We love riding trains in Europe. Usually they are comfortable, somewhat clean (depending on the country), and people are nice and helpful and usually friendly. So rather than hop from city to city by plane in Poland, I found Polrail on line (very good and useful site and helpful) and purchased tickets from them for our two inside Poland train rides, Gdansk to Krakow then Krakow to Warsaw. I had hoped originally to book tickets from Warsaw to Prague but that took too much time as did the Prague to Venice route, with too many changes of trains. Changing trains is never fun as you may only have a few minutes to get off one, figure out in the unknown foreign language which platform, drag your bags down one set of stairs and up the other set to get to said platform, and hop on the next train. No, not near as much fun as just arriving at the train station and getting on one train and staying there to your destination.
Poland is in the throes of remodeling, upgrading, reconstructing their rail system. We saw several European Union signs in various stations where it shows a whole lot of money being spent to modernize. A lot of zeros after that Euro sign. This has affected our rides a bit as the train must slow for construction or be shunted onto a side rail as another train passes through. Stations have detours getting in and out of them. As a result, none of our trains have run on time. The one on our arrival in Poland was totally cancelled and we were rerouted via bus and several other trains. In the end, it will make travel in Poland so much better I think and easier for the casual tourist to say nothing of the many Poles who use the rails as their main transportation.
We have enjoyed our riding of the rails. One gets to see the charming countryside. In Poland, there is a lot of countryside, a lot of farm land, and a lot of trees. Being officially now fall, some of the trees are changing color. Most of the fields are harvested except a few very ripe, very yellow rape fields. We mosey through the small villages. People on the platforms watch us pass as we are an express so do not make many stops. The girl comes by with a coffee cart and you can also get snacks and sandwiches, candy and chips. Sometimes the compartment even has power for the computer. No Wi Fi yet but it mght be coming with the system upgrades. There aren’t a lot of business people who travel without their computers these days. Today is my husbands last train ride on this trip. I have several more in Uzbekistan and the Ukraine. Hopefully they will be as nice.
Poland is in the throes of remodeling, upgrading, reconstructing their rail system. We saw several European Union signs in various stations where it shows a whole lot of money being spent to modernize. A lot of zeros after that Euro sign. This has affected our rides a bit as the train must slow for construction or be shunted onto a side rail as another train passes through. Stations have detours getting in and out of them. As a result, none of our trains have run on time. The one on our arrival in Poland was totally cancelled and we were rerouted via bus and several other trains. In the end, it will make travel in Poland so much better I think and easier for the casual tourist to say nothing of the many Poles who use the rails as their main transportation.
We have enjoyed our riding of the rails. One gets to see the charming countryside. In Poland, there is a lot of countryside, a lot of farm land, and a lot of trees. Being officially now fall, some of the trees are changing color. Most of the fields are harvested except a few very ripe, very yellow rape fields. We mosey through the small villages. People on the platforms watch us pass as we are an express so do not make many stops. The girl comes by with a coffee cart and you can also get snacks and sandwiches, candy and chips. Sometimes the compartment even has power for the computer. No Wi Fi yet but it mght be coming with the system upgrades. There aren’t a lot of business people who travel without their computers these days. Today is my husbands last train ride on this trip. I have several more in Uzbekistan and the Ukraine. Hopefully they will be as nice.
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