Train Station
A long held ambition of mine is to take more train trips. I do make a lot of train trips but these are usually on cross country Birmingham to London. I want to take the Trans-Siberian railway to Mongolia; I want to spend days on the train finding it’s rhythm. I want to take the train from Settle to Carlisle and see what is supposed to be the most beautiful route in England. I want to travel by train across a border. I want to take a sleeper train.
In Slovenia we took some time out from snowboarding for a trip to Ljubljana. I have been to Ljubljana before and loved it. It is a beautiful romantic city with old buildings and a river. It is how I imagine Prague before the event of stag weekends. I wanted to take my family and show them the castle, the buildings, the square…It lies 86km from the mountain we were visiting and the travel rep offered a trip. We’re not trip people, we didn’t want the sightseeing tour, or the coach or the guide. I visited the tourist information office and got bus and train timetables. We took the local bus, which was interesting…giving us a view of the countryside and small towns. Amusingly when we got to Ljubjana I didn’t remember it in any detail leading my husband to ask..where did you go when you said you were in Ljubjana?
On the return journey we decided to take the train (and the bus…the train didn’t go to the correct part of the mountains). It was wonderful. We arrived at the station slightly late and rushed due to travelling with a small dancing boy. My husband got tickets and we rushed for the train. The station platforms are low to the ground and the railway is not fenced of the way it is in England. There were gates along the railway and we cut across the tracks to get to our platform. The train was high with big meatle vertical steps to climb into the carriage. The carriages were divided into compartments with big wooden doors, sprung seats and individual lighting. We travelled across the country stunned by the beautiful snowy country side unveiling itself along the tracks. The buildings disappeared and we saw great expanses of farm land, rivers, snow and in the distance, mountains. We watched the sun set as we speeded along. My husband read to us; a story about a dragon.
The compartment had high luggage racks and Tempest said ‘I almost wish I could ride up there’. I remembered catching the train in London with my (real) dad and him lifting me up into the racks and lying behind the suitcases. Unfortunately I feel unable to lift my son so neatly and I’m nervous of the foreign guard. We get off the train and exit the station through an old building with tiled walls and no star-bucks. It reminded me of stations preserved at Keighly and along the Worth Valley but without the fake good cheer and cleanliness. To our relief we climb straight onto a bus and back for tea.
