8 day Interrail

[Ant1966]

I really enjoy reading others Trip reports, so thought it was about time I did one. This was not a ‘bashing/photting’ trip per se, simply a weeks holiday with MrsAnt, but did use an Interrail (7 days in a month) and involved some trains for 7 of the 8 days so thought I'd share.
Sorry no photos, or numbers etc. (Mods please move if more appropriate elsewhere)

Day 1 Sat 24th May
Up early to get from Basingstoke to St Pancras. On spur of the moment decided to go via Reading, as with suitcases thought that H&C Padd to KX/StP might be an easier journey than via Waterloo. Had some concerns over Interrail on the app (first time I'd tried it) but turned out to be easy to use, once you got the hang of it (with one major 'watch out' - see Day 9!) Fairly empty XC to Reading, came into Platform 11 (rather than the more common 1,2,3?) so easy hop over 1 platform for the next IET to Padd. Reminded again just how abysmal the seats are on these, the contrast with TGV seats is something that puts the UK to shame.

St P queues not too bad, and well organised, considering it was 1st Sat of May half term. RTT handy to beat the queue onto the E* and get luggage on, though there is plenty of luggage space for even full trains I think? Train was a newer Siemens e320, seating seemed similar to the refurbed e300 (373) that we took to Brussels last year. Comfortable enough, without blowing you away.

Departed and arrived at GdN bang on time. Had bought 2 Navigo Easy passes with 2 x metro tickets loaded on each from E* buffet, much easier than faffing around at GdN or with yet another app that I’ll have to learn and then use once in a blue moon

RER D to Gare De Lyon, simple enough although the frequency was a bit sparse, had to wait 12 minutes. G Du N RER platforms seemed a little less ‘dark and dingy’ than last time I used them.

Gare De Lyon was busy, but not crazily so. The boarding of the TGV Lyria to Lausanne wasn’t very well organised; they only announced the platform about 5-10 minutes before departure (not sure why) and our set was at the country end past another set (those TGVs are long!) so it was all a bit of a ‘Euston race’. Boarding of Duplexs when half the passengers have large luggage is never easy anyway; in the scrum my wife actually ended up in the wrong coach (signage not clear, she turned left at the top of stairs when she should have turned right!) and it took us 5 minutes to be reunited, past all the people with massive suitcases, but it all settled down and there is plenty of space for luggage and very comfy upper deck seats. (Again, puts UK trains to shame).

The LGV to Lyon and then further south to Marseille is probably the best for scenery, I love the way that the landscape and architecture gradually changes from ‘Northern’ to ‘Southern’. We wee delayed by about 30 minutes (not sure why) and had to wait another 20 minutes at Nurieux at a passing place on the single line. The scenery on the line from Bourg to Geneva is pretty special as it cuts across the ridges of the Jura mountains.

Most of the pax got off at Geneve, leaving a fairly quiet train for the run into Lausanne, with glimpses of the lake. Local ‘RER’ train to Epesses (some sort of unit) our base for 3 nights, with our hotel overlooking the main line and the lake with great views of the Alps opposite and the vineyard terraces behind us. This part of the world really is spectacularly beautiful.

Plenty of passing trains, mostly units but with a few 460 push/pull sets, with some weird lashups (loco + rake of DD stock + loco + rake of older single deck carriages)

 

[eastwestdivide]

with some weird lashups

Switzerland (and Belgium) are good hunting grounds for lashups!

 

[87electric]

I really enjoy reading others Trip reports, so thought it was about time I did one. This was not a ‘bashing/photting’ trip per se, simply a weeks holiday with MrsAnt, but did use an Interrail (7 days in a month) and involved some trains for 7 of the 8 days so thought I'd share.
Sorry no photos, or numbers etc. (Mods please move if more appropriate elsewhere)

Day 1 Sat 24th May
Up early to get from Basingstoke to St Pancras. On spur of the moment decided to go via Reading, as with suitcases thought that H&C Padd to KX/StP might be an easier journey than via Waterloo. Had some concerns over Interrail on the app (first time I'd tried it) but turned out to be easy to use, once you got the hang of it (with one major 'watch out' - see Day 9!) Fairly empty XC to Reading, came into Platform 11 (rather than the more common 1,2,3?) so easy hop over 1 platform for the next IET to Padd. Reminded again just how abysmal the seats are on these, the contrast with TGV seats is something that puts the UK to shame.

St P queues not too bad, and well organised, considering it was 1st Sat of May half term. RTT handy to beat the queue onto the E* and get luggage on, though there is plenty of luggage space for even full trains I think? Train was a newer Siemens e320, seating seemed similar to the refurbed e300 (373) that we took to Brussels last year. Comfortable enough, without blowing you away.

Departed and arrived at GdN bang on time. Had bought 2 Navigo Easy passes with 2 x metro tickets loaded on each from E* buffet, much easier than faffing around at GdN or with yet another app that I’ll have to learn and then use once in a blue moon

RER D to Gare De Lyon, simple enough although the frequency was a bit sparse, had to wait 12 minutes. G Du N RER platforms seemed a little less ‘dark and dingy’ than last time I used them.

Gare De Lyon was busy, but not crazily so. The boarding of the TGV Lyria to Lausanne wasn’t very well organised; they only announced the platform about 5-10 minutes before departure (not sure why) and our set was at the country end past another set (those TGVs are long!) so it was all a bit of a ‘Euston race’. Boarding of Duplexs when half the passengers have large luggage is never easy anyway; in the scrum my wife actually ended up in the wrong coach (signage not clear, she turned left at the top of stairs when she should have turned right!) and it took us 5 minutes to be reunited, past all the people with massive suitcases, but it all settled down and there is plenty of space for luggage and very comfy upper deck seats. (Again, puts UK trains to shame).

The LGV to Lyon and then further south to Marseille is probably the best for scenery, I love the way that the landscape and architecture gradually changes from ‘Northern’ to ‘Southern’. We wee delayed by about 30 minutes (not sure why) and had to wait another 20 minutes at Nurieux at a passing place on the single line. The scenery on the line from Bourg to Geneva is pretty special as it cuts across the ridges of the Jura mountains.

Most of the pax got off at Geneve, leaving a fairly quiet train for the run into Lausanne, with glimpses of the lake. Local ‘RER’ train to Epesses (some sort of unit) our base for 3 nights, with our hotel overlooking the main line and the lake with great views of the Alps opposite and the vineyard terraces behind us. This part of the world really is spectacularly beautiful.

Plenty of passing trains, mostly units but with a few 460 push/pull sets, with some weird lashups (loco + rake of DD stock + loco + rake of older single deck carriages)

Nice to read a trip report without numbers. It’s still info loaded and interesting to me. Eager to hear of the
app concern in day 9.

 

[Ant1966]

Nice to read a trip report without numbers. It’s still info loaded and interesting to me. Eager to hear of the
app concern in day 9.

Thanks!

 

[Ant1966]

Day 2 Sun 25th May

With a couple of photos (If I can work out how to post them!)

Local day around Lausanne and the Lavaux vineyards today. As is common in CH we had a free local travel card from hotel, so took the chance to not use an IR travel day (as we had a ‘7 travel day’ ticket for an 8 day holiday) and the local travel card covered metro and buses which IR obviously doesn’t.

Local RER unit into Lausanne followed by a trip on the quirky metro for breakfast at a café by the lake (I know CH can be pricey, but CHF18 each for a simple continental breakfast at the hotel was where we drew the line), Fun facts from Wikipedia: Lausanne is the smallest city in the world with a metro, and the M2 line is the steepest adhesion worked rubber tyred line in the world.

Then another RER unit out to Grandvaux; on the higher level line towards Fribourg. (Half hourly service, even on a Sunday!) For those who are unfamiliar with the area; there are two lines heading East from Lausanne Gare. The first follows the lakeshore East very closely all the way to the end of Lake Geneva; before turning South and following the Rhone Valley on to Martigny, Sion and Brig. The second starts climbing almost immediately, and runs parallel to the lakeshore gaining height all the way for about 10km East. At that point it turns inland to head North East, by which time it is 250m higher than the lakeshore line but incredibly only about 600m to the North as the crow flies. (Hope I’ve explained that OK!) The upshot of all this is that there are fantastic views on both lines; with plenty of places where you can see trains at both lines at once (including from the lake on a steamer). The final thing to say is that the area is pretty much all terraced vineyards, so the views and walking are tremendous.

Anyway, rough plan was to alight at Grandvaux and follow our noses back down to our hotel by the lake. There are plenty of paths through the vineyards, although not as many as we’d hoped followed the contour lines, so 13km later we had dropped net 200m to the lake but also climbed about 300m along the way, via beautiful villages with wine tasting etc.

Quirkiest thing we saw was this: The vineyards were so steep then in many places (presumably to help with harvests) small, rickety monorails has been built with two or three little wagons, one of which had a very precarious looking plastic chair on it next to the small engine and a couple of basic levers. These had precipitous gradients, and appeared (to my UK H&S conscious eyes) lethal. The best bit; the manufacturer of these things was called ‘PLUMETT’(I’m not making this up..)

Lovely walk, loads of photos and a dinner at a roadside fondue restaurant later, back to the hotel. Slept well.

 

[StarCrossing]

Eager to hear of the
app concern in day 9.

I'm eager to hear if he loses his wife again!

I agree that the north side of Lake Geneva is wonderful. I had an unscheduled (fast) walk through the vineyards last April when I misread the bus timetable at Chaplin's World and then had to race down the hill to catch my train.

I look forward to reading the about the rest of your trip.

 

[Ant1966]

I'm eager to hear if he loses his wife again!

I agree that the north side of Lake Geneva is wonderful. I had an unscheduled (fast) walk through the vineyards last April when I misread the bus timetable at Chaplin's World and then had to race down the hill to catch my train.

I look forward to reading the about the rest of your trip.

Thanks! (Spoiler alert, my wife is safely home with me!)

Day 3 Sun 26th May

Back to the IR today, with a couple of trips planned. Morning at a spa/baths complex Les Bains De Lavey near St Maurice, afternoon (weather dependant) up a mountain at Les Pleiades.

Unit to Vevey, breakfast from the Coop supermarket in the subway at Vevey; then loco hauled stock to St Maurice. Connection to the postbus was seamless (its CH after all). Spa baths excellent (although getting there first thing on a quite Monday in term time definitely helped) and good value (for CH).

Back on the Postbus (4 minutes late!) but made tight connection on more LHS back to Vevey for 15-minute connection onto the Les Pleiades rack railway. This isn’t one of the ‘well known’ Swiss Mountain lines, but excellent scenery and some beautiful walks from the top station. We walked a 5.5Km loop down to the 2nd station Lally. Fantastic walk, main memory will be the fields of thousands of wild narcissi, scent was amazing (forum posts cant do smell, in general that’s probably a good thing but a shame here!)
Second last train back down the mountain; then home to the hotel at Epesses.

 

[Ant1966]

Day 4 Tue 27th May

Longer day on the trains today, as we travel from Epesses to Sestri Levante in Liguria.

Hadn’t booked any reservations for this trip; plan was to see how we felt night before. The CH<>IT direct trains require a reservation and a supplement (15Eur each, these are starting to add up ☹) and the obvious route via Brig Simplon and Domodossola seemed to have no trains at all except one leaving Lausanne at about 05:30. No through trains from Brig to Milan after that, and no local trains either. What’s going on with this international main line? Anyway, Plan C showed a possible roundabout route back to Lausanne>Luzern>Lugano>Milano C>Sestri; that just needed a 5Eur IT IC Res, so we went with that. 4 minute connection at Lugano though. With our suitcases. Yikes! Any other country I wouldn’t have considered it, but this is CH so we went for it…

Unit into Lausanne, then IC DD unit to Luzern (10 minutes late!). Back along the ‘upper line’ where we’d walked Sunday, though a tunnel then pleasant Swiss pastoral scenery via Fribourg to Bern, then onto Luzern, by which time we’d made up the 10 minutes. (Incidentally, ticket check on this train was the one and only time in the whole week that we were asked to dig out our passports)

Train onto Lugano was a double set modern pointy nosed unit thing, 16 coaches, so plenty of room to spread out though filled up a bit at Arth Goldau with Pax from the Zurich line. Nice views, though obviously not a patch on the original Gotthard line, seemed to be in Ticino in no time really; weather already warmer!

Right time arrival at Lugano; off the train and promptly down the underpass. We're getting older so not as speedy as we used to be, especially with 2 suitcases, but we made it with 2 mins to spare. Its not the quickest change, as the staircase for Platform 1 comes up in the booking hall perpendicular to the platforms IYSWIM, and I’m not 100% sure we’d have made it if we’d been right at the front or back of the 16 coaches, but with the right positioning and getting off first it was comfortable enough. A good res free route from CH<>IT, recommended.

Local unit into Milano, no luggage storage so all the tourists joined together and stowed all our cases in the bike section, using the extending straps to tie them together.

On time into Milano, 60 minute layover so off to my favourite snack bar – Spontini next to P1 (inside the barriers) for their excellent Focaccias.

IC shown a bit late, and on P21(!) so a bit of a rush to board. PP loco hauled (or pushed) stock, didn’t get class but looked like semi perm coupled? Busy train, with most seats taken and ticket check was very clear on asking for IC reservations, so for both these reasons Id not recommend an IT IC without one, except for very short hops. Train left Milano 15 late, and had a couple of stops in the middle of nowhere on the warm and somnolent plains of Lombardy, so 45 late by S-L.

Accommodation was lovely, a large old villa (family home) in the middle of the city next to a park, with some of the furninture and ornaments from the 19th Century, with a couple of the first floor rooms let out by Giovanna who has lived there her whole life and has lots of stories, knowledge (and opinions!) The sort of experience that you’d never get on a chain hotel, makes travel an interesting adventure. Anyway, train late, dinner ½ the price of CH and much better. Welcome to IT!

 

[Ant1966]

Day 5 Wed 28th May

No trains today, a beautiful walk around the headland from Sestri Levante to Riva Tregoso. Hot day, and a few climbs, but worth it for the views! We had sort of planned to get the train back from RT to SL, but we ended up in a part of RT that was almost as far from the station as it was back to SL, so just walked back (via a very welcome cold beer and focaccia in a local bar) 13.6km walk and about 300m of climbing/descent, that was plenty! Ended the day with a swim (18 degrees, so just about warm enough for us) and another nice meal. Here a few pics…

 

[Ant1966]

Day 6 Thu 26th May

Back on the trains today, braving the Cinque Terre (Tourist hordes incoming…) Local unit down to La Spezia, via the Cinque Terre (giving us a taste of the views and the general sense of the crowds) then back on a boat to Manarola. To be honest, we hadn’t really researched which of the 5 towns to visit, just picked Manarola because it was the 2nd of the 4 towns that the boat stopped at, but at the same price as the 1st, whereas the 3rd and 4th were a fair bit more expensive. As good a reason as any! La Spezia is an interesting city, with a nice vibe and not too touristy. Anyway, fair walk down to the harbour, just missed one boat but they go every hour or so, so just got our tickets for the next boat and chilled. Boat trip was lovely, via a ptretty port town (Porto Venere).

The views and ‘sense’ of the Cinque terre from the boat were 100x better than from the train (which is 80% in tunnels, 15% stopped at stations with crowds boarding/alighting). Manarolo was very pretty, also very busy. We didn’t walk out of the town (enough climbs yesterday!) but had a good look round. The sense I got was that in the towns and along the coast path you are basically going to be in crowds, (except very early late in day / season) but if you climb into the mountains you’ll probably leave 99% of the other tourists behind.

My wife and I then decided that we’d try one more town, landed on Corniglia as it’s the one the boat DIDN’T visit. Station was crowded, but the FS staff managed it all very well and the local trains were frequent (2/3 trains an hour just shuttle up and down the Cinque terre from La Spezia to Levanto, with one further tph through to Sestri Levante). A 4 minute hop to Corniglia, and we then discovered WHY the boat doesn’t dock there; the town is at the top of a hill! So one more climb in the heat, up a zig zag staircase. (Note to self: Do some more research); The town was as nice as Manarolo but with better views, just as busy though! Back down the staircase and back to SL on another unit, for our last evening swim and meal.

 

[StarCrossing]

The boat sounds great! I travelled along the coast from Pisa to Nice last year and was a bit disappointed with large sections of the journey being in tunnels. It was still a great journey though.

 

[eastwestdivide]

if you climb into the mountains you’ll probably leave 99% of the other tourists behind

Well, I visited the Cinque Terre in May, and walked the steep but scenic coast path from one village to the next, Monterosso to Vernazza. So many people on that section even then, and that was despite the fact that you have to buy a ticket to walk the path!
At the time, I wrote “It's spectacularly steep. At one point, I sat down for an eat and drink, and all you could hear was the voices of many nations huffing and puffing uphill. That was late May, and it was quite busy in places - some sections were only one direction at a time - so it must be slow going in high summer.”