A long trip home

Fridaymorning, just after entering the train, I read this warning in the newspaper to not leave the house if not necessary. Oh well, I was already on my way and the weather did not look bad. It was a bit windy and there was some wet snow, but nothing really bad. In Amsterdam it wasn’t even snowing anymore, but somehow everybody was running to work (some really strong winds were blowing everybody to work) As the day moved on the weather got better and it even stopped being that windy. But then I got a little phonecall from home. The trains to Apeldoorn did not go anymore and the ones from Amsterdam to Utrecht did not go as well. And besides that it was snowing like hell in Apeldoorn. The snow was already 10 centimetres high. A little later I started to listen to the news. There was still about 600 kilometres of traffic jam through the Netherlands. A little later it was like 700 kilometres and when I left the office there was already about 800 kilometres. A new record. People who were in the morning traffic jams were still there in the afternoon. Some people where in the traffic jam for 10 hours and were still waiting. In the meantimes I was waiting for the news that some trains would start move again in the east direction. As soon as I got the mews it would start moving again, I left the office. When I arrived at the train station the train was delayed with 5 minutes, but a little later I heard that it would not go. So we had to run to another train. When in, it took like another 20 minutes before we would move, because they were not able to close the doors. In the meantime it was getting warm and cosy in the train. I was really lucky I was able to sit. Everybody was talking with each other and it was really close from that people would start singing Sinterklaas songs.

A little before Bussum (normally a 15 tot 20 minutes ride) we had to wait for a while because there was another train in front of us that had to be towed away. From Bussum to Amersfoort we had to stop at every station, because we were the only train. But, as we were completely filled, a lot of people had to wait outside for the next train. In Amersfoort (more then 1,5 hours later) I saw the train to Apeldoorn, completely empty. Together with hundreds of people we run to the train ( I was again able to sit) and watched for at least 10 more minutes people run from the stairs. I realised how extremely lucky I was. I heard stories of people who were already travelling for 5 or 6 hours and who have seen the whole country because they got cut of all the time. They had seen already 12 trains. Thirty minutes later I was at Apeldoorn station. The pile of snow was amazing and as they were not able to clean the station, everybody was helping each other to get from the platform. Even the way home (through the shopping street) was really slippery. A little before nine I got home. As I switch on the television, I saw how enormous the chaos was.

Saturday I heard that the last traffic jam took till 6 o’clock to disappear (can you imagine how cold they must have been). While in the train I had some thought about how stupid it was to leave Amsterdam. I could have been stuck somewhere as well. But everything turned out well. Next problem was getting to Zeeland, Kruiningen to Anna’s graduation party. The mainroad was blocked and also the trains weren’t going anywhere close…. Well, more about this later.

Chao