9th October
Page 2: The Journey To Budapest
From Shrewsbury via what was probably the least attractive railway station on the whole tour, Crewe
then London, then Brussels, Köln & night train to Wien
St Pancras station
concrete:
it seems that most new fast lines spend considerable amounts of time inside or viewing concrete (and as below, metal)
Eurostar lunch.
Inevitable ‘airline’ style – but it was better than the picture may suggest.
As I was beginning to enjoy my lunch an email arrived stating that our night sleeper train from Cologne to Vienna was cancelled.
WhatsApp
We were late into Brussels but managed a connection to Cologne by 2 minutes (they held the train for Eurostar passengers. Now we have to try and find a train that will take us to Vienna….. could be a very long night!
‘All the best for a safe and interesting journey you two’
WhatsApp
🚂
It’s certainly been ‘interesting’… we are now, rather unexpectedly, approaching Frankfurt….. the ‘disastrous’ rain that caused the cancellation of our train to Vienna’ seems to have moved away from our journey.
We now begin a tour of the cities of central and southern Germany.
A fun filled experience awaits us!
Thankfully we were carrying a copy of what might be regarded as the European Rail Travellers’ Bible
Regarded by many experts as the ‘essential extra’.
Our efforts to ensure we continued ‘on schedule’ occupied us.
WhatsApp reporting on the night was delayed to the next day
Yesterday: 17.15 – 23.00 No train…. So we ‘ take courage’ & invent a new route to Vienna via Frankfurt and the slow train to Wurzburg where time allowed for detailed exploration.
We were to leave the train from Brussels at Köln but stayed on to Frankfurt… initially crawling out of Köln Hauptbanhof & ‘resting’ on the Hohenzollern Bridge over the Rhine.
If at some point my ashes are to be scattered, this bridge would be a very appropriate place. Apart from a brief visit to Paris. The place & the bridge featured at the start of my European wanderings in 1966 & has been a regular ‘arrival’ point on those journeys
– walked over many times;
a place of observation of trains from across Europe, longingly wondering if I could somehow join the Paris – Moscow marked carriage.
That journey only fulfilled until 2019 as part of a longer journey to Beijing on the Trans-Siberian Express – but our first night on the journey was in Köln
– a welcoming sight on return from further east (on one occasion following a ‘minor difficulty’ in communist East Berlin)
– in visual proximity, some significant meals
– with only little money, a 21st birthday celebration of bratwurst from a van by the river (& provided free when the owner understood)
– a meal taken on December 12th 2019, a bleak day on which we escaped from the UK as it voted in a Prime Minister under whose chaotic governance, corruption & lying became normal…..
at the meal, the local woman & partner, next to whom I was sitting, understanding my plight, stated simply (and with genuine concern)
‘”You are at home here”
– another in 2023, at a wonderful restaurant, almost underneath the bridge, that, though late, squeezed us in – a fantastic finish to a previous outward journey in 2022 (& which, by chance, was the day on which the UK ‘Pinocchio’ Prime Minister became fully exposed).
We were supposed to be eating there tonight…. but once again, the simple action of ‘passing through Köln’ has provided another layer to those previous memories…..
….. and by staying on the train to Frankfurt, adding a diversion both to the route & to the experiences of our first day’s journey.
In Frankfurt our train, now empty, had finished its efforts for the day…. our journey continued
Before reaching Frankfurt we decided that we should attempt to continue to reach Wien by whatever trains might be available…. but checking first at the information desk.
During the evening, a regional express, took us back to our original route at Würzburg
where it too finished its efforts for the day ………
…….& we were left in a largely empty station musing, at 22.30, how to amuse ourselves until a train from Hamburg to Wien stops at 01.48.
An information desk was still open and we had considerable extra assistance from an assistant
– providing lockers for our luggage
(an impossibility in UK where everything is security conscious, thus, no lockers with, at a few large stations only, provision requiring scanning – and considerable expense)
– a map of Würzburg, on which the assistant marked the route to a suitable bar
And so we wandered away as directed, along the rain-shiny but drying streets to find the bar, which we discovered to be closed….. but the owner provided further directions to another… ‘go into the building and climb the stairs’
We rather nudged our way, cautious & observant, for though the streets were well lit & public transport still rolled quietly past, we were uncertain of the route. At another bar, maybe 200 metres distant from the first, there was an individual sweeping steps & who repeated the phrase ‘climb the stairs’
We did & entered a room half of which was full of jolly students….presumably the start of term at the University (a research intensive University & one of the oldest in Germany – original foundation in 1402)
No one seemed to notice us.
A rather pleasing sensation given the obvious age difference & our somewhat unkempt appearance (students in 2024 seem to be very smart… there was an overall 1950s feel about people & place)
We positioned ourselves facing the fishes.
Consolations: the enjoyable Franken wines
Thursday 10th October: Day One merges into Day Two
early morning: 00.30
After the bar closed we made further explorations of Würzburg & later in the day posted:
Yesterday (Thursday)
Wednesday rolled seamlessly into Thursday as we wandered the wet, dark streets of Wurzburg… our aim: to find somewhere to sit in comfort for several hours. A member of staff at the station helped with information… and showed us where and how to store our luggage (an impossibility at a regional station in UK).
Eventually we joined the fishes and a host of celebratory first year students!
Our explorations were partially recorded…..
The decorated pole seems to represent something relating to the foundation of the town & the present significance of Würzburg – as a place of celebration (and inebriation…? – not our experience). Important to record, as over the centuries, being a place of significance it has contained periods of considerable suffering (culminating in a WW2 bombing & firestorm worse, in scale, than at Dresden).
Then returned to the station and joined the hopeful Night Riders…. And ‘others’ (most were quietly intoxicated)…. Then onto the platform waiting for a train, (which followed others only designed for freight and hoboes) that arrived around 02.15….
It was due to take us to Wien.
The board showed our cancelled train of 2.29 but above it the one we aimed to take at 01.48
The sober bench – where were they all going… or had hoped or intended to go?
on the opposite side there was a scattered collection of ‘others’, some wandering around muttering to themselves.
On both sides of the concourse individuals were shutting themselves down, retreating, being as personally ‘enclosed’ as possible.
There were no conversations….
just a muttering from one ‘wanderer’ (timed at 01.22)
A Fantasie occurring during The Period of “The Extension of Time”.…….
…. The Itinerant Tailor of Würzburg…?
…..demeanour, clothing & packs suggested a character who is forever wandering… from a story by the ‘Brothers Grimm’ (Kinder- und Hausmärchen)…
In the middle of the night, together, with all these other temporary residents of the station, we experienced the unavoidable ‘Extension of Time’ – a period of waiting in which time stretches and drags itself more slowly than at other point in the day.
Consequently the presence of the ‘Tailor of Würzburg’ in the station is completely plausible, because our train from Frankfurt stopped at Hanau, where Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were educated.
So here we encounter the Spirit from one of those tales,
The Itinerant Tailor
muttering
eternally moving back and forth between Hanau & Würzburg,
forever seeking customers…
and muttering, muttering…..
We isolated ourselves by walking away and going to the station platform.
Only 20 minutes wait…..
Time passed…. as did a number of freight trains…. it was a busy station….
Time passed
Should we try and jump onto a passing freight wagon…..?
Musical memories arrive……..
Hobo….. you can’t ride this train………
I bet there’s a lotta hoboes Lord set on them rods
Even A-number one and all ’em cats, yeath man
All aboard for Pittsburgh, Harrisburg oh all the burgs
Hobo, you can’t ride this train
Now I’m the brakeman and I’m a tough man
I ain’t jokin’ you, can’t ride this train
Boys, you ain’t so bad
After all you all right with me
I think I will let you ride
Time dragged…..
02.00 hrs passed…
so did other trains, each one raising false expectations
Then at some point well past the scheduled arrival time, we (& one of those who had been sitting in the concourse) were rescued…
it was more than ‘rescue’… we were, by chance, stepping onto one of the most modern sleeping car trains in Europe
The train to Wien was composed of the new sleeping compartments introduced by Austrian Railways
…..instead of having to find a seat & hope for some broken sleep, we were told that for €120 we could have a compartment to ourselves (and all charges for the train that was cancelled would, on application, be re-paid).
The other passenger was given (for €30) a single bed in a mini ‘cocoon’ cabin (eg Japanese Capsule Hotel)
The ÖBB Nightjet ‘New Generation’ sleeping car: two beds & a shower room.
Route summary
Order Restored
Despite the cancellation of our train to Wien & the disruptions, we were now back on our planned route and travelling to Wien on our original schedule.
- We realised that the Night Express to Wien operates as 2 trains,
– one from Amsterdam
– the other from Hamburg.
- They meet in Nürnberg where the carriages of each are re-arranged creating
– a train to Innsbruck &
– a train to Wien.
- The train from Amsterdam (our planned train) had been cancelled,
- it seemed that the train from Hamburg (which is scheduled to travel through Wurzburg earlier than that from Amsterdam) had been intentionally delayed & passed through Wurzburg closer to the schedule of the Amsterdam train
We leave Würzburg…. But with unexpected benefit … a cabin and arrival in Austria with breakfast in bed
Severe rain and flooding in September closed the usual route into Vienna so after Sankt Pölten we were diverted away from the River Danube route – & delightfully entered Wien through the Wienerwald…. I half expected Schubert or Johann Strauss ‘The Waltz King’, to be waiting at one of the stations we passed.
Wien
Inspirational Pathways 