My European Adventure: Part 7: Overnight Train to Switzerland: The Journey to Luzern

Hey guys! Welcome back! It's been quite a bit since my last installment, but today we will pick up where we left off, as I was on my way to catch my train towards Switzerland!

I was nervous. I burned my mouth trying to scoff down the delicious french fries I just got from a stand as my last meal in Amsterdam, before my overnight 14 hour train journey. After that, I hurried towards Amsterdam Centraal. I wanted to be sure I had enough time, as this would be my first time riding the euro rail, and figuring everything out.

I went to the counter and made sure my mobile ticket would be enough for the trains and then made my way to the platform. There's trains coming and going, and I'm not sure how to tell and make sure which one is mine, oh, and did I mention I have a 5 minute layover on the next train? Talk about nerves.

I spot a conductor of another train and ask him for a few tips and mention my really short layover and my concerns, and to my surprise, he invites me onto his train, saying I can get there earlier to have an extra 10 minutes to make my connection. I really can't say enough of the kind and helpful people I met along this journey that went out of their way to help this foreign traveler on his journey. He also explained a bit more how the trains work and how the layovers are actually longer than they appear on the ticket usually, and that the trains are very exact on their time and rarely late, which will be ironic later in this story.

I make it to Arnham with time to spare, and find the platform for my next train to Duisburg, Germany. I find an empty car and make myself comfortable. Shortly after the conductor comes through checking tickets, I scan mine and get back to resting. Soon another comes by, and he just looked like a real stickler for the rules and such, and I had my feet up on the other seat. He looks at me, looks at my feet, pauses and just says "No". I put my feet down and we start chatting a bit, I tell him how cheap the trains are here compared to America and tell him about my journey and that I'm switching in Duisburg. He looks at me and says I should go to a pub, and I'm assuming it's because they have nice bars there or something. I tell him I don't drink, and he says well go somewhere with lots of people, there's a lot of shady people at this station late at night and it can be dangerous. Great. This ought to be fun, as if I don't already have enough to worry about.

I arrived at Duisburg, as seen in the photo above, and decided I'd go explore around the station for a bit, seeing as I had about an hour and a half to kill. The station was a bit sketchy, and there was no information areas or ticket counters or anything, which you'll see why that matters soon. So I finally get to the front of the station, and I do see a group of police officers searching a couple of men and ultimately arresting them after back up came.

I walked down the main street for a bit, and everything was pretty dead, seeing as it was around midnight. But I came across a Dominos Pizza and it was open, so, as they say, When in Duisburg, get Dominos! So I go in, order a small cheesy bread pizza thing and have a chat with the guys working there. They spoke pretty good English. They told me Duisburg is pretty boring, and at night, there's nothing to see, so I headed back to the station.

Back at the station, I sit down and start to eat my pizza thing, only to hear an announcement come over the loudspeaker, but of course, it's in German. But I did make out "Basel, Switzerland" which was my next stop over, so this got my attention. I went over to a German man and asked if he spoke English and could translate for me. He said my train was 15 minutes late, phew, just 15 minutes, right? No, FIFTY MINUTES, 5 0 minutes. WHAT?! My layover is only 30 minutes! Oh man, what do I do? What can I do? What happens if I miss my train? Plus, this is an overnight train, so the later it is, the less sleep time I get, and I have no hostel in Luzern. Now what?

As it's still sinking in that I'm stuck at this station for at least another hour into the night, the more I think of what the conductor said, about it being dangerous. I then look at the only bench near my train platform and there's a guy sitting there with a bunch of tattoos; face, neck, all over. Great. Just great...

I go sit on the bench. I look at my phone for a few minutes and keep to myself. Then I figure I should gauge the situation and speak to him. I ask him what train he was waiting for, and it turns out we're waiting for the same train. I then ask him if he heard the announcement, and when he said no, I explained to him that the other man told me our train is late by an hour so far. He realized he's screwed too for his layover to Bern. We keep chatting more and it turns out he's a tattoo artist originally from Colombia! I tell him about my time in Medellin and he tells me that before this trip, he was working and living on a floating hostel in the Caribbean! How amazing! He showed me a few photos of it, as well as some of his parkour videos.

We chatted away the time and our train had finally shown up. We boarded and shared a double seat section, stowed our bags between us, and tried to get to sleep as quickly as possible.

Next thing we know, we're woken by Swiss customs patrol as they board the train to do inspections. We hand over our passports and they ask a few questions. I look at my watch and we actually arrived on time! Which was good and bad. Good because I'm on schedule and don't have to wait for a later train, but I did lose an hour of sleep, so instead of 7 hours, I got about 6. But customs wasn't done with my new friend yet, they wanted to search his bag. The woman is pulling out his tattoo equipment and he explains to her what they're for and she understands and he begins to repack his bag.

We get ready to leave the train, but I said first we need a selfie!

We say our goodbyes and head to our different platforms, his to Bern, mine to Luzern, and I feel the toughest parts of this first train journey are over, but there was still one more hurdle left.

I have about 40 minutes or so in Basel before my train to Luzern departs. And after all my train hopping, stressful moments and sleeping, I hadn't used the bathroom in quite a while, and well, it finally caught up with me. I searched for bathrooms, but couldn't find one anywhere. I finally asked someone and they told me where to go, and I still couldn't find them. I asked another and they explained in more detail and they were a bit of a walk to get to. I finally get to them, and discover that you have to pay to use them, and it wasn't cheap. It was about 2 dollars I believe or something like that.

First, I'm on a budget and I don't really want to spend that. Second, I'm cashless, with $0 Swiss francs, so I couldn't even if I wanted to. Great. What to do? So I head back to the trains and think about getting change. Then I decide I'd just hop on a train and use the bathroom on board, and hope it doesn't take off while I'm in there.

Mission accomplished. Soon after I board my train to my destination of Luzern, as dawn breaks over the horizon. Simply beautiful.

I arrive in Luzern about 30 minutes later, and my first train journey is complete! I go to an ATM and take out 20 Swiss francs, and decided while I'm here I should talk to the ticket counter about my ticket to my next destination that evening, as it's even more complicated with about 4 layovers and some as little as 3 minutes.

I take a number and wait, and then a young man calls me over. I tell him my concerns, and show him my tickets. He tells me I actually have an unlimited day pass so I could leave whenever I want, even before my scheduled train. I then ask about the layovers, and he tells me that 2 minutes is plenty of time and the trains are very exact. I then tell him how my previous train was an hour late, to which he responds "Well, yeah, that was a German train, we don't do that here". Tu che, sir. He proceeds to tell me how he has never missed a layover, and then prints up a platform list for my connecting trains, which eases my mind even more so.

Well, with all that out of the way, it's time to enjoy my 1 day in Luzern! But that will have to be next time, as this installment is long enough already, right?

I hope you enjoyed this installment, and had some take aways from my experiences, the biggest being, not to judge a book by it's cover, otherwise we make strangers or even enemies of those who otherwise should be friends.

I know there wasn't too many photos in this piece, but next time I'll make up for that while we have a look at the city of Luzern, a beautiful and old city, and find out what makes it so interesting!

Until next time! And in the meantime, don't forget to follow along with me on Instagram! or check out my Website! for more of my work and to purchase prints to support my work! Thanks!

• Sean Gold

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