Riding trains in the United Kingdom

Riding trains in the United Kingdom

We took a train from London to the City of York the evening before the Royal Wedding. My sissy was the consummate planner and had already bought us first class tickets. Since none of us had ever ridden the rail-system before we wanted to get there a bit early to learn our way around. We left out of the King’s Cross Station.

Riding trains in the United Kingdom first class was quite the experience. See our journey on the L5x5 blog!

I’m so glad we did get there early. We learned that they don’t assign which gate will be assigned to your train until about 10 minutes before it arrives due the massive amount of trains coming and going out of the station (I think we learned it was every two minutes a train came and went). As we waited for ours, each time a new gate assignment came up, people became huge cattle herds stampeding for their train. It was ‘get out of the way or get ran over’. When our gate came up, we ran just like everyone else, especially since we learned that the train is literally in the station for 10 minutes, and it doesn’t wait for no one. It takes off quickly. We had luckily asked a gate attendant ahead of time where we put our luggage on the train since we knew some of our pieces were too large for any sort of over-head bins. So the guys took the large suitcases and took them to the rear car where they stow larger items, and Val and I ran to find our seats. We made it okay, but it was a bit stressful as a first time train rider.

Riding trains in the United Kingdom first class was quite the experience. See our journey on the L5x5 blog!

It was awesome to see how fast we were moving. When we went through tunnels though, it was a bit difficult to get used to the high pitch screech that occurs. It was almost deafening. The other part that was hard to get used to was other trains going the opposite direction next to your railway. The train goes by so fast (and comes up on you so fast) that depending on if you are sitting near a window and happen to be sightseeing, you literally jump out of your seat when it whizzes by so suddenly. They all had a good laugh at my expense.

Riding trains in the United Kingdom first class was quite the experience. See our journey on the L5x5 blog!

But we also had a good laugh at someone else’s expense, who will remain nameless, but who’s initials are CS. Apparently, the instructions on how to lock the bathroom door are posted quite largely for a reason. Step number 3 is key…AFTER 3 seconds, the lock button will flash, then push the lock button.

Riding trains in the United Kingdom first class was quite the experience. See our journey on the L5x5 blog!

Since this is my only post about our train experience I wanted to go ahead and include pics from our 2nd train ride too, when we left York to head to Edinburgh in Scotland. The York train station was much less stressful than King’s Cross in London.

Riding trains in the United Kingdom first class was quite the experience. See our journey on the L5x5 blog!

Since leaving London was dark, it wasn’t until we were going from York to Edinburgh that we were really able to see some landscape. And it was amazing. On this trip from York to Edinburgh the train goes right by the ocean. And the fields of yellow Canola flowers are so beautiful.

Riding trains in the United Kingdom first class was quite the experience. See our journey on the L5x5 blog!

No trip would be normal if there weren’t at least a few ‘finger’ photos….as we sat at our table and played cards on the train. Riding in first class was fun. It was better than possibly standing in the other cars. And the food is really rather good. Way better than airplane food. If I were a commuter, as we did see people who looked like they were commuters, you can sleep, have dinner on your way home, or open up your laptop and do a bit of work. All in all, I liked our train experience.

Riding trains in the United Kingdom first class was quite the experience. See our journey on the L5x5 blog!

Val and Rob were holding out their camera to take a picture of themselves together as we were about to stop in Edinburgh. I think I was coming back from the restroom and I ran up and got myself into their portrait. Rob noticed and started to laugh!

I’ll start my next post about our time in York before we head into my Scotland posts. And not to be left out, I will be coming back to some London topics such as food and pubs/ale and a few odd travel tips!

Riding trains in the United Kingdom first class was quite the experience. See our journey on the L5x5 blog!

 

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