The clouds give for atmospheric landscape views.
Some blue sky started to appear.
That was a seven and half hour journey. Arrived only slightly late.
To Glasgow
Tag: Inverness
Chester to the far north
First train, a transport for Wales train, which shuttles between Chester and Crewe, entirely in England.
Then onto the Caledonian Sleeper, due in at 2345 at Crewe, but arrives late. So make it to bed after midnight.
I wake up in the Highlands.
After a stop in the Sleeper lounge, it’s onto the far north line.
North to south
Another trip south by train, this time with bike. Arrived at the station to meet the train to Inverness. It was windy.
And sunny.
Getting on to the sleeper.
The sleeper was not taking its normal route meaning it arrived 40minutes later than normal. Much of the extra time was spent manoeuvring through London.
A ride through London taking 19 minutes to get from Euston to Paddington, five minutes of which was spent stationary at traffic lights.
Oh dear, the English and Union Jack Flags being inappropriately displayed in Didcot. Very disrespectful! What can be more disrespectful than cheap Chinese made flags looking scrawny and scruffy.
From bright sunshine and blue skies in the far north to cloud in the south.
To Oulu -reflections
That was an amazing trip to Oulu and back.
Negatives: getting food poisoning and train delays. Germany really struggles to get trains to go on time. Eurostar also had its issues. I did have a 77 minute delay on the sleeper to Stockholm, but that worked in my favour. The sleeper Stockholm was also too hot and the curtains were poor allowing flashes of bright light into the cabin while travelling.
Questionable things: seeing people smoke on train platforms in Germany was strange, and also a bit objectionable. The speed that cars drive at in Hamburg is ridiculously high and not suited to the roads. Also objectionable.
Positives: the trains in Finland, Sweden and Denmark were great, excluding the sleeper. In time. The rolling stock was high quality throughout including Germany. Met some great people. The cycle facilities in Copenhagen and seeing so many cyclists was incredible. We should be doing this in the UK.
Exceeding expectations: The ferries between Stockholm and Helsinki were amazing, good prices, amazing views, great facilities. Finland in winter, incredible, stunning snowy landscapes.
Tips:
Don’t plan to catch the last train of the day.
Don’t make connections too tight.
Travel in your sports gear, make it multi purpose. (Sensibly)
Travel as light as possible.
Plan for the weather.
Don’t arrive late and leave early, it’s exhausting.
Staying for more than one night is more pleasant .
Rucksacks are better than wheelie luggage.
Make use of the late checkouts in hotels.
Carry just in case food and drink.
Make use of sleeper services.
Double check reservations.
Download apps for local public transport. They can be used to get the correct tickets and give directions.
Double check routes given by apps, sometimes they are sending you to the wrong place.
If in doubt, ask a local.
Chat to people on the trains.
Use tracking apps so friends and family can follow your progress. It’s fun and good for safety.
Give someone your itinerary- routes, hotels etc.
Look at and enjoy the landscape, as you travel through.
Hamburg-Far North Scotland via Cologne, Brussels, London and Inverness.
I was fit to travel the next day. Decided to reduce the odds of missing connections by catching an early train than planned.
I was traveling to Cologne, we were told there had been a problem with the staff arriving from a previous train. The train departed 40 minutes late. Following the announcements was interesting, as one train to München leapfrogged the other. They were going different routes.
Had time to stroll to the cathedral.
And watch aircraft flying by.
Back to the next delayed train, again 40 minutes and a platform change. Now heading towards Brussels.
The lateness of the train meant that the comfortable cushion to get through border control was disappearing.
I discovered another issue. Somehow the Interrail app had booked the wrong date for the Eurostar, and I had not spotted this, so no seat on the train. Thankfully the very helpful Eurostar employee got me on with a ticket, which strangely had no meal guarantee written on it. I was not sure what this meant.
Then another delay, by possibly an hour, dueto problems in the Netherlands. This would make my next connection in London very tight.
We left 44 minutes late.
I pointed out my non guarantee of meal when I received this meal.
Not very large portion but ideal as my appetite was not back.
It was now dark so no pictures.
The reduction in delay from an hour to 45 minutes meant I made the Caledonian Sleeper well on time. A quick walk from St Pancras to Euston.
And next morning in the Highlands…
Then heading further north.
Almost home.
The Far North, London, Moreton-in-Marsh, Oxford
A February far flung journey, starting in the north,
The downside to travelling this time of year is that it is dark for most of the journey, so not many views.
I had a really good nights sleep, waking up for breakfast in the buffet car.
Caledonian sleeper have added a new stop at Birmingham International. This looks potentially very useful. I saw the airport just after sitting down for breakfast.
No bike with me this time. I had an appointment in London within walking distance. The time to get there was pretty similar either by foot or public transport, so off I walked.
Then it was off to Marylebone Station, for my first ever visit. Also by foot.
Also first time I had seen the BBC buildings.
Things went a bit awry at this point. A goods train had broken down so the route was blocked.
Take a picture or filming shows how much the boards must flicker.
The intention is to get to Oxford to change trains. Eventually a train is provided with loads of carriages to enable taking all the passengers from the cancelled trains. The route to avoid the blockage involved travelling to Princess Risborough, the train then reversed heading to Bicester Village, where again it reversed, eventually arriving in Oxford.
At Oxford some of the tracks are sectioned off. There are no trains to Didcot, only rail replacement buses. This is why I went via Marylebone rather than Paddington.
Smooth onward journey to Moreton-in-Marsh.
After my appointment in Moreton-in-Marsh it’s back to Oxford in the dark.
Northwards in the sun
Manchester, Birchwood, Inverness – drama in Edinburgh
The train is delayed by trespassers.
The delay meant I could not get a decent lunch.
The train to Edinburgh was delayed due to trespassers. However there was plenty of leeway to catch the connecting train, especially if I changed at Haymarket.
As we headed north the delayed train lost time rather than catching up.
We arrived at Haymarket. As I got off the train. I heard the Inverness train leaving. That added another hour to the journey. Why can’t the trains cooperate to avoid these problems. It was minutes. And why was the Edinburgh train continually slowed down.
Time to kill so time to grab food.
Now this is when things got crazy.
I was looking at the display times for the trains on platform four. A man stumbled down the stairs grabbed hold of one my belt loops, span round out of control, falling off the platform, onto the train track. At that point my thoughts were , was a train coming, how do we get this man off the tracks, going down onto the tracks was not an option, too risky. We coaxed the man to his feet, and four complete strangers hauled the man onto the platform.. We restrained the man to stop a further incident.
I thought that the next train was mine, got on discovered it wasn’t. After getting on the correct train I realised just how traumatic I had found the incident.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The problem with catching the late afternoon train in autumn is that it’s dark. No views.
The ride from Euston to Paddington was less affected by the traffic lights than normal. As a result I managed to catch an earlier train to Reading.
Then on to Mortimer.
What a smooth journey, all the trains on time. No overcrowding. I had slept very well on the sleeper. A good journey.
And then……
On to the train at Reading to Manchester Piccadilly. It was rammed. Totally overcrowded.
Things started going really wrong and confusing as we went to Oxford. Announced that we would have to change trains. Then announced we would not have to change trains but we needed to go past Oxford into a siding and then come back. A long wait in the siding then back to the station. Then it was announced we would have to change trains after all.
There was a signal failure near Banbury.
We crossed Oxford Station and caught a train towards Hereford, changed at Worcester, heading to Birmingham. This was bad as now I was due to be in Manchester two hours late.
Change at Birmingham New Street. This is a very badly designed station. The signage is poor. Very confusing, The ugly side of architecture.
More delay due to trespassers on the track. The train had to go slow as a precaution.
The Premier Inn is a quarter mile from the station.
South by train – with a non-folding bicycle
First time traveling in a long while with a non-folding bike. The chief difference is that I had to book the bike on most of the trains, including the far north line and the sleeper.
A stunning train ride to Inverness.
The bike went into a room on a carriage for bikes and large luggage. Not sure about the way the bike is hung up.
Interesting ride, an impressive number of cyclists on route to work, some with no road sense. One, who was on my right, turned left across my path without looking or signalling.
Nice to be the fastest for a change. Faster than the bikes and the cars 🙂.
Some jeopardy getting onto the SWR train, as they don’t do bookings for bikes. Will I get a space?
It only required three trains to get from the north coast of Scotland to the south coast of England. Weather good all the way,
Insight 