As far as I know, all the empeg'ers are coming by car, on the Harwich - Hoek van Holland High speed catermeran (excellent boat - 4 Jumbo jet engines!!).

The Chunnel is all trains, but the trains carry cars/trucks, or carry express passenger trains. The freight trains are seperate from passenger. If you want to catch the car train, you drive from London to Folkstone, then drive onto the train with your car, wait 30 mins, and drive off into France on the other side. You then have a 3.5 hour drive at reasonable speeds to get to Amersfoort. If you want to do this, mail me for instructions on the route. This is not a cheap option as you'd have to hire a car for European travel - not cheap. In fact, b***** expensive.

If you want to get a foot passenger train, then you will need to get a Eurostar express from Waterloo in London. This gets you to Brussels in Belgium (2.5 hours), where you then have to change onto a NS International train to get to Amsterdam via Rotterdam (about 5 hours). Although this is a pretty good, comfortable journey, it is a LONG one. You would still have to get a train to Amersfoort from Amsterdam. If you are based in London, then I would suggest buying a set of Underground (Tube) travel passes for the time you are there, and use it in preference to taxis to reduce costs. It also allows you rapid travel between all the major railways stations to allow you to get out to Cambridge or Brussels.

I would avoid getting a Eurorail pass unless you specifically want to use the trains as your primary transport during the time you're over here. It's the sort of thing I'd buy if I wanted to spend about 2 months touring Europe by train, but to get here cheaply I would not bother booking tickets in advance, and simply book them when you arrive in the UK, or when you get to NL. This would be cheaper, and I've never had a problem getting tickets.

My feeling is, you should get the tube from your hotel on the Thursday, travel up to Cambridge on the train, stay over one night in a low-cost hotel, hitch a lift with the lads early Friday morning to Harwich and go with them on the Jet boat to NL. That way, you also get a chance to eat a green chicken Thai curry at the Wrestlers.

In about 2 years time, you'll be able to catch a direct train Waterloo - Amsterdam on the Eurostar or Thalys TGV trains, about 6 hours duration. Now THAT would be worth getting up early for.