Day 29 - (Travelling to) [U]trecht

A whole day on trains

I had not really been looking forward to today. A program of 15-16 hours of travelling was not very exciting. It’s just such a long time. Frankly, the idea of it being train travel made it slightly more bearable because trains are more comfortable to spend a lot of time in than planes or cars. But, still, it was a long time. And there were some tricky bits that had the anxious traveller on edge.

By the end of the day, when I stumbled into the BUNK Hotel in Utrecht, I was not only (effectively) on time, but had weathered the whole sojourn virtually without incident. I was easily as tired as I expected to be, but not otherwise out of sorts. Here’s how the itinerary unfolded:

Santa Margherita Ligure — Milan Centrale

The train arrived on time (6:07 am) and the trip was uneventful, I’ve done this leg a few times now so it was not noteworthy.

Milan Centrale — Lugano

A regional train (with no first class) that was the first link in the critical path that I was concerned about. My concern grew as the train departed 5 minutes late, however, over the course of the journey they made up the time and delivered us to Lugano station on time. The announcer made it clear that the connection I had was clearly a popular one with very clear instructions about where to find the train and how long travellers had.

Lugano — Basel SBB

Having made the 4-minute connection window, the anxious traveller was able to relax; the highest-risk element of the whole journey had just been made successfully. Sure, I had to walk almost the entire length of the train to find my seat because I’d jumped on as soon as I could to not have the train leave with me running along the platform, but I’d definitely made it. This was a busy fast train, full of business folks working away on their laptops or phones. I got my blog post finished and uploaded during this sector.

Basel SBB — Koeln HBF

This was a fairly short transfer, but not too bad, I thought. Then, once I’d got onto the concourse, I discovered that the train I was going to board had been cancelled and I was to board a train that left (effectively) immediately and change at some later station. I discovered this by using Google Lens to translate the departures board. I rushed over to the information kiosk to confirm what I’d inferred, but there were too many folks before me with their own concerns for me to confirm the information before I had to get on the train I thought I needed. So, I risked that I’d get booted off the train for not having an appropriate ticket and jumped on the alternate service.

Shortly after boarding and sitting in an empty second class seat, I overheard another passenger talking to a train staff member on the platform (from the train) and that conversation confirmed that I was doing the right thing. I then checked with the train staff member and determined I could head up to First Class and find a vacant seat until we changed at Mannheim (he said). Off I went. (In the end, the train left at the same time that my original service was supposed to leave, clearly waiting to carry folks on the cancelled service.)

As the journey got underway, the on-board announcements (always in three languages at the moment) outlined that the castaways from the cancelled service were to alight at Frieburg where our actual train service was waiting for us. The announcements were sufficently regular and well-timed that the anxious traveller was able to subside again, having been re-woken by the change of train services in Basel.

Once we were all on the correct service, the train journey went back to being smooth as silk, and on time. I continue to really enjoy the fast trains in Europe. And First Class is definitely the way to travel, though I’m sure that it would become pretty expensive if you were doing a lot of travel. The cost is being hidden from me through the purchase of my Eurail pass(es). I reckon that today’s trip would probably have got my money back on that investment, and it’s only one of 12 days travel I get to do.

Koeln — Utrecht CS

It was a long layover in Koeln (Cologne). The bit of the station that I was in was a bit like a dingy shopping mall. I found a Fritterwerks to sit and have some ‘dinner’. Frankly, not a great choice but I didn’t want to compromise completely and go to KFC or Starbucks, which were the other options.

The only hiccup with this leg was that the train was delayed departing by about 10 minutes, because of other services. However, in what I’m discovering is quite ordinary business now, the fast train made up the time and was only 3 minutes late (9:27 pm) into Utrecht because of station management at Utrecht.

Utrecht CS is a pretty impressive station; obviously (relatively) recently built and (I’ve discovered since) essentially part of a huge shopping complex that spans one of the two main canals in Utrecht.

During the various train trips, I would periodically try to capture the passing view, partly to record the view to aid future memories. I’ve discovered that I’m rubbish at this task. Part of the problem is that the train lines are often in lowered, or concrete-fenced, clearways, or have lots of trees planted along their edges, or run through built-up areas where lots of blank building walls are the view. I can see interesting things past/through these screens, but photographing them from a speeding train is practically impossible. But the bigger part, is that I am not sitting there with my camera ready to snap off shots most of the time, so by the time I see something that really appeals, get the phone up, camera ready, and pointed at the view, it’s often gone, or blocked by the next bit of beside-the-track screening. There was a fantastic view from the train across Lake Como that I missed entirely with the camera. There were several views in the Swiss/Germany country-side of picture book villages in the valley below the train that I didn’t get to capture either. Partly in my defence on this journey, too, it was raining a lot of the time, making the view very limited, and photographing past the drips on the window difficult. Anyway, here’s what I did get. (Locations are retroactively determined by inspecting the location data on the photos.)

Passing a lake near (but not) Lake Como	Same lake, greater detail of the villages on the other side	The frequent standard of my photos from the train
Old Farm near Rothenberg, Switzerland	More recent farming village, Neuenkirch, Switzerland	A bucolic country-side scene (in Switzerland)
The Swiss village of Mauensee	German farming countryside	Hohberg, Germany (from the train)

My pod

The BUNK Hotel (where I’m staying in a pod!) is three minutes walk from Utrecht CS, so I was there almost immediately. The BUNK Hotel is one of a chain of modern, self-serve hotels and offers pods (sleeping capsules) as well as studio rooms (normal hotel rooms). I’d decided when I was booking the accommodation to try out a pod, not least because it was significantly cheaper than hotel rooms (or AirBNB) that I’d discovered in Utrecht at the time. Check-in was straightforward. Finding my pod required directions, but was otherwise OK. So, I (quietly) sorted myself to go to bed, and did.

Daily facts: Location: Various Temp: 9-11 Weather: Rain, or heavy overcast; patches of partial cloud