image my son had in his mind; So when I requested him to pose for a photograph with my son, Mr. Fat Controller was more than happy to oblige. He even tossed around his hat to my son and the look on his eyes were suggesting that his fantasies were coming alive. Overall the support staff in the tram were extremely helpful (and were shrewd marketers as well selling cola to toy train on wheels to ensure that your wallet is empty to the last note!); They were giving you friendly safety tips as well as entertaining packets of information when poked, such as the engine consumes 500 KG of coal for the 20 KM trip and its capable of pushing as well as pulling the carriages at same speed etc.,

The beauty of this overall package is that, it makes such a lazy day by design since all you are doing is sitting on antique locomotives and soaking in the experience for 3 long hours or more. You can't do anything but relax even if you want to. A family day outing cannot be more unplugged.

If you do plan to take this package, here are a few tips that you might want to consider:
- Weather is the most crucial factor of this trip; Do your research on the forecast and please go only if it promises to be a nice sunny day.. I know this sounds like a no-go since sun light and Northern Lights share the same probability of appearing in Holland (!!); But believe me, this would still be the most crucial factor; After all there is no fun, standing on the upper deck of a steamer under the umbrella for the heck of it, with the chilly winds lashing you from all corners
- There is no advance booking for the tram unless you are a group of critical mass; While my guess is that the tram takes around 150 - 200 passengers, you might still want to arrive at least half an hour earlier to the scheduled departure of the tram to save the probable disappointment of tickets being sold out.
- When the Tram stops at Wognum (The first stop), it stops for a while. So get down and walk all the way to the engine; You won't regret it; If you have kids, they will be allowed on the engine cabin upon request and they love it.
- You may be left with no more than a couple of hours at the Zuider Zee Museum if you arrive at Enkhuizen by boat from Medemblik. So see if its something for you and if not do walk around Enkhuizen's compact harbor/ centrum; We opted for the later. Providentially we saw a skinny bridge opening for boat traffic and the mechanics of it was quite interesting.
- If you are family with 2 kids (not toddlers) then consider taking the family ticket as its relatively cheaper. The package costs around 23,50 per person including the intercity train and is not exactly cheap;

This trip is a genuine throw back to yesteryears. And that's probably THE charm of it.. and of course the program still seam to be a secret well kept. So as I said, The steam trams of Hoorn indeed run off the beaten track..

Quite literally...

With Love
Vicky

Trivia:
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- Shencottah - Kollam route which I referred initially runs through my home town in India and it was known as the Queen of the Meter gauges. Look for the relevant subsection on this page to learn more about it.

- For more a visual experience of Shencottah - Kollam route, You may see this you tube clip; Behind the obscure video, you can still get a glimpse of the train route back home that I mentioned. The via Ducts, The tunnels, the mountains all of them are nicely captured in this song. About this video itself - Why Maniratnam, One of India's celebrated directors, came all the way to this remote southern corner of Indian subcontinent to shoot an inconspicuous train sequence is not easily explained, Unless you are from this region; Its because, interestingly the time line of that movie sequence required an old fashioned steam engine. And my home town was still one of the last bastions of Indian Railways where those friendly monsters were part of every day life;