Genuine winter
For a few weeks now, Europe has been covered in snow, both disrupting the life of many and bringing joy to as many others. For me, the snow has for the most part brought joy. The world just seems to be a more peaceful place when it’s covered in a layer of white. There have, however, been a few times where my plans had to be changed due to the weather conditions.
On Thursday, December 17, snow put a hold to the entire country within a few hours. As around 10 centimeters of snow fell within a few hours, traffic came to a halt. Trains stopped running due to points becoming inoperable by snow jamming moving parts. Road traffic experienced delays as the roads became slippery. My colleagues started worrying whether I’d make it to work, but my train was one of the last still running, albeit a few minutes delayed. Soon a lot of people trying to get home got stuck at Utrecht’s train station. And everyone got hungry or thirsty eventually, which meant that, on one of my first shifts, conditions were far from normal. The store and the rest of the station was full of people, whilst queues at the register were as long as queues could be. In a way, this made my shift fairly easy: put everyone behind their register and be as fast as you can. To avoid getting stuck along the way myself, I slept at my girlfriend’s that night, who lives in Utrecht. With city buses running normally, I didn’t experience any delays.
The week after, I was forced to cancel two appointments. The first, dinner with a friend, was cancelled out of fear of not getting home afterwards. With snow still falling, the railway company advised people not to travel if possible, as they were unable to guarantee arrival at your destination. I had to cancel the other appointment, my little nephew’s birthday party, as I had hardly slept the night before when I couldn’t get home after work. With an emergency timetable in effect, the last connection from Utrecht to Almere got cancelled without an alternative. To avoid getting stuck somewhere along the route, I decided to walk to my girlfriend’s house and sleep there, even though she was staying at my place. After three hours of sleep I walked back, carefully making my way through deep snow and over icey roads, to the train station and got home with two additional changes and 30 minutes additional journey time on a direct, 40 minute train ride. I didn’t think I’d live through another twice 2-hour train journey and a screaming 5-year-old nephew that day.
Instead of going to the dinner I decided to go outside and enjoy the snow while it lasted. As trains were running according to an emergency timetable, with just two all-stations services on every line, and many additional changes necessary, I opted for the bus which would take me directly to Hilversum as I noticed all buses to be running. After forty minutes of waiting on a bus that should run every 30 minutes, it seemed my bus line was the only one not running due to snowy conditions, which then forced me to hop on a train after all. Instead of the woods near Hilversum, I got out of the train at Baarn, thereby avoiding an additional change of trains. After I had called Hecubah to meet me at Baarn rather than Hilversum, I walked into the snow-covered woods, something that’s rarely to be seen in the Netherlands in recent years. I was glad I was wearing army-style boots, as sneakers would have resulted in wet and cold feet within minutes. After walking around for half an hour, Hecubah called she had arrived at the train station. We met up at restaurant De Generaal for a hot drink, as we would have missed our twice hourly train by a few minutes anyway.
After nearly a week of heavy snowfall, it seemed that people had gotten used to the chaos that resulted of it. Less people were passing through Utrecht’s main station and those who did were calm, even though only one in four trains was running. After a week of very limited train service and an advice not to travel whenever possible, most of the trains were finally reinstated, but still, a month on, not all trains are running. Although I’m sure the past month has not been economically good for the country, I can say I absolutely loved the snow, the change of scenery and wouldn’t mind some more snow in the months to come!
Tags: snow, Traveling, winter, work