Gorey To Vienna (Mastodon Travel Blog)
Another slow travel trip starts from Gorey’s congested Main Street. Travelling with a 4-day Interrail Global Pass but won’t be using it for the first couple of days.
Time for lunch at the CHQ in Dublin before heading to the port.
The Irish Ferries site now has some good information on public transport options.
https://www.irishferries.com/ie-en/Travel-to-France-Specials/Ireland-France-SailRail/
A long queue for foot passenger check-in today. I guess that’s a good thing.
45mins from arrival at the port to accessing our cabin.
Lots of French students abord!!!
#IrishFerries #DublinPort #GoreyToVienna #SlowTravel #interrail
Wine tasting followed by a G&T and Apéro Spritz. It’s a tough life.
Lovely smooth overnight sailing to France.
Late arrival into Cherbourg - 20mins late. Our connection for the train to Paris is going to be very tight! Will be ready to try to exchange the semi-flex tickets in the Trainline app…
The bad news, we missed our train. The good news, it was easy to exchange the tickets (before the original departure) on the Trainline app. The bad news, the exchange cost another €77.90 on top of 50% of the original €76.35 excluding service fees.
The good news, lunch in Cherbourg!
On our 14:43 train now to Paris - arriving at 18:01.
Unfortunately, the taxi rank at the ferry terminal was empty when we did make it through passport control and the sign displaying the phone number had disappeared since last year. By the time we found the number for the taxi service time was against us.
On the plus side there is now a weather shelter at the taxi rank and we did meet a lovely German lady that we shared a taxi with.
The taxi driver was lovely too. Took a convoluted route to the train station but explained in English, without prompting, that he was avoiding a a traffic jam. The fare was €10 for 3 people and 3 items of luggage in the boot.
The driver said it’s a flat fare - so €10 regardless of the number of passengers and luggage. It’s 50% more between 19:00 and 07:00 and Sundays. #IrishFerries #GoreyToVienna #SlowTravel #interrail
Unfortunate French name for a flap-down seat on a train - see highlighted word in screenshot.
I think I’d prefer to stand!
From the website: https://www.maplaceabord.com/maplacelibre
Arrival into Paris St Lazare at 18:01, 31 hours after leaving home in Gorey.
Taking it easy here too. Next train tomorrow lunchtime.
Day 3, first day of our 4-Day Interrail Global Pass.
And we’ve hit a problem straight away. 20 mins before departure our 13:51 train (9575) from Paris Gare De L’Est to Stuttgart Hbf is displayed as cancelled.
Quick dash to the Grandes Lignes Billeterie to be faced with a long queue to even access the office.
Thankfully a staff member outside was on hand to tell everyone to use the 15:12 train (9563) with the same tickets. Hopefully this will work out!
Now on the packed 15:12.
Instructed to take the first train set and take any seat in First Class. But it’s an ICE train and not a TGV and of course there are no first class seats left. We did get dining car seats so at least we’re not standing!
So we have to change in Karlsuhe to ICE 1069. Even my wife, who has good hearing, couldn’t make out the announcements in any of the three languages in which they were made. The train manager was very helpful when I went to ask him in person.
Bonjour Strasbourg and au revoir to our lovely Strasbourg passengers and hello to their lovely first class seats!
Smooth connection at Karlsruhe. ICE 1069 is nice and quiet. Onwards to Stuttgart!
Alcohol
Train travel has its perks! Speisen und getränken
Sunny biergarten right beside Stuttgart HBF.
Luckily we had planned for a long connection here.
And we’re away on the NightJet to Venice.
No we didn’t confuse Venice and Vienna - we’re just taking a bit of a detour.
Breakfast on the NightJet.
Very welcome after a night of rocking and rolling across southern Germany and alpine Austria.
On time arrival into Venice (08:34) to be greeted with checks for the new Venice pass.
We’re staying here two nights so we were able to download exemption passes.
Arrivederci Venezia!
Two and a half wonderful days in a city people either love or loathe. We were lucky to have great weather, accommodation, food, drink and experiences.
Now settling in for almost 8 hours on the ÖBB Railjet 130 direct from Venice to Vienna.
Venice is expensive and over-run by tourists, of which we of course were two, but it’s also unique, beautiful, sometimes olfactorily challenging and seemingly losing its battle with the rising sea.
A few places were especially good value during our stay.
1) Hotel Ca’Pisani - expensive but nevertheless did everything well and it’s in a great location in Dorosoduro.
2) Peggy Guggenheim Collection - the entrance fee of €16 is worth it just to see the villa in its waterside location on the Grand Canal. Soak in the art, atmosphere and prolong your visit with a coffee in the garden.
3) Al Vecio Marangon - a very small traditional Italian restaurant hidden away in backstreets near the Accademia. Mid-range prices but fair for the quality of food and service. Try the Lasagne dello Chef but don’t expect any meat.
Bacaro Al Raveno - Bacaro’s are small Venetian bars selling drinks and cicchetti (small snacks). This was
one that we stumbled upon near the Rialto bridge. Very nice relaxed lunchtime vibe - Apéro Spritz €5,
cicchetti €2 and €3 each.
#GoreyToVienna #SlowTravel #Venice #interrail
This is travel day 2 of our 4-day interrail pass and we’re only taking one train, albeit almost 8 hours long.
Originally I had booked the NightJet between Venice and Vienna but about 16 days ago I cancelled that with a 100% refund. This was only possible up to 15 days in advance. Then it drops to 50% up to 1 day in advance. The NightJet is expensive and inflexible when it comes close to the departure date.
Taking the day train works out cheaper and more flexible.
Each interrail travel day is costing €71.20 when the interrail discount on Irish Ferries is taken out (€41.20 ~30% of base foot passenger fare)
A seat reservation on this train was €3 but there was a gotcha of €15 Tarviso supplement to also be paid. So that’s a total of €89.20.
Without the pass, the day I made the seat reservation an equivalent semi-flex ticket was coming up as €165.
Tarvisio Boscoverde - last station in Italy.
Scheduled 8 min stop. Lots of police and army personnel at this internal Schengen border
Willkommen in Wien!
Nice hotel room view of Vienna Hbf
Starting the long journey home from beautiful Vienna.
Top tip: if you want to see high quality opera for a relative pittance. 10am on the day of the performance standing tickets are released at the box office of Vienna State Opera.
We arrived at 9:58am and were about 8th in the queue. Balcony standing €13 each for the “sold out” performance at 6pm.
Warner’s Lohengrin was great for the first two acts until our legs gave in.
When an 8 hour journey is too short - only 1h40 left until we reach Zurich and that’s too soon.
Does it count if you only transit through a country?
Breakfast time Zürichsee
Interrail travel day 4/4
Zürich HB to Cherbourg via Paris (1h21m to connect from Gare De Lyon to Gare St Lazare)
#GoreyToVienna #zurich #paris #cherbourg #SlowTravel #interrail
Let’s frame this positively:
A seat reservation option for people who pull the window blind down on a train so that they can watch a movie without glare on their large screened device.
It could be a “cine-seat” in a dark gloomy carriage - no need for windows.
#GoreyToVienna #zurich #paris #cherbourg #SlowTravel #interrail
8mins late into Gare De Lyon.
Metro line 14 direct to Gare St Lazare.
20mins from one main line concourse to the other. Plenty of time to shop for food for the foodless train to Cherbourg. Loaded Navigo cards are essential!
Platform gates were a problem - picked up Apple Pay instead of scanning QR code (hopefully Apple will introduce a setting to disable NFC soon!). Station staff on-hand to scan manually though so all good.
#GoreyToVienna #zurich #paris #cherbourg #SlowTravel #interrail
I wonder do train companies test their recorded announcements on customers?
I’m finding the announcements in American grating. YMMV.
#GoreyToVienna #zurich #paris #cherbourg #SlowTravel #interrail
The German announcements are sounding positively mellifluous in comparison.
#GoreyToVienna #zurich #paris #cherbourg #SlowTravel #interrail
Minute perfect on-time arrival into Cherbourg.
3,194km of train travel in France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland (and Liechtenstein) come to an end 🥲
#GoreyToVienna #zurich #paris #cherbourg #SlowTravel #interrail
After a lovely morning in Cherbourg where a nerd like me decides to walk to the ferry terminal to see how feasible it would be with luggage.
Bad news - don’t attempt to walk from Cherbourg Ferry Terminal to Cherbourg Gare SNCF with wheeled luggage. If you’re fit and have a backpack allow at least 45mins. It took me 35mins with no luggage.
The main problem is the pedestrian short-cut is closed due to redevelopment works.
#GoreyToVienna #dublin #IrishFerries #cherbourg #SlowTravel #interrail
On a Sunday, a taxi is the only reasonable option as the bus only runs Monday to Saturday.
Earlier in this thread, I remarked that the Irish Ferries SailRail page had good information. Unfortunately, it’s now a bit out-of-date. The walk to bus isn’t wheeled luggage friendly and it’s a 10 mins walk with no luggage
https://www.irishferries.com/ie-en/Travel-to-France-Specials/Ireland-France-SailRail/
#GoreyToVienna #dublin #IrishFerries #cherbourg #SlowTravel #interrail
The works seem to be for a new rail freight terminal. As far as I can tell, the old pedestrian shortcut is gone for good. Hopefully, a new pedestrian route is part of the redevelopment plans.
The sign about the works says they will be complete by the end of June 2024. I don’t think they will make that deadline.
https://portsdenormandie.fr/fr/projets/cherbourg/terminal-de-ferroutage
#GoreyToVienna #dublin #IrishFerries #cherbourg #SlowTravel #interrail
A busy day in Cherbourg Port
#GoreyToVienna #dublin #IrishFerries #cherbourg #SlowTravel #interrail
Closer to home now. Another smooth overnight sailing from Cherbourg to Dublin.
Sunny departure and arrival into typical Dublin grey.
#GoreyToVienna #dublin #IrishFerries #cherbourg #SlowTravel #interrail
Wexford Bus transports us to Gorey and our daughter is waiting to take us the last few miles.
Nearly everything went to plan and there were no serious hiccups thankfully.
The Interrail app supplies some nice statistics. Unfortunately, it doesn’t cover the ferry.
#GoreyToVienna #dublin #IrishFerries #gorey #SlowTravel #interrail
