Had a bit of an adventure over the last few days, but not on a bike.....
Wifey and I went down from Dunkeld to Euston on the sleeper......ok, but a bit neat in the room for a grown man and slinky wife...across to St Pancras at the suggested time and then stood in a slowly moving queue for just over 2 hours to get on the train. The bottleneck was (naturally) the 2 french rozzers checking the passengers passports and Covid certificates/apps for at least 2 trains worth of folk. Train left late.
The train bit was great, only a few minutes late into Amsterdam.
Been through/round Amsterdam from Ijmuiden plenty of times, but haven't been into the city for years., and thoroughly enjoyed a few days exploring; sights, culture etc.
Top tip: get a pass for the trams/buses etc, a great way to get about.
If you want to see the Anne Frank museum you may have to book a time some days/weeks in advance, same for Van Goch and Rijksmuseum but less in advance.
Had several canal trips....the different options are worth trying as they go slightly different routes.
A great few days, helped by terrific weather.
Then to the Eurostar....they obviously have spent a lot of money on the Amsterdam Centraal terminal, but whatever posessed them to not continue the roof along to the main station end! Given that customers have to queue to get on, and given that the sun doesn't shine every day in Amsterdam, it will be a shitty wait in the wet...
Then the return....
The timings were such that we should have had several hours between getting off the Eurostar and getting on the sleeper. Enough time for a decent supper...
The Eurostar train we were on got slower and then stopped.....then went slowly....then stopped....repeat...plainly not well. Eventually they told us that our train would terminate at Bruxelles...or Brussels as you may know it. There we would be put on one of the 2 trains from Bruxelles to St Pancras, the first one should give us enough time to get to Euston, the second definitely not, meaning a night in London. Obviously virtually everyone on the (nearly full) Amsterdam train had a compelling reason to be on the first one. It would come down to the athleticism of the passengers to get to the front of the line at Eurostar Bruxelles for new tickets, security and border control....again.
Luckliy my prowess at making progress, together with extensive training of the wife in the skills required for steering a suitcase and carrying a rucsac proved suficient to get us on the first train, and we made it to St Panras with an hour spare to get to Euston. Plenty. Sadly little drink and no grub on the Eurostar. Fail. Luckily we had overstocked with buns, juice etc in Amsterdam. We also will get a refund of 50% of this leg from Eurostar.
Onto the sleeper....for this 'leg' I had booked a double; this was very good with more room than the southbound journey, as well as being next to the clubcar and bar! Few....expensive.... drams and a half decent nights kip until the alarm at 5am.
Back to a chilly Dunkeld to get picked up at 6 am.
So would I go on Eurostar again? Short answer...no.
The train itself is great....180-190mph across northern France, Belgium etc, but the terminal arrangements are work in progress. I accept waiting around, but waiting around, and waiting in a very slowly moving queue, are different things. Not for me.
I am happy that the UK Govt had refused to bail out this (French) company during covid, and the sooner they are replaced as operators, the better.
Wifey and I went down from Dunkeld to Euston on the sleeper......ok, but a bit neat in the room for a grown man and slinky wife...across to St Pancras at the suggested time and then stood in a slowly moving queue for just over 2 hours to get on the train. The bottleneck was (naturally) the 2 french rozzers checking the passengers passports and Covid certificates/apps for at least 2 trains worth of folk. Train left late.
The train bit was great, only a few minutes late into Amsterdam.
Been through/round Amsterdam from Ijmuiden plenty of times, but haven't been into the city for years., and thoroughly enjoyed a few days exploring; sights, culture etc.
Top tip: get a pass for the trams/buses etc, a great way to get about.
If you want to see the Anne Frank museum you may have to book a time some days/weeks in advance, same for Van Goch and Rijksmuseum but less in advance.
Had several canal trips....the different options are worth trying as they go slightly different routes.
A great few days, helped by terrific weather.
Then to the Eurostar....they obviously have spent a lot of money on the Amsterdam Centraal terminal, but whatever posessed them to not continue the roof along to the main station end! Given that customers have to queue to get on, and given that the sun doesn't shine every day in Amsterdam, it will be a shitty wait in the wet...
Then the return....
The timings were such that we should have had several hours between getting off the Eurostar and getting on the sleeper. Enough time for a decent supper...
The Eurostar train we were on got slower and then stopped.....then went slowly....then stopped....repeat...plainly not well. Eventually they told us that our train would terminate at Bruxelles...or Brussels as you may know it. There we would be put on one of the 2 trains from Bruxelles to St Pancras, the first one should give us enough time to get to Euston, the second definitely not, meaning a night in London. Obviously virtually everyone on the (nearly full) Amsterdam train had a compelling reason to be on the first one. It would come down to the athleticism of the passengers to get to the front of the line at Eurostar Bruxelles for new tickets, security and border control....again.
Luckliy my prowess at making progress, together with extensive training of the wife in the skills required for steering a suitcase and carrying a rucsac proved suficient to get us on the first train, and we made it to St Panras with an hour spare to get to Euston. Plenty. Sadly little drink and no grub on the Eurostar. Fail. Luckily we had overstocked with buns, juice etc in Amsterdam. We also will get a refund of 50% of this leg from Eurostar.
Onto the sleeper....for this 'leg' I had booked a double; this was very good with more room than the southbound journey, as well as being next to the clubcar and bar! Few....expensive.... drams and a half decent nights kip until the alarm at 5am.
Back to a chilly Dunkeld to get picked up at 6 am.
So would I go on Eurostar again? Short answer...no.
The train itself is great....180-190mph across northern France, Belgium etc, but the terminal arrangements are work in progress. I accept waiting around, but waiting around, and waiting in a very slowly moving queue, are different things. Not for me.
I am happy that the UK Govt had refused to bail out this (French) company during covid, and the sooner they are replaced as operators, the better.
