Ingrid's world adventure - From Spain to Austria and Hungary

Staff member: Ingrid // Trip date: Sep 2011

Ingrid's world adventure - From Spain to Austria and Hungary

We had pre-reserved our tickets for the Elipsos Trenhotel, also known as the Talgo Night train, from Barcelona to Zurich. This train also travels from Spain (Barcelona & Madrid) into Paris, Milan & Geneva. We had booked a Gran-classe room for two which is the best class on board the train. It includes both dinner & breakfast on board. But more about that a little later on.

The train itself leaves from Barcelona Franca station which is down by the port of Barcelona in the city centre. Very easy to get to/from if you are staying in the city centre but only some trains to/from France and the Elipsos arrive/depart from here.

We took the metro down to the station as we were feeling a little lazy after walking around the city all day. We couldn't be bothered lugging our backpacks in the 35 degree heat down to the station.
When we arrived at the station we had to queue up to put our luggage through an x-ray machine before walking to the platforms. Around 30 minutes prior to departure they started boarding the train. They checked everyones passports and tickets prior to boarding and we were then directed to our carriage. On arrival at our carriage we were shown to our room by the conductor who then took our passports for the evening for safe keeping. We were advised by wait staff soon after departure that we were welcome to come to the dining room at any time for dinner however if they were full then we would have to wait until a table was available to be seated. We had no issues when we arrived at the restaurant carriage which was conveniently located directly next to our carriage.

Our Gran classe tickets granted us free drinks and three course menu to choose from. We chose from a list of 5-6 dishes for each course. We were served a glass of champagne to start with and then could choose from wines, beer, spirits or softdrinks to have with our dinner. The food was lovely and we felt like we could have been sitting in any regular restaurant, except that this one ever so slightly rocked from side to side. When we returned to our cabin our beds had been made up. Our rooms consisted of an upper and lower bunk as well as a bathroom with basin, toilet and shower. The shower is actually a seperate shower and not one over the top of the toilet as can be the case on some overnight trains. We were provided with an amenities pack each which contained anything you could have needed for that evening including toothbrush & paste, comb, shaver & cream, shampoo, soap etc... We both had a great nights sleep and awoke in the morning to the smells of breakfast cooking in the restaurant car. Breakfast is available from 6am in the morning. Again like dinner our breakfast was included in the price of our reservations and we had a continental breakfast with a choice of having the hot item of the day as well. On that day it was an omlette with bacon which I had. The continental breakfast consisted of fruit, yoghurt, croissant or bread roll, jams, juice and tea or coffee.

Our train arrived into Zurich right on time and we easily found the signs to the information/ticket office at the end of the platform. We decided that we should double check about reserving the next train we were taking from Zurich to Vienna as whilst it is not compulsory it is recommended. We went up to the ticket window and were informed by the lady that for first class she did not think it was necessary for today as the train was not very full but then said that actually due to trackwork she was unable to book us any tickets anyway. So we should just board the train when it arrives and take any seat in 1st class. There was just one 1st class carriage on the whole train and sure enough almost all passengers waiting got on 2nd class. There were just a small handful in 1st class. We were served a free welcome juice & chocolate bar and given a menu from which we could order any additional food we wished to buy and it was brought to our seat. We were also told once we were on the train what the situation was with the trackwork we had earlier heard about in Zurich. The conductor explained it all to us very clearly and said we would need to get off the train at a particular station and would then take a replacement bus service to the station where the train would start from again. This all proved to run very smoothly. The coaches were nice and air-conditioned and took us through the Austrian countryside for an hour to the next station where the train was waiting for us to arrive. We were 30 minutes late in leaving that station however the Railjet train managed to make up the time and when we arrived in Vienna we were exactly on time.

Vienna was a bit of a spontaneous decision for us on the trip as really we just had two nights to wait until we were due in Budapest for a music festival so we decided Vienna was a good place to break the journey. We were very glad we did as we had a really great couple of nights there. I highly recommend taking advantage of the free city bike system they have. You simply register at one of the machines at any of the terminals dotted around the city using your credit card. You are charged a 1 Euro registration fee and then you are free to hire a bike. As long as you return the bike to one of the many terminals within an hour then you are not charged for the hiring time. So what we did was simply used the bike to get from one place to the next, dropped it off looked around then when we were ready picked up another bike to ride to the next place. As the city is not large it was very easy to always ensure we dropped off the bike within an hour and it was a great way to see the city and get a bit of exercise at the same time.

When we left Vienna we had pre-booked the next Railjet service as we were a bit worried that considering a music festival was about to start in Budapest that day perhaps the trains would be really full. We were glad we did as there were only a handful of 1st class seats un-reserved and when I looked at 2nd class it looked almost completely full. So whilst if there were no seats left we could have still got on the train and just stood up it wouldn't have been much fun for the three hour trip. Like the last Railjet service we received a free welcome drink and chocolate bar as well as the opportunity to order meals from our seat if we wished. The journey was comfortable but this time we ran a little late due to border control. We ended up arriving in Budapest around 20 minutes late.

More staff stories

Go to staff stories page