Categories: germany, postcards
Date: 30 October 2007 22:10:15
I decided to travel by train to Vienna for a variety of reasons. Partly because I wanted to break my journey in Nuremberg; partly because I am not a fan of flying, partly for nostalgic reasons (it was my method of travel in 1983-84) and because I like the idea of seeing countries in a bit of context rather than just parachuting in with no idea of the landscape that lies between the points of departure and arrival.
It will come as no surprise to my gentle British readers that seconds after buying my ticket from my town of residence to the Big Smoke I heard an announcement that the 15:13 to London had been cancelled. It was a good job I had timetabled in some slippage for my departure by EuroStar from these shores. Half an hour later, I was on my way on the next train with an easy connection from Paddington to Waterloo on the Tube (on the Bakerloo line for anyone following this expedition in minute detail. I was stunned to learn that a single journey in zone 1 now costs £4!). A quick pitstop at Marks and Spencer's food hall to pick up a few items for supper, followed by a security check-in (x-rays of luggage, passport control) and then I boarded the train for departure. It is recommended you allow 30 mins for check-in procedures and as I was in a queue where several people were subjected to a full baggage search, I needed every minute - particularly as the train left two minutes before its schedule time (18:43).
In the film “Before Sunrise” which I watched recently, Julie Delpy (who was on a train from Budapest to Vienna) sat opposite the handsome Nathan Hawke. No such luck for me. I was next to a noisy French family with three small boys. The boys were clearly tired and their parents were particularly badly behaved, I thought. But thankfully, the journey to Lille (their destination) was only about 90 mins (in fact, unbelievably, the same time as it takes to travel from Town of Residence to London!). I disembarked in Brussels at 22:07 and hung around on the station for the 23:41 to Hannover (terminating at Berlin). I had booked a cabin in advance in anticipation of a bit of sleep before being turfed out at 06:00 to get the 06:28 to Nuremberg where I arrived at 09:28, feeling that my little adventure was already in full swing.