A while back we decided we would make the trip to Vocal Training, a training event for people from the Speak Network. As said above, I'll try and make the event itself another Blog post, but you can click on the links for more.
In my limited experience, they like to locate Vocal Training in what I would term the back arse end of nowhere (you'll have to take my word for it that at home this isn't such an offensive description!). And they have good reasons, its a bit like a spiritual retreat in some ways, so a 'rural' location is just right.
So now, how to get there. I needed to come from Munich, and Birgit would be coming from Frankfurt. Die Deutsche Bahn (say that in your strongest German acccent, it sounds GREAT) have a wonderful offer called the 'London Special' (or if we want to be authentic, the London Spezial). Here, for the bargain price of €49, you can travel from ANYWHERE in Germany to London. Now, it is of course not that simple. Firstly, you have to travel through Brussels, but that's no problem. Second, you are now playing a game of "find the train with some cheap seats left", which any UK readers of this blog will be familiar with. But you're playing it with at least two trains, and in my case even more as I wanted to stopover in Frankfurt, and they all need to somehow connect. Further, once the €49 tickets run out, they go up... €59, €69, €79, and who knows how much higher. We could find Birgit a ticket for €69 fairly easily, and several 'vias' later (i.e. not the quickest route), we could find tickets for me for €79, which meant it would be silly to buy the tickets together. There is no option to not take a reservation with a Eurostar ticket, they come for free and automatically, so Birgit and I would be separated...!
The solution, happily, was simply to add an extra reservation to my ticket, and have Birgit buy no reservations on the rest of here optional-reservation trains. As the observant may have noticed, we now had 3 seats and two tickets...!
Vocal Training was in 'Coalpit Heath', which is between Yate and Bristol. All that I could deduce from pouring over Google Maps was that Bristol 'Parkway' might be close, so we booked a direct train from Paddington for that part, using the tips from Seat 61 on how to buy a 'London International' ticket that covered the tube journey.
The journey from Munich via Frankfurt, Brussels and the Tube to Bristol Parkway was wonderful. So smooth, so fast, so easy! I might even go so far as to say relaxing. Perhaps not as fast as flying, but I'm told its hard to find flights to Bristol airport, so we would have had to transfer to a train in London anyway. No fun.
So now, we were in Bristol. Or at least Bristol Parkway, far from the real Bristol. Before I go on, its worth saying that we should have travelled to Yate, and stayed on site in a tent, or slept on a floor. This is the benefit of hindsight I suppose. We also should have travelled from Parkway to Bristol by train, but we thought we should do everything by bus to buy one combined ticket.
The travelling fun ended, and chaos began. Can I buy a ticket here for the bus? Nope. Can you tell me anything about bus tickets? No, but here's a nice leaflet (and, in fairness, it was a lovely leaflet). When a bus arrived, we told the driver we wanted to go into Bristol, and then later back out to Coalpit Heath. There are no tickets for anything between a day and one week, so we took what seemed like a bargain-ish £4 day ticket. And off we went to Bristol.
After about an hour and a half, we were still on our way to Bristol. Or at least being carried along by the slowly moving gunge of Bristol traffic. According to a nice old lady (nice old ladies, it appears, are the main users of Bristol's buses), the traffic is usually worse than this. So there was still much to be thankful for.
This picture sums up bus travel in Bristol well
We found our way to the hostel, which was wonderful. Great staff, great travellers, great food, lovely rooms, and a nice location by the quayside. I had hopes that we could do a little sightseeing, but it was already time to seek out the next bus and head for Coalpit Heath. The driver stared at out mile long ticket, and off we went. This was another long journey, but thankfully mostly because of the distance, and not the traffic. A lengthy walk through some country lanes, and finally we spied the tents. We'd made it!!! And I refer you to my other, currently hypothetical post for more details.
Almost there!!!
We were fortunate that other people with these things called cars drove us back to Bristol on Friday and Saturday evening. On Saturday morning, the £4 ticket didn't exist any more. Apparently such a ticket only existed for Bristol itself, and the price was now £6.90. We opted (after some lengthy discussion with the bus driver) for two singles instead. A bargain at £3.80 each for a distance of ... miles - I hope you can spot the sarcasm. Another nice little old lady on board told me Bristol bus fares could bankrupt you - I was inclined to agree. Perhaps part of the problem was that the buses were empty, and the few inhabitants were old ladies, travelling for free? Thinking ahead, I had asked the staff in the bus station if they knew anything about the mysterious bus 581 that went directly from Yate (nearby) to Parkway, so we could escape Bristol at the end of our trip without having to go all the way in and out again. Apparently the service wasn't run by First, so he couldn't tell me anything. The internet would later tell me that this service doesn't run on Sundays, so I needn't have bothered asking. The next morning (Sunday) I asked if there was the possibility of buying something that would cover a train journey from Yate to Parkway. The bus driver really felt like there might be something he could sell me, but he didn't know what, or how. So off we went on a fresh pair of gold-crusted single tickets again, and fortunately someone drove us to Parkway on his way home.
Now that we had escaped the 'Bristol Overground Network', it was back to London. Simplicity and civilization, right? Alas, our special London International tickets were eaten by the Paddington ticket exit machines. Of course we should have not let them near the machine and talked to the staff. But, it was too late. The explanation was 'the machines are programmed that way'. In a more secluded spot, the staff member told me that they hated these machines, and that newer, even more annoying ones were on their way. We'll send the Tube tickets (an Oyster receipt in my case, I brought the card just in case of such a disaster) to First Great Western and see what they say.
Apart from that minor hiccup, there isn't much else to say. I'm happily sitting aboard the Eurostar now, speeding towards Brussels, and I'm fairly certain there'll be no more problems (although things are FAR from perfect when travelling in Germany, they are at least usually better explained than "that's the way the machines are programmed"). That said, the check-in lady at Eurostar was thoroughly confused by us having two seats with one ticket. I had made the mistake of showing Birgit's ticket first (on the journey to the UK, we only showed mine). Looks like there's a little bit of miscommunication between Deutsche Bahn, Eurostar and whoever runs the ticketing system(s). And perhaps the possibility of bringing travel companions for €2 a head, though I wouldn't risk it!
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