18th January 2013 - Dodging the snowFriday 18th January 2013 Bad weather had been forecast for most of the week but had not yet really made an appearance in our little bit of the South East but, if you believed the forecast, today was the day that the snow would finally arrive with a vengeance. We were booked on the 08:58 Eurostar to Brussels, just as well as the 06:50 had been cancelled, and this duly departed on time with still no sign of the snow though a text from a relative further west informed us that the promised white stuff had already arrived in the South Wales and Bristol area. A little bit of weather-related slow running saw us arriving around 30 minutes late in Brussels, no rush as we had been forced to book on the 14:25 ICE due to the ludicrous way that Thalys bookings work. A reservation to go with our first class Interrail would have set us back over £70 and when we asked for an FIP (staff) fare to Köln, there were none available due to the way the quota system works so, it was a metaphorical two fingers to Thalys and a reservation for the ICE despite our reservations over potential weather related farces. ICE at Paindorf The inbound ICE initially showed up as being 50 minutes late but actually arrived only around 35 late and a quick turn-round saw us departing only 5 late, not a problem as our next connection was around 45 minutes. We were nor counting any chickens however which was just as well when we came to a stand in the middle of nowhere on the high speed line between Leuven and Liège and were then diverted along the old route via Welkenraedt making us some 40 minutes late. As we passed through Köln Messe/Deutz there was no sign of our connecting ICE “downstairs” so we decided to get off as booked at Siegburg/Bonn and wait for it. Sure enough, it turned up around 10 minutes late and caused us to dash down the platform when it turned out to be only one unit rather than the two that had been shown on the board on the platform. Luckily the coach containing our reservations was in the bit that was running so we evicted the two people sitting in our seats after gently forcing our way past all the other standees in the coach. There was no chance of us making our intended connection at Mannheim but there are plenty of trains running on the short distance to Heidelberg so we were not delayed much and were soon sitting down to a pleasant meal in the restaurant (Zapata) between the station and our hotel (Ibis).
Keywords:
Germany
Comments
No comments posted.
Loading...
|
Subscribe
RSS
Recent Posts
9th & 10th January 2018 - A lucky trip
8th January 2018 - Brewery Bonus
7th January 2018 - To Bern for steam
6th January 2018 - Onwards and westwards
5th January 2018 - A Tale of two Banskás
4th January 2018 - Bobbing around Brno (again)
3rd January 2018 - Delay Dodging
2nd January 2018 - Third Time Lucky
1st January 2018 - Happy Republic Day
31st December 2017 - Farewell 2017
Archive
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
|