Slow travel vlog | London to Amsterdam train

hello welcome to another... looking at me...first   time filming alone...it's  way more embarrassing ok so hello welcome to another sustainable travel vlog.  Today I'm at St Pancras station in london about to   take the Eurostar to Amsterdam so I've got all my  necessary covid documents like my vaccination pass   and also I've done a negative PCR test so it's  10 am now and the train leaves at 11. It takes   just over four hours but I know it can go quicker  I don't know why this one's a bit longer today   so we should arrive in Amsterdam just after 4  pm because of the time difference and the route   the train takes passes through England, France,  Belgium and the Netherlands and it stops at Lille,   Brussels, Rotterdam and Amsterdam so in this  video I'll just be showing the journey from   London to Amsterdam but I will be carrying on to  Zurich tonight on the new sleeper train so there   will be a kind of like part two to this video so  if you want you can see the entire journey from   London to Zurich via Amsterdam and the sleeper  train but for now I'm gonna head into the station   I'm in the departure lounge now everything  was fine with security I actually didn't   need as many documents as I thought I did  but maybe they're going to check them later   on in the journey so I've spoken a bit before  about how getting from London to Amsterdam by   train is actually quicker than flying and that's  because the train takes you from city centre to   city centre but when you fly you usually need to  travel to an airport which lies outside the city   and leave extra time for security and check-in  and then when you arrive you still need to get   your passport checked and also wait for  your luggage at the baggage carousel   before trekking into the city centre so when  you see that a flight is only like an hour   and 25 minutes like for Amsterdam for example  it really means a journey time of six hours in   total but taking the train depending on where  you live takes more like five hours and it's a   similar story with cost but I think I'm going  to speak about that once I'm on the train. This is the first time I'm filming on my own so  I'm a bit nervous because I don't have anyone to   like you know make me feel a bit less embarrassed  I'm also nervous about having someone sat next to   me while I'm filming which would not be ideal  but maybe the train will not be that busy The Netherlands is one of the most popular  destinations for people in the UK to travel to   and Eurostar started running direct  trains to Amsterdam in February 2018   unlike when you fly travelling  on the Eurostar means you don't   have such strict baggage restrictions,  going through security is a lot easier,   you don't have to worry about liquids being  under 100 milliliters you can bring your   own food and drink and there's also access to  wi-fi the whole way even in the channel tunnel so I bought a one-way ticket from Eurostar  which cost 68 pounds and then on top of the   tube there it was 71 pounds and when I was  checking for flights the same day it looked   like the cheapest option was going to be to  fly from Luton airport and the price looked   like it was gonna be 32 pounds but then  once I got to the end of the process and   added luggage and a seat reservation it came  to 64 pounds and then when I added the cost   of getting to and from the different  airports it was 86 pounds and I haven't   even touched upon how the two compare in terms  of carbon emissions I'll get to that in a bit   because I've travelled on this train quite a few  times I often take for granted just how incredible   it is that it goes underwater the channel tunnel  is the longest undersea tunnel in the world and in   total it's just over 50 kilometers and the section  underwater is 38 kilometres long and it's actually   made up of three tunnels all of which link England  to France two are rail tunnels used for freight   and passenger trains and the third is a service  tunnel and it only takes 20 minutes to pass   through the tunnel I also discovered that although  this tunnel was finished in 1993 there had been   discussions to have an undersea connection between  England and France in the early 1800s the tunnel   was part of the vision the Victorians had for the  transformational nature of the railways and that   connection was considered crucial to this so in  1880 the Victorians actually did start work on one   but it was never finished because of technical and  political issues at the time they were worried for   example about the risk that the tunnel would pose  if they were ever to go to war with France again   but those tunnels still exist today and there's  even some Victorian graffiti on the walls of one   of them which says this tunnel was begunug  in 1880 with a typo signed William Sharp and   apparently when plans were revisited in the  80s to build the tunnel in its current form   Margaret Thatcher wanted it to be for cars as  they represented freedom and individualism but   experts advised against it because it wouldn't  be safe so construction started in 1988 and it   took 5 years to build and was open in 1994. Safe  to say I'm happy it's for trains rather than cars taking the train from London to Amsterdam instead  of flying is so much better for the climate you   need to take almost 10 one-way trips by train to  clock up the same amount of carbon as one flight   also Eurostar trains in the Netherlands are  run off 100 percent renewable wind power and   they're trying to reach 100 percent renewable  power in England and France and Belgium too okay so we've just arrived at Amsterdam  station now it's Amsterdam Centraal station.  Thanks so much for joining me on that leg of the  journey I'll put more details about the trip below   and if you're interested in seeing more  train or sustainable travel related content   you could subscribe but for now I'm going to  get some snacks before I continue my journey   to Zurich on the sleeper  train. See you in the next one!

Channel: Sarah B.M.

Views: 12,392

Keywords: london to amsterdam train, london to amsterdam vlog, london, amsterdam, train, eurostar, london to amsterdam eurostar, slow travel vlog, slow travel, travel, sustainable, sustainable travel, sustainable travel vlog, trains, channel tunnel history, channel tunnel

Id: uDP-CCffIMc

Length: 10min 9sec (609 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 23 2022