It’s a bright crisp morning, I have a good day for the trip north.
Not knowing any better I sat myself in first class which has a nice place to hang coats and store luggage. Plus it’s on the upper deck.
I way politely shifted to standard class.
It is cold and snowy in Helsinki.
I had plenty of time before checking in time for the hotel, so decided to ride the tram to the end of the line and get the flavour of Helsinki.
Got to the end of the line having passed the central station. Hopped onto a different tram on the basis that it would go to the central station, which it did.
It’s one stop up the line on the train to where I am staying.
Had some good food in Helsinki.
The snow is often not cleared but strewn with grit to help the grip. Most of the time this is fine but just occasionally I found a slippery patch.
I switched to a ferry for the journey to Helsinki.
An issue with not knowing the city and the language is an over reliance on apps. Using the Viking Line app I located what I thought was the terminal by pressing a link, but I was directed to the wrong terminal. I realised just in time to be able to dash to the correct terminal arriving 20 minutes before departure. The app said arrive no later than 20 minutes before departure. That was a close call.
Getting on the boat I was well looked after, sent to a lift where I descended into the depths of the boat. However the cabin was nice and I had it all to myself.
I am on deck two, below the waterline.
As we were leaving at 1630 the sun was setting leading to a beautiful view of Stockholm from ship.
Lots of videos of the boat so slipping through the water. Listen to the sound.
Arrived at Helsinki just after 1000. This was a wonderful journey.
I shared a cabin with five other travellers.
The train set off late evening? Travelling through Denmark in the early hours.
The train was a bit dated with a seventies vibe,
Now getting close to Stockholm,
It’s an early start to catch the 0816 Eurostar to Brussels. The ticket tells me to turn up at 0701.
Not off to a good start, there is a 24 minute delay. But this should not be a problem as there is plenty of time for the connection at Brussels,
We travel through Kent.
Difficult to get decent photos from the train in Kent.
Struggled getting decent photos in France too.
I checked the notice board for the train to Cologne. Spotted that there was an issue, it looked like the train was delayed and was leaving from a different station, Brussels-Nord. I confirmed this, and was told what train to catch.
The next leg is to Hamburg. This train is also delayed, by maintenance work on the track.
A short leg to London from Didcot, via the underground.
A bit of a walk from the station, I could have got a bus, but all good.
However two problems with the room. Firstly, the knob on the plunger to switch between the bath tap and the shower was missing. Second, after five minutes of being on the TV started glitching. But too late to get a change on the first night.
I found the knob the next day fixing the bath/shower issue. But the TV still was not working. I spoke to a very helpful member of the Premier Inn team and I swapped rooms.
New room was smaller but had a proper shower, so a win. The TV works.
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.
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.
Insight 