Help!

We can’t get off of the train!

Hello!

Anyone!

We can’t open the door!

If you had been standing on the empty train platform of the sleepy town of Berwick-Upon-Tweed at 10pm on a certain evening in May, you might have heard the desperate banging of four people who were trying to exit the train but could not figure out how to get the door open.

No one else seemed to want off at Berwick-Upon-Tweed, which meant we would not be stopped for long.

While I was banging on the window, I started to quickly plot out in my mind what would happen if we really could not get off. Could I get us back from the next stop at this time of night? Would the hostel stay open for us?

The cruel irony in this story is that I have become almost smug in the fact that I am an experienced train traveler.

I know when the optimal time is to book fares in order to get them at the cheapest rate (4-6 weeks).

I have a family railcard so we can save even more. (Always cheaper to travel with children!)

I always reserve great seats. (My boys like a table, which we completely cover with food, books and drinks within minutes of sitting down.)

I always bring plenty of food. (Apparently, train travel makes children hungry.)

I know how to find our platform even if the station to which we are traveling is not listed on the screen. (Look for the end of the line. If you don’t know the last stop on the line, look for a train that is leaving at your departure time.)

I know to hold on to our tickets and keep them handy for when we leave the station just in case we need to feed them through barriers in order to exit.

Of course, I learned this last one the hard way. By not having my ticket accessible (or not having it at all) when I tried to leave the station.

In fact, I have learned most of these lessons the hard way. I’ve paid too much for fares because I waited until the last minute. I’ve stood up on a train where I did not have a reserved seat. I’ve been at the wrong platform when I looked at only the city and not the time.

But apparently, I still have lessons to learn.

“Wait a minute.”

My mother’s calm voice interrupted my panic at not being able to open the door to the train.

Then she began to read the instructions above the door out loud.

“To open door: Lower window. Open door using outside handle.”

“WHAT?!!”

You have got to be kidding me.

But it worked. I lowered the window. And lo and behold, the handle on the outside of the train opened the door. We were free!

Walking up the stairs and out of the train station, we were practically falling down laughing as we pictured all the calm, collected passengers on the train hearing us yell for help.

Of course, no one could be bothered to actually help the silly Americans who apparently cannot read.

Later Taido told me that it must have been an older train we were on. All the doors used to open up that way. For safety, of course.

Flash forward to a few weeks later and I am walking the Speyside Way in Scotland with two friends from Arkansas.

We decide to take an old steam railway for the last six miles of the walk into Aviemore. The train cars are wooden and the wheels are making a clickety-clack noise that is something out of a storybook. The whole experience is absolutely drenched with charm.

When it’s time to get off the train, we head for the door and they notice that there aren’t any handles on the inside.

“I got this.” I say, as I calmly lower the window and open the train from the outside.

The post All Aboard: A Story about Trains appeared first on Alison Chino.

My mom was here for three weeks in April and May and I really wanted her to have at least a little taste of seeing somewhere besides Aberdeen.

I love train travel, so I spent a little time trying to find places that we could get to relatively easily via train and towns that could be explored on foot once we arrived.

For our mini adventure, I settled upon three days in two towns.

The first one was the coastal town of Berwick-Upon-Tweed, which is about as far north as you can get in England before crossing the border into Scotland.

(The second town was York, which I’ll get to next week.)

For now,

Let’s talk about Berwick-Upon-Tweed.

The whole town can be walked in circular on these old city walls and battlements.

A perfect playground for young boys.       

And a dreamy landscape for the mamas.         

So much charm around every corner.

Ben about drove my mama crazy, dropping down into these hideouts and then climbing all the walls.

Berwick-Upon-Tweed is reached by three different bridges. Two are for cars and one is for trains. The bridges are striking in any weather, but we found them to be especially gorgeous in the morning mist.    

The railroad bridge was made from the stones of the old castle, but you can still see where the castle used to be since some of the ruins remain.                    

After you walk the city walls, you can walk under the bridges and along the River Tweed for as long as you fancy. Berwick is a wonderful town for walking.

I wonder if this is not partly the reason it is featured prominently in the novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, which is one of my very favorite books I’ve read this year.

After a morning full of walking and playing, we went and found some lunch at this darling little restaurant, Audela.

The highlights of our meal were the Berwick Crab sandwiches.

The side streets of Berwick look like a movie set to me.

Simon thought so too.

After lunch the sun came out, so we headed to the center of town for ice cream. We also hit the shops and scored new books from a bookstore.              

We had a couple of hours to kill until our train left for York, so we took our new books to the beach to read. And we might have napped a little.  

While we were in Berwick-Upon-Tweed, we stayed at the YHA (youth hostel).

We had one of the family rooms in the courtyard where these old boots were turned into planters.

I love how YHA often creatively repurposes old buildings. This one was the old town Granary and it now also houses an art gallery.  

Ben always opts for full English breakfast when he can, and he ate every bite at our hostel.

Here’s the breakfast room + common room.  

And our bunks! Our family room for four even had its own bathroom.  

Here’s the warm welcoming desk at the Berwick-Upon-Tweed YHA. They stayed up late to check us in since our train did not come in until right at 10pm.

Our stay at the YHA Berwick was complimentary, and to be honest, I was a little nervous about taking my mama to stay in hostels, but she enjoyed our stays in Berwick and York and we all loved being in bunk rooms together. And the food of course! Everyone ate their fill!

The post Snapshots of Berwick-Upon-Tweed appeared first on Alison Chino.