train travel through Europe, part 1

On Monday evening 22 October 2012, our weekend with friends in the Netherlands was nearly over.  We had dinner with Bart & Alida and Herman, and then loaded up in the car.  Bart & Alida drove us to Utrecht train station to catch the CityNightLine train.  This is an overnight train to Munich, Germany.  We got to Utrecht with plenty of time so Bart & Alida insisted on treating us to Starbucks.  :)  They really went out of their way to make sure that we were able to relax and enjoy ourselves!  We are so grateful for their generosity towards us.

It was pretty easy to find the right platform to wait for our train, with Bart and Alida assisting us. The train was about 5 minutes delayed.  Throughout our train journeys we found that when things got a bit ‘sticky’ was when we had to board a train which would be pulling out again within just a couple of minutes.  Boarding with all of us and our luggage took a lot of pre-organizing, and teamwork, but by the time we’d traveled across Europe we were getting the hang of it!  Besides the two children, we had a stroller, which was foldable but not entirely collapsible (bigger than we had wanted for our trip, but it was the only collapsible stroller for sale in Lusaka when we left… so we made do!), two very large rolling duffel bags, David’s backpack, my carry-on size bag, usually a plastic bag of food and oddments for the journey, and sometimes Elijah’s Pillow Pal or our winter coats if they didn’t fit in the duffel bags.  So it was too much for both of us to carry on board the train in one trip, thus we had to figure out ways to transfer everything in stages without leaving the children OR the bags unattended. Utrecht was our first attempt, and thankfully Bart was there to help shove our things on board. The train seemed to leave in a great hurry but thankfully there we were, everything intact, on our way!  Waving to Bart and Alida out the window.  It was an abrupt end to our delightful stay in the Netherlands, but now we were on our way to Munich! 

After shuffling around awkwardly (after putting our stroller and our gigantic bags on board there wasn’t much room for maneuvering in the corridor area at the end of the train car) we found our way to our compartment.  We traveled ‘economically,’ that is to say, in a couchette compartment.  These are kind of the equivalent of dorm rooms on a train, except that being train compartments – they are a lot more cramped!  There are two choices for couchettes: either you can book a 6-bed compartment, which is the cheapest option, or you can pay a bit extra for a 4-bed compartment if you want a bit more space.  The 4-bed compartment still has 6 beds in it, but the middle 2 bunks are left folded up so as to provide the 4 occupants with more space.  Since we were traveling with the children (who would be sharing our bunks - if you want a bed for a toddler you have to pay the same fare as an adult) we decided the extra space would be VERY welcome, otherwise we could end up sharing a compartment designed for 6 with 8 instead – two being very squirmy children.  This was a very, very good decision.  :)  The compartments are incredibly, almost unbelievably small.  There is enough room between the bunks on either side to stand up, but not more than that. 

There was a luggage rack above the compartment door, where we put the stroller.  Our two duffel bags managed to fit under the lower bunk (on this train – I don’t remember if they did on the next sleeper train) as well as our shoes and carry-on bags.  There was a ladder against the far wall (not that it was far away!) which reached to the upper bunks.  Each bunk was provided with a complimentary bottle of drinking water and also a reading light.  There were 2 types of locks on the compartment door for security.  The attendant came in to collect our passports and check our tickets.  The passports were kept by the attendant overnight, ostensibly so that we wouldn’t have to be awakened during border crossings (although sometimes they will still wake you – it is completely inconsistent) and returned to us in the morning as we approached our final destination.  After that, we never saw the attendant again – so hope that you never have an emergency or a situation where you require some assistance, because we couldn’t find the attendant afterwards.

It was past the children’s bedtime, so we focused on getting them settled and getting some sleep.  Elijah slept on David’s bunk, and Ketzia slept on mine.  Each bunk was equipped with a sheet, a blanket, and a pillow.  It was helpful to have the 2 extra blankets from the unused middle bunks since there were 4 of us. The bunks were nothing fancy – just flat, padded bunks which doubled as seats during the daytime. 

We were informed by the attendant that there would be a couple joining us around midnight for part of the journey - the occupants of the 2 upper bunks.  So it was an interrupted night!  Don’t choose a train journey if you want a peaceful, blissful night’s sleep (unless you pay for a first-class compartment and travel alone – and even then nothing is guaranteed). But it was definitely worth it for the experience.  Poor Elijah’s dinner didn’t settle and he woke up and vomited on his pajamas and the compartment floor.  That was when we couldn’t find the attendant to get something to clean the floor up with.  So we ended up using baby wipes and then covering the floor with one of the extra blankets.  After that Elijah was fine and went back to sleep peacefully. But that was one of those moments when you think, ‘Wow, our first family train ride, and my child just vomited! Is this a sign of things to come?’  Ketzia was teething, feverish and restless during the night.  She must have nursed almost the entire night.  Our companions, an older couple, came in a bit after midnight, took a few minutes to get themselves and their luggage (which had to be left standing up in the crevice between the bottom of the ladder and the compartment wall) arranged, and then climbed up to their bunks.  They came climbing back down about 4 hours later, to disembark at their destination. Since it was the middle of the night it wasn't exactly a good time to strike up an acquaintance!

During the night there were also police on the train at one point – dealing with some drunk people, at very least, who we could hear further down the corridor.  I think someone might have gotten taken off the train.  During the border crossing into Germany the police/guards tried to open the compartment door (which was on the chain) and when I quickly cautioned, ‘shhh, the children are sleeping’ (just so they’d be aware!) they closed the door and left, and didn’t come back!  So I guess they weren’t too worried about us.  They had our passports anyway.

So yeah… it wasn’t a terribly restful night, but at least we did get a bit of sleep. We had been forewarned anyway.  If I remember correctly, we arrived the next morning in Munich around 7am or so.  We made our way through the train station to the upper balcony area overlooking the platforms, where there was a café.  We ordered coffees and ate breakfast from the travel food we brought along with us.  Had a chance to change the kids’ nappies and clothing for the day of travel ahead.  And got a real good idea of the hustle and bustle of Munich Centraal during early morning rush hour on a work day!

It was now Tuesday, 23 October – my mom’s 50^th birthday.  My family was already in Italy, where they had arrived a few days before, and were settled in the villa we would be sharing, awaiting our arrival late that night.  But first we had a full day of travel ahead… from Munich across Austria to Bologna, and then down through Italy to Naples.  Our train left Munich around 9am for the long ride south.  This time we were in a normal traveling car with comfortable seats and small tables.  It wasn’t a full train so we could use the empty seats next to us for the children.  What did we do on a long train ride with the kids?  Well, like riding on an airplane – we got them to sit still when we could, with a variety of things to keep them occupied – toy cars, puzzles, coloring, reading books, DVDs, snack food, etc.  But sometimes you just have to move around, and thankfully they could easily walk up and down the aisles.  Meanwhile, the scenery outside was FABULOUS!  We were passing through the Austrian Alps during the middle of the day – a sunny, clear day with gorgeous views of the mountains.  The train went through the Brenner Pass which is just stunning.  David spent a lot of time trying to get photos from a moving train – which wasn’t entirely successful, but at least we got a few shots to show that we were there.  :)  We ate our packed lunch as the train sped along (sausage bites and cheese bites from the Netherlands!) and just enjoyed the experience of traveling through somewhere we might never be again! 

It was a long train ride – we didn’t reach Bologna in the north of Italy until about 4pm.  We had a bit of time before our next train left for Naples, so we went looking for food.   We found the Bologna station a bit of a challenge because it was not exactly clear where we should go – and there were lots of steps up to each platform, so what to do about the stroller? And the rolling bags?  In the end, I think we found a lift.  Then we were looking for food, so that we could get an early dinner, but there were no cafes or shops in the station as far as we could tell.  Eventually we found that there were vending machines scattered throughout the train platforms, selling not only snacks but also sandwiches and paninis, so we got a few things to count towards ‘dinner’, though it wasn’t a proper meal.

Now it was time to catch our next train, one of the brand-new high speed Freccarossa line!  These sleek ‘designer’ trains are carving up the time it takes to travel the length of Italy.  We were very interested to see how these high-speed trains compared with the normal trains we had been travelling on.  It would be about a 4-hour journey from Bologna south to Naples.  These trains travel at speeds reaching higher than 300 kilometres per hour! 

Interestingly, we found that these trains (at least in the economy section) were the least comfortable of all the trains we traveled on in Europe.  The seats were high-backed and the tables were very, very tall, so tall that if you dropped something you couldn’t reach it off the floor because the table was in the way.  It all felt very tight, cramped, and claustrophobic.  The children had to sit on our laps the whole way because the train was booked full, and because the tables were so tall, that meant the tables were practically in the kids’ chests.  So it just wasn’t comfortable.  We did have to deal with a bit of unhappiness during this leg of the journey.  Thankfully, even children get tired of fussing after a while and just ‘zone out’ (helped by the DVD player) or go to sleep.  It wasn’t exactly a fun or relaxing ride, but it was an experience whizzing across the Italian countryside at 300kph! 

We finally reached Naples around 8:30pm… after a full 24 hours of travel by train across Europe!  But our journey wasn’t over yet.  We disembarked the train and were met on the platform by my dad and my brothers Ezra and John, as well as my dad’s friend Tom who lives in Naples.  So there were plenty of hands to help with bags and tired children.  My family had been in Italy for several days already and had been visiting with their old friends Tom and family (who work with a Christian outreach to servicemen), and when Tom heard that we were arriving in Naples late at night and would need to travel by train a FURTHER hour to the Sorrento area where we were staying, he offered to give my dad a ride to the train station to pick us up, and then drive us all to the villa where we were staying!  This was SO kind and generous of him and we were very grateful.  We all piled into his minivan and took off through the congested, crazy streets of Naples.  This was the only glimpse we got of Naples, really – it was after dark and Tom was driving with great experience, so we didn’t have to worry about anything.  But overall, Naples is not a great city.  It is very dirty, and not exactly nice.  There were hookers on the street corners looking for business (mostly from sailors as there is a large Navy base nearby).  I was glad that we were spending our holiday further away from the filth of Naples.

It was about an hour’s drive to the villa where we were staying, which was in San’t Angello, a small, quiet village very close to the bustling, busy tourist town of Sorrento.  It was close to 10pm when we arrived.  Tom dropped us off and we got our bags and baggage sorted, and there we stayed for the next 9 days….  :)

our weekend in the Netherlands

So on Thursday, 18 October, our family was in Lusaka.  We had said affectionate farewells to our amazing super-nanny, Sarah Moriah, the night before, after she and I returned from our crazy whirlwind girls’ outing to Vic Falls.  (She was staying on in Lusaka for another week or so with another friend.)  We had repacked our luggage in what we hoped was a semi-sensible fashion for our upcoming crazy days of travel.  In the afternoon we drove to our friends the MacDs who had invited us to come for dinner before our flight.  We would be leaving our truck parked at their house during our 3-month absence from Zambia, and our colleague Phil who was also at their house would be giving us a lift to the airport that night.  We had an enjoyable, relaxing dinner with everyone.  Afterwards there was time to put the children in their pajamas before heading to the airport - it must have been sometime around 8:30 or so that we left for the airport.  Our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:45pm, an overnight flight direct to Amsterdam.  (Direct flights are so nice!)

The flight arrived as scheduled in Amsterdam the following morning around 9am.  By the time we got through immigration, collected our bags, and found our way around the airport to the meeting point, it was past 10am. We had arranged to spend the weekend with old friends of my family’s, a Dutch family whom we’d known since meeting in California in 1997.  Way back then, the father, Bart, was in CA on a business trip and brought his wife and 3 young children along.  We met them when they visited our church one Sunday, and really hit it off.  During the remainder of their stay we got together several times – going swimming together, going on picnics to the redwood forests, and going to the beach are some of my fond memories. The amazing thing was that all of us kids got along really well even though they didn’t speak a word of English and we didn’t speak a word of Dutch… we had great fun.  After they returned to the Netherlands, I kept in touch with their daughter Hanneke by email. As she grew our correspondence became easier, because she learned English in school. Originally our letter-writing consisted of a process whereby I dictated an email to my dad, who typed it up for me and sent it to her dad, who translated it into Dutch and gave it to her!  As we grew older we could write letters directly to each other, and her English improved year by year!  We have not been in close correspondence in recent years, but remained friends on Facebook, and Hanneke’s parents have remained in close contact with my family.  When my parents traveled through Europe on their way to visit us in Scotland in 2010, they passed through the Netherlands and spent a couple of days with their family.  At the time I was very sad not to be with them visiting my old friends!

So when it turned out that we would be traveling through the Netherlands ourselves I contacted Bart and Alida and asked if we could visit them for a weekend. They welcomed us with open arms!  When we arrived at the airport on Friday morning the 18^th of October, we were met by their eldest son Henk – who was a lot taller than I remembered him as a child of something like 5 years old!  He brought us from the airport to their home in a small town about 30 minutes from Utrecht.  As soon as I walked into their garden I felt peaceful.  :)  It was so beautiful and quiet, with lovely flowers and shrubs.  They had a pet duck (whose name I’ve forgotten).  We were warmly welcomed by Bart and Alida with a cup of coffee sitting in the sunshine in their garden.  We managed to visit during some lovely weather for the Netherlands – beautiful, spring-like, sunny weather.

They truly made us feel at home for that weekend!  We stayed in the 3^rd floor of their house, in a large room. They had beds for the children, which had belonged to Alida when she was a child.  They had gotten high chairs for the children and car seats for us to use that we could take outings in the car.  They even installed a child safety gate at the top of the stairs specially for our visit!  (That was nice because it meant the kids could play on the landing with a big box of lego and other toys and we didn’t have to worry about them.)  They did everything to make us feel absolutely comfortable, and it was a lovely way to begin our holiday.  We had such an enjoyable visit with them.  On Friday we rested a bit and didn’t do much other than visit.  Bart took us for a short walk into town, to see the nearby canal and the shops.  We stopped and got gelato – the first gelato of our Europe trip, but certainly not the last!  :)  Henk was home briefly and then went back to his own apartment. Their 3^rd child, Herman, was around and we probably saw the most of him.

On Saturday they took us on an outing to Utrecht so that we could see a Dutch city.  We strolled around for a while, and then Bart and Alida took us on a boat tour of the canals, which was really interesting.  It was fun to get the feel of our first European city – the different architecture, the canals, the bicycles everywhere, the open-air cafes.  On our way home we picked up Hanneke who is a student in another city.  She came home for 1 night, so at least we got to see her briefly – I hadn’t seen her since she was 7 or 8 years old!

It was so fun to stay with Bart and Alida and get a taste of Dutch culture.  Enjoying Dutch treats, yummy coffee, Dutch cheese, Dutch sausage… mmmmm.  Listening to their family playing music together in the family room.  Chatting.  Resting.

On Sunday we went to church with Bart and Alida and family.  We were impressed by the warmth and friendliness of their congregation.  It was a restful day.  In the late afternoon Bart and Alida took us for a short drive to a park with nice walking trails and woods, and we had a peaceful walk with the children. Alida brought a plastic bag so that Elijah could help her pick up horse chestnuts under the trees.  It was a beautiful evening and felt like autumn.  We walked across a large grassy meadow covered in beautiful autumn leaves – the only true glimpse of autumn we got that year!  They were huge, crisp leaves.  Elijah and Ketzia had a fabulous time crunching through them.

David and I absolutely loved the idea of going for a family bicycle ride along the canals, so this morning (Monday the 22nd) Bart and Alida made arrangements for us to borrow bicycles and bicycle seats for the children, and off we went!  We had a seat clipped behind David for Elijah, and a seat clipped in front of me for Ketzia.  Alida went with us to lead the way and show us around.  It was SO MUCH FUN.  I think it was the most fun day I’ve had since I got married!  The weather was stunningly gorgeous – sunny, cool, and refreshing, and the countryside was beautiful.  It was so enjoyable to bike along somewhere that didn’t have lots of ups and downs!  The kids had a great time, and Ketzia even fell asleep in her seat.  :)

After lunch the children went down for their naps and David stayed with them while I went to the shops with Alida (on our bicycles).  I needed to buy nappies and food for our train journey, and also wanted to get a Dutch memento to give to my mom for her birthday which we would be celebrating in Italy that week.  Then it was time to re-pack our bags for our train journey tonight…

Europe! (an introduction)

This is the first post in a series about our travels in October-November 2012.  I am posting these belatedly (in March 2013) but putting them in their proper chronological place on my blog so as not to disturb the current flow of recent blog posts.

I thought it would be fun to post about our travels in Europe and the UK for two reasons: firstly, because it was a fantastically fun trip and it's fun to remember (and I was disappointed not to have the chance to blog at all during the trip), and secondly, because I thought you never know -- maybe someone out there will be inspired or encouraged that it is possible to take crazy trips when you have small children.  (Or maybe they will just think we are crazy. :D)  Or maybe someone will be motivated to see the beauties of Europe while they can still get a student fare on train, or a discount advance fare.  Or maybe people will just enjoy reading our adventures.  :)

There is one blog post which you should read before this one: the Pre-Journey: the Girls Go to Livingstone.  :)

Now you may be wondering: why Europe??  How could we afford it?  Why did we decide to go there?  Well, the main reason we decided to go there was because my father, who is retired USA military, is able to fly for free to any USA base in the world, on military transport planes.  He can bring all his dependents with him, too!  My family traveled this way in October 2010 when they came to visit us in Scotland -- first flying to a military base in Germany and then from there taking a budget flight to Edinburgh.  This awesome military benefit means that it is affordable for my parents to travel - but also to bring their 4 dependent children along with them!

So David and I had always been talking about taking a family holiday in Europe, back when we lived in the UK - because it is so easy and so inexpensive to get across to the Continent from the UK.  But it didn't happen while we were living in Scotland, and now here we were living in Zambia.

However, we knew we would be returning to the UK for the break at the end of the year, so we decided to arrange a couple of weeks of holiday at the beginning of our 3 months in Scotland.  BUT... our flight back to the UK had a stop-over in Amsterdam.  The idea finally came to us (thanks to our dear friend Mairi who was quicker to realize than we were!) that it would make a lot of sense to just get off the plane in Amsterdam, skip the final leg to Glasgow, and instead travel wherever we wanted to in Europe!  We picked our destination in Europe based on where it would be easiest for my family to meet us, because we really wanted to see them.  It's sad living so far from grandparents!  There is a large military base in Naples, Italy, which was why we picked Italy as our destination.

Our flight was directly from Lusaka to Amsterdam, and from there we would be traveling by train across Europe to Italy.  We looked into flying budget airlines, but budget airlines are actually only any good if you are flying during peak times of year!  Our holiday time is 'off peak' and it's so much cheaper to do things that way... except fly.  No holiday airlines are going to Rome, or anywhere else in Italy, at the end of October.  We did research for months.  What if we flew from Amsterdam into a different European airport and then took a shorter train ride?  Nope, that didn't save any money.  If we flew a big airline like BA or KLM, we had to pay for our children.  Train travel across Europe definitely saved us money because we didn't have to pay ANYTHING for the children (most train and bus companies in Europe won't make you pay for children until they are 3-5 years of age, it varies obviously).

So much of our research was done via via the amazing website seat61.com which we found absolutely invaluable.  Check it out!  This website is the way we found out about booking advance fares on trains to save a ton of money!  You REALLY have to jump - we booked as soon as the 90-day window was open and still missed a couple of the cheapest fares, so we did end up paying a bit more than we had been hoping for, but we still got fairly good fares.  (If your travel dates are completely flexible, you can get awesomely good fares - our dates were only a little bit flexible because of the dates my family was available to meet us in Italy, which meant we did have to take the more expensive options to get the tickets we needed on a couple of occasions.)  And even better, seat61.com gave us the confidence that we COULD actually pull off a train trip across Europe, as complete novices to Europe, with two small children.

So that's an introduction to Europe -- how we managed to afford it, and why we chose to go there in the first place.  Maybe I've missed a detail you want to know about?  If so, share it in the comments! The next post in this series is Our Weekend in the Netherlands.  :)