Time transition

2014's Summer Time (CEST) has just ended in Europe. (Un)fortunately I happened to be travelling on the last three transition days and I now find it interesting to think about the experience I had in different countries.

(Image from Internet)

Switzerland

I passed the transition night in a small village at the side of Lake Zürich (one hour by train to Zürich) and on Oct. 27 (2013) I must fly back to Barcelona in the afternoon. Of course, it was turning toward one hour later, so even I got confused about the time I would not miss my flight. But at the same time I wanted to see more and skate along the lake if the weather got better, so even one extra hour was important for my short stay.

Then came the morning of Sunday. My phone, tablet, etc. might have been synchronized, might have not. So I got out to check third-party information. Everywhere, practically EVERYWHERE, the clocks were showing a same hour. No need to mention SBB, but also in the street - You know, on Sunday most stores were closed, but their clocks were already synchronized automatically.

The problem was, when the synchronization was SO PERFECT, I however got anxious and felt certain insecurity: What if none of the clocks had been turned and thus they showed the same hour? Finally I didn't put my rollerblades on until I checked the hour definitely at Zürich Central SBB... Poor Virgo, you already know, it was not necessary at all.

Spain

I was in Valladolid and I needed to fly home on Mar. 30 (2014) before lunchtime. This time it was to turn the hour forward.

Woken up, I turned on TV to check hour and I failed in finding any channel with current hour (this was more likely a problem of the hostel or my luck). But once in the desert street of a Sunday morning, I was presented immediately with the best solution!

Because there were constantly two versions - Outside of a pharmacy, in a cigarette store, even in the central bus station clocks gave different hours! So comparing the two, you got to know easily which one was the correct.

Spain / France

This time I was about to catch a national train from San Sebastián in the afternoon Oct. 26 (2014). I planned to spend the morning around Irún/Hendaye. And I checked the TV in my room the night before - it worked. Or, I could check the hour when I was on the local "metro" from San Sebastián to Irún. Anyway, I already knew all these places, and there was no hurry at all.

So, what did I do finally? I simply typed on Weibo (something like Twitter) the next words: Hello. Could anybody tell me what time it is now according to Beijing? And I got the answer in one second based on the time difference. You see, not using summer time sometimes may have also advantage >.< only sometimes...