Yesterday, Ton and I travelled to Eindhoven together. We decided to have an early start, as the weather predictions were rather bad. So around 12:45 we took a bus to the station, to catch the 13:15 direct train to Liege. And then, our woes commenced.
The train to Liege was only running until Troisvierges (last station in Luxembourg before the Belgian border). There was a problem beyond Troisvierges on the tracks, no telling when it would be resolved. Luckily, there are two default routes from Luxembourg to Eindhoven, so we took the one departing 5 minutes later, which ought to take us to Namur (and there change to Liege).
Note the “ought to take us” there. We got in the train, it rode for about 15 minutes, crossed the border, our tickets were checked, and then we were in Arlon. First Belgian station across the (western) border. And there we were. And were. And were. For about 2hrs, that’s where we were. The announcement? “There’s a problem around Libramont, the tracks are blocked, stay seated and we’ll let you know as soon as we know more.”. A funny side effect was that after about 50 or so minutes, some people came running to our train, trying to catch it. Well, they needn’t have worried — after 2 hours, they announced it was heading back to Luxembourg. At that point, Ton and I decided to take our chances and get out. About 30 (or so) minutes later, they announced a way to get to Namur/Brussels: take the ultra-slow train to …, there change for the ultra-slow train to Dinant, and there change for the train to Namur. We did, and spend the next 2.5 or so hours in an ultra-slow train. The first stop was in Rodange — a village in Luxembourg. Imagine our surprise: after about three hours of travelling, we found ourselves in a frontier town of Luxembourg…
Nevertheless, our luck turned a bit, and we didn’t have to change in … (forgot the name). Eventually, we ended up in Dinant, of which I can tell you very little except that it’s rather white this time of year and that you can’t see much more beyond the station in the dark there. We switched to the train heading to Namur, and then life slowly started improving on us again. We found an almost empty compartment, and there I finally got to playing a bit of guitar. Frustration evaporated. In Namur, we even had time to grab a bite at the Quick. Not healthy, admittedly, but it was about 8 by then… it seemed to make sense to grab something at that point.
The trip to Liege was non-standard. I hardly ever travel that route, but we managed to catch a slow train again (I guess having dinner ment we were in karmic debt or something like that :). In Liege, the first train to Maastricht was due in about 55 minutes, which gave us time to catch a drink and visit the gentlemen’s. Which turned out to be an extremely frustrating experience. All the urinals were off limits, supposedly because they were being cleaned, as were almost all sinks. The only place to wash your hands was in the handicapped toilet, which was being used by others, who left the door open since the light didn’t work in there. All this joy was to be had for a mere 40 cents.
Yes, it was a bit much after 9 hours of travelling to feel subjected to such chicanery. Anyway, from there on out we took the train to Maastricht, and then a stop-train (slow again) to Eindhoven. Maastricht-Eindhoven took about 1h30, but by that time I was pretty sure I’d get there, and that lightened my mood.
Finally, my dad picked me up at the station. When we drove away, I noticed the clock in the car was at 23:45…
All in all, it turned out alright. I’m glad I travelled with someone though, I think I would’ve exploded at several points otherwise. I guess that this’ll make a nice story to look back upon later(?). For now, some breakfast/brunch and then off to the city to check on the glass house :)