May 13 – On the Train to and in Warsaw, Poland. This morning started with an included breakfast in the hotel. They had the usual European breakfast items, eggs, bacon sausage, various kinds of dry cereal, oatmeal, and a selection of cold cuts and cheese slices, yogurt and drinks. What I almost always do is have a small serving of eggs and a sampling of sausages. Then I select a stack of cold cuts and some cheese, slice one of the usually excellent buns in half to make a sandwich. Not a bad way to start the day.
We are catching the ICE (Inter City Express) train from Hamburg to Berlin then changing to a Polish train ICCC (also a sort of intercity service) to go from Berlin to Warsaw. It just occurred to me that we are going to be in the two cities that have a USA fast food connection, hamburger and frankfurter, on the same day. And yesterday we had a McDonald's hamburger in Hamburg. Oh the joys of travel.
The ICE train was nice but the car was warm and we were seated in single row of window seats facing the same way so it was hard to talk to each other. There was some sort of problem with a train in front of us so we parked in the country side for about 10 minutes just before we arrived in Berlin HBF. We have an hour between trains so it was not a problem. When we go off the train there was a station employee on the platform so I asked where the train to Warsaw departed and he said right on the same track, #12. That could not have been better for us. Berlin is a large station and it has three levels. To change tracks we would have had to go down and then probably up again, an inconvenience when you have this much luggage. So we parked ourselves on the platform to wait for the train.
In almost all European stations they have a little chart the platform that shows the usual configuration of the train and where the cars will stop. Depending on the demand for the train the number of cars can change and therefore the exact location. Here in Berlin they have, as most do, electronic signs on the platform that tell you the next train and the time it should arrive. Here they also display a marker for the individual cars and their numbers under the letter of the position they will stop. Our Warsaw train is shorter than the paper chart by at least two cars and instead of stopping a F it will stop at G. It's nice to know that because they don't stop for long and we have to get all our stuff on the train. Plus when the train stops the people getting off go first and that means as you are trying to relocate on the platform you have to negotiate your way through a throng of arriving passengers. Not always the fastest way to move down the platform.
The door to our car stopped about 10 feet from our location and we got aboard. This car is configured with compartments, six seats in two rows of three facing each other. There's a little slot by the seat numbers on the window to the compartment that has a small piece of paper telling the destination and name of the passenger in that seat. Good news, Diana and my signs are the only ones there. That means we won't have to hoist our heavy luggage onto the overhead racks but can leave it on the floor. We're the only ones in the compartment. It was warm when we got in but I noticed that the thermostat control was set to the highest heat setting so I spun it down to the other side. Very soon cool air was coming out and the room became much more comfortable.
We had the room all to ourselves until Pozan, Poland. We were joined in our compartment by a well-dressed man in a business suit. We moved some of our luggage to make sure that we weren't impinging on his leg or arm space. He smiled, we said hello and over the next 4.5 hours we got to know each other. Fortunately he speaks English very well. He tried to get us to pronounce the names of the cities we passed through correctly. It was an uphill battle. Polish has some not so silent, silent letters. In certain combinations consonants seem to make a sound like some of our vowels but with a little extra buzz or ssss sound. It was fun and we were all laughing at our attempts. His first name was Michael although it was only five letters long and had a 'k' in it. He's going from Pozan to Warsaw for a business meeting.
After a nice afternoon of riding through small towns, farmland and forests we arrived in Warsaw Central Station. Here's where Michael went above and beyond friendly. First he helped me get the luggage down from the train car and then he walked us through the station to the underground tunnel/shopping center that took us under the station's parking lot and a very wide busy street to the center where our hotel is located. We would have found it but not easily or quickly. After saying our goodbyes, Michael walked back the way we had come. He wasn't even going our direction.
I'm pretty sure this is the best hotel we will in on our trip. It's a very well appointed Marriot. The room is large and very nicely decorated. I made this reservation on short notice after the train ticket problem I told you about earlier. Usually I would look for a nice accommodation but not this nice. Oh well, it's only one night and it's right by the station for getting the Moscow train tomorrow.
May 14 – On the Moscow Train. Again, breakfast was included in the room so we left our lodging on the 32 floor and headed to 2 for the buffet. The breakfast room here is very nice. Windows cover the entire outside wall and the view is of the capital building and the train station, which is relatively new. We're heading out to explore the route to the station that has the least stairways because our luggage makes it very inconvenient to do them. After a thorough reconnoiter I determined that it was going to be a problem taking the heavy suitcases down a long flight of stairs so when we got back to the hotel I asked the bellman if he could give us a hand to the station and he said he could. I asked what would be a reasonable cost for this service and he answered 'Forty ziotych', Ziotych being the Polish unit of currency and 40 of them is a little more than $12 and a little less than 10 Euro. Very reasonable by my reconing considering he's transporting about 170 pounds of luggage in 4 bags, 2 medium-large suitcases, one rolling duffel and one small carry-on. We arranged for him to come up to the room at 1PM.
He was right on time and he loaded our luggage onto a regular hotel luggage cart. I was wondering how he was going to get that up and down through the tunnels to the station. When we got to the lobby we moved the luggage to an airport porter style hand truck which would have been great but one of the tires was a little under inflated so it was harder to push than it should have been. Then I found out his secret. He's taking us through employee only hallways and on employee only elevators out a back way from the hotel that open directly into the lower tunnel from the basement. Nice! On the way to the tunnel we passed a lot of surprised workers. At one point we came to a door that was too narrow to let us through without opening the other panel of the doorway. Of course it was stuck. Another employee ran and got a screwdriver and with a little coaxing from him it was opened and we were once again underway.
After we were out in the tunnel we came so a short set of stairs that Diana and I had come down yesterday. He carried the cases up the stairs one at a time and turned with a very surprised expression as he saw me following him pulling his hand truck. He grinned and said thank you, as though I'd done something extraordinary. In a short time he had us nicely situated on the platform waiting for the train.
The room on the train is not as modern as I'd hoped but not as rustic as it could have been. It's roomy enough and comfortable. Everything seems to work so I'm happy. We'll have bunk beds tonight. The room is certainly bigger than the double room we had on a German overnight train.
The train is a Russian Intercity train and it makes limited stops. It seems to be moving pretty good when were underway so I started to wonder why the trip takes 18 hours. The answer was very clear as we crossed into Belarus from Poland. First you check out of Poland, took about 45 minutes, then you check into Belarus and there's paperwork to fill out this also takes about an hour. Then the train is pulled into a shop. At first I thought something was broken but I soon discovered that the reason is much more basic. The Russian Federation uses a different gage on their tracks and the trucks on the cars have to be changed over. I remember now learning somewhere that the Russians use a larger gage than everyone else. We've been in the shop about 2 hours and they are just finished. I think the work shed accommodates about 3 cars at a time or it would have taken forever. Sort of like a NASCAR pit stop for trains. Pull in, get 8 new tires and you're off. Just when I think we're getting going we pull into the first Belarus station and now we're waiting to leave. Apparently things went faster than normal so we have to wait for the departure time at this stop to get here.
Our car steward is a Russian man and at first was a little standoffish. But after a few exchanges he loosened up and we've been getting along very well. He turned out beds down as we lost an hour crossing the Belarusian border. He just knocked on the door and gave us each a bottle of water and two snack boxes. The snack boxes have a small Coco-pie (for you younger folks, it's a smaller version of a Moon Pie), a Twix like bar, a tea bag and a packed of instant coffee. Diana's already in bed reading and I'm sitting on the lower bunk typing, She get the upper bunk because it's warmer at that altitude and I get the lower because I'm always hot. Hope we get going soon. Of course, that's wishful thinking because we're probably going to arrive in Moscow on schedule so there's no reason to be impatient. From Warsaw to the Belarus border the train was very smooth. After crossing the border it became much more like traveling on Amtrak, not quite so smooth. Unfortunately that's when the beds were put down and it was time to get some sleep. I did sleep but it was off and on. I could not tell you how much sleep I actually got.
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