A short but lovely trip to London

This is a wordy, overly detailed diary like entry of a long-weekend trip for a wedding of an old school friend, made even easier by Monday being German reunification day which I (Matt) hadn’t even noticed. Due to bad planning and high costs/low seat-availability I took slower trains in various places. It's as much for my benefit to remember where I was as anyone elses.

On the way out an IC to Karlsruhe then regional trains (Karlsruhe-Appenweier, Appenweier-Strasbourg) to Strasbourg, then a TGV to Paris followed by Eurostar. Between Karlsruhe and Paris none of this was pleasant, and I bent my knee completely the wrong way trying to get into my cramped TGV seat which limited my mobility a tiny bit for the next 24hrs or so. It recovered fully after about a week. My kind friend who was putting me up on a blow-up mattress near Southwark Cathedral (very central) picked me up (what a service!) outside a rainy St Pancras.

We had time the next morning for a lovely breakfast with another friend. We’d arranged to meet at Picturehouse Central near Piccadilly Circus, which looked lovely, but due to some weird knock-on affect of a power cut, there was no breakfast/brunch. So we plodded on into Soho, and discovered L’ETO, which did a great breakfast. We were then just a short walk from Tottenham Court Road. We went through Soho Square Gardens (never been there as far as I can remember, there’s a funny small wooden-beamed house in the middle) and stopped off at Foyle’s book shop on Charing Cross road to pick up the latest Harry Potter we want to read and a couple of cards.

It was then time for us to go our separate ways, and I had a chance to try out the new Elizabeth Line to White Chapel and then go a few stops on the District/Hammersmith & City line to Mile End, where I needed to get to for the wedding reception. We had a great time. The food highlight was probably the toastie van outside late in the evening. Outside the venue (the Art Pavilion) there was a small pond with loads of swans who seemed to be feasting on the complete covering of algae or finding something just beneath. The chorus of them all slurping/nibbling (or whatever swans do when they eat and drink like that) was really odd. Late and the evening I took the simple route back with the Central and Bakerloo line to Lambeth North tube.

The next day (Sunday) there was a need for only a modest breakfast after all the eating the night before and the unknown lunch ahead in the afternoon. My host tracked down Terry’s, which he’d been wanting to visit. Good porridge (something I wish was available to buy in Germany) and we were surrounded with 1950s/Queen Elizabeth paraphernalia which was certainly entertaining. We managed to fit in a flying visit to the Imperial War Museum (will have to go back properly some time) and then a walk to Waterloo station via the well hidden London Graffiti Tunnel. We didn’t have a chance this time, but I’d love to check out Draughts London with a board games library next time I’m there with the rest of us.

A long underground walk took me to the Jubilee line to go round the south side of London (it was Marathon Sunday, so that seemed sensible) to Stratford and then 1 stop on the overground to Hackney Wick, where I was due at Barge East alongside the River Lee Navigation/Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for lunch and drinks. The sun came out and there was a lot more time to talk to the groom than the day before. Later in the afternoon it was time to move on and there was time to do some UK shopping in the Westfield centre on the way back. This was exhausting but successful all round. I then tried out for the first time the Javelin/South Eastern High Speed directly to St Pancras. 6 minute trip, quite impressive. Then with Thameslink to Blackfriars, beautiful view out along the Thames and longer than usual walk back to base camp. We went straight out again (in less fancy shoes, thank goodness) and had a wonderful evening taking in Honest Burgers near Waterloo (gluten free beer, and a gluten free, plant based burger… incredible), a long stop at Brew Dog Waterloo (it’s a bar, but somehow has a big slide, podcasting studios, a coffee shop, table tennis and a small bowling alley inside) which included a game of chess (I lost). The chess boards were being run by this group, the main guy stopped by to talk.

Somehow, although it was getting late, we were still not done. We strolled along, past IBM and Shell’s fancy offices, saw the core of a quantum computer (!?) and walked over the Thames and back right along Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and so on. I saw Lambeth Palace, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. Finally it was time to sleep, and soon time to get up again at about 4:30 (UK time) to get the first Eurostar to Brussels. Again I was kindly whisked there by car. On the way home, beyond Brussels, the route is cheap and complicated - slow trains to Aachen and then Cologne, and then ICs back down to Munich. At least it's nice scenery with castles and the river and so on. It was nice to get home again.

A tale of three bikes

As some of you might know, I'm (Matt) working at the moment for a company in Dublin. Most of the time the job doesn't take me further than my bedroom office desk near Munich, but I've just made the second trip to be on-site. I wasn't willing to risk train travel there the first time round (new job, turn up late and/or exhausted? ...no thanks). I did go back by bus and train, which was interesting enough, but didn't really warrant a post. As I was commenting recently whilst owning up to this blog, there's only so many blog posts you can write about train travel from Germany to Ireland.

Or so I thought.

This one isn't so much about the trains but the bikes and their riders that I met along the way. In fact my journey planning included some very serious consideration of investing in a folding bike. Through various incidents we're down to one bike from four in the Fullerton house, so I could use one. But the main motivation was a close connection in London. Only 30m between arriving on Eurostar and needing to head for Holyhead from Euston in order to make it to Dublin in the evening and get a good nights sleep. I had to pick up the ticket from a machine as well. I also considered borrowing Ronja's scooter, till I thought about riding it on busy London footpaths. In the end though I thought what's the point in lugging such a large object for what is a 12m walk. I'm on my own this time with one little backpack. It'll be fine. And it was fine, as I said, there's little to report here about trains.

It was raining in London. But I'd brought my coat. In fact I even had waterproof trousers with me thanks to the downpour near Munich at 5am. I arrived at Euston and the platform hadn't even been announced yet. I couldn't help but notice though a couple of wet and exhausted souls at the entrance. One of them having a bit of a meltdown. They didn't have a small backback like me. They had two giant, and I mean giant cardboard boxes. With straps attached by duck tape. Despite them talking in German (hurrah,  I'm not the only crazy one!), this was clearly not the time to enquire about their health or plans.

In Chester though, they were still there, and looking pretty chirpy, and I introduced myself and my common destination. We were all heading to Dublin, beyond that they wanted to get to Donegal, and bike to Galway. That's right, in those boxes were dismantled bikes. Because you can't take bikes on fast German trains. From then on I helped with the struggle of moving one of the monstrous boxes where it needed to go, all the way via a taxi to a hostel. We found a great taxi driver who was willing to drive with his boot ajar (and stop and get out and close it again once after a speed bump!) and give us an introductory tour of Dublin. Fantastic. As were my two days in Dublin and one day up "home" in Lisburn. Too short of course, but there are children on holiday at home to be looked after so back I go on the night boat to Liverpool.

Liverpool in the early morning light

We arrived on time... they have their bus shuttle to Birkenhead truly perfected these days. Although they overdid it, we were there around 7.00 and the station doesn't open till 7.36am on a Sunday. Yes, 7.36, on the dot*. This meant however that I finally got to see the actual Hamilton Square and not just the train station. I seem to remember first becoming aware that there was a lovely square when we had contemplated having to spend a night there due to bad weather in Germany in a previous episode.

Birkenhead Town Hall in Hamilton Square

Read more here!

Now, ever since the port, I'd been noticing another biker. This one had a folding bike with a great many (too many? What was in them all?) side bags. And (the best bit) a kind of luggage carrier thing which he was carefully attaching and detaching to his bike with elastic cord. Genius. Respect.

When he was standing at the top of the staircase deep in the bowels of Birkenhead Hamilton Square, I offered to carry his bike. Then I and another traveller remembered there was another short lift, for the last bit of the drop to the platform. Well you can see where this is going perhaps. I had just become this guy's luggage carrier. But you see I've made so many trips laden down by luggage and children I couldn't really look away. We communicated in a mixture of French and English and German (he was heading for Geneva - another "hurrah, I'm the sensible one here" moment).

Now if blogs could make music, this is where we should cue the "bum bum baaa" sound of impending disaster or near disaster. I was very relaxed about this whole trip as there was plenty of time to get to London. But my eye caught a glimpse of the yellow LED signs way down the platform. "Cancelled". Next train - "Cancelled". But this is a metro system, there are frequent trains, and the third one wasn't cancelled, and left enough time for me to still make a train shortly after my planned one and the one on Geneva-biker's itinerary print-out. Then it started oscillating between various states of On time, Delayed, Cancelled. There was an announcement about over-running engineering works. I was starting to go from relaxed to nervous. I don't need this. Time to split and get a taxi. But we've got to get all these side bags, a bike and a trolley upstairs. Why do I even bother travelling light!?

Above, in the clear and present daylight, a little chaos, but not too much. By now Merseyrail have decided they just aren't running any trains on the underground loop and the staff upstairs are slowly grasping the situation and ordering taxis (paid for by Merseyrail, bravo). And yet, where was this taxi? Where!? It's around 8.20 when one arrives. The train is at 8.38 and a local says it takes about 10 minutes down through the tunnel. We can do this.

Now, it was actually planned by the station staff that Geneva -Biker would get a special taxi for his equipment, and three of us others would get another taxi. But he decided (wisely, in hindsight) to try and join us. They got the bike in but not the trolley. They were umming and aahing at the boot. But the clock was ticking and I had to act. I shouted back that I'd take it on my lap and he should get in. We were off. No, cut off by a bus. OK, now, we're off. Stuck behind a little car in the tunnel even though there's a second lane, driven by the most relaxed taxi driver you'll ever meet. You're a taxi driver! Come on!

And there, in the beautiful sunlight it is. Liverpool Lime Street. Its 8.30. We're OK. No. We're not. Because the taxi rank is still a long loop and many traffic lights away. This is going to be tight. We pull in, the train to Euston is on the other side of a fence. We're going to make it. I hope. Get our stuff. No, no, no. Now is not the time to ensure your articulated contraption of bike and trolley is in perfect working order. No. OK, then I had an idea. I'll steal, I mean help him with his bags then he doesn't have to attach them anywhere and at least I'll get to the train.

I go. Fast. I'm at the door. Biker is fiddling again. He makes it to the bottom of the platform. Then the whistle goes. Losing all inhibition, I yell "schnell!!!" down the platform. Well that did the trick. The conductor wanted to check it was a folding bike, I told him quickly it was. I dragged his stuff in, he counted his bags. We'd done it.

So that's it. Three bikes later and I'm back in a German train with still a fair few hours to go. I'll be quite happy not to meet any more bike transporters on this trip. You can't imagine how glad I am now I didn't bring one.

*A knowledgeable local informed us that its the law/safety policy not to open stations before 15m before the first train. Who knew? I suppose we can be grateful for them extracting every single one of those 15 minutes and not rounding up to say, 7.39

Playing in the park, Zürisee and a not so happy ending

Early in the morning we started our journey to Switzerland.

The plan was to stay one night in an apartment in Zürich (Oerlikon), so that we would have some time to visit Caro. We had agreed to meet at their place for dinner and had all afternoon to explore Zürich. Most of the time we spent in a park called Bäckeranlage – they had a huge climbing frame and a wagon full of children toys and books for everyone to use.

After Falafel, lots of playing and ice cream we made our way down to the Zürisee. From there we wanted to take a boat back to the train station, but we weren’t the only ones and didn’t manage to get a spot. The march along the river was probably just as good but we were a little weary and eager to dump our stuff at the apartment and head off for some catching up with friends and good pizza. A little too eager perhaps, as we decided to jump on the bus number 75 to shorten the journey. Unfortunately this bus journey was to have a sudden and unplanned end. The driver made an emergency brake thanks to a car in front jumping in front of him (his story, we saw nothing and have no idea). The short version is that Birgit, standing with the buggy with nothing to hold on to, fell badly and ended up with a concussion, stitches on her chin, a minor case of amnesia and a badly bruised/swollen hand. Thanks to Caro the children still got pizza. Thankfully there was no long term damage and 24 hours in hospital later, we were able to continue roughly as planned. Catching up with friends and heading off to the Reka holiday village in Hasliberg. Hasliberg is a short distance up the mountain from the Brunig pass, on the way from Lucern to Interlaken. Our Great Railway journeys of Europe book has it down as a highlight. However, we gladly swapped our beloved trains for a kind chauffeur drive from Caro's husband Torsten. Handling so much baggage after a concussion with only one hand didn't seem so smart.

One of the views from our balcony...

The Reka village is set high up and has everything a family could want for a relaxing week. But more on that in the next post.

Complaint to DFDS

I held back a bit on my comments about getting from IJmuiden port to Amsterdam. In this email I don't hold back, perhaps it's too much, but it really did make for a bad ending to what was otherwise a great way to get from the North of England to Europe.

17 May 2015 at 07:46
To: travel.sales@dfds.com

Dear DFDS,
I recently travelled on your service from Newcastle to Amsterdam with bus transfer at each end. Overall, I was really impressed. A little shocked at the food prices on board perhaps, but still impressed. For whatever reason we didn't have to pay a bus fare to get to the port, and I had been under the false impression that the bus transfers are free. So when we got to IJmuiden, I was surprised to be told, first by the bus driver, that we had to pay. The bus driver wanted €10 per person. I didn't have euros to hand and went back into the terminal to pay. I made the mistake of discussing why I had to pay given the bus in Newcastle had been free. Your staff member was extremely unhelpful, unfriendly and arrogant, but I guess I wasn't terribly friendly myself either given the situation. Anyway, my specific complaints:

- The price was much less than €10 - so your bus driver(s) are cashing in on people's unpreparedness
- There was a whole discussion about whether to charge for our two small children. The agreement was that if they sat on our laps they would be free. I realize that children take up space, but this seems a) out of sync with every modern travel service's approach to carrying children (reduced fare) and b) disingenuous to expect small children to happily sit on top of parents on what was a relatively long and cramped journey through heavy traffic into Amsterdam (considering the comfort of other passengers also)
- I was told I could have booked the far online when I booked. I didn't remember seeing any option to do this, and I've just gone through the process again to check. It isn't there, at least not on any of the 'extras' screens prior to being asked for passport details.
- When mentioning that I though the fare should be included because you advertise Newcastle-Amsterdam (where neither port is located) and because the fare was not cheap, I was told that €198 is not a lot of money. Well I'm sorry, but €198 for a family of four may well be reasonable value, but that doesn't mean it isn't a lot of money.

All of this left a very bad taste in my mouth even though the service you offer and the service you offer for foot passengers in particular is incredibly good. We were trying it out for the first time as an alternative to Eurostar. I would suggest you improve your booking website, and make at least one announcement or put up a sign on board concerning bus fares and the ability to add them to your booking.

Best Regards,
Matthew Fullerton

Update 31/5/15 - I've now had a response from DFDS (highlighting added by me):
Dear Mr. Fullerton,

Thank you very much for your email which we received from the British Market.  We are very sorry to hear that using the transfer shuttle involved so many difficulties and would like to apologize for any inconveniences caused. 

We do provide information on the shuttle service on the following website:

http://www.dfdsseaways.de/kundenservice/anreise_amsterdam_newcastle

If you pre-book the shuttle the price is 6,50€ per person and if you pay at the port it is indeed 10€. Children travel free of charge if they sit on their parents lap.

After a customer has finalized a booking we send out an email with information on how to add further services such as pre-booked meals or the shuttle.

We are sorry that this information was not accessible to you or hard to find. Furthermore, we would like to thank you for describing your experiences in detail and will forward your comments to the respective management.

Once again we would like to apologize and hope that in spite of the discomfort caused we will be able to welcome you again onboard of one of our ferries in the near future.

I think the main lesson from all of this is use seat61.com as a good guide for making a general plan and trying to go to the transport providers' sites for more details. In fact, the Man in Seat 61 basically recommends such a strategy himself. But there is still a contradiction between the UK website and the information in the email above: you can't book the transfer whilst booking, only afterwards as a modification (at least not on the German site). The wording above is brilliant too: "After a customer has finalized a booking we send out an email with information on how to add further services such as pre-booked meals or the shuttle" - that's technically true, there is a link "change booking", as well as copious encouragement to pre-order food. And carrying children under 4 for free on one end and not on the other also seems odd. Yet again I'm left with the feeling that simple foot passengers are second-class citizens...

Days 13-14: Mannheim and Munich

We didn't see much of Amsterdam apart from a conveniently located Starbucks on the ICE platform in the station.

The ceiling of the Starbucks is worth a look

We zipped our way down to Mannheim to visit Birgit's Aunt and Uncle. We spent an hour or so at a bus stop, probably only a couple of miles from our destination, because of a suspended tram route and bad information. So near, and yet so far. Once we finally got there, we discovered a playground, slept well, reorganised ourselves a bit and set off on our final short leg back home. There wasn't much to see in Munich station to hint at the chaos of a couple of weeks before, except for some men working on the roof windows.

"Well  that's another fine mess you've gotten us in"

Play by night

Day 12+: Harrogate to the North Sea and Amsterdam

It was time to leave the UK. Our trip to Newcastle was quiet and easy, at least compared to the trip going to Harrogate. Very fitting for a Sunday. In Newcastle there was plenty of rain, a little confusion about where to get the bus for the boat*, and a great lunch perfectly located at The Town Wall.

Packing up. Should we leave them here?

After experiencing Stena's buses here and there, we got quite a shock to see just what a trade DFDS do with foot passengers. They have something like 8 buses to shuttle people back and forth. The Port of Tyne ferry/cruise terminal resembles a modern airport. You walk on to the boat, greeted by an array of staff eager to give you freebies and help you to your room. My only (predictable) criticism is the cost of the food. Captive market and so on... Our solution was to share a pizza. Matt can't eat pizza, but given his worries over a repeat experience of ferry sickness whilst on a stupidly long ferry trip, he didn't want to eat much anyway (until breakfast of course).

Views of Tynemouth Pier and Tynemouth Castle and Priory on the way out

Children are spoilt for choice. Lego, drawing, video, ball pond, a slide...

Dusk

The views going out were great, and the price of a glass of wine was worth it just have it whilst watching the sunset colours over the big blue ocean. We had a good night's sleep, and after going through a fairly civilised experience getting off the boat, coaches were waiting to take us to Amsterdam. This last bit was a bit confusing: apparently you can book your spot in advance. Otherwise the driver will want €10. Pro tip: book in advance. Backup solution: Go inside and buy it from the service desk, you seem to get the advance price that way. The coaches are a bit of a pain for a short journey with luggage and a buggy; the busses in Newcastle were very buggy and luggage friendly.

*I can't do a whole lot to resolve the confusion, because the bus stop was moved, apparently just for a day or two during our trip. I'll try anyway though. Come out of the station, cross the road and head for the street between the church building (left) and Gotham Town (right) - Bewick Street. The bus stop is on the right, the bus number is 327 and it leaves (officially) at 2.45 and 3.45pm. It seems though that they run a more or less rolling service with many buses.

The elusive bus timetable

Day 11: Yorkshire - The wedding

I love weddings. We'd never been to one though without the support of grandparents and a car. Would it still be fun? We got off to a great start: Ronja, in the act of extracting my shoe tree managed to get a bleeding nose. Then the bus that was supposed to be picking up the guests had a serious delay, while the bride's car had a breakdown (better that than the bride I suppose).

Ready to go

It all ended (or rather started) well though, a lovely service, and a wonderful venue (Allerton Castle). There was great scenery, great food, wine, and lots of dancing. It was fun to celebrate with the happy couple and their families. The speeches were anything but boring. And there was a big, much quieter room where children could sleep. And fireworks!

Ushers can't manage to look everywhere at once. Good that Matt had a bit of help.

Dancing!

Time for a nap

"When the cat's away, the mice will play"

And catching that mouse round the billiard table was a lot of fun too

It was all over soon enough, and then back we trundled in the dark to Harrogate, more than ready to sleep.