Relax on the Rails or Be Highly Entertained by People Watching.

I’d forgotten how much I enjoy riding the train. Even the stop-train. I guess this can be attributed to the fact that I hate driving and I love people watching. So taking the train is perfect. There are so many different people, so much going on. I loved my little commute from Leiden to The Hague. Now, I may not have liked the bike ride or walk to the station when the weather was horrid, but the rest was wonderful.

I enjoyed my little routine. Actually, I enjoyed the fact that you could change it up a bit and it wouldn’t cost you any real hassles. Like deciding to come a little earlier and ride to HS with Erin instead of Centraal or taking a different tram once I arrived. Heck I’d even walk down to Gravenstraat and catch my tram there instead of at Centraal Station. I liked going to AH to grab a ham & kaas croissant, maybe a Lipton green tea and then walk up to the platform to wait on my train.

By far my favorite thing about riding the train is people watching. From the time I reach the station until I arrive where I am going there is almost always something entertaining to watch. Take my trip from Bussum to The Hague as an example.

The entertainment started when I witnessed a group of teens miss two trains in a row. There simply is no explanation for missing two trains in a row, but it made for a great scene as the head couple pushed and argued with each other over the second missed train. After I switched trains at the airport (my choices were take a train to Utrecht and switch several platforms away in like 5 minutes or take a train through Schiphol and simply cross to the other side of the platform for my connection- I didn’t need to be missing trains that evening so I went with Schiphol) I sat across from a very loud young lady. She had two cell phones and talked or txted on both while we all listened to her musical selection on her i-pod. It would have been an okay selection of songs if it wasn’t being played through tin can speakers more commonly known as ear-buds. Even more entertaining was the couple who got on with their toddler and baby.

The mother and her little girl sat across from me next to the young lady/slinceaphobic. She was so adorable smiling at everyone and refusing to sit down. She was giggling and pretty happy for just getting off an airplane. He mother gave her a cracker which she showed off to the other passengers before taking a little nibble. Well, more like just sucked the salt off a corner and let the thing get all soggy, but she was adorable and no older than two so one really can’t begrudge her. Then she dropped it. On the railcar floor. In the dirt and the goo. She stared at it for a moment, thought about crying, and then just as her mother turned to her, she swiftly swooped the soggy dirt covered cracker and shoved the entire thing in her mouth. It happened in a split second. But it seemed as if her mother was stuck in slow motion, reaching for her little girl and sharply shouting NO! (well NEE! To be specific…) and trying to grab what was left out of her daughter’s mouth. A look of utter befuddlement contorted the little rosy face as her mother tried to pry open her mouth. They were totally out of sync as the munchkin squirmed away and the mother caught her by her coat with a panic stricken look slowly morphing into a furrowed brow. Time finally evened out between the two as mom was scraping clumps of chewed cracker out of her toddler’s mouth causing the little girl to cry. Oh poor little thing! But she stopped as soon as her mom put her down and gave her a clean cracker.

As I tired not to laugh from how comically timed the moment was – the struggle totally mismatched with the jabberbox missing nary a beat during the entire ordeal – I realized how much I had missed taking the train.