Let the madness begin!
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Let the madness begin! After much wailing and gnashing of teeth I have decided on a route to Italy that should be both interesting and new and add three countries to the tally.
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First stop: Schiphol Airport. But only to gloat at those who have foolishly chosen to go by aeroplane.
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The Brussels-bound Intercity is rather busy this Saturday morning. As we’re leaving Breda, there are hardly any empty seats in second class.
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Italian people on the train watching TV on the speakerphone. Nice preparation for what will be normal later on this trip.
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“Track change. The 11:25 Eurostar to Cologne will depart from track 6 instead track 5.” Nope, sounds weird.
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The train manager just announced that this train is terminating at Arlon when it is supposed to go to Luxembourg. Now, does he know something or is he mistaken? Suspense!
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Luxembourg. The train from Brussels runs every hour, so naturally it’s a fifty minute wait for the connection to France.
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The French train isn’t here yet and there are no arrivals scheduled from that direction. I guess SNCF is running it up empty so they can keep an inconvenient afternoon timetable gap?
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Well, crap. “La circulation des trains entre Bettembourg et Thionville est perturbée suite à une panne technique de signalisation sur le réseau ferroviaire en France.” If I run, I can get the train to Koblenz.
Looks like the train to Nancy left two minutes late. Ah well. Never did Luxembourg – Trier, so I get to tick that off.
(This is why “on time” labels if a train is expected to be actually going on time are great rather than not saying anything which can be interpreted as “we don’t know yet”.)
(Also, have the train on the platform a little more than five minutes before departure.)
(Also, grumble.)
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Looks like the train to Nancy left two minutes late. Ah well. Never did Luxembourg – Trier, so I get to tick that off.
(This is why “on time” labels if a train is expected to be actually going on time are great rather than not saying anything which can be interpreted as “we don’t know yet”.)
(Also, have the train on the platform a little more than five minutes before departure.)
(Also, grumble.)
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Maybe I can go from Saarbrücken to Strasbourg? Oh, there is a direct train!
It leaves two minutes before the train from Trier arrives.
Go figure.
Going from Trier to Saarbrücken, you want to sit on the right side with a view of the river Saar. But the train was too busy for that. Turns out things get really interesting on the left side once you get closer to Saarbrücken – all the old steel mills and assorted industry and attached railway infrastructure make for a lot to see.
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Going from Trier to Saarbrücken, you want to sit on the right side with a view of the river Saar. But the train was too busy for that. Turns out things get really interesting on the left side once you get closer to Saarbrücken – all the old steel mills and assorted industry and attached railway infrastructure make for a lot to see.
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The stop train takes one and a half times the time of the express train. And no, it doesn’t have a long stop along the way. It just stops a lot. These diesel things really are terrible at accelerating.
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Quick reminder that if you run more than one train per hour, it is cheaper to just electrify the line already than toy with ingenious alternatives.
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Ironically, a bunch of slightly overweight children left the train at Landau.
(This toot for old German people only.)
The northern of the two signal boxes at Winden (Pfalz) – very much still in use – was taken into service in 1899!
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The northern of the two signal boxes at Winden (Pfalz) – very much still in use – was taken into service in 1899!