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Published: December 30th 2010
our last train
every carriage has a different destination - Paris, Vienna, Munich etc.So here we are boarding our last train. From the outside the train seems really exotic – each of the dozen carriages has a different destination; Moscow-Munich, Moscow-Basel, Moscow-Paris etc. Right at the very end is our carriage, Moscow-Amsterdam, our home for the next 2 nights.
Inside, even though its a Russian train, it has a totally different feel to it. The compartments are tiny compared to the Trans-Siberian. They feel ½ sized, only wide enough for a single 3 person seat facing a blank wall. When the 3 bunk beds are folded down there's nowhere to sit. And no endless supply of tea and coffee as there's no samovar at the end of the carriage!! Its functional – like being on a ferry rather than a cruise ship. Even the Russian staff seem different, somehow they're more European in attitude.
Its dark when we leave Moscow and we wake up in Belarus. Somehow the landscape looks far more European now. There's lots more agriculture - enormous, flat wheat fields stretching away to the horizon with the occasional combine trundling round them. No more thick fir forests and no more log cabins, its brick, European style houses and the
the final route
Moscow-Smolensk*-Minsk-Brest-Warsaw-Berlin-Hannover - then choose Amsterdam, Innsbruck, Basle. Its Amsterdam for us then the ferry to Newcastle. (*where the Polish President's plane crashed) occasional patch of broadleaved forest. In-fact its so familiar looking that I don't have any pictures.
We may well be trundling through Belarus but, worryingly, we haven't been stamped out of Russia yet. This is put right at a 132 minute stop at Brest on the Belarus-Poland border where we leave Russia, enter Belarus and leave Belarus all in one go. The customs officers ask everyone the same 2 questions (in English or Russian as appropriate); “how much vodka do you have” “ how many US$ have you got?”. Then the absolute highlight, a trip to the bogie changing sheds to prepare the train for Europe – we have been running on Russian broad gauge (1520mm, 4ft 115/6in) and need to swap to European standard gauge (1435mm, 4ft 8½in). Its a fascinating process that's smoothly and efficiently executed in a well rehearsed process. The best bit is when the carriage is lifted on hydraulic ramps, the ramps are so smooth you can't feel the carriage going up and down and we do go a long way up.
The whole train is re-bogied in 60mins and we set off on European tracks leaving Russia/Belarus behind. But only for 10km
and then we get a 67 minute stop. This is Terespol, Poland and its where we re-enter the EU. Not quite as exciting as the Bogie Sheds but we do get sniffer dogs coming round the carriages (not sure what they were sniffing for – vodka??).
As if a 132 minute stop followed by a 67 minute stop isn't enough we now get 180 minutes in Warsaw in a “back of beyond” station. But at least we are allowed off the train here and our friend Robert, one of the London to Beijing riders, is here to meet us with emergency rations of Polish goodies (sausages, chocolate and beer – all very tasty). He whisks us off on a guided tour of the city and a wander round the old town which was painstakingly reconstructed after WWII. Its only a brief glimpse but enough to make me want to come back.
When we get back to the station there's no sign of our train/carriage but that's the reason for the 3 hour stop. The individual carriages have all dispersed to different parts of the station and new trains are being put together. Our carriage eventually re-appears with some
new friends e.g the Minsk-Amsterdam carriage, and re-joins other carriages heading westwards. Once we start moving again we are really rattling along, going much faster than we ever did in Russia. The Polish landscape is flashing past with wheat fields glowing beautifully in the evening light – we have seen lots of green forest recently so a golden glow makes a change. Somehow the landscape and villages are looking even more European. Most noticeably the church spires – tall, slender, dark spires towering skywards, no more golden, onion domes.
Every time we stop during the night there's lots of shunting back and forth - presumably carriages heading off to other parts of Europe. Its a bit like the end of the bike trips, each day a few more people head off home wards. On the Trans-Siberian we used to wake up wondering what time zone we were in. This morning we wake up wondering what country we are in. Turns out to be Germany, Munchengladbach to be precise. And things have got even more European – the houses now have caravans on their drives! Soon, the appearance of several extra vowels in the station names indicates that we have
crossed into Holland. We are about the only people left in our carriage and the 2 Russians guards seem to be retrieving new pairs of jeans from all sorts of hidey holes in the various compartments and shuffling things in a big case – maybe it wasn't vodka the sniffer dogs were after!
We follow the guards and their big case out into Amsterdam. That's it the train journey is over. Now its just a short hop on the overnight ferry up to Newcastle. There's time for stroll in Amsterdam and lunch – very important; supper in Poland, breakfast in Germany, lunch in Amsterdam!
On the ferry we wake up early to familiar sites along the north east coast of England, no need for an Eye-spy book to recognise Rosberry Topping, the Mouth of the Tees, the Penshaw Monument. In amongst these familiar sites are several majestic, fully rigged, tall ships – Hartlepool is hosting the Tall Ships' Race this weekend and they are all starting to sail in. Its a magnificent sight. Finally we dock at Newcastle where David and Lynn are waiting to take us on the 1 hour drive to our home.
So that's
the Bogie Changing Sheds
step 1 involves diving under the carriage to uncouple the holding pins it. We've gone from London to Beijing & back through 23 countries without using a plane. We just need to re-unite ourselves with the motorbike who carried us for 12,000 miles of the journey, and is coming home from Beijing by sea. We go down to collect her from the shipping agent near Heathrow but she really doesn't want to play and absolutely refuses to start – is it because we abandoned her and came back on the train or is it because the next adventure isn't planned yet? Anyway after several hours of work by Edwin and an overnight battery charge (which also meant an 80mile round trip rescue mission by Colin a fellow London-Beijing rider) she burst into life and we set off home. But she still has one trick up her sleeve and splutters to a halt on the M42. This time fellow Trans-Am rider Mac had to come to the rescue with a 46 mile round trip. Despite what the problem may look like on the photo Edwin is adamant that it was a technical issue with faulty electronics/gauges!!! (and to be fair when the bike was serviced they confirmed that a sensor had become dislodged
the hydraulic ramps in action
look how high they have lifted that carriage and you don't feel a thing, you are totally unaware that you are moving and was reading incorrectly).
So all 3 of us are now finally back home. That's the travelling finished for this year - or so we thought. As we got home with the bike an e-mail arrived with a offer we just couldn't refuse!!!!
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anonymous
non-member comment
thats a good picture of me