European Railroad Discussion > European Railway Station Where is it No. 38

Something a bit different today. Two stations. The first is probably obvious...especially with this clue. All passengers arriving to the station to catch trains come by boat. We borded the Belmond Orient Express to Paris there. The second is a bit more obscure. Perhaps the letter with give away the region. But what do the two photos (not the stations) have in common? Bonus points for anyone who spots that.. 

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Number one is Venice Santa Lucia. I'll have to pass on number 2.

Correct on No. 1. We took a small private boat from our hotel to the station to board the Orient Express. A very unique way to get to a railway station. I can't think of anyplace else in the world that's the same. 

I will take a stab on no. 2: Varna, Bulgaria. On the shore of the Black Sea, with ferry service across the Black Sea. The main station is right by the docks. But the photo does not match up to photos of the main station, so could this be a secondary or suburban station?

No extra points if I'm right, or even warm. I didn't recognize it, and had lots of help from Uncle Google and Open Street Maps. Extra points only go to folks (like pennengineer) who recall from memory. I recognized Venice Santa Lucia right away from memory, though I've not been there. In any case, this is a rather nice building architecturally. I would have guessed German at first. But the characters above the doorway, no....

I continue to enjoy the series, a lot. Thanks.

Number two is Yaremche, Ukraine.

No extra points for me, though, ironmtn, as I didn't recognize it from memory but rather Googled "Carpathian train stations" and lo and behold, it was the first result. Why Carpathian? Well, there are not many places that use Cyrillic and the term "vokzal"/"вокза́л"  for railway station (train station in Bulgarian is by contrast "gara", i.e. "гара" in Cyrillic, which has the same root as the French "gare" and Romanian "gară") and that also have topography like that seen in the background -- really only the Carpathian and Caucasus regions as well as certain areas of Siberia such as that west of Lake Baikal come to mind. But the station looked nothing like the Russian Railways stations in those other two areas that I am familiar with, and the blue lettering was a better fit for Ukrainian railways.

So, no gold star for me, but the hunt was fun!

I thought I would mention that is actually possible to take a streetcar to Santa Lucia. The streetcar line between Venice and Mestre that crosses the lagoon terminates at Piazzale Roma and it's just a short walk from there to the train station.

WP17

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You get half a gold star. Yes, it's Yaremcha.  We spent a nice three nights at a B&B near the station for a fraction the cost of a hotel. Even had our own Russian Sauna,  kitchen,  or a nice older woman to cook for us if we wanted. The reason for the trip was to ride the so called "Green Tram" in near by town. It's a tourist version of the only remaining forestry railway in Ukraine. The train wasn't running at that time year so I hired the entire thing for about $100 U.S. including breakfast in the forest.  With the help of my Ukrainia girl friend I even arranged my own runpast over a bridge.  "Yana do you remember what "runpast is?"  "Yes, runpast...we gather in field with cameras. Train goes back. Then forward and we take photo."  "Yes that's right, now go as the driver if he can do that for us!" 

The tie between the two stations is not the stations themselves but rather what's in each photo. You can't arrive to Yaremcha by boat. It's the same people in the photos....my girl friend Yana and her son. She's the woman with the pink vest in the Yaremcha photo and the tan dress in the Venice photo. Her son grew a bit taller in the two years between the two. 

Heres another station where it's normal to arrive by boat although it's not the only way. It's Haydarpasa on the Asian side of Istanbul, not used at the time of this photo (also previously posted). 

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pennengineer Wrote:
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> Number two is Yaremche, Ukraine.
>
> No extra points for me, though, ironmtn, as I
> didn't recognize it from memory but rather Googled
> "Carpathian train stations" and lo and behold, it
> was the first result. Why Carpathian? Well, there
> are not many places that use Cyrillic and the term
> "vokzal"/"вокза́л"  for railway station
> (train station in Bulgarian is by contrast "gara",
> i.e. "гара" in Cyrillic, which has the same
> root as the French "gare" and Romanian "gară")
> and that also have topography like that seen in
> the background -- really only the Carpathian and
> Caucasus regions as well as certain areas of
> Siberia such as that west of Lake Baikal come to
> mind. But the station looked nothing like the
> Russian Railways stations in those other two areas
> that I am familiar with, and the blue lettering
> was a better fit for Ukrainian railways.
>
> So, no gold star for me, but the hunt was fun!

And it was fun. A good puzzler. I thought too much about the Venetian connection -- that you can connect between water and rail transport handily, as in Venice. Next the Cyrilic characters sent me off to the north of Russia and the Baltic, maybe a line into St. Petersburg (the "Venice of Russia", sometimes so-called).. No -- it's flat up there, even swampy. And there are forested hills in the background, so not likely around the Baltic. So, then down in the maps to Crimea and around the Black Sea, which has some hilly bordering territory. Varna was as close as I could come -- railways to the dock, station near the dock, ferry service, marine connection. But Bruce's teaser had led the wrong way -- it wasn't the marine connection, but a personal connection. Sneaky! And I never thought about the characters being wrong for the Bulgarian word for "station", being different from the word in use in Carpathia.

Good one, guys. Bruce gets a double gold star for the feint.

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> Heres another station where it's normal to arrive
> by boat although it's not the only way. It's
> Haydarpasa on the Asian side of Istanbul, not used
> at the time of this photo (also previously
> posted).

On the Asian side, but looking very European. How interesting. Istanbul is one city I very much want to visit, when this thing is all over. The history and cultural mix has always fascinated me. Everyone I know who has been there loved it.

We liked Isanbul excepting the horriffic traffic.  Everyone was friendly. Lots of street vendors. The Grande Bazaar is huge. One could spend all day there.  "You, you, you American...you come my store!"  How did the shop owner know?  "You, you....you Russian you come my store."  The shop owner thought Yana was Russian. When she told him she's Ukrainian he said "Isn't it all the same."  I thought she was going to kill him!  "No, NO...before same. Now seperate!"

WP17 Wrote:
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> I thought I would mention that is actually
> possible to take a streetcar to Santa Lucia. The
> streetcar line between Venice and Mestre that
> crosses the lagoon terminates at Piazzale Roma and
> it's just a short walk from there to the train
> station.
>
> WP17

Wow, cool! That's not really a streetcar, it's a Translohr rubber tyred (tired) tramway sytem. It's a rather propritary system, not too many exist, several have even been or are planned to be replaced by conventional trams. I knew there was a system or two in Italy but forgot whre they were. Neat to see a picture, and a good picture at that of one in service, especially going through a crossover.
 
Jim

tq-07fan Wrote:
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>
> Wow, cool! That's not really a streetcar, it's a
> Translohr rubber tyred (tired) tramway sytem. It's
> a rather propritary system, not too many exist,
> several have even been or are planned to be
> replaced by conventional trams. I knew there was a
> system or two in Italy but forgot whre they were.
> Neat to see a picture, and a good picture at that
> of one in service, especially going through a
> crossover.
>  
> Jim

I'm aware that it is rubber tired but it is still guided by a rail, and the locals do refer to the system as a tram. I wanted to show that there was another familiar form of public transportation to Santa Lucia.
BTW there is a similar system in Padua, about 25 miles from Venice.
WP17

 

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Don't worry, no one really knows how to classify them. I have only rode them in France,in Caen which I think was Bombardier but has been replaced by a tram, Clermont which is Translohr, and Nancy which is Bombardier and also can operate as a trolleybus independent of the rail and then operate on diesel completely off wire. Ironically enough the day I showed up in Nancy the newspaper had an article saying it was too expensive to operate and maintain and was expected to be replaced with a conventional tram.

Jim