Having set out a couple of weeks ago to visit România I ended up spending only two nights there, and one of those was on a train. Good times, though, (if a bit of a whirlwind) with six new countries visited: Serbia, Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Turkey, Moldova.
Now for quite a slog of a journey... Timișoara to the Matarranya. Ten or eleven trains, including back-to-back sleepers, plus a bus or two at the end. 🤠
I'M ON THE TRANE
First up, Timișoara to Arad. Somewhat vertiginous climb up to board. #DuttyDiesel
There's a waiting area upstairs which is new but the seats aren't.
The departure board lists my next train (to Budapest) only as far as Lokoshaza, the first station over the border with Hungary. #CrossBorderRail
Arrival in Budapest and Keleti is looking spectacular after dark.
Have also added a pic of the loco that brought us here for @moof and fellow fans, having discovered it was a Vectron.
We shall draw a veil of good taste over the fact that I somehow booked the reservation for my next train, the sleeper to Stuttgart, from Vienna rather than Budapest. 🙄
I called the excellent OBB helpline this morning on realising my error and was told to board in Budapest anyway. I am, however, in a seat rather than my bed... for now.
Urgh! 4.30am passport check... with knocks on the door that would wake even the dead and which you can hear all down the carriage.
Aren't we in Schengen? "Yes, but that doesn't mean the police isn't allowed to control." #CrossBorderRail #SecurityTheatre
I'M ON ANOTHER TRANE
Even though we were late into Stuttgart it looks like I could have made the direct service to Paris, which was itself late. That would have connected with the afternoon service to Barcelona but what fun is it turning up at your friends' house at 10pm when they have to get up at 6am the following day? Am happy with my decision to head to Strasbourg in a leisurely fashion.
Lovely autumnal vibes in Strasbourg today.
Had a decent lunch at an Armenian joint I found on The Fork.
Now waiting for the train to Paris that I very conservatively timed because, you know, DB and all that. Will still have four hours to get from Gare de l'Est to Austerlitz.
The interior of the station looks better than the outside.
I'M ON ANOTHER TRANE
Thought it was going to be a double deckah but that's another one in the future (about ten days from now).
It occurred to me as we pulled in that, on this journey of firsts, this is the first time I've used Gare de l'Est as a passenger.
Announcement on arrival: Good morning (sic) ladies and gentlemen. I would like to remind you that smoking and viping (sic) are forbidden on the station.
The new shopping centre at Austerlitz is coming along. The Grand Hall was latterly used as a car park, apparently. What to make of what's coming (Will the airship contrivance be come to be seen as whimsical folly? &c) will have to wait until it comes.
There's already mildew on the new concrete roof adjacent, meanwhile.
In good news I discovered La Fût Geuze, a friendly pub about twenty minutes walk away, which I would recommend as a good place to repair to prior to taking the Intercités des Nuits.
Another first tonight... the sleeper to Cerbère and thence into Spain tomorrow morning.
Seventh night train of the trip (today is day sixteen) and the fourth in six days (and the fifth in nine).
Arrival in Cerbère, about half a dozen other passengers made it to the end of the line as well.
Then on to the Rodalies across the border to Port Bou.
And... WOWSA, SNCF! ... whoever designed that ticket machine in Cerbère station deserves an intervention for the torturous interface. A wheel and clicker! 🤯
LAST LAP
After forty-eight hours and ten trains we're down to the business end of things. A bijou stroll from Paseig de Gracia down the pedestrianised Consell de Cent to the mighty Biercab for some restorative vitals, then a bus up to Avinguda Diagonal.
Now on the Hife (**** Hife!) to Caseres, one stop short of where I want to be because it's almost fifteen Euros go the extra five miles.
tops
Jon Worth
Martin Hoffmann
Kate McNamara
Chris T