Great Western Coffee Shop

Greetings this lovely Sunday morning from a station with ...
... an open staffed ticket office
... an excellent choice of coffees
... an arrivals and departures board showing everything on time
... and enough platforms to cope with all the trains that are around

For sure, I will admit that they have issues here too - like at home - with a train service that is far too thin.  So thin, in fact, that yesterday's train to the next place on my tour was fully booked and I had to wait here for a day.

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One of the many things I noted from our recent European tour was the prevalence of English used in stations and on trains. We didn't travel anywhere near as far east as you have, but it was obvious that the word 'ticket' seems to be universally used, either alongside the same word in the local language, or instead of it. Lots of ticket offices and ticket machines everywhere, and though we didn't need to make much use of them, the few times we did, we had machines which also had English translations or staff that could speak enough English to tell us what we needed. Also, the staff on the trains who we interacted with (mainly with checking our tickets) all seemed to be able to speak good English.

What did really surprise me was the almost universal use of English for on train and in station announcements, alongside the local language. Southern France was the only area we travelled through which didn't have any announcements in English, but after we headed east from France we found we could almost rely on hearing announcements in English.

Yes - the use of (and ability to speak) English is great - and also humbling.  I'm now in Valka in the Latvia / Estonia border and in the cafe that's open today, the young lady speaks English.  The folks I met at the bridge between the two countries spoke it perfectly too - though to be expected as they turn out to be from Tunbridge Wells.  And the other gent I was chatting too - also at the bridge - was from Ukraine but currently living in Latvia and appreciative of the local support he and his county are getting.  We aren't far from Russia here and the Russian influence is very much around to see.  Another post to follow on that, perhaps?