1/n Today is another day of train travel! Hopefully utterly uneventful, but feel free to follow along in this thread!

2/n Conducteur loopt fluitend en zingend door de trein “ik ben ben een beetje moe, een beeeeetje down, dida la la lalala la”

#Treinleven #Train #Trein #NS #Travel #TrainTravel #christmas #Christmas2025 #NS

3/n very cold at Utrecht central station, but Albert Heijn is open so I got a coffee. Just took the first sip and realised that, despite it being so in coffee machines of TU Delft, oat milk is *not* the default in most coffee machines. I have been spoilt.

Also it’s snowing on the travel information signs and employees are wearing Xmas hats and hairbands and such.

#christmas #christmas2025 #travel #treinleven #trains

4/n Mini library at Utrecht central station is a vibe.

#Travel #Books #Treinleven #Utrecht #trains

5/n Just got on an international train to Germany!

My mouth tasted of moo juice and the girl next to me was loudly smacking her way through a box of mini bell peppers, so I decided that to take advantage of the fact that the train toilets are probably going to be as clean as they get until I reach Switzerland, and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth.

Just returned and the girl is busy taking selfies, using her own spit to style her hair in pursuit of the perfect shot.

Couple in front of me has stopped yapping, so the silence is only disturbed by the couple yapping on the other end of the carriage.

#Treinleven #Trains #Train #DeutscheBahn #AnnaOnATrain #TrainTravel #Travel

6/n The couple in front of me is yapping again and spit girl is making a phone call, complaining loudly about how she is not in her reserved seat because she couldn't figure out the carriage numbers and seat numbers and everything is very confusing.

#Trainleven #Trains #DeutscheBahn #AnnaOnATrain #Travel #StilteCoupe #QuietZone #KanHetWatZachter

7/n Train manager repeats his request to please put your skis in the Bicycle Carriages 30 and 31, and not in front of exits and bathrooms. Also says that if you wanted to have a seat, you should have booked one. He can't help it. Trains are full during the holidays.

Yapping couple got off in Düsseldorf. We left Düsseldorf with 1 minute delay. Is this cause for celebration, or a dark foreboding of what is to come? Only time will tell.

Woman behind me is the ideal fellow passenger. Would love to chat about what she's reading, but this is the quiet zone, so I won't disturb her.

#Treinleven #Trains #Travel #AnnaOnATrain #DeutscheBahn #TrainTravel #Christmas #Christmas 2025

8/n Took another bathroom break and pondered the concept of Braille on a no-touch flush.

Happy to report that the train toilets are still very clean.

Spit girl drank a can of red bull and passed out. Ideal fellow traveller behind me is still fab.

#Accessibility #Braille #Train #DeutscheBahn #Travel #AnnaOnATrain #Treinleven #Trains

9/n Another Ideal Fellow Traveller ™️ just asked the guy in front of my to please turn the sound off on his phone. I love her.

10/n Time for a sight-seeing break! I had a 52-minute (ahem, 46-minute) layover at Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof, so I took advantage and went geocaching. It's an absolutely gorgeous day!

#Stuttgart #Germany #Tourist #Sightseeing #Geocaching #Train #Travel #TrainTravel #AnnaOnATrain #Christmas #Christmas2025

11/n The delay of my previous train meant that I didn't have time to buy a snack during this layover (obviously I'm not going to sacrifice geocaching time), but that's just as well, because yesterday evening I had a big slice of this cake I baked for dessert.

#Travel #Christmas #Hogswatch #Christmas2025 #Baking #Cake

12/n Anyway. I made it on my next train with if not a snack, then at least a low-calorie drink. Had a few minutes to remember bwegt for making me miss my train by just a hair back in February 2020, when I was travelling back home from Titisee. Otherwise I'm enjoying the views!

#AnnaOnATrain #Train #Travel #TrainTravel #Treinleven #DeutscheBahn

13/n When I book my seat, I often cannot get my preferred seat. I'm always curious to see who got that seat, wondering if they are similar to me. In this case it is a German guy in his forties(?) with a green scarf. After evicting the people who had taken his reserved seat, he folded the scarf very carefully and put it in his backpack. He then ate a cream cheese sandwich that smelled very garlicky. He's now reading a book called "Dirtbag Billionaire". When I initially looked it up, I misremembered the title and searched for "Dirty Billionaire". Turns out that's also a book. Massively different vibes, tho.

#Reading #Bookstodon #Train #Travel #Books #TrainTravel #AnnaOnATrain #DeutscheBahn #Treinleven

14/n The evicted woman, who is wearing what looks like a hand-knit jumper, is knitting something that, judging by the pattern, might very well also be a jumper 🤩

#Knitting #FibreCraft #Treinleven #AnnaOnATrain #TrainTravel #Travel #Trains

15/n Green Scarf Guy has been replaced by a woman who wears oversized tights. I had Sweet Caroline stuck in my head, caused by reminiscing about last year's NYE. Now listening to my favourite Tori Amos album (Boys for Pele) in an effort to get rid of it.

Hand-knit Jumper Woman seems to have gotten through a particularly tricky yoke-shaping phase and seems more relaxed now.

#AnnaOnATrain #Trains #Travel #TrainTravel #DeutscheBahn #Knitting #FibreCraft #Treinleven #Music #ToriAmos

16/n The guy next to me is wearing absolutely fabulous Christmas socks and is using his phone to play a game that my 7-year-old nephew loves to play also!

#Christmas #Gaming #Train #TrainTravel #Treinleven #AnnaOnATrain #Christmas2025 #Travel

17/n Okay, gang, we’ve had some certified *drama*!

30 minutes or so before arriving in Zürich, the train was boarded by a big group of Asian tourists in some kind of organised trip (some of them were holding blue flags with yellow stars and a something like “let’s go Europe” or maybe “let’s do Europe” on them, trying to get people to stay together etc).

Anyway. It was pretty uneventful, at first. A lovely lady wearing a very impractical coat and a strong perfume sat down next to me and started cleaning up her inbox and scrolling insta. Knowing that I had only 10 minutes for my next layover and two pieces of luggage to handle, in the midst of all those tourists with all their luggage, I decided to get up and gather my things 4 minutes before arriving in Zürich.

I was on the top level of a double decker train, and as I dragged my luggage down the steps, I saw that the hallway was pretty full with tourists and their luggage. I squeezed myself and my luggage in between them and was immediately pushed aside by a man who ran from the lower level, up the steps, to the upper level I had just come from.

#Train #Travel #TrainTravel #Drama #Treinleven #AnnaOnATrain

18/n He was immediately followed by a train conductor who asked us in Swiss German if we’d seen a guy run away (I think). A couple of confused tourists, a local guy and Hand-Knit Jumper Woman all pointed to the upper deck, and the conductor ran upstairs.

What followed was a proper chase scene, with a train conductor politely excusing himself as he jumped over pieces of luggage and squeezed past travellers, trying to corner a man who, unlike the train conductor, did not seem to be above knocking over other people and their things. People soon figured out that jumping out of the way and pointing to where the fare dodger? Pick pocket? Scallywag had gone was probably a good strategy for self preservation, so that set the tone until the fleeing man eventually moved to the carriage behind ours. There, he suddenly walked normally when he saw a second train conductor, who was immediately notified by the first train conductor, by yelling at him from the lower level of our carriage.

He was finally cornered, and awaited on the train platform by people in high-viz jackets. Did not see what happened next as I was too busy finding my way through all the Let’s Do Europe flags, so I could make my connection.

#Train #Travel #TrainTravel #Chase #Drama #Treinleven #AnnaOnATrain

19/n Also, for all “Jet lag: The Game” fans out there: I was just in Zug!

#Train #Travel #TrainTravel #Chase #Drama #Treinleven #AnnaOnATrain #Switzerland #Zug #SBB #JetLagTheGame #HideAndSeek #SchengenShowdown

20/n Handsome train conductor first frowned, then grinned, then asked me how Germany was while checking my ticket. He looked confused when I responded with “uneventful”, then asked where I was from. It all seemed to make sense to him when I said that I’m from the Netherlands, so I guess that’s good.

#SBB #Train #Trains #Travel #TrainTravel #treinleven #AnnaOnATrain

21/n I mean: I’m literally wearing these socks today.

#AnnaOnATrain #treinleven #trains #travel #bicycling #socks

22/n some dickhead is smoking on this train 🤢

#Smoking #travel #trains #treinleven #AnnaOnATrain #SBB

23/n btw: this train was really long!

#treinleven #trains #AnnaOnATrain #travel #christmas2025 #SBB

@anna Love this thread 😍 Enjoy Lugano!

@anna tomorrow we get to take a German train from Lorsch to Berlin. But before that comes a gig with a local band tonight. If we stay out till 4am, will we miss our morning train?! Oh the drama. Also, we are American so trains are very confusing since they are so useful.

Your train adventures fill us with bravery ...

@anna I love your train travel threads!! Thank you for sharing.

cc: @oclsc 👀↑↑ 🚉🧵📖❤️

@anna epic photo! 's zieht!
@anna ... animal crossing? I have seen adults posting about it.
@ednl No, some game where you are actually on railway tracks but you are not a train but just a regular avatar and you have to jump and change lanes to collect coins.
@anna "Ah yes", he nods as if he understands.
@anna Ohhh Boys For Pele! I mean, Muhammad My Friend is technically a Christmas song, even, so it kind of matches the time time of journey :)
(my favourite song is Father Lucifer, though. But the whole album is just awesome!)

@funkylab Ikr‽ impossible to pick a favourite. Caught A Lite Sneeze was the song that introduced me to Tori Amos and the whole reason I bought this album. Marianne resonates because it’s the second name of my best friend, who died by suicide (and who said that she’d be “a happy phantom, like the Tori Amos song”). Mr. Zebra never fails to make me smile. Hey Jupiter and Putting The Damage On hardly ever fail to make e cry. Beauty Queen / Horses is so beautiful… Absolute banger of an album.

#Music #ToriAmos

@anna that's a creepy looking fanta

@ghosttie @anna

I didn't want to say anything, but yeah, had the same thought.

@anna The city seems very empty now, after they remove the Christmas market stands. The sculpture of Eugen Bolz is very dramatic. I like your picture more than the one in Wikipedia because of the light in yours. Also, your picture doesn't have the protection against the pigeons.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stuttgart-koenigsbau-eugen-bolz.jpg

File:Stuttgart-koenigsbau-eugen-bolz.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

@daniel I checked wiki commons and it seems that this is the only pic they have of the sculpture right now. I can try to replace it with mine if you think it improves his page?
@anna I think it would improve it because yours has better quality. Notice that in Wiki Commons you don't replace the original picture but add a new one. On Wikipedia, you can suggest using yours.
@daniel sorry, yes, that’s what I meant. Typed too hastily. Will do!
@anna
When phones still had 3.5mm Audiojacks and I had to rely on DB a lot I always had a few old in ear audio plugs with me. I got them in bulk in a garage sale and they were a pretty random compilation probably because every second device came with a cheap set. I offered them to people who were on their phone in a call or listening to music which nobody cared to have. The faces were extremely entertaining and most people just stopped using the device all together 🤷

@blackcoffeerider oooooh very passive-aggressive! I like it!

I carry a ton of tissues for the same reason for those people who walk around with snot silos attached to their faces rather than noses, and make that audibly known to us all. They always insist that they don't need a tissue and I always insist that they do...

In practice, the tissues get used more to wipe up other people's spilled cola than their snot.

@blackcoffeerider Reminds me of this Joe Wells sketch: https://youtu.be/zF_dWW6nX8k
Joe Wells on getting an autism diagnosis

YouTube
@anna so much for "red bull gives you wiiings" hey?
@anna
What is she reading?
@blackcoffeerider Cannot tell! E-reader 😭 She seems really nice, so I do want to know!
@anna
Pen & paper note passing is also a bit too much all over the place so... She might have to stay a mistery...
@anna, love your running commentaries immensely and (paradoxically?) hope that your travel is uneventfull.
@anna strongly recommend going to a quiet car / Ruhewagen next time. In my experience the most quiet ones are usually at the end of the train where there aren't any first class wagons
@Samqi My toot is literally labelled with #QuietZone...
@anna didn't manage to read that my bad!