The Trains and Planes in Spain are Sometimes a Pain

Day: 393
Barcelona to Seville
Time: Seemed Like Forever
Distance: 1,000 kilometers or so
Avg Speed: Whatever a plane flies
Terrain: Air

Location: 37°23'N, 5°58'W

Today was a travel day and it involved most other forms of transportation other than our bicycles. It made me really appreciate how easy it is to travel by bicycle, not with a bicycle.
We bid Fernando an early morning farewell and rode in the direction of the train station. As I pedaled in the pre-dawn darkness, I reflected on how much I enjoyed our stay. I really hope to see our new friend sometime in the future. He opened his home to us and we are forever grateful.
We easily found the station as we had scoped it out a couple of days ago. That was the extent of our preparation for today and, let me tell you, it lead to one of our hardest travel days yet. Live and learn – one of my favorite sayings…
We managed to get on the first train with the early morning crowd and they like to hang out in the area reserved for bicycles, baby carriages, and handicapped spaces. As a result, we had to stand for the 25 minute ride into the city. Unfortunately, Chris tends to get motion sickness so we had to find him a seat before things got ugly.
The train change in Barcelona was pretty straightforward except for all of the steps in the maze of tunnels. I managed to take a pedal in the shin and didn’t do so well holding back the tears as we pushed and pulled the bikes around.
The third train brought us to the airport and a realization that our time was dwindling. We only had one hour and a half and didn’t have the bikes broken down. We were actually planning on just removing the pedals and turning the handle bars. Ha! How could we be so silly?
I selected a low cost airline for our flight and soon realized why they go out of business so quickly. We checked in and I was then directed to the ticket window to take care of the extra charges for baggage. As I was standing in line I noticed Chris having a very animated conversation with one of the airline agents. I realized that they were going to require us to package the bikes in some way. I got my receipt and ran after Chris as he pushed the bikes, now with front wheels removed, to the shrink-wrap station. Doesn’t sound like that big of a problem, right? Sadly, we were in terminal C and we had to go to terminal B.
The wrapping of our bicicletas was both frustrating and comical. I made the mistake of trying to hurry the three boys along and that ultimately slowed them down. Nothing like a rude American…
Back in terminal C we found our ticket agent and she directed us to the oversized x-ray machine. Did I mention we’re down to 30 minutes at this point? The nice security man apparently hadn’t ever x-ray bicycles before and spent a few too many minutes scratching his head before giving up.
But wait…there’s more.
Time to wheel the bikes down to baggage claim where we waiting some more. Luckily, the ticket agent ran to call the gate so we could be “those people” holding up the flight. Finally, a baggage person came and took the bikes. Whew.
The flight was uneventful – surprise.
We arrived in Seville and were greeted with rain. We collected our bags and bikes and headed for the café. The morning’s events hadn’t allowed for any breaks (including restroom stops) so we were pretty famished. We discussed our options and decided to avoid another wet ride into a big city. We stopped by the tourist office, reserved a room, and headed to the taxi stand.
Honestly, there was not a good chance that we would actually get a taxi into the city. Europe has not totally caught on to the SUV revolution. However, in a brief moment of luck, Chris spotted a Mercedes station wagon taxi and I sprinted to negotiate a ride. Five minutes later we had our gear packed in for the “special service” price of twice the going rate. We had been hemorrhaging money all day, so what was a few more euros?
Our driver more or less found the hostal and quickly liquidated his taxi. We payed him and then hauled our gear through the front door. Thirty seconds later, after we found out that the hostal didn’t want bicycles, I was back on the street in search of a room.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
So the end of the story is that we have a room, the bikes are with us, and we paid 10 extra euros to have it that way.

That is all,
LK

So Long Zernez

Day: 366
Zernez to Visp
Time: Most of the day
Avg Speed: 80 kph


Even though our stay in Zernez was unplanned and under some less than ideal conditions, we were sad to get on our train this morning. We got up early and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the hotel’s salon. The coffee we got for breakfast is probably some of the best coffee I have had anywhere. We always got the stink eye when we asked for another pot, but the little lady would whip out another one for us and smile when she brought it to our table. I guess we are just likeable.
We got on the train around 10 this morning and had a quick 10 minute ride to our first change. We made a change to a train that took us through a tunnel for 45 minutes before dropping us off. That was our escape route from the little valley we enjoyed so much. The next leg brought us into Zurich where we frantically searched the platform for the bicycle car, only to find it with a minute or two before departure. This last leg brought us into Visp and the Rhone River Valley. Here we should be able to get some kilometers in on some flat ground while the rest of my wounds heal up. I did miss a couple of equipment failures that didn’t materialize until the bikes were loaded. I now have a pannier that is duct taped up. I will need to do some more permanent repairs as soon as I can.
Not much else to report on from Switzerland. Just high mountains, nice people, good cheese and yummy pastries (and oh my are they yummy!!).
CK

Train Traffic Boogey

Day: 334 and 335
Budapest to Zagreb, Croatia
Time: All Day
Distance: A lot of train kilometers
Avg Speed: Stop and Go

We left the cocoon of our little Budapest apartment and headed out into the great big city. After spending a few days getting our bearings among the streets and buildings, riding our bikes in them was pretty easy. We went and checked out some more sites that our bus tour earlier only touched on. We went and spent some time at the Fishermen’s Bastion and the Castle Hill area. Both areas are in the Buda side of the city on Buda Hill. We checked out the cobbled streets and cafés before dropping over the hill and to the Deli Train Station. I was a little worried when we arrived and saw 500 people dressed as Pokemon characters chanting in a square nearby. The worrying was for naught and after hauling our bikes upstairs to the platforms I went to double check on the time of our train. I am glad I did, because instead of a 1:45 departure time it was a 12:55 departure time. We quickly got our act together and got on the train. We had planned to buy a little food at the station before getting on the train, but with our accelerated schedule the food lost out. Luckily we had a few packages of crackers to tide us over for the five hour jaunt. After arriving at the station where we were to make a train switch I went and got a few sandwiches to tide us over until Zagreb. The earlier train meant we had a longer wait, but it allowed us to get a plan for the next train. The trains in Hungary don’t have a lot of attendants, don’t announce trains in advance and aren’t very well signed. All of this almost made us miss our train because we couldn’t find the baggage car or an attendant to ask if this was the train to Zagreb. We quickly chucked our bikes in the barn doors and found a private coach to sit in. We decided that we would sit there until they kicked us out. The lack of people or help is a two way street because we had our private section all the way in to Zagreb. After arriving in Zagreb at 9:30 I grabbed every light we had to give us a little bling for our ride to the hotel. We found the place quite easily and quickly ate the rest of our crackers for dinner and settled in for a little shut-eye.
This morning we woke up famished and cruised on down to the breakfast buffet. I am sure the restaurant staff loved to watch us go back again and again for food. We like to eat big breakfasts when they are included in the room price. We were also making up for yesterday and trying to eat enough that we wouldn’t have to have any size of a lunch. After breakfast we headed into the downtown square area for a little map shopping, a haircut and some sightseeing. I found a salon for my haircut and before I could tell her what I wanted I was a getting my hair washed. After the haircut she washed my hair again and blew dry my fresh buzz cut. Leslie just loved seeing me get a hair dry on what I have left for hair. After that we shop hopped around putting together enough maps to get us where we needed to go. Armed with maps and knowing that we had some stinky clothes back at the hotel, we grabbed some laundry soap and Leslie started working on her forearms. I ran out to mail some post cards and a package home and missed most of the washing game. I did help out wringing and hanging, but the majority was done by Leslie. That flurry of activity did us in for the day and we spent the rest of the day hanging out and rotating laundry.
Tomorrow we try and figure out how to get out of Zagreb and start working our way south.
CK

Two People, Two Bicycles, Two Trains

Day 152
Bangkok to Phitsanulok (by train)
Time: 4:30:00 + 25:00 across Bangkok by bike
Distance: Halfway to Chiang Mai
Avg Speed: Train Speed
Terrain: Flat with rice
Location: 100˚ 15’ 44”, 16˚ 48’ 25”


Where do I start?

With our rest period complete, we got back in the swing of things by riding to the Bangkok train station this morning. Even with the combination of being in a completely foreign country and in a city of 7.5 million, we were pretty excited to get back on the road. For the first time in a week, we read the map correctly and found our way to the train station in about 25 minutes. The ride wasn’t horrifying at all – bicycles are part of the transit system here and we just fit right in. I did my best to look around and soak it in. It was hard to believe I was riding in Bangkok. The air was so thick that you could see it and the city was bustling with all sorts of activities.
The train station was very organized and a nice girl helped us find our platform. We pushed our bikes down to a bench and waited. About 45 minutes later the train rolled in and we queued up like everyone else. There were many farang (slang for foreigners) but we still looked out of place with our bicycles. I started to chat with a fellow who noticed my panniers. He had cycled something like 20,000+ kilometers from Korea to Portugal. Wow. Anyhow, he wondered if we’d be able to take our bikes on the train. We both shrugged and said “we think so”. Turns out we thought wrong.
Soon after our chat with Boston (didn’t catch his name, just his city) we got the shake down from the platform guard. We weren’t allowed to take bikes on the express train. He told us what train we could take and we wheeled our circus back into the station. Chris got a workout for the next half hour as he went from window to desk to window to figure out what we would do. The next train turned out to be third class, not such a problem unless you’re up for nine hours with no a/c. So, the solution was for us to get on the express and our bikes to go on the slow train. In a very organized fashion, we checked in our bikes, received our claim ticket and walked away. Let me tell you, it was a strange feeling…
It’s a funny thing to be separated from your bike. I think it could be difficult to understand if you’ve never toured. This little machine has taken me everywhere and hauled my gear as well. I didn’t have time to dwell too much because we were in such a hurry to make everything happen.
The train ride was rather uneventful and we arrived 40 minutes late in Phitsanulok. We saw Boston again and he wondered about our rigs. We told him the story and he just smiled. In our previous meeting with him he told us how he had lived in Phitsanulok for a few years way back when. We inquired if he knew any good guesthouses and the next thing we knew he was speaking to a taxi driver in fluent Thai. In a matter of minutes we were being driven to the international youth hostel to find some budget accommodation. Boston decided to join us and check the place out. He was our translator as we checked out a few different rooms. We have no idea what he was saying but we ended up with something basic for $10. Not bad for a decent sized room with a bathroom. The only drawback is that there is only half of a toilet seat, but who’s complaining?
Here’s to being back on the road,
LK
ps – the slow train was an hour and a half late, but the bikes did make it.