Dordt in Stoom

...or in other words, Dordrecht in Steam = Dordrecht Steam Festival, the largest of its kind in Europe, just 13 miles from where we live here in Gorinchem, Netherlands. That's where we went by train on Saturday, May 30th. By train because, with the thousands of visitors expected (250,000), there'd be no place to park. It was a no-brainer.

We knew there'd be so much to see! Because we went by train and were already at the train station, we decided to first find the steam train and take our ride on it to the model train pavilion too far away for walking. It was part of the full-ticket 'Steam circuit Dordt' pass so we had to think ahead for how we'd schedule our day.

We were early and had to wait for the steam train to arrive at the station from its back-n-forth trip to the model train pavilion. The anticipation was intense because both Astrid and I wanted to get pictures of the train puffing its way in. We and everybody else! How fun when we finally saw it coming. After lots of pictures, we hopped on and took the 15-minute ride to the model train stop. (And if you guessed the bottom-left photo above is a model, you're right.)


There's something about model trains, and what's funny about that is both Astrid and I are mesmerized by them. So it made sense that our first order of business was to check out the pavilion. I have always loved things in miniature and think I must have made the buildings and scenery set-ups in a past life. Brother Nelson had his own model train set eons ago, which is still in my subconscious, I'm sure. (Did you notice the sulky race horses in the collage above...just like the real one from my last post!)

Before and after going into the model-train pavilion we strolled around all the vintage trucks parked for viewing. They don't run on steam, of course, but they were there just for the halibut and added nostalgia to the scene. They deserved to be there. And they led the way to the river bank where we then picked up our steam boat ride to the Dordrecht city center on the Merwede River...the same river that runs by our city Gorinchem.


Talk about all the stops and whistles. They really did it up big, bringing back the memories of a by-gone day. If I counted right, there were 23 steam ships from all over The Netherlands, all with their own names and all blowing off steam. And all were in working order, taking visitors up and down the river. The top-left contraption, by the way, is a lightvessel/lightship...a ship that is a lighthouse. We didn't take the time to tour it but at least I got a picture of it. (And did you find Astrid in the collage?)


When we got off the steam boat, we were at the harbor in the midst of the main crowd of the city-center hoopla. That's where all the steam tractors strutted their stuff, some like whirling dervishes spinning their gears. Most of them were miniature tractors, like the one Astrid is photographing above. This video shows you how cute they are when they work.

By then we were totally ready for a late lunch and started to walk through the city center away from the beaten path. We had a friend's apartment-warming party to attend that evening back at our senior-living complex and decided we had seen what we wanted to see at the festival. So after lunch, we wandered our way back through the streets towards the train station. Unbeknownst to us, we ended up on the main run of the old-timer buses driving visitors to the station. And since that was also part of our pass, we hopped on and enjoyed our ride back to the train...in total vintage style.

Steam-powered trains, ships, and tractors. Vintage trucks. Old-timer buses. Model trains. It may not be everybody's thing but Astrid and I were like kids in a toy shop. It happens only every other year and only in Dordrecht, so we felt lucky that it happend this year and, as I already said, just 13 miles from home. How does life get any better than that!

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Update on Nicholas: A week after his attack by the 3 pit bulls, he is like his normal self, according to Amy. He even still likes dogs, he says! Amy says the owner surrended all his dogs which were then put down. He was also cited in violation of the leash law and not being proactive with the rabies shots. We truly believe Nicholas' healing is due to the "collective consciousness" of all of you who cared and prayed. Thank you.