The journey to Zagreb and the #EAAE 2019 Congress begins with train 571, the 07:19 Umeå to Stockholm. 
In somewhat surreal circumstances, I’ve just seen the woman sitting in front of me write a Facebook status update on her iPad saying that they are on the train travelling to Croatia for a week’s holiday. 😀
It takes just over six hours to get from Umeå to Stockholm. In addition to two slightly slower overnight trains with couchettes and sleeper carriages, we have three daily semi-high-speed trains along the Botniabanan, which opened in 2010.
These are the newest intercity trains in Sweden, and are a variant of the Swedish family of Bombardier Regina, called the X55. They are rather classy. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regina_(t…
Regional operators squeeze 3+2 seats across the wide passenger saloons, but we have 2+2 throughout and lots of leg room.
The train is just four carriages, but half of one carriage is this very spacious bistro. Coffee is... how shall we say... “Swedish” strength, and refills are free. Nice kanelbullar too.
Sweden does not have high platforms, so to provide wheelchair access one set of doors on this train has this clever rotating lift. It and the adjacent steps rise to the level of the passenger saloon and turns 90° to face the compartment.
Now, onwards to Copenhagen. The first disruption of the trip: @SJ_AB train 507 was delayed thirty minutes. At times like this, almost no information is disseminated to passengers. UK rail is rubbish, but disruptions are always immediately & clearly announced.
We are in car #6, just outside the designated space for travellers with pets (to minimise discomfort for those with allergies). We count four kitties and two puppies. Amanda is very upset not to be sitting there. A bottle of Wuk Wuk required for consolation.
A third puppy has arrived. We have a real menagerie. We would pay cash money for some anipal cuddles, but Swedes don’t like to handle cash.
Copenhagen, arriving earlier tonight. Beautiful summer’s evening to roam the city for food and beer. G’night.
Day 2 of the journey from Umeå to Zagreb for #EAAE 2019. After a night in Copenhagen, we’re returning to Central Station for the journey to Hamburg, and onwards to München tonight.
Copenhagen Central Station has some flaws, but it is still stunningly beautiful.
Those flaws include this mobile phone shop. Last time we were here, the proprietor sold us what turned out to be a counterfeit Samsung charger, which was sparking and fusing within a week. Avoid.
Just as on our epic UK - Umeå train trip four weeks ago, there are no direct trains between Hamburg and Copenhagen until 29 September. You can find replacement buses to Rœdby Færge (Rœdby Ferry railway station) outside the north entrance to the station.
It’s just over two hours, non-stop, to Rœdby, where we’ll board the train to Hamburg before it joins the ferry over to Puttgarten in Germany.
I almost forgot. A good reason to get hold of some Danish currency is the coin-operated model railway near the DSB ticket hall. You choose whether you want to motivate the intercity, local or freight trains.
I need to correct myself. It’s Rødby, not Rœdby. You’ll find it printed “Roedby” on non-Danish timetables and tickets.
It’s important to distinguish the extra Nordic vowels. As I understand it, these are not accents added to vowels, they are additional letters. The Swedish alphabet has 3 extra vowels (å ä ö). Norwegian and Danish add a different trio (æ ø å).
I am not good at pronouncing any of these.
More than half way along the bus journey, and we’ve just crossed the two Farø Bridges onto Falster, on the E47 towards Rødby. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far%C3%B8…
Less than two hours after leaving Copenhagen, we reach Rødby Færge station. Trains to/from Hamburg are using this temporary platform to one side of the old and largely disused station.
The end is in sight for international trains here. After the bus replacement ends, direct Cph - Hamburg trains only run until the winter timetable change on 14 December 2019. After that, DSB trains to Hamburg will go via land the whole way.
Although the sun is shining on us, this is a sad time for this station. It’s vast, at least five surviving platforms and hundreds of metres of track for shunting the old locomotive hauled international trains. They’ve all gone now.
Our train is here. During the Danish track works this summer, it’s continued beyond Rødby as far as Nykøbing (Fenster). It’s one of the cute, squishy faced DSB IC3 diesel multiple units.
Note - this caught me out the first time. This train has three carriages, but only two of them are numbered. The centre carriage is numbered in two parts, with seat numbers continuing upwards from the two outer carriages. This allows 2 or 3 car trains to run as demand dictates.
Now we begin our 45 minute crossing on board the M/V Schleswig-Holstein. The train is safely tucked away downstairs. Now to consider whether the retail offer is, indeed, “probably better than duty free.” 🤨
The coffee is amongst the most expensive I have ever bought from a self service machine. #grumble
And so, probably for the last time for me, I’m boarding the DSB train while on board the ferry to continue our journey to Hamburg.
Seen from inside the train, Puttgarden station is a mirror of Rødby Færge, with (I think) only 2 of 9 tracks in use. The old flapper board platform destination signs survive on the furthest platforms.
If you’ve never take on a Danish train before, you could spend your first journey looking around the chairs and tables for the power plugs. Or I can give you a clue.
Lübeck Hbf. Gorgeous. Beautiful restoration, clean modern interventions. Last stop before Hamburg, in about 35 minutes.
So, owing to a change in plans after the original reservations were bought, we don’t have seats booked for the next part of the trip to München. The excellent DB app has given me departure times and platform numbers, but it also warns us of very high demand...
... therefore, just over an hour before the departs it’s origin station (Hamburg Altona) I used the DB app to pay for seat reservations. The seat map revealed the train to be very busy for the 6h 16m journey.
This obviously now tempts fate to somehow delay our arrival into Hamburg. We’ll know how this plan unfolds in about 45 minutes.
Fate: tempted. We are at a standstill outside Hamburg Hbf, and missed the connection. Luckily, as zero hour approached, I was able to quickly load the DB app and change it for no cost to the train one hour later.
Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (Hbf). Busy and sweaty, but fast becoming one of my favourite rail hubs.
Hamburg Hbf food court. Hamburg are playing Karlsruhe in the 2nd division of the Bundesliga. It’s going down to the wire.
Sorry to leave the party atmosphere in the pub. But we have a train to catch. ICE 883 to München. Time to travel the length of Germany. The DB app worked a charm, and let me move my reservation back an hour.
First impressions of the DB ICE3: well it’s very clean, modern and functional. The seat is firm. There are lots of blank plastic surfaces. It’s much less aesthetically “warm” than the Swedish and Danish trains we’ve used so far.
Screens throughout the train display (for a British person) a dizzying amount of information about upcoming stations, including arrival platform, onward bus and rail connections and even which side of the train to exit from.
Perhaps this is why Germans (appear to) hold DB to such high standards? The expectation of accuracy of information and punctuality is probably higher thanks to all this data.
Meanwhile, in the UK, passengers distrust anything on train or station screens and direct their smartphones to platforms like @realtimetrains.
It is most definitively wine o’clock in the jet set life of the beardy academic. Sincere apologies from @DB_Bahn staff - there’s no clean glassware or tableware, so we are “camping” with plastic and paper.
One for @_DiningCar ... the Bordrestaurant on board ICE 883 Hamburg - München. No tableware, but still a fresh salad and an even fresher Reisling.
Nürnberg. Approaching the final hour of the second day of the journey from Umeå to Zagreb.
München Hbf. 2,452km since leaving Umeå. I’m taking two nights here; the journey to Zagreb resumes on this thread midday on Tuesday. Thanks to all who have liked, followed, or retweeted. Delighted to have you along for the journey. Goodnight 💤
Guten morgen aus München. I’ve had two restful nights here, and my first chance to explore the city. I’ve eaten some Schmalznudel, drunk some Hofhräu, and (mercifully) had a haircut. After I’ve had some online meetings this morning, this is the plan. 😍
“We’ve not had a lot of trains on time, have we?” says Mrs M, as we wait on a posted 20 minute delay at München.
München Hauptbahnhof is stunning. Completely unexpected. A huge modernist shed filled with daylight.
EC 113 is missing its through coaches to Ljubljana and Zagreb today. It’s also no longer going to go from platform 14, because this ICE just arrived and caused a lot of confusion.
Ta da! EuroCity 113 to Klagenfurt arrives on platform 11, about two minutes after the platform change is posted. There are no coaches through to Zagreb today. Assuming we’ll have to change in Klagenfurt.
So. No carriages to Zagreb? No seat reservations for us. Where to sit? 🤔
Update from one of the less-friendly @DB_Bahn employees; we will change in Villach. Not sure what to, but presumably the Croatian and Slovenian carriages which will form EC 213 to Zagreb. So, lunch...
This is the restaurant car of EC 113 Frankfurt - Klagenfurt. It’s available to passengers on EC 213 to Ljubljana and Zagreb which (normally) detaches at Villach. Catering is by DoN for @unsereOEBB
Lunch on EuroCity 113. To start: mixed salad with a verb vinaigrette (saggy, not so fresh) for €3,60, and a creamy red pepper and coconut soup (very good) for €4,60.
To to continue: herby cheese macaroni, and a beautiful lemon and fennel risotto, both €8,90. The latter can be bad with salmon for €11,20. In the first version of this tweet I typed “bad with salmon”, which as a vegetarian is entirely correct. 😇
Damn you autocorrect.
So you may have noticed we’ve switched wines. We appear to have drunk the last bottle of Federspiel Riesling (€10,90 for 0,375l). So we’ve moved on to the Weiner Gemischter Satz (€13,20 for 0,375l).
Any typos from onwards are the fault of iOS auto-correct, and absolutely not Austrian wine. 😵
Salzburg. My first time in Austria. A beautiful modern station, and the ever efficient @unsereOEBB are using the brief stop to restock the restaurant. Hopefully with all the Riesling.
I have just watched a passenger buy a cold half litre bottle of Hoffbräu Edelweiss, and be served it with an icy cold glass. It’s not difficult. Take note, every British train operator.
I come from Norfolk. I’m not capable of processing this.
We have left Bischofshofen about 30 minutes late. There is cold Riesling. Everything is fine.
As we approach Villach, there’s a hitch. The @unsereOEBB DoN credit card machine is broken. I’m leaving the train to the debt of €78,50, to be resolved later by email. 😬
Villach Hbf. To the credit of @unsereOEBB, the carriages that didn’t make it to München and Frankfurt last night are waiting for us right here, across the platform. We are installed and ready for the next bit of the journey to Zagreb.
Now for a scene repeated across the continent every day. Because these carriages didn’t make it to Frankfurt last night, they did not get the seat reservation slips printed for them. So now there is an almighty meeting of those who have seat reservations and those who don’t.
Very excited to return to Slovenia, albeit as a transit passenger. The @WinColl Drew Fund paid for me to come here to study the architecture of Jože Plečnik, probably around 1999. I made a terrible hash of the exhibition, but it was a hugely important experience for me.
En route from Villach towards the border with Slovenia, passing the little halt at Rosenbach.
After a tunnel of almost 8km (whose name I did not catch) we pop out in Slovenia. Just a few km to the station at Jesenice.
Jesenice, first station stop in Slovenia.
As we switched carriages from the Austrian portion of the train to the Slovenian and Croatian, so the linguistic balance tipped. Most in the car are now speaking one of the Slavic languages. Outside, car license plates have changed, so too the architecture.
The aforementioned tunnel was the Karawanks Tunnel. Stop sniggering. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karawanks… maps.apple.com/?ll=46.521000,…
A lazy summer’s evening in Lesce, for Lake Bled. The bar at the station is doing roaring trade.
We pause just outside Lesce to let a @slozeleznice local train pass us.
There are five carriages on the train right now: from the front, a Croatian intercity carriage with compartments and what look like vinyl seats...
... then a single Slovenian car with compartments and drop windows. Beautiful spot to feel the warm evening air.
Those two were “added” at (I think) Villach. Behind them the three air conditioned @unsereOEBB carriages that were officially the through coaches from Frankfurt.
Kranj. The bar at the station there is also doing good trade. No doubt a good spot to for a beer before the train.
EuroCity 213 arrives in Ljubljana.
It’s the briefest of stops in Ljubljana, before we head onwards towards Dobova and the Croatian border.
It’s twenty years since I first came to Slovenia. There wasn’t much infrastructure for the budget tourist then. I think I stayed in a university hostel north-east of the city centre. It was quite a lonely trip, but an important one intellectually and emotionally.
You can’t see much of the beautiful old city of Ljubljana from the train, but what you can see is a lot of new development up against the tracks.
A view of the River Sava, between Ljubljana and Zidani Most, where we’ll branch south towards Zagreb.
A view to the left of the train...
...and to the right, where the Sava is densly forested.
There’s an amazing detail to this part of our trip. We’re passing lots of local stations along the way. At every one of these, I’ve seen a station agent in his red cap and green uniform standing outside to see our train pass.
EuroCity 213 Frankfurt - Zagreb arrives at the important Slovenian railway junction of Zidani Most. Here the mainline to Maribor turns north and we take the branch to the south.
The station at Zidani Most.
Just east of the station, the two lines diverge over the confluence of the Rivers Sava and Savinja.
Sunset over the Sava Valley, between Zidani Most and Sevnica. We are running just 20 minutes behind schedule, and the last handful of stops have been for less than a minute each, as our @slozeleznice crew try to make time.
Darkness outside. We’re approaching the Slovenian town of Dobova, where we’ll say farewell to the @unsereOEBB locomotive that’s hauled us from Villach. A Croatian railways engine will take us the last 30km to Zagreb.
Our train appears in international table 62 of the @EuropeanRailTT, but without km. The train appears in the various constituent national tables, and I’ve added them up to produce today’s mileage from München to Zagreb of 580km. Does that sound right to those who know?
Dobova. A locomotive change and, it appears, an imminent check of the train by either police or border agents.
The train has indeed been check by both Slovenian and Croatian Police, performing exit and entry checks respectively. Waiting for the all clear to continue.
Four hours after leaving Villach (and the very lovely Austrian dining car) there’s time to consider one flaw in this train. It’s classified EuroCity, but there is no catering at all.
Until December, DSB and DB ensure the Copenhagen-Hamburg train keeps its EuroCity classification by directing passengers to the canteen on the Scandlines ferry. Likewise this train can only claim EuroCity status because of the dining car Frankfurt-Villach.
Four hours with no catering over two national capitals - especially in the early evening - seems a little remiss.
Elsewhere in this region, the daily “Citadella” Budapest - Hodos - Ljubljana (and Koper in the summer) has been demoted from EuroCity status. That’s almost twelve hours end to end, yet it exists in an international limbo with no real amenities on board.
At 20:48, 27 minutes behind schedule, we leave Dobova. The timetable gives us 32 minutes to cover 30km to Zagreb.
My day in text messages.
Three days.
Six trains.
One bus.
Six countries.
3,032 kilometres.
That’s how you go from #Umeå in northern #Sweden to #Zagreb in #Croatia the sociable, environmentally friendly way. See you Friday for the return trip!
@SJ_AB @omDSB @DB_Bahn @unsereOEBB @slozeleznice #HZPP
Six trains.
One bus.
Six countries.
3,032 kilometres.
That’s how you go from #Umeå in northern #Sweden to #Zagreb in #Croatia the sociable, environmentally friendly way. See you Friday for the return trip!
@SJ_AB @omDSB @DB_Bahn @unsereOEBB @slozeleznice #HZPP
Thanks all for the kind comments! Time to decompress.
Hey new followers! This thread is long enough. The return journey begins on this new threaded tweet. ⬇️
@threadreaderapp Unroll please!
