A request to Stena Line to make "SailRail" journeys even better

The British, the Irish and the Germans are all well versed in complaining. And so it was, that after our last trip with Stena Line, that I put pen to paper. Or fingers to contact form. The not particularly helpful response is at the bottom.

Dear Stena Line,

I want to start by thanking you for several good foot passenger overnight journeys from Belfast to Birkenhead. Its a brilliantly timed and well run service with lovely staff throughout. Only on my last journey, Belfast-Birkenhead with SailRail ticket to London in September, did I find a few reasons that led me write to you to suggest a few improvements: 

Waiting Room and boarding in Belfast 

It seems your service is a victim of its own success : The waiting room was horribly overcrowded, and no one was giving clear information about when boarding would start or how that would work. I seem to remember that on quieter crossings from Birkenhead, staff offer to take bags from you. In Belfast we had to struggle around narrow areas and get them loaded. The bus could not take everyone on board at once of course this is fine, but you could organize this in advance rather than leaving us standing outside with children at night. Finally, parking is a big problem, as I''m sure you know. And there is very little public transport provision from Belfast. A well timed bus provided by you from Belfast centre might help alleviate the parking problem and improve this great service further. 

Providing a dependable sailrail connection in Birkenhead 

When we got to Birkenhead, we were keen to get on the bus off the boat in order to get to the station on time to continue our journey. We were saddened to hear that the bus to the station is the same bus as the one used to shuttle people off the ship, and that it would need to make more trips to the ship before being free to take people to the station. So we walked. I know the connection times for getting to Birkenhead station printed on the eticket are probably only meant as a guide, but they are completely unrealistic if this is how you routinely deal with large numbers of foot passengers. We had a connecting train in London and would have planned differently if we had known to expect such a delay.

eXtra 'points' for rail journey tickets 

Why are tickets with a rail ticket not eligible for points, not even for the cost of the sailing component?

Again, please accept my thanks for this service and putting in so much effort for this small but growing market segment of foot/rail passengers.

Best Regards,

Matthew

And here was the response:

Dear Matthew,

Thank you for taking the time to contact Stena Line.
Stena Line openly welcome and appreciate feedback and once received is used to review our products and services in order to improve our service for our wide range of customers.

Here at Stena Line, we are committed to providing the highest standards of service to all our customers so therefore I would like to assure you that your comments have been forwarded to the Route Management Team. Not only will this ensure that your comments have been heard but it will also provide Stena Line with the opportunity to learn from your comments with a view to improving our service to all our customers.

Once again, I would like to thank you for your comments and time and we look forward to welcoming you on board again soon.

Did we disappear into Hillsborough lake?

Travelling western Europe and bringing up two children can keep parents busy. And so it is that our tales of our last trip to the UK and Ireland ended somewhat abruptly at Hillsborough lake. Readers will be relieved to hear that we did continue from there, enjoying a great many more things Northern Ireland has to offer, and having a taxing but successful journey back.

Another science museum of sorts: W5 in Belfast is an adventure for curious young children

St George's Market

Drumawhey Junction Miniature Railway near Millisle. This was a last minute decision after learning that the Palace Stables is no longer open to visitors :o Which, by the way, means there is now nothing for young families to do in Armagh on a rainy day (after the earlier closure of St Patrick's Trian) - bit of a pity. However, the railway is a great idea for children. And perhaps for some adults too, at least the ones driving the trains seemed to be having a great time. And the countryside nearby is fantastic on a summer's day.

Not far down the road: Groomsport. One of those places I've managed to ignore my whole life. Well worth the visit.

Perhaps the highlight as tourist attractions go this trip: the SS Nomadic, a tender for the Titanic, now restored and back in Belfast where she was built. 

Wedding Bells! Confetti! Matt's cousin Lynda got married in the beautiful Donegal countryside on a beautiful late summer's day. Fantastic.

Our wedding car was a Fiat Stilo. This guy's got class. And the best bit? He restored the car himself. So romantic.

The journey back. Well, what can I say. On paper, it can be done in 24 hours. But that's assuming the boat is on time, and isn't overrun with passengers necessitating multiple runs of the bus from the ship to the terminal. The same bus that is supposed to get you to the train station afterwards. And so it was, that we missed our first connection. And hence, every single connection after that. Remarkable in itself was that this wasn't so much of a problem for Eurostar. "You did some terrible planning and booked yourself on a train that you realistically had high chances of missing? No problem." Perhaps they had sympathy on us for the problem that was yet to come. We had a German railways' (DB) ticket. And we were going to miss the last DB train out of Brussels. There was no avoiding it. And there was no help from DB's telephone support either. There was however a glimmer of hope. 'Thalys' trains, who seem to have had a falling out with DB (they don't accept each other's tickets anymore), were still running a train out of Brussels that would get us back into Germany. It took some more negotiating, but we made it back, very very late at night indeed. Time for a sleep in our own beds.

Postscript: Amusingly, the premise to my pleas for help from all these rail operators along our journey was a mistaken belief that we were protected by the 'CIV' arrangements for international rail travel (as our journey included an international component). Why was I mistaken? Apparently Section 9.5.1e (https://loco2.com/pdfs/CIVRules.pdf) exempts rail companies from delays caused by boat operators. The fact that it was all part of a 'rail' ticket is irrelevant. Thanks to Kate at loco2 for explaining that to me.

This seems to be the only photo we took on the way back. Here we are working on our scrapbook(1) of our trip inside the Thalys train that had agreed to take us. If you think Matt is looking tired and sweaty, it's because he is.

Not an everyday ticket... 

Our well-used, well-endorsed, somewhat crumpled ticket home, including paper ticket from Eurostar at the bottom. Note the price for a family of 4 in 1st class... (we got a good deal by booking early).

(1) Scrapbooks are what we used to document travels before the age of blogs

Snow and sun for Christmas and New Year 2013/2014

Yesterday, we finally located the rest of our photos from last Christmas. Time to summarize what was a great break in spite of full trains, a stomach bug and plenty of snowy crash landings.

Ronja: Train! Etch-A-Sketch! Matt: Are we there yet?

You would think after so many years of train travel, we would have mastered a simple trip from Bavaria to Austria. But sometimes you learn the wrong lessons. Train travel is flexible right? You can be spontaneous, book at the last minute, reserve a seat, whatever, relax. Well, this was the last Saturday before Christmas. And apparently a few other people had the same idea of going on holiday. No reservations. Forget it. So we took a chance and took regional trains for much of the way and then held our breath in anticipation for the train to St Anton. It wasn't completely smooth but we somehow managed to have seats throughout the journey. And the highlight was meeting a lovely long-emigrated Irish woman on her way to Konstanz. One of those days that got off to a rough start but then just kept getting better. A short bus ride later and we were very happy to have reached our destination of Lech.

A view taken somewhere vaguely near St Anton, on a grand tour during Matt's ski course. He was forced into it as a Christmas gift, but very glad in the end.

There are no photo illustrations, but most of us were hit by a stomach bug while there. I (Matt) was fortunate enough to get it at the beginning of the holiday. A good way to take it easy afterwards was to hit only the beginner slope with my two year old. In the face of much skepticism, I had rented her skis. Regular viewers of the blog may remember that we tried to get Ronja excited about skiing whilst in Großarl (Family hotel in Großarl, and lesser known hospitals in Austria pt2) under very trying conditions. And to be fair, she is very young. But was it worth a try?

Getting used to the boots and the helmet

And a short time later, she was fully equipped and giving it a go

By the end, even the once skeptical 'Opa' was a valuable teacher

But what we never quite mastered was the bending of the knees

Of course, there are many other things you can do in the snow. Tobogganing, walking, cross-country skiing. The last one required some special equipment. That is, we didn't expect our two-year-old to cross-country ski the whole way to the next village.

Hold on tight! Wait, are you awake?  

It's a long way down from there - let's hope Opa knows what he's doing  

The Mann ohne Bauch...

Carousel  

Far too proud (from memory, this is indeed before the fall)   

Christmas away from home is certainly not the same. But it had something to it.

Present time

Santa pays a visit, and some of the children aren't too sure what to think

Especially this one. How did Santa know she needs to get better at staying at the table during dinner time?

Christmas Carols. How they managed to make their fingers move in that cold is beyond me.

So many presents and excitement, Ronja was soon finished for the evening without having opened them all. So the next morning it was time to continue...

There was of course one more party to be had: New Year. It's hard to explain how big a deal 'Sylvester' is in Austria in Germany. And it's hard to explain why lots of people dipping bits of raw meat in a tub of hot water, hoping to get the same ones back, is a good idea, but complainers are likely to go hungry, so dig in...

Fondue

A walk around the lake in Hillsborough Park

 Ronja managed to walk around the whole lake...

 and even had some energy left to run around with Grace...

and to feed the swan!

Wallace Park

Lisburn is a funny place. Many shops are unoccupied and dilapidated. And yet there's money somewhere... the centre of town is being rebuilt, so that even if the shops are empty, you'll be able to walk past them with fancy paving underfoot and the sound of a fountain in the background. And they've built a fantastic children's playground in Wallace Park. Time to try it out...

We're going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

Belfast Zoo is set upon a hill. A big hill. Those who made it to the top were rewarded with ice cream.

The highlight? Sea lions.

A party and scrambled quail eggs

Our first few days were effectively planned for us (a good thing). Saturday relaxing, Sunday church, Monday preparing for and having a party (partly in a belated celebration of Ronja's birthday and a chance for everyone to meet Silas), Tuesday Zoo (more on that later) and Wednesday a visit to Lisburn's new playground, the church's new coffee shop and Matt's step-Granny's house which has been refurbished due to fire.

Happy Birthday to...

At the party Matt's cousin Clare left us some quail eggs. What to do with them?

So small!

Scrambling...

The finished product. Delicious.