There are train journeys where one just gazes at hills rolling by beyond the carriage window. I love such routes, be they in the Alps, Iberia or the Balkans. Things are different in the Netherlands, where pancake-flat landscapes dominate. Yet even in the flatlands there is often visual drama. The rail routes skirting Dutch heathlands around Apeldoorn are wonderful. And there is a subtle beauty, especially at low sun angles, to the secondary railways which follow the River IJssel downstream from Zutphen to Zwolle.
