It’s October 23 in ‘The Riddle of the Sands’, a day when Carruthers takes advantage of the mighty German railways to speed his way to Amsterdam for a night in a proper bed. The only downside? He has to endure half the journey with the creepy engineer, Böhme: “Don’t forget to go to Lloyds…”

So, it’s railways, luxury hotels by the Amstel River, and possible real-life role models for Böhme. If that floats your boat, don’t forget to pledge your support for the Adventure Club Handbook on https://unbound.co.uk/books/riddle-of-the-sands. Just £25 gets you a Handbook, a Field Audiobook, an e-book and full web access to our live web adventure.

First up, Lloyd NotDavies gets his Bradshaw’s out and indulges his obsession for timetables (07:34 ). We discover how Carruthers would have got from Nordeney to Amsterdam in real life in 1898 - and how Tim NotCarruthers can ride (roughly) the same route today.

Astute readers will notice how quickly a German army could travel through Holland and Belgium by train. Lloyd refers to the famous historian AJP Taylor to show the importance of train timetables in army mobilisation and the start of World War One (14:05 ).

Tim NotCarruthers ignores the rattling of sabres and researches, instead, the nicest possible hotels to stay at by the Amstel River (19:35 ). He finds a historic hostelry with basement showers and a unique line in deep massage and physical therapy. Tim also goes looking for a slop-shop in the Jewish Quarter in Amsterdam, and uncovers the dark reasons for why he can’t find one (24:38 ).

And so to real life examples of Böhme the military engineer - Böhme the Nazi war criminal (28:08 ); von Pressel the chief architect of the Baghdad Railway (31:30 ), von der Goltz Inspector-General of Fortifications in 1898, and lover of young Turks (33:13 ); Krupp the steel magnate, and lover of young Corsicans (36:23 ).

Club Business: John Ironside on German comedy videos (39:43 ); Zydny on Lancaster guns (40:41 ); Tony F on rowing speeds (41:36 ); Kass reports calmly on a proper sailing (mis)adventure (43:43 ); Jeff loves our Memmert episode (45:28 ); Brian offers to set us up with rowing lessons (45:40 ); Jon joins in with tales of Thames sculling at speed (46:33 ); a special ‘Ahoy’ to Adrian for finally tracking down the original Queenborough steamer pier (48:30 ).

MUSIC CREDITS

Great Open Sea by the Wellington Sea Shanty Society: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Wellington_Sea_Shanty_Society/none_given_1098/12_-_Wellington_Sea_Shanty_Society_-_Great_Open_Sea

Waiting for a Train - Flash and the Pan: https://youtu.be/skVv0__xKdY