A Twelve Hour Train Ride to Krakow

Monday 15th - Tuesday 16th April 1985

During the lengthy pause to this narrative I've been fortunate enough to have received copies of not only our actual itinerary, as recorded during the trip by Bob, but also the Original Plan devised by Mark, a copy of which Bob had also kept. 

I've already mentioned one or two deviations from the plan, brought about by necessity and there were more to follow.  It's important to realise that we had been unable to obtain a Polish railway timetable or decent map of the country. Much of the planning was based on unofficial ("samizdat" as we called them) publications compiled by British railway enthusiasts who had visited the country and recorded what they saw. As such, it was occasionally inaccurate and always out-of-date. It's a wonder we got anywhere and saw anything!

Mark's Plan had us arriving back in Leipzig to drop off the hire car in the early evening, which we managed to do, and then suggested "Dinner and a Pub Crawl" before catching the 2208 overnight express to Kraków. In reality, to get a meal and a few drinks in just over two hours in the DDR was a rather optimistic plan. Pubs and restaurants were few and far between and the service in them was slow, with long waiting times both to place an order and between placing it and delivery. We were never sure whether this was a deliberate policy in state-run outlets to reduce excessive drinking or whether it was just the staff taking advantage of the "jobs for life" and zero-unemployment policy of the government to have an easy life in the knowledge they wouldn't be sacked.  Whatever the reason it meant that the only place we could be sure of getting a) A meal, b) A beer or two and c) a train to Poland would be in the station buffet at Leipzig Hauptbahnhof.  Whether or not we actually ate there, however, was not recorded.

Leipzig Hauptbahnhof Station Buffet

Suitably fed and watered we caught train no. D499 - the Berlin - Kraków sleeping car express, which left Leipzig at 2208 (The Plan) or 2212 (as recorded by Bob). On departure from Leipzig the train had an electric locomotive on the front, but in the middle of the night, at the German border station of Forst this was replaced by a Polish steam loco. We all got out on to the platform to watch, but given the sensitive nature of the location none of us dared to take a photo. Instead, we re-boarded and enjoyed the idea of travelling through the night on perhaps the last remaining steam-hauled international sleeping-car express in Europe!

To be truthful, I don't remember much else about the journey until our arrival in Kraków at 10.05 the next morning where we were greeted by the sight of a man selling pizza slices on the platform. My first reacton was that I didn't fancy pizza for breakfast, but Mark reminded me of the difficulties we had had finding food on our previous visit, so pizza for breakfast it was.

We spent the rest of the day playing at being tourists in Kraków, which in those days saw only a fraction of the number of visitors it does now.  We saw the usual sights of the cathedral and the old town square

The Cathedral

The main square

We also visited the market, parts of which had a third-world look about them.

Flower seller in the market

But inevitably as transport enthusiasts the highlight for us was the city's extensive - and busy -  tramway system

We were particularly impressed by the control tower for the tramway (top right)

By lunchtime we were ready for more food and, perhaps, the odd beer or two. The food proved fairly easy to find (although most of the items on the menu were "off") and we thought we'd hit the jackpot on the beer front as well, having to step over several crates of the stuff in the doorway of our chosen café.  But a request for beer to accompany the meal was met with a refusal.  There wasn't any available!  "But...", we said, pointing to the doorway!   The answer was still no, and it was only much later  that we found out that alcohol was not served until after 2pm in an attempt to make sure that workers going out for lunch returned to their workplaces sober. But in case you think this sounds bizarre, bear in mind that at the same time in the UK the pubs all closed soon after 2pm until evening time for much the same reason.

For all its attractions, Kraków had nothing much to offer in the way of steam engines, so after a hard - and sober - day's tourism we boarded train 3705 in the late afternoon for the 106km journey to the industrial town of Gliwice. We didn't expect anything much in the way of tourist attractions here and, in fact, the town is nowadays twinned with Doncaster, which might tell you all you need to know about it.

We arrived there early in the evening, which is when the fun began...

to be continued.....