Was on a train from Moscow to Warsaw and at Brest-Litovsk you had to get off the Russian train in those days and cross over to the Polish train- after a lengthy wait. Problem is I went off exploring with a mate and when we came back we found to our horror that we had crossed the border by mistake and without our passports as they were with the group. A sentry with a rifle barred our way. We determined the location of our party and attracted attention by throwing pebbles at the window which they eventually opened. We climbed to wall up a drainpipe- job done. I know this sound ridiculous and unbelievable but it is 100% true! When we arrived at Berlin we had to cross into the West via Checkpoint Charlie where the big international incident was happening that very day. For us as 16 year old British schoolboys this was pure Bulldog Drummond! Mean to put it all down some day......
Brest-Litovsk, huh? *respect* That's where they change the bogies because Poland has standard gauge and Russia has broad gauge. Only frontier I ever crossed on a train (except Eurostar) was Lille to Brussels in the early 80s, nothing noticeable there except the change in suburban railway station styling :)
Wow- great stuff. Built far later than it's styling would suggest. Would make a great hotel/spa- too good to waste. You can imagine "The Lady Vanishes" and other 30's classics. I had a wild experience in a similar place called Brest-Litovsk on the Russian/polish border in 1962. Steam trains, clouds of smoke, orange lights, sentries, a crisis in Berlin- who needs more? I also entered Italy once at the Brenner in the Orient Express to find that there was a general rail strike in Italy and the Italian government had decreed that ONLY the Orient Express should get through. Dozens of armed Italian mountain troops boarded complete with silly feathered hats and we progressed to Venice, supping champagne, as the train passed through crowds of sullen strikers at each station. Could not have made it up!
Some basic info and further links here, David :
What a fantastic building Neil- where is it exactly? Is it used? I imagine that it was pretty much a folly from conception but you have to admire it's brazen discordance with the landscape! It would be interesting to know its history! I imagine somebody went bust building it!
It's a scandal that line was ever closed, Neil. And despite all the cross-border cooperation in your area, nothing much seems to be done about it. And it's all falling slowly to pieces.. We have one of those lines around here, from Nice to Cuneo across the Italian border. It was built by the Italians when the area was theirs, it became French in 1947, and since then there's been no upkeep. It's on the list for closure I gave lower down....
At least you've got Aixoa veal stew to skoff :)
We live just north of Pau, 64, and have been here for 10 years and have had about 5 days of snow during that time! We have to content ourselves with a view of the Pyrenees which seem to have a lot of the stuff. Regarding the railways, the year before last the branch line to Oleron Sainte Marie was re-instated and we are not in a really tourist area. We use it when the family are over to go to the Lindt chocolate factory. There are plans to continue with the old line up the Ossau valley to Canfranc - a spectacular disused train station just over the border in Spain.
We live in the foothills of the Massif Central; close to the medieval, fortified village of Salers which is surrounded by the Puys. The tops of the Puys are already covered in snow and the passes are closed so long detours are necessary if we wish to travel Eastwards. Salers is a very pretty village except in Jul/Aug when its packed with coachloads of tourists. We live at about 775m. altitude and had a snowfall in early May this year. We have an excellent log-burner which at this time of year is not only a wonderful source of heat but a lovely focal point - rather than the Sat TV which seems to have nothing but celebrity/"reality"/cookery/soap and property programs; although I do watch a lot of sport and most drama series on it. Sorry - went off at a tangent there - back to the Massif: We have three small ski resorts within 90 minutes drive which give us a little bit of practice and "warm up" before we have our annual ski holiday in the Chamonix Valley. Not at Chamonix - too expensive and touristy - but a bit further up the valley at Argentiere which is a nice village with plenty of apres-ski bars and restaurants to visit after a day of hard play on the piste. At 65 yrs the body isn't quite so good at brushing off the bruises and strains from the occasional fall on hard-packed snow but a glass of hot gluvein followed by a caramel vodka seems to do the trick better than Voltaren or Deep Heat ! We enjoy being outside in all the seasons, and thoroughly recommend getting out there to all fellow seniors and you younger folk.
I once followed a woman up to her city in the north of Norway. I have nothing against cold. I have bare footed it in the snow and ice in the Alps but up there the wind makes the average chef's knife seem blunt, so sharp is it. Almost fortuitously my romance was short lived, perhaps the passion blown away and shredded by that wind. So when I read about these near tropical places....
Thank you for the list, Ian. It certainly makes depressing reading. What a sad business it all is. And jings, that photo! Oh my giddy aunt, as my grandma used to say. It's like Buffalo, November 2014.
Oh, and I once spent a night at Dunières which is near to the Haute-Loire border in the Velay area, in the middle of winter. I'm used to cold, living in the Hautes-Alpes, but this was f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g....
Here's the full list of menaced lines as it stands. Plenty in the Massif Central, and plenty round my way too, especially Livron-Aspres-sur-Buëch, which doesn't give the full meaning ; this is the way direct trains from Paris or Lyon come and go to our region, including the night sleeper (one of the few left) on which we rely for an enormous number of ski resort clients who don't want to drive (especially by the Lautaret Pass, see earlier discussion). Lop off this line and they will lop off a good deal of winter tourism... katta-stroff indeed.