To the Netherlands: train again

I seem to have developed the habit of alternating taking the train and the boat to the Netherlands. Both has its drawbacks, so after suffering those of the one means of transport, I take a break from them and next time suffer those of the other. So after my late summer ferry trip it was time for another Eurostar journey.

I had been a bit late booking, and had had to book fancy tickets, as the economy ones had sold out. So I went out on ‘plus’ tickets and back on ‘premier’ tickets. Might actually be quite nice! 

Before you get to the Eurostar, though, you of course first have to get to London. And that’s not trivial. I made sure to check what train I would need if the booked one would be cancelled. And the first thing I did after waking up on the day of travel was check if it would be going. And it was. 

It wasn’t busy. I had two seats for myself. It was quite comfortable! And I got to London without issue. Not with the travel, anyway. I did have trouble with my phone. It did its not wanting to charge again! If I plugged it in it would stop charging quite soon, and then I would have to unplug it and plug it back in many times before it would connect again. I imagine that’s how you make your charging port even worse quite quickly! And that worried me. I had both my UK train tickets and my Eurostar tickets on my phone only. And it had a notoriously short battery life. I had better try to get my tickets printed! 

The not very busy train to London

On Euston I found the Avanti West Coast ticket office, and explained my predicament, to no avail whatsoever. They said I had an e-ticket, and there was no way they could print it. And gave me useless advice about buying a charger. I have a perfectly fine charger thank you very much. What I don’t have is acceptable customer service. I would have to sort something out in the Netherlands. Not easy when it’s Christmas! 

I went to St Pancras and got to the Eurostar terminal. There I asked them the same thing. And they happily printed my tickets for me. That lifted my mood a bit. 

Getting to Brussels went fine. When you have a ‘plus’ ticket you get room to swing a cat, and a meal! I enjoyed that. And after the 45 minute wait in Brussels it was the same getting to Amsterdam (without the meal). 

In Amsterdam things got a bit less relaxed; I saw I could catch a train to Amersfoort, but I needed to check in for that. And where do you do that? When entering the station. And I was already in the station. Shit! And leaving the station you can only check out. But if you check out without having checked in, the system assumes you have failed to check in, and they’ll charge you. That happened, and got me nowhere. I then just snuck out after someone else, and then I was outside and could finally check in. I still caught the train! And then it was only a short ride and the walk to my mum’s place. I got there about10 pm. Success! Let the festive cheer begin! 

Arriving in Amersfoort