Veteran European traveller Rick Steves mentions that he assumes every train he rides has a thief. ("Union rules", he deadpans). So, to prevent theft, all his bags have a strap with a simple non-locked snap or latch he secures to keep someone just yanking the bag from an overhead rack.
On one of his shows, he even demonstrates this. He shows his heavy pack on an overhead rack made of several metal bars. Then he takes his bag's strap, loops it around one of the bars and snaps it back into a metal loop on the pack -- presto, instant security!
(To be fair, Rick also says that he makes a point of establishing contact with surrounding passagers -- so that he has many potential watchdogs should he need to step away for a few moments.)
In my trips on Scandanavian trains, I found most of them had solid, one-piece metal shelves for overhead baggage. These shelves are mounted flush with the side of the train and don't even have any support struts above or below; so, effectively, there is no way to secure a bag in the way Steves demonstrates.
I never tried it, but the only strategy I could figure out would be to move your bag to your seat and secure it around an arm rest or leg.
As a result, I basically picked an empty seat, put my luggage directly above my head, and stayed in my seat the whole ride on every trip. Fortunately, most of my trips were short and/or with minimal baggage. But I did have a couple of 6-7 hour train rides going back and forth from the fjords.
In Eastern Europe, theft is probably more prevalent and some train rides between nearest major cities are in the 10-15 hour range. So I'm trying to think of an alternate strategy.
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1 comment:
don't you have 4 bags? what if you secure them to each other with one of those metal net things, or something similarly strong? then a thief would have to be the incredible hulk to get away with them.
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