Not of course a “day trip” in the usual sense, rather a trip that takes the best part of a day by train. Checkout from our Bohemian camping lodge was only at 11am, so we had a nice easy slow start (well, aircraft had started at 6am and builders next door at 7am, so I had long been awake, but it’s the thought that counts) and Ubered to the station.
Oh, I did have a quick chat with a lady who was in a Land rover Defender that had come from Denmark via Nordkapp and down through the Baltics – they’d been travelling for 2 months already! There’s always someone more extreme! 🙂
Vilnius has a nice station (as we knew from when we’d arrived, of course), coffee shops, an Iki Express little supermarket. AurĂ©lie bought some cornish pasty type things and doughnut-hot dogs to make sure we were ready for our 8 hour train trip with uncertain reprovisionung options.
It was a little bit chaotic getting on the train. My seat reservation just said one seat, all the way to Warsaw. Plus, I’d checked that we were in 2nd class because there is NO 1st class on this service. Ok. But then it turns out the first train that has NO seat reservations, but does offer coffee & sandwiches – payment required. This goes to Mockava and takes 2h30, everyone gets off. A lady on our train says the tracks are different systems – there’s no question of there being a single train. So our seat reservations refer to the Mockava-Krakow train that stops in Warsaw too. I had thought about skipping Warsaw and going straight to Krakow, but it only arrives after 10pm, which feels a bit cruel to all of us. Oh, add to that the extra hour as Poland and Lithuania are in different timezones…so yes, it will indeed be a long day.
Apparently there’s a high speed link in the pipeline due for completion in 2028. Current speed is 58kmph, so there’s definitely scope for improvement. Mobile signal is patchy to non-existent – the first time it has been thus this trip! But the restaurant car had beer, so that made up for it, and also had seats round a table, so I finally came good on my pledge to show the girls some card games. Shithead (which I’ve said we will henceforth refer to as “Shed”) which is a good simple game. Plus I showed the basics of poker – not that I know anything more than the basics myself! Look at these keen students learning the difference between 3 of a kind and a straight.
We did get to 128kmph in a few places, but it was slow going with several stops. And the train was getting a bit “lived in” by the time we got to Warsaw – I am glad we weren’t continuing for a further 3 hours to Krakow! The Hik apartment was close to the main station and we soon arrived – all the codes and keys worked as they should. The apartment was small, really for 2 people, but it was sufficient for 2 on the sofabed and the 2 kids on the mattress on a very low gallery (up wildly dangerous wooden stairs).
Warsaw is on a different scale from the recent cities – it’s big. Like proper London big.
Timsformational 