This was my fourth time I had been on the train through the chunnel all the other times i had been with cammy, this was the first time i would be getting the train to Amsterdam though, the last time i was in Amsterdam was also with cammy but we arrived by ferry that time, I've also flown in and out of Amsterdam a few times as a connecting flight, but i have never walked the streets or visited the city centre of Amsterdam, this time was to be no different i was arriving at a train station in town just to swap trains and destinations and leave for Arnhem but i at least got to see plenty of the city from the train window as i listened to my audio-book, the chunnel part of the journey is only 50.45km long and that part seems to put a lot of people off taking this journey, i have taken some fantastic train journeys in my life this one although pleasant and scenic enough almost seems a bit to sterile, the train has a top speed of 334.7kmph. it rarely hits anywhere near that and goes nice and slow through cities, I hadn't previously realised the train would be going through Brussels then Rotterdam before arriving in Amsterdam, had i known that i may well have got of at Rotterdam as that is the end of the Rhine cycle route, It made me a little sad as we passed through Brussels I was thinking of the time me and cammy drove there and took photos outside the European parliament and visited the big brewdog in town, we are those loons in west minster dragging us out of being a part of this beautiful European city, Often while travelling I end up comparing my home country to the one I'm travelling in and on the train journey between polmont and Amsterdam I marvelled at how far ahead Europe was to Scotland, even with our new electric railway and new trains between Glasgow and Edinburgh the stations and connecting transport still fall short of these great European train networks and big stations, also while looking out the window of the train i could`nt help but notice all the fantastic looking cycle paths on that journey
Ping Welcome to France Ping welcome to Belgium then finally Ping welcome to the Netherlands went my phone with my fresh data charges for each country i was travelling through popping up.
I had visited the buffet car but had forgotten to ask about how i got my bike of the train when there and as we approached the station everyone including myself was getting bags and stuff sorted to disembark i got of the train and decided to march to the front as that`s where the guard box used to always be either right at the front or at the back, i seen a guard and asked her? she checked two locked cupboards and said they must be at the back! try carriage 15 or 16 I was now the last person off the train and speed marched all the way down the platform these are long trains! when i got there the doors were locked, some sitting guards inside made some hand movement suggestions that i should go back up the front, but when i was half way the train started to leave! there i was standing on the platform with panniers and other crap but no bike a cycle helmet on feeling a right FUD and cursing euro star dispatch, how was i going to get my bike back now?
I went down the stairs and swiped out the platforms following signs for tickets and info, I seen a rail worker and asked her if she spoke English she said yes i explained what happened and she directed me to the end of the station saying i should get a bike there, when i got there it was a huge cycle hire place there was 100s of red bikes for hire BLOODY HELL she couldn't have understood me i didn't want a bloody hire bike! after an initial debate with myself i thought i would ask the bike hire desk girl where lost luggage was, i asked do you speak English yes she said - i explained the situation she looked at me sort of blank and said is it one of those? she pointed at some bikes gathered at the front of some hire bikes and whoopee there she was the country traveller looking more beautiful than she ever has, i was reunited with my old girl and we were ready to get this adventure moving along a stage
the research i had done on getting my bike on the train in Amsterdam to Arnhem said that Outside peak hours (09:00 to 16:30 and after 18:00), weekends, public holidays and during the summer months, you can transport your bike on NS trains. You just need to buy a bike ticket, at a cost of €6, at one of the vending machines. The bike must be placed in the appropriate spaces, indicated by a bicycle symbol, on the side of the cars! sounds simple enough, but the cost was actually 6.90 for your bike ticket, and it doesn't matter which train you get you just have to buy a train ticket! nobody inspected mine it turned out i was left wondering if i should played the dumb tourist
I had previously booked a hotel for the night in Arnhem at the holiday Inn express it looked central and was around the same price as my supposedly cheap London apartment, I was now on one of the delightfull double Decker trains as i boarded it there was a family in front of me mum dad and five kids i got talking to the dad would there be space for all the bikes which station are you going to? that sort of stuff, it turned out he and his family were heading home from a few days cycling they had no real gear to speak of but had cycled from their home town veenendaal de klomp to Amsterdam and stayed with friends half way then again in Amsterdam they were now getting the train home its 80km two young kids on baby seats one of which was on the oldest boys bike not mums! how bloody marvellous is that i remember being told i was a cruel dad for taking cammy on the train to Edinburgh to spend the day cycling home, looking out the train window in Holland i was amazed at the amount of bikes at stations literally hundreds possibly a thousand! i previously thought Copenhagen was cycle heaven i was wrong its the Netherlands, it was 14:30 when i arrived at my days destination and the start of the real adventure Hello Arnhem
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