Euro Night 447 “Jan Kiepura” Distance so far: 1692km, GMT +1, -5 C, snow showers. Last night I picked up the EN447 from Amsterdam. It does a weird route around Germany (including Dusseldorf, Cologne, Dortmund, Berlin and Frankfurt) before heading to Poland, and terminating in Warsaw. I appreciate that you don’t really “pick up” a train like a woman in a bar, but it makes it sound like I do this all the time, which of course I don’t.. Until last month there was actually a carriage that went all the way to Moscow, but this has now been cut […]
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This post is another anoraky one, so unless you are visiting Amsterdam and have luggage, I’d move along to another blog entry..! I thought some of you might like to know how the left luggage service works now. Although the station is being redeveloped, there is still a big left luggage area and a security guy on duty at the entrance. There is no traditional service though, you have to use lockers and the automated system. If you read this blog you will know of my luggage issues, so my first mission this morning was working out how to use […]
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Distance covered so far: 494km, GMT +1, Weather: 1C, sunny I visited North Shields yesterday afternoon to board “Princess Seaways”, the daily DFDS ferry to Imjuden. The only attractions in North Shields appear to the visitor to be the ferry port and a Mega Bowl, so don’t ever make a special trip out here! Once aboard (another mammoth workout session with the baggage, this time with extra climbing) I did a deal with the Purser and upgraded to Commodore Class for what seemed like a pretty reasonable E 50. For this I got a cabin 8012 (more like a suite), […]
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Distance covered so far: 150km. Time zone: GMT. Weather: 3 C, sunny. This afternoon I travelled to Newcastle, where I am getting the DFDS ferry to Amsterdam tomorrow. It was a small step – just 150km out of 12500km, but my first taste of life on the rails! It was immediately apparent that I have too much baggage. People stare at me like I am some sort of demented human pack horse or mad English Sherpa. I managed to cart it about (just), but the real killer is going up flights of stairs, which feels like a heavy work out […]
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