The Magnum Opus II: The story of the Amsterdam Central Station

A 2 year old, little boy once went to Amsterdam with his father. In the city, the little boy was completely awestruck at the Amsterdam Central Station. Built on the edge of the North Sea, the terminal looked like the half submerged head of a giant sea monster. He could not stop wondering about the station and asked his father how the station seemed to be floating on the sea. Then his father told him the story of the Station’s construction.

Hundopus, the giant sea creature with a hundred tentacles, had become very upset and disappointed at being unable to wear shoes. In his anger and frustration he had started swallowing a lot of the ships that sailed the waters of his home in the North Sea. Most of these ships were Dutch and were sailing to and from the port city of Amsterdam.

The sailors and the people of Amsterdam were growing weary of the menace that Hundopus was turning into. They met at the city’s waterfront but no one had the courage to capture Hundopus. They asked each other “Who’s going to catch Hundopus?”

Somewhere in the background, a giant red excavator was just waking up from his sleep. He yawned and stretched his arm and people said “Yes, we have found our guy”.

The excavator was completely taken aback and before he knew what was happening he had been pushed towards the sea. Scared and completely at his wits’ end he started looking around for a way to escape, when he spotted his friend, the giant red dump truck.

“Don’t worry pal, we can do this. I have an idea!” he said.
“Get me a large pair of our famous wooden shoes and some very long rope”, he told the people.

They tied the shoes to the rope and threw them far out into the sea to lure Hundopus to the shore.

Hundopus desperate to try on the shoes lunged forward to grab them. As soon as he did that the dump truck and the excavator started pulling the rope in.

When Hundopus’ head emerged close to the shore, the red excavator knocked him a deadly blow. Hundopus fell unconscious and his tentacles landed all over the place. The dump truck and several of his other friends immediately dumped earth and stones over the tentacles and they become rail tracks. Then the red excavator and his other excavator friends carved out a hollow into Hundopus’ giant head and made the Amsterdam Central Station out of it.