The return train journey to Saarbruecken
Saturday 2nd January 2010
Well, as regular readers of this blog will know, I'm not very good at updating punctually! So here, albeit a week late, is the story of my journey back to Saarbruecken. The good news is that it wasn't quite as eventful as the homeward journey. So, sit back, relax and enjoy the ride...
First off, I should make a mention to my sister whose birthday it was on the 2nd - annoying though it was to travel back on this date - it was better than travelling on Sunday where certain places' public transport is somewhat lacking on the day of rest! My train was due to leave Chippenham at 07.55, but because, as I found out later, the driver couldn't release the brakes at Bristol, the train left Chippenham at 08.12. This wasn't a problem in itself because I had 2 and a half hours in London to get from Paddington to St. Pancras International. The journey to London was relatively painless - we stayed about 15 minutes late, which was about as much as I'd hoped for!
Now it's worth pointing out that Transport for London (TfL) had decided that this weekend would be a good weekend to undertake some engineering works on some of the lines - i.e. the Circle Line and Hammersmith & City Lines in particular; which as Londoners will know are the two direct lines between the termini I wanted. Thus, I had to catch the Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus, and come back up to Kings Cross/St. Pancras on the Victoria line. This part of the journey was actually problem-free; although I did feel like I'd walked most of the way by the time I got out of the Tube station at St. Pancras.
Seeing as I like to turn up at somewhere in plenty of time; I made my first port of call the check-in hall for Eurostar; which was substantially easier to find than its Parisian counterpart. The first thing that struck me was how busy it was! There were hundreds of people in the check-in hall, and no real sense of what one was supposed to do. It turned out that check-in opened an hour before the train left, so seeing as I was there 90 minutes before my train left, I hid at the back of the hall and read my book, and then joined a queue exactly an hour before my train left - i.e. 10.32. The check-in seemed slightly chaotic, to be honest; everyone was queued up together irrespective of what train they were catching, and the people on earlier trains were then being lassooed out of the queue by Eurostar staff and ushered to the front. I did eventually get to the head of the queue where once you have put your ticket in the machine, you find you find yourself immediately thrown into the security zone. The first thing you have to do is take off coats, fleeces, scarves, gloves, hats. All these, along with your luggage, go through the X-Ray machine, while you walk through the Metal Detector. Now, despite wearing almost the same clothes back to Germany as I wore home, I didn't buzz as I went through! The next stage is the PAF (see last entry for explanation) who had a cursory glance at my passport. There were also UKBA officers loitering with intent around the terminal area. Once I'd got through all those I found a seat and waited for embarkation to commence at 11.12 (20 minutes before scheduled departure time) - however, embarkation was to be delayed because the train had arrived late. We were only delayed by about 12 minutes in actuality and left St. Pancras at 11.45.
The journey to Paris was OK, I read my book, ate my lunch, looked out the window, changed my watch and phone times. Some 2 hours 45 minutes later we pulled into Paris Gare du Nord. Prior to coming back, we'd arranged that we would meet up in Paris. Esther was on an earlier Eurostar than me, so met me at Gare du Nord, from where we walked to Paris Est and used the left luggage facility there, so as not to have to carry our suitcases all around Paris. Then we purchased a carnet of tickets for the public transport network in Paris. From Paris Est, we took the Metro to Louvre, which I'd only seen in Tricolore (for the young'uns reading this - it was the book that we used before Metro!) beforehand. From there we walked in a random direction across the Seine, from where we walked through the cultural heart of Paris - Saint Germain des Pres. Then we walked over to Notre Dame, and looked at it; we didn't go in because the queue was quite long. We then ambled past the Hotel de Ville (where the Mayor of Paris works - somewhat more architecturally pleasing than the Ghurkin in my opinion), before catching the Metro back to Paris Est where we waited and met up with Claire and Harriet who had flown into Charles de Gaulle.
After we'd met up, and Esther and I had retrieved our luggage, we headed off to board the train to Saarbruecken (or Sarrebruck as the French call it). The train left promptly but then because of the snow, the line through Lorraine (or Lothringen as the Germans call it) had had its speed reduced meaning that we would be about 15 minutes late into Saarbruecken. This would make the connection to the bus very tight, and indeed when we arrived into the Hauptbahnhof we had 3 or 4 minutes to get to the bus stop. Luckily the bus hadn't arrived when we got there, and we managed to get on the faithful 121 home. I eventually got in about 22.00 before realising that I also needed to make my bed and unpack quite a lot of stuff before I could go to bed!
So, in the next installment I'll be talking about the first week back in Germany...
Showing posts with label ICE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ICE. Show all posts
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Monday, December 28, 2009
Chapter 16 - Homeward Bound
Coming home on the 18th December
Firstly, may I apologise for the tardiness of this entry - this is due to a number of reasons; Christmas, fatigue, having a poor memory and working long hours filling Morrisons' shelves with alcohol. But it's here now, and I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas, and as we hurtle towards 2010 (already a tenth of the way through a century!), let me wish you a very Happy New Year! So, if you're sitting comfortably, I shall begin...
The journey home was to take about 10 hours from start to finish, about 5 of which would be spent on trains, and the rest loitering without intent. Was it a simple and straightforward journey....err...don't be silly - when does anything go as smoothly as I plan it?
I had planned on getting up at 5.30 in the morning, but for some reason I decided at 5 o'clock that 5 would be fine! My train didn't leave until 8, but I had to catch the bus to the train station at 7, so had to leave my house about 6.45. I still had a few odds and sods to get finished in the morning ; packing the last few things, sorting out my bedding, basically making sure the room was completely clean. Having completed all of my pre-departure jobs, and checked I still had my tickets, passport, keys, and suitcase (although I'd have to be rather muppet-like to forget this!), I left the house and walked to the bus stop. The first thing that struck me, as I stepped out of my house for the last time for a couple of weeks, was...how bloody cold it was! It was truly freezing! Whilst waiting for the bus I kept walking around to try and warm up a bit - it didn't really work, but it may have helped minutely! The bus was, as per usual, a few minutes, which was the reason I had caught the one an hour before my train; which would give me 40 minutes at the station instead of ten. Nevertheless, about five minutes later I saw the trusty 121 ambling up the hill, winding its merry way to the Hauptbahnhof (which is a word I've used so many times during this blog, that even non-Germanists will understand what it means!).
The bus arrived at the Hauptbahnhof a mere three minutes late; such is the combination of the skill of the driver, and, more importantly, the fact that only two other people got on all the way to the station. This meant that I had about 35 minutes at the station, which meant I had enough time to go and buy a coffee; somewhat necessary considering the time I got up in the morning. At the station I met up with Claire and Lucy who were both catching the 08.00 ICE from Saarbruecken to Paris, calling at Forbach (which is possibly the least important town in France to be served by a TGV station!). At Paris we were all going back by Eurostar, but we'd managed to book 3 different ones!
The journey to Paris started with a sense of foreboding tardiness...the train was to be about 10 minutes late into Saarbruecken, which wouldn't be a problem as we all had at least 45 minutes in Paris to travel to the Eurostar Terminal. On the train, I exchanged a "bonjour" with a member of the Police Aux Frontières (PAF for short; French Border Police arm of the National Police), as they walked through the train looking for anyone who looks to be both un-French, and un-European! The PAF alight at Forbach and, I presume, wait for the ICE going the other way and do the whole thing again! The journey to Paris started OK, but as we got further into France, the snow thickened, and the snowfall was increasing. Both of these combined meant that our train had to cover substantial parts of the journey at a reduced speed. (I suppose that it's difficult to clear thick snow off of the windscreen at 230km/h, and braking may be slightly impeded by the ice too!)
It was on our way to Paris that I found out that we would overtake Harriet on our journey home. Harriet had left on Thursday, and had planned to fly from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, however the snow had a much more catastrophic effect on planes and airports than on trains. As such, she didn't fly home until the Saturday; so in effect her journey took 3 days. So, whilst snow might look nice and pretty, and you might dream of a White Christmas; please spare a thought for those who are travelling and who may be stranded!
As we approached our scheduled arrival time in Paris an announcement came out over the tannoy explaining that we would be about 30 minutes late arriving into Paris. This was reassuring, because at 09.50 (the scheduled arrival time), we were still in the middle of the countryside...and I've only been to Paris a couple of times, but I remember it wasn't that green! Their prediction did prove to be relatively accurate, and the train did pull itself (for you grammar freaks; note the inappropriate use of a reflexive verb there - and then note the uncaring look on my face!) into Paris Est at about 10.20. This wasn't too much of an issue for me because my Eurostar didn't leave until 12.15. Claire had even more time, so was going to explore the French Capital a bit before she went home; so we sorted her out with maps, and a day ticket for the public transport network (not all of which was on strike surprisingly; given the proximity to Christmas!).
The journey from Paris Est to Paris Gare du Nord was a journey that, according to Google Maps, was 600m long. This meant it was walkable; indeed walking was a damn site more preferable than heaving my case down to the underground metro station, forcing my way onto a train filled with Parisians and then heaving it upstairs again about 2 minutes later. For the sake of 5-10 minutes I walked; with my hand-drawn map - which looks like I was drunk when I did it...which I wasn't!
Arriving at Gare du Nord, I had forgotten something else that is quit prevalent in Paris; beggars, who try and guilt-trip you into donating - by asking first of all - "Do you speak English?". In all honesty, it was easier to reply to them in German than English anyway - their English may have been at an equal standard to mine. Leaving them behind, I strode confidently into Paris Gare du Nord station. In the words of Jeremy Clarkson, "How hard can it be?" - I've been to train stations before, I've crossed national borders before, I've caught trains across international frontiers before, I've even caught the Eurostar before (about 6 years ago and from Waterloo to Lille)...so given that I had accomplished all four of the above criteria I imagined it wouldn't be very hard....I was wrong! My first mistake had been striding too confidently into the station - it turned out, later, I had walked right past the Eurostar ticket office. The queue for which was loooooooong and had only one cashier working it! I wasn't entirely sure this was where I wanted to be, so I waited for a bit, in a stationary position, before digging out the relevant paperwork from my bag, and reading through the whole blurb accompanying the booking reference. The blurb directed me to check-in, where I would find some automatic machines for collecting my ticket. So, I left the queue, not that I'd gained any space, and headed off in search of the check-in. This, I found eventually, after walking aimlessly for a bit, in search of a Eurostar logo. The check-in procedure itself is not too time-consuming. You hand in your ticket to the person at the counter, who then waves you through to more PAF (my second lot today), who had a rather thorough look at my passport, who then wave you onto to the UKBA (or whatever they call themselves these days!), who, after a much briefer passport check, wave you onto the Douanes. Regular readers of this blog will know that I've had a couple of encounters with the Douanes already. I was about to have my third! After passing through the UK Border Agency control, you have to walk through a metal detector and put your bags through an x-ray machine, but you're not allowed to have the following things on your person: mobile phone (I had 2), MP3 Player, Cameras, Keys, Memory Stick, or coins - all of these had to be put in your bag...which, if you're like me, was pretty full already! Nevertheless I complied with these regulations and walked through the metal detector, which buzzed, so I took off my coat (metal poppers) and walked through again - I buzzed again. The Douane at the detector suddenly had an evil glint in her eye - out comes the wand (that genuinely isn't a euphemism!) and then I have it waved over me to try and pinpoint the metal - which narrows it down to my belt (which, I wasn't planning on removing). Still, not entirely satisfied, she decides that I need to be frisked, which she does while I look do my best star impression. After this search reveals nothing, I'm allowed to continue. Why didn't I put up a fuss I know you're thinking to yourself - the answer is very simple - I was in France, she was a French person in authority - you should never rise up against them...they like nothing more than to be more annoying and disruptive than is actually necessary, which they will do if you argue with them.
So, after surviving yet another encounter of the less than pleasant kind on the French frontier, I head to waiting room B, where there are no seats left. This isn't a problem - having lived in Germany for four months, the next thing I do is almost natural now. Seeing there were no seats, and that we were scheduled to embark in about 20 minutes, I went along to the door to the station and waited until it was time! After about 15 minutes an announcement comes over the PA system informing us that embarkation will be delayed by about 15 minutes because of the late arrival of the train. Ah, well, I had about two and a half hours in London to get from St. Pancras to Paddington - I wasn't too concerned. Indeed, after about 15 minutes we were allowed to get on our trains. It's worth boring you with one fact about the Eurostar - the whole train is about 1/4 mile in length - which is fine, unless, like me, you're in coach 3 - which felt like it was pretty much in Lille anyway! Still, having eventually got on the train, and found my seat, I got into my book and waited for departure. We left about 15 minutes late (at least Eurostar are consistent), and were told that we would probably have another 20-25 minutes added onto our journey because of speed restrictions that had been imposed because of the bad weather.
We left Paris in a northerly direction and were soon heading out towards St. Pancras International racing through the gloriously white French countryside. All was well, or so I thought! All of a sudden the train started braking quite sharply - not at an emergency stop level, but still quite sharply; the train had developped a fault, which the driver would attempt to fix. After about 20 minutes of lights flickering and being passed by TGVs in the opposite direction we set off again - with the total delay now running at about 35 minutes. Still, we managed to make it to Lille, then on to Calais, Sangatte and into the Channel Tunnel. Now you will almost certainly have heard about the horrendous problems that Eurostar were experiencing on this Friday in the Channel Tunnel - something to do with ice getting in the air vents or something - which caused the trains to break down in the tunnel; where it's dark and not a huge amount of fun to be stuck for hours. Luckily, I managed to avoid these delays. We made it through the Chunnel (as it's affectionately known among anoraks) in a pretty average 28 minutes, before heading off towards St. Pancras International. We'd been told we'd be in London about 40 minutes, which, whilst eating into my transfer time, left it in a pretty healthy condition. This was until we had to make an unscheduled stop in Ashford International - because they had to pick a member of the train crew up! Quite why they couldn't catch a conventional train to London is beyond me - I don't flag down Morrisons lorries on my way to work if I'm running a bit late...
Anyway, we arrived into St. Pancras International about 50 minutes late in the end - leaving me 1 hour and 40 minutes to travel across London to Paddington Station. Now I've not been to London a huge number of times, and I've used the tube twice before this journey (both on the same day!) - but as in Paris, I thought, I've caught trains before, I've used public transport before - I had the added advantage that whilst I don't quite have the London dialect down to a T I can make myself understood by using my mother tongue (and maybe not too many Rs)! As it happens it was a very easy journey to make - the underground trip was very easy - even with a suitcase. There were very few people on the carriage, and I was only on it for about 10 minutes.
On arrival at Paddington I realised what Esther meant when she talked about the steps....there were lots of them, and no real organised system to go up/down them - perhaps I expected too much! I had some time to kill in Paddington, so I sat down, topped up my UK phone, read a book, and waited until they announced which platform my train would leave from. At about 15.53 they told us the platform, from which the 16.00 was leaving. This train left on time, and was not held up by any snow; and there was some until about Didcot where it just became wet! The train pulled into Chippenham at 17.08 - running a couple of minutes early, where I was met by my parents in the car and whisked away!
As you can tell, a lot happened on this journey, but I was very lucky, and I'm very grateful for that. Whilst I had some minor inconveniences they were nothing compared to those of Harriet and Jack who were stuck in Paris, and the Channel Tunnel respectively for very long periods of time. So, whilst I may seem like I'm complaining - I'm really not! I actually enjoyed it - it was an adventure, and whilst I'll miss being at home, I'm looking froward to the journey back - simply because it's an adventure - and yes, I'm a child at heart!
The next instalment will be done after I get back, hopefully a little more promptly than this one was! As I said at the beginning, have a fantastic 2010, whatever you're doing! Thanks, also, to the people who have left kind words on my blog, and my Dad, who has left sarcastic ones!
See you in 2010!
Firstly, may I apologise for the tardiness of this entry - this is due to a number of reasons; Christmas, fatigue, having a poor memory and working long hours filling Morrisons' shelves with alcohol. But it's here now, and I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas, and as we hurtle towards 2010 (already a tenth of the way through a century!), let me wish you a very Happy New Year! So, if you're sitting comfortably, I shall begin...
The journey home was to take about 10 hours from start to finish, about 5 of which would be spent on trains, and the rest loitering without intent. Was it a simple and straightforward journey....err...don't be silly - when does anything go as smoothly as I plan it?
I had planned on getting up at 5.30 in the morning, but for some reason I decided at 5 o'clock that 5 would be fine! My train didn't leave until 8, but I had to catch the bus to the train station at 7, so had to leave my house about 6.45. I still had a few odds and sods to get finished in the morning ; packing the last few things, sorting out my bedding, basically making sure the room was completely clean. Having completed all of my pre-departure jobs, and checked I still had my tickets, passport, keys, and suitcase (although I'd have to be rather muppet-like to forget this!), I left the house and walked to the bus stop. The first thing that struck me, as I stepped out of my house for the last time for a couple of weeks, was...how bloody cold it was! It was truly freezing! Whilst waiting for the bus I kept walking around to try and warm up a bit - it didn't really work, but it may have helped minutely! The bus was, as per usual, a few minutes, which was the reason I had caught the one an hour before my train; which would give me 40 minutes at the station instead of ten. Nevertheless, about five minutes later I saw the trusty 121 ambling up the hill, winding its merry way to the Hauptbahnhof (which is a word I've used so many times during this blog, that even non-Germanists will understand what it means!).
The bus arrived at the Hauptbahnhof a mere three minutes late; such is the combination of the skill of the driver, and, more importantly, the fact that only two other people got on all the way to the station. This meant that I had about 35 minutes at the station, which meant I had enough time to go and buy a coffee; somewhat necessary considering the time I got up in the morning. At the station I met up with Claire and Lucy who were both catching the 08.00 ICE from Saarbruecken to Paris, calling at Forbach (which is possibly the least important town in France to be served by a TGV station!). At Paris we were all going back by Eurostar, but we'd managed to book 3 different ones!
The journey to Paris started with a sense of foreboding tardiness...the train was to be about 10 minutes late into Saarbruecken, which wouldn't be a problem as we all had at least 45 minutes in Paris to travel to the Eurostar Terminal. On the train, I exchanged a "bonjour" with a member of the Police Aux Frontières (PAF for short; French Border Police arm of the National Police), as they walked through the train looking for anyone who looks to be both un-French, and un-European! The PAF alight at Forbach and, I presume, wait for the ICE going the other way and do the whole thing again! The journey to Paris started OK, but as we got further into France, the snow thickened, and the snowfall was increasing. Both of these combined meant that our train had to cover substantial parts of the journey at a reduced speed. (I suppose that it's difficult to clear thick snow off of the windscreen at 230km/h, and braking may be slightly impeded by the ice too!)
It was on our way to Paris that I found out that we would overtake Harriet on our journey home. Harriet had left on Thursday, and had planned to fly from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, however the snow had a much more catastrophic effect on planes and airports than on trains. As such, she didn't fly home until the Saturday; so in effect her journey took 3 days. So, whilst snow might look nice and pretty, and you might dream of a White Christmas; please spare a thought for those who are travelling and who may be stranded!
As we approached our scheduled arrival time in Paris an announcement came out over the tannoy explaining that we would be about 30 minutes late arriving into Paris. This was reassuring, because at 09.50 (the scheduled arrival time), we were still in the middle of the countryside...and I've only been to Paris a couple of times, but I remember it wasn't that green! Their prediction did prove to be relatively accurate, and the train did pull itself (for you grammar freaks; note the inappropriate use of a reflexive verb there - and then note the uncaring look on my face!) into Paris Est at about 10.20. This wasn't too much of an issue for me because my Eurostar didn't leave until 12.15. Claire had even more time, so was going to explore the French Capital a bit before she went home; so we sorted her out with maps, and a day ticket for the public transport network (not all of which was on strike surprisingly; given the proximity to Christmas!).
The journey from Paris Est to Paris Gare du Nord was a journey that, according to Google Maps, was 600m long. This meant it was walkable; indeed walking was a damn site more preferable than heaving my case down to the underground metro station, forcing my way onto a train filled with Parisians and then heaving it upstairs again about 2 minutes later. For the sake of 5-10 minutes I walked; with my hand-drawn map - which looks like I was drunk when I did it...which I wasn't!
Arriving at Gare du Nord, I had forgotten something else that is quit prevalent in Paris; beggars, who try and guilt-trip you into donating - by asking first of all - "Do you speak English?". In all honesty, it was easier to reply to them in German than English anyway - their English may have been at an equal standard to mine. Leaving them behind, I strode confidently into Paris Gare du Nord station. In the words of Jeremy Clarkson, "How hard can it be?" - I've been to train stations before, I've crossed national borders before, I've caught trains across international frontiers before, I've even caught the Eurostar before (about 6 years ago and from Waterloo to Lille)...so given that I had accomplished all four of the above criteria I imagined it wouldn't be very hard....I was wrong! My first mistake had been striding too confidently into the station - it turned out, later, I had walked right past the Eurostar ticket office. The queue for which was loooooooong and had only one cashier working it! I wasn't entirely sure this was where I wanted to be, so I waited for a bit, in a stationary position, before digging out the relevant paperwork from my bag, and reading through the whole blurb accompanying the booking reference. The blurb directed me to check-in, where I would find some automatic machines for collecting my ticket. So, I left the queue, not that I'd gained any space, and headed off in search of the check-in. This, I found eventually, after walking aimlessly for a bit, in search of a Eurostar logo. The check-in procedure itself is not too time-consuming. You hand in your ticket to the person at the counter, who then waves you through to more PAF (my second lot today), who had a rather thorough look at my passport, who then wave you onto to the UKBA (or whatever they call themselves these days!), who, after a much briefer passport check, wave you onto the Douanes. Regular readers of this blog will know that I've had a couple of encounters with the Douanes already. I was about to have my third! After passing through the UK Border Agency control, you have to walk through a metal detector and put your bags through an x-ray machine, but you're not allowed to have the following things on your person: mobile phone (I had 2), MP3 Player, Cameras, Keys, Memory Stick, or coins - all of these had to be put in your bag...which, if you're like me, was pretty full already! Nevertheless I complied with these regulations and walked through the metal detector, which buzzed, so I took off my coat (metal poppers) and walked through again - I buzzed again. The Douane at the detector suddenly had an evil glint in her eye - out comes the wand (that genuinely isn't a euphemism!) and then I have it waved over me to try and pinpoint the metal - which narrows it down to my belt (which, I wasn't planning on removing). Still, not entirely satisfied, she decides that I need to be frisked, which she does while I look do my best star impression. After this search reveals nothing, I'm allowed to continue. Why didn't I put up a fuss I know you're thinking to yourself - the answer is very simple - I was in France, she was a French person in authority - you should never rise up against them...they like nothing more than to be more annoying and disruptive than is actually necessary, which they will do if you argue with them.
So, after surviving yet another encounter of the less than pleasant kind on the French frontier, I head to waiting room B, where there are no seats left. This isn't a problem - having lived in Germany for four months, the next thing I do is almost natural now. Seeing there were no seats, and that we were scheduled to embark in about 20 minutes, I went along to the door to the station and waited until it was time! After about 15 minutes an announcement comes over the PA system informing us that embarkation will be delayed by about 15 minutes because of the late arrival of the train. Ah, well, I had about two and a half hours in London to get from St. Pancras to Paddington - I wasn't too concerned. Indeed, after about 15 minutes we were allowed to get on our trains. It's worth boring you with one fact about the Eurostar - the whole train is about 1/4 mile in length - which is fine, unless, like me, you're in coach 3 - which felt like it was pretty much in Lille anyway! Still, having eventually got on the train, and found my seat, I got into my book and waited for departure. We left about 15 minutes late (at least Eurostar are consistent), and were told that we would probably have another 20-25 minutes added onto our journey because of speed restrictions that had been imposed because of the bad weather.
We left Paris in a northerly direction and were soon heading out towards St. Pancras International racing through the gloriously white French countryside. All was well, or so I thought! All of a sudden the train started braking quite sharply - not at an emergency stop level, but still quite sharply; the train had developped a fault, which the driver would attempt to fix. After about 20 minutes of lights flickering and being passed by TGVs in the opposite direction we set off again - with the total delay now running at about 35 minutes. Still, we managed to make it to Lille, then on to Calais, Sangatte and into the Channel Tunnel. Now you will almost certainly have heard about the horrendous problems that Eurostar were experiencing on this Friday in the Channel Tunnel - something to do with ice getting in the air vents or something - which caused the trains to break down in the tunnel; where it's dark and not a huge amount of fun to be stuck for hours. Luckily, I managed to avoid these delays. We made it through the Chunnel (as it's affectionately known among anoraks) in a pretty average 28 minutes, before heading off towards St. Pancras International. We'd been told we'd be in London about 40 minutes, which, whilst eating into my transfer time, left it in a pretty healthy condition. This was until we had to make an unscheduled stop in Ashford International - because they had to pick a member of the train crew up! Quite why they couldn't catch a conventional train to London is beyond me - I don't flag down Morrisons lorries on my way to work if I'm running a bit late...
Anyway, we arrived into St. Pancras International about 50 minutes late in the end - leaving me 1 hour and 40 minutes to travel across London to Paddington Station. Now I've not been to London a huge number of times, and I've used the tube twice before this journey (both on the same day!) - but as in Paris, I thought, I've caught trains before, I've used public transport before - I had the added advantage that whilst I don't quite have the London dialect down to a T I can make myself understood by using my mother tongue (and maybe not too many Rs)! As it happens it was a very easy journey to make - the underground trip was very easy - even with a suitcase. There were very few people on the carriage, and I was only on it for about 10 minutes.
On arrival at Paddington I realised what Esther meant when she talked about the steps....there were lots of them, and no real organised system to go up/down them - perhaps I expected too much! I had some time to kill in Paddington, so I sat down, topped up my UK phone, read a book, and waited until they announced which platform my train would leave from. At about 15.53 they told us the platform, from which the 16.00 was leaving. This train left on time, and was not held up by any snow; and there was some until about Didcot where it just became wet! The train pulled into Chippenham at 17.08 - running a couple of minutes early, where I was met by my parents in the car and whisked away!
As you can tell, a lot happened on this journey, but I was very lucky, and I'm very grateful for that. Whilst I had some minor inconveniences they were nothing compared to those of Harriet and Jack who were stuck in Paris, and the Channel Tunnel respectively for very long periods of time. So, whilst I may seem like I'm complaining - I'm really not! I actually enjoyed it - it was an adventure, and whilst I'll miss being at home, I'm looking froward to the journey back - simply because it's an adventure - and yes, I'm a child at heart!
The next instalment will be done after I get back, hopefully a little more promptly than this one was! As I said at the beginning, have a fantastic 2010, whatever you're doing! Thanks, also, to the people who have left kind words on my blog, and my Dad, who has left sarcastic ones!
See you in 2010!
Friday, October 9, 2009
Chapter Five - The fifth week
Monday 5th October
Off to Altenberg today! Shock horror, the train was late - I blame this on the fact that it was a TGV, which came from Paris this morning! There were also a surprising number of people trying t board the train at Saarbruecken considering it left at just before 11am. A seat reservation would have set me back a couple of euros, and I decided I probably wouldn't need one. I still stand by this decision, because the train was so busy, I think it would have been too difficult to get through to my reserved seat! So for the first part of the journey to I travelled in the buffet carriage of the TGV. No proper seats, but somewhere to lean and not very busy either. It was only for about 75 minutes anyway!
So, on arrival in Mannheim, which is apparently in Baden-Wurttenburg (that may be a slightly tenuous claim in my opinion!), we waited for our train to Koeln. The train was 2 ICEs joined together. Yet again, we had a mad search for a seat, and I was successful...momentarily. After about 3 minutes, I was evicted again - so off to the vestibule I trotted and sat there! (It's like being at home again!). I was sat there for about an hour or so, until Frankfurt Airport, where quite a few people got off. Back in the carriage, there were seats free - so down I sat. To be turfed out again moments later - never mind, I like the vestibule anyway! There's a clever screen there, that tells you how fast the train goes - we were generally travelling about 290-300 km/h. After a bit in the vestibule, the train manager came down, and told me there were seats towards the back of the train. So, off I trotted, and I sat down, only to have to get off the train at Koeln 30 minutes later.
We got to Koeln really quite early (14.05 for a 15.30 Meeting) so we set off in search of a toilet. The ones at Saarbruecken Hbf. cost 50cents, in Koeln €1 (which brings a whole new meaning to the phrase to spend a penny). So, in the end, we waited in a cafe until the allotted meeting time.
After seeing the huge group of assistants in the station foyer, we knew we were in the right place, so we, like sheep, joined the flock and waited patiently. Going to this Altenberg were assistants from Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Mecklenburg West Pommerania), Schleswig-Holstein, Baden-Wurttenburg, and, of course, Saarland.
We had to wait at the station for a second double decker coach to collect all the people. And when it did finally turn up, we were still waiting around for another 40 minutes or so, for some people whose trains from North Germany were late!
On arrival at Altenberg, in the rain, we did the usual things: Rules and Regulations, Introduced ourselves (although, this wasn't much of a challenge for the Saarlaender!). Our tutor was a teacher cum civil servant in the Saarland Ministry for Education. We then paid our €30 towards the cost of the course!
Tuesday 6th October
Today was the first day of proper teaching at Altenberg, but before we get to that I feel it would be a good time to mention something about Altenberg itself.
Altenberg is a cathedral (albeit in the middle of literally nowhere), which is still in service (possibly not the right word, but it'll do here!). This means that people still pray here, and that they are stilled called to prayer. But, I want to tell you a story about a man at Altenberg, let's call him Quasimodo. Now, Quasimodo has decided that the local people, who are all aware of the Cathedral's presence, need a reminder about attending church. But because Quasimodo's a conscientious bell ringer, he knows people like to get to church punctually (we're still in Germany, don't forget!). Moreover, Quasimodo's a little bit old, so he can't quite master the phones, so he decides to ring the church bells. He first does this at 5 am (until about 5.30), then, almost as if you pressed snooze, he starts again at 6 am (for about half an hour again), and then once more about 7 am (when the service itself begins). My room at Altenberg was about 50 m from the bell tower - and, as I'm sure you can imagine, it's very loud, and annoying - especially at 5 am! But all things considered, you've got to feel a little sorry for Quasimodo, he always looks quite upset whenever you see him - it's been said he's got the hump! (sorry, I couldn't not put one in!)
So, having eaten breakfast, we started the proper course today! But before the proper teaching, we were given €100 travel expenses (as we'd already travelled to Germany, and had to travel again across Germany to get to Altenberg). So, just to break this down:
I paid €68 for my train fare
I paid €30 for the course
I received €100 allowance.
So, I've therefore gained €2 by turning up at the course. What was more impressive was that the money was paid in the form of a €100 note. (they are green, and it was the first time I'd ever seen one, let alone had one in my possession).
The day itself was basically taught in Bundeslaender, which for us was a massive qadvantage! We started after breakfast, with a 1 3/4 hour session on the school system in Germany, and more specifically Saarland. We also covered the rules and regulations of what you can and can't do as a Language Assistant.
We then watched a video of a couple of assistants teaching classes, and went back into our groups to discuss them.
Following lunch, which was reputedly fish (although I'm not quite convinced!), we started discussing our lesson plans and looking at the materials for the simulated lessons tomorrow.
After dinner I decided that instead of going to the bar tonight (although at 1€50 a bottle of beer - it's very cheap here). I watched "Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei" (The Edukators) again and very pleasant it was too!
Wednesday 7th September
So, today we had to teach our prepared lessons to the other assistants in our group. This went OK, but as a group we'd decided to make it more interesting by behaving like pupils of the age we were supposed to be. This meant, pronouncing words wrong, reading badly, talking in German, passing notes around the classroom, asking to go to the loo, chatting amongst ourselves, and even throwing things across the room. Needless to say everyone was absolutley shattered by the end of the day, but it had been generally fun and had passed the time quickly!
After dinner, there was a pub quiz, in which I learnt that Saarland is the smallest Bundesland (this is rubbish, there are 3 city Bundeslaender, which are all smaller than Saarland). Then back to the bar, for a couple of beers and a wake-up time of 6 the next morning!
Thursday 8th October
So, that was that! Altenberg's over! We got up at 6, packed our stuff away, put our linen outside the door, and went down to breakfast for 6.30. Coffee was definitely necessary at breakfast! The coaches left promptly at 7.30 for the journey back to Koeln station, where, as I had a fair amount of time before my train journey, I went to the Cathedral. It's height is impressive, but it was very dark and dingy inside! Metz was much nicer! The train back was scheduled to take about 3 1/2 hours. First we travelled to Koblenz on an Intercity train (not an ICE, but the next one down). We got into Koblenz 6 minutes late, and our connection time should have been 7 minutes. So, we had 1 minute to get off the train and run, yes, run, to the correct platform! It was slightly Top Gear-esque, and probably looked rather amusing! The train we got on was going to take us about 2 1/2 hours to get to Saarbruecken - quite a long time. The journey itself though is wonderful, for the most part the railway runs directly alongside the Mosel, and if you were to picture a German river scene, it would be a replica of the view from the train. It was truly fantastic! So, I'll be going back there soon!
Friday 9th October
I had quite a bit on the administrative front to do today! I had to go the bank to collect the relevant stuff so that I could do Internet banking with them. This was a painless process, which took 5 minutes, which was much less than I expected! I also had to go the Hauptbahnhof because I have decided to indulge in a Bahncard 25 for those journeys I'll be making outside of the Saarland, which entitles me to 25% off fares for 4 months. I also went into the Tourist Information Centre to try and find information about B&Bs or Guest Houses in Saarbruecken. This turned out to be the most challenging thing I had to do, as they weren't able to help me, other than to direct me to the stand with the hotels' leaflets on them!
I was planning to go to Neunkirchen (Saarland's second biggest town) today, but instead met up with one of the other assistants, where we had a couple of drinks in town, and had a nosey around, followed by a nice meal out (Moules Frites), which was very nice indeed! Whilst we were sat down after eating, the other assistant's flatmate saw her and came over to chat, along with a couple of his friends, one of whom is the girl who lives in the flat with me! It's a small world here in Saarbruecken!
Saturday 10th October
Today it rained! This is the first day of proper rain I've experienced in Saarbruecken since I arrived over a month ago! This meant our planned trip to Saarguemines was called off, so instead we went around my friend's and watched Harry Potter, after making Pancakes! Following the film, we tried to work towards solving the problem my friend has with a lost passport. The first stage of this is to go to the Polizei and report it as missing, which we did. Then we ambled up to the Train Station, on the off chance it had been handed in - but the office is closed until Monday now! If it hasn't been handed in, it will mean a trip to Frankfurt for my friend to the British Consulate there to work on getting a new one!
Sunday 11th October
Today I'd planned to visit Homburg by train. And technically I did visit Homburg. I had a very quick look round, but it's very difficult to appreciate places like that properly when you go round on your own, so my visit was rather short. So I returned to Homburg Hbf, from where I planned to return to Saarbruecken, using an indirect route. I caught a train to Neunkirchen (12 minutes away) and then had to wait for a Schienenersatzverkehr (bus replacement service), which in atypical German fashion left late. Now, I would have thought that as the train and the bus were both run by Deutsche Bahn, it would have been possible to hold the train to meet the connection. Err...no....it's not the train driver's fault the bus was running late, and just as the bus pulled into the train station, I could see the train screeching round the corner on its way to Saarbruecken. So, here I was in Illingen, a town I'd not even heard of before, so I ambled down into the town - into the middle of their town festival. As you'd expect, there were plenty of sausages and beer around, with some music too! It was a nice amble round the town; there was also a car boot sale (consisting of about 12 cars) in the town. The most exciting there, though, was a shop that sells chalk! I don't need any at the moment, but I had been looking for somewhere in Saarbruecken for weeks that sells it, without success!
After wandering round the town, I went back to the station, and caught the train to Saarbruecken, then I travelled ut to Merzig and back on another train; just because I could really!
Two things struck me today - one is that the Semester Ticket is really good value for money, as the tickets today would have cost me about 20€, instead I travelled free! Second was that there is a much less stringent, yet more sensible, approach to Health & Safety on the railway here; the railways are seldom separated by big fences to stop people walking on them, and the trains don't have yellow ends either (to make them more visisble). Maybe it's because the Germans are intelligent enough to realise that walking on a railway line is not a clever (klever in German) thing to do, because it'll hurt if you time it wrong.
Back to school tomorrow, for one week, and then it's the Autumn half term!
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