Quote:
Originally Posted by whitemoor66
Great posts Davat and Dave Rowland. Makes you wonder doesn't it The nearest I can come to either of them was when I was scratching my head in front of a route map and info board in Munich and a woman came up to me, realised I was English and was trying to fathom my way round the network and she helped me on my way. I think the knotted handkerchief on my head gave it away. I don't speak any German mais Je parle le Francais tres bien. Over the top helpful. I would do the same for a tourist in the UK.  |
It is amazing how some people put themselves out to help; in my previous post, I mentioned a cab ride in Spain; it all came about like this.
We were travelling from Orense Empalme to Leon, and our plans were a day late owing to a rail strike the previous day; we WERE to have visited the loco depot at Orense, but couldn't. The train passed through Ponferrada, where a number of narrow-gauge steam locos were dumped some distance from the station, and as I got up in a rush to try (unsuccessfully) to photograph the steam locos, I knock my Metro European Pocket Book onto the floor of the train; a chap gave it back to me when I returned to my seat, and pointed to the cover, on which was a photo of a RENFE Class 277 English Electric loco, and started yabbering away in Spanish. After a bit of bi-lingual tosh on my part, it appeared that he was a train driver, and that he drove these locos. With a subject to centre some sort of vague conversation around, I told him of our recent travels, and plans to visit a couple of RENFE depots, including Leon the following day. Jackpot! It turns out he was the Spanish equivalent of the Shed Foreman at Leon depot, and arranged to meet us early the next morning at Leon station, and would take us to, and around the depot personally! Naturally, we were thoroughly blown away by our good luck, which just got better, as he invited me into the cab of the unit for a cab ride.
We met him the following morning, and he showed us around the depot, inside cabs etc, but not before stopping at a cafe/bar on the way, where he insisted on buying us breakfast, coffee, and beer! Funny how things work out sometimes!
