Railing to the Netherlands

[sierra_le_oli]

Yesterday I caught the 6:59 laptop train to Brussels. Lucky, because if I'd travelled on Thursday as originally intended, I wouldn't have been travelling. Belgian Railways are having a mouvement social for 24 hours starting at 10pm. Funny thing is, I'm carrying various items in my bag to avoid the Royal Mail strikes

Comments

[sollersuk]

Full agreement about rail vs flying. I liked the railways in the Netherlands very much. I had to get to and from places that were beautifully accessible by yacht but rather out of the way by land, and even so I had no problems.

I also liked the trains in Spain. We spent a couple of weeks in northern Spain, travelling by rail between Madrid, Santiago de Compostela and Burgos - very long journeys but very comfortable and reasonable; particularly when the nice lady in the travel agency in Santiago de Compostela pointed out that a) there was a special offer for the day we were travelling and b) first class would only cost a few euros more. God bless Hugo "Spanish in Three Months": without it I wouldn't have been able to discuss the fares with her.

My ambition, next year or the year after, is to go all the way down to Spain by rail. However, English fares being what they are we will probably have to drive from Manchester to London.

[liasbluestone]

Does the train in Spain stay mainly in the plain?

[sollersuk]

No, though that's the immediate thought; it runs most delightfully through the mountains. It was a wonderful way to see the landscape - mountains, mountains in the distance (genuinely blue and purple, much to my daughter's pleasure), rolling hills with old towns on them.

[sierra_le_oli]

I had to sprint to catch my train from "Slough" to Den Haag and had a moment of worry while standing in front of the ticket machine. Until I realised that I didn't have to think about complicated fare structures or what time I was travelling, it was easy!

I hadn't thought of doing Spain by rail, sounds good, I'll check it out.

[sollersuk]

One word of warning: Spain is BIG so journeys tend to be long, even by fast train (we had a couple of 6 hour journeys). Take a book. Take several books. Learn Spanish, if you haven't done so beforehand.

Food and beer on the trains are reasonable, though, and station cafes tend to be very good. And the seats, even in standard accommodation, are comfortable.

[sierra_le_oli]

I could probably dredge up a bit of Spanish but of a South American variety. A long train journey is probably a good time to listen to some language podcasts.

Good tips, you're really tempting me. :-)

[sollersuk]

Given the variety of accents I'm not sure how helpful listening practice would be! In the south "s" can vanish completely, and in Galicia, even if they're speaking Castilian it can be confusing - it took me a few moments to decode "La jave esta aji" (sorry, can't do the accented letters)

[bellinghman]

It's a while back now, but I once took an express from Tarragona to Granada.

20 hours. Eek!

(And Tarragona wasn't even the start fro that train - it actually was from Barcelona.)