Tag Archive: train


Next on the list – Oban

I’m going to try and catch the train to this afternoon, around 4:45PM to Oban. It takes a while to get there, almost 5 hours. It’s supposed to be a very scenic ride though, so hopefully I can see some of it!

I’ve booked a bed at the Oban Youth Hostel, which looks very neat and is really inexpensive – 19£ including 4£ for breakfast. The building looks pretty amazing, like an old abbey. Take a look at their website:

http://www.syha.org.uk/hostels/highlands/oban.aspx

Tomorrow I plan to check out Oban itself, and figure out what to do for getting to the Islands of Mull and Iona – from what I’ve heard, it should be pretty simple and there’s frequent running ferries throughout the day. I hope to stay a night or so on Mull, which should be nice and relaxing.

I’ll try and update again once I’m in Oban! I haven’t yet uploaded any pictures from Edinburgh, perhaps I’ll get to do that some tonight as well. Bye!

Successfully en-route to Edinburgh

I caught a 12:00 train to from London King’s Cross station to Edinburgh (terminus: Perth) and so far there’s only been a bit of delay due to the cold affecting some of the signaling a bit before we reached York. I should be in Edinburgh by 17:00-17:30 or so, depending on how things go.

The train has free (shoddy, but given where we are and what we’re going through – impressive) WiFi which is nice.

Checking the weather forecast shows that Edinburgh won’t be getting above freezing the next few days, with lows down to -13c! That’s about 8.6F, cold! Glad I got that coat when I did.

People on the train after our last stop (Newcastle – the last England stop) now have the distinctive Scottish accent, they say Edinburgh quite differently than I (try) to say it, and differently than the English say it as well. It’s more of just an “Eburh” than ed-in-bur-oh.

Here’s a picture from the train of some cooling towers in the flatlands of England, there were a bunch of plants in this one area. The geotag for the photo is probably incorrect – I think it got applied when I uploaded the photo vs when the photo was taken.

Cooling towers in England

Cooling towers in England

Paris, Snow, London, Etc.

I wandered around a bunch today, and it got rather cold and snowed for quite a while (lightly) – I’ve seen the Eiffel tower now from all over, but haven’t gone up it, visibility’s really poor and it’s just cold! I think I’ll save that for when I’m back in the warmer months sometime :)

Paris is definitely a fun town to walk around in, it’s all very inviting and (fairly) easy to navigate. The metro system’s great when you need to get somewhere quick, supposedly in Paris you’re never more than 500 yards from a metro stop – not bad! Managing not to walk right between all of them when you’re looking for one may be another story though!

Tomorrow I hope to go to the Louvre museum, since I got there as it closed yesterday (they still let you walk around the common areas and gift shops), and today most of the museums are closed for the holiday. I think I’ll let that be the end of my Paris experience, and then hopefully make it over to London.

I didn’t quite realize that the Eurostar train wasn’t like an extended metro train.. and it’s actually quite expensive (ouch) – rides out tonight (e.g. two hours from now) would be about $150.. and for tomorrow, well, a whole lot more than that.. I’m *hoping* that a last minute booking for tomorrow will be similar to if I were to book tonight. But it’s a bit of a gamble, although it really wouldn’t be that fun to be rushed and hop on a train in two hours (saving the cost, but adding to the stress, and loosing the cost of my hotel for tonight). There’s supposedly a discount of Eurail pass holders as well, but you can’t determine that or book it online, I’ll have to do it in person or via phone (and their phones are closed today!)

If it ends up being really expensive – I have a few options, I could get an obscure flight on Sunday for about $150 that goes though.. Denmark, or, if I can get ahold of him, visit an stay with my friend Tony in Sweden for a few days (with my Eurail pass, I could travel there for free) and from there either book a Eurostar train to London, or a flight to London or Edinburgh (since I’d have burned some of my time up)

Well, I guess we’ll see what happens, hopefully it doesn’t end up being too stressful or expensive! (Planning more would have been helpful, it turns out!)

Paris

I’m in Paris now, and indeed do have a room at Grand Hôtel Lévêque on Rue Cler – it’s excellent! I’m glad I got a room here, it’s very close to everything as far as I can tell, and it seems to be a very popular part of town (lots of restaurants and cafés open late and such.)

The train ride over was great as well, it was my first time on a TGV, and they are seriously fast. Traveling at 160+MPH is quite the thing to do. I hope we can have trains like that in the U.S. sometime in the future! Quite a step up from the Talgo I took from BCN to Montpellier, and even the Teoz’ that I’ve ridden on elsewhere.

More pictures and updates tomorrow, for now I’ve had a great dinner and I’m ready for bed so I can wake up early and continue enjoying Paris tomorrow! Au revoir!

The walking route from my hotel to the Eiffel Tower

Hotel to Eiffel Tower

Marseille

I’m in Marseille now, and have been since yesterday – it’s quite a big city, and it was much more difficult to navigate from the train stations than the other places I’ve been to!

I had planned to be in Marseille before it got dark, but that didn’t quite work out with the train I caught from Arles, so that made navigating the town a bit harder, but I found a hotel that was reviewed decently by the Michelin travel books (yes, like the tires, too) and relatively close to a metro stop. It was easy to get to, and in a good central location – Vieux Port.

I hopped on a tour bus today and saw a good amount of the city that way, and it was also a nice way to learn about the history of the town that I likely wouldn’t have gotten other ways, not a bad deal! Afterwards, I wandered around some of the neighborhoods and a bit of the (incredibly busy) shopping districts. It’s a bit past 9pm now, and I’ve got to go and grab some dinner. More posts & pictures later!

Montpellier

My train from Barcelona took me to Montpellier, France – from 8:45 to 13:30 or so. Once I was at Montpellier, I had to figure out how to get to Arles – it’s a stop on the train to Marseille, so that seemed easy enough.
Montpellier is a fairly small town, but it was incredibly busy – it’s a university town, and at the time it was chocked full of students and their parents it seemed. I asked at the information booth what I needed to do to get to Arles – I was told I needed a reservation, so I went to the ticket counter to get one. There I was told that a reservation was not needed! Just hop on the train that says “Arles” at 15:30 – Okay I said (this time the person spoke english, so it was more clear) – and I wandered around a bit.
There were no trains that said Arles near that time, so, I went back to the information booth and asked again – I was assured again that I do need a reservation! Back to the ticket counter. I got some help from another person, who said I did indeed need a reservation, and that I had missed the 15:30 train, but that I could get on a 17:04 train – because of the miscommunication she gave me a first class reservation for free, and I got to check out Montpellier in my newfound time, excellent!
I enjoyed Montpellier quite a bit – a bit too much though, I found myself thinking I knew where I was 20 minutes to my departure time – and ended up going in a few good circles, and then finding that I didn’t have small enough change to purchase a tram ticket! With the help of some nice locals, I found out how to get to the train station on foot (up a bunch of stairs, with my backpack on – oof!) and I got to the platform with 3 minutes to spare, no problem! :)

Tam Bleu

One of two tram lines that run in Montpellier

Of course, I took some photos while I was there, and my GPS unit is still working like a charm! Check out the photos on a map here, and you can see what I saw!

Here’s a link to a map of all my photos from Montpellier

Barcelone!

I’m writing this from the RENFE train waiting to leave the Barcelona airport to Plaça de Garcia, from there I’ll take another trail to Liceu station near my hotel. So far so good! The flights went quickly – the first was a bit cramped but not horrible. I sat next to a man from a border town north of Madrid who was coming home for the holidays, from working up in Vancouver. He was great to talk to a he knew his way around the Charles de Galle airport, and we both had to be rushed to our connections with about 20 others becuse of the delayed flight. We made it though!
Now to find my hotel – and maybe a map – and then some lunch!

Here’s a picture from the RENFE train.

Link Light Rail

I’m on the light rail to Seatac now, so far so good! My first flight is delayed by 15 minutes, but if that’s all then that shouldn’t be a problem for my connection.
About 20 minutes until I’m checking in -more updates later!

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