OBB 1116-267 2.1.25
This actually covers three days after the action previously recorded. The first day was entirely free in Innsbruck and we largely stayed in our room reading and resting – we had a pizza one day when we were out and about but generally had seen nothing we wanted to revisit in the cold. However the opportunity existed.
The second day is traversing Austria and Germany. DB Rail is at the moment reckoned to be poorly performing and we are subjected to this. Our first train to Munich is not a problem although a little late if I recall correctly and we can watch the countryside pass by. In Munich the train is in the platform but like some UK operators getting passengers boarded gently and steadily is not accepted and we have a last minute dash – which with heavy suitcases is not welcome. The service onwards to Cologne is soon being undertaken in the dark (so reading and listening time) until we come to a halt. The driver on a previous train had seen something on the track and so we halt whilst an investigation is undertaken. Inevitably this takes quite a bit of time and as the report may have been a person the caution is understandable. There is no opportunity to recover the time.
The final day is a service from Cologne to Brussels which also runs late – so we are a little worried over our connection time given the Eurostar approach to travellers. No need to worry as the inward train to Brussels was also late and so we get through security and are penned up in an area without enough seats for those travelling for ages. The train is there but we are not allowed to board it. Then they undertake loading the priority passengers – understandable but we spend ages in a queue and it seems like they are already letting in passengers for the following service (at least so it is implied). I regret to say that once again this is not the way that anyone should be treating international rail passengers. These days I am not sure cattle would be allowed to travel like this. Eurostar really need to take a step back and find a better way of ensuring that passengers are respected.
Inevitably a late departure means a late arrival and I thought that we would have a nice simple connection into the service home from Waterloo (which is only hourly because of the poor service on our local line). I make my way to the right entrance at Kings Cross for the Underground – this means going right to the front of the old station entrance which was swept away a couple of decades ago and taking the lift down (plus a few steps). The escalator delivers us to the right platform and it is across on the level from Victoria line to Bakerloo at Oxford Circus. The watch is ticking.
We head up the escalators at Waterloo and although it is almost on the hour our train is on the other side of the barrier with the doors open – we dive through and onto the first coach. The train departs about three late. The guard comes through and I thank him and explain that we are lucky to catch it. He had to deal with a late arriving disabled passenger further forward and so was loading a wheelchair when he should have been signalling departure. Our driver however is up to the challenge and observing limits is able to recover the time dropped at Waterloo by the time we roll into Woking. Once we are at Guildford It is then a normal wander across to another platform for the meander home. Another holiday completed.
Brochure descriptions:
Day 11:
After a delicious hotel breakfast, enjoy a day at leisure to explore Innsbruck, perhaps taking a walk beside the Inn river or past the fountains and pavilion of the Innsbrucker Hofgarten, landscaped royal palace gardens which date from the early 15th century.
Innsbruck is a city of many delightful churches, including the baroque cathedral with its famous Madonna and Child painting by Lukas Cranach the Elder, as well as the gothic Hofkirche.
Another notable architectural wonder in Innsbruck’s Altstadt is the Golden Roof, a glorious copper-tiled roof built in 1500 to mark the occasion of the marriage of Maximilian I to Bianca Maria Sforza.
Day 12:
This morning, we board the train down the Inn valley to Munich, where we change trains and continue to Cologne.
Passing through the historic cities of Augsburg and Ulm, and fairy-tale towns such as Schwäbisch Gmünd and Limberg and der Lahn, we then arrive at our Rhine-side destination of Cologne, dominated by its imposing, twin-spired Gothic cathedral.
Day 13:
After breakfast today our wonderful festive tour concludes as we travel from Cologne to Brussels, before catching our final train, the Eurostar, to London St Pancras.
On arrival at St Pancras we say farewell to our travelling companions and recall the winter wonders we have witnessed in Italy and Austria.