Day 16 - Wrap up

Today we travelled back from London, England to Ottawa. The journey took longer than it should because Air Canada does not yet have any trans-Atlantic flights from Ottawa. We were forced to go through Toronto thus putting about four hours on to the trip, even before the flight from Toronto was heavily delayed.  

It was a great trip. Its was a short trip but Paul and I managed to work out an excellent schedule which went according to plan.

Our first success was the arrival at Frankfurt. Our plane was due in at 0725 and our train to Koln was due to leave at 0809. The plane was a few minutes late but we made it through passport control and a busy airport with one minute to spare.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/colinchurcher/albums/72177720303860988

We had a great visit to see the Wuppertal monorail

https://www.flickr.com/photos/colinchurcher/albums/72177720303854444 

We have visited Miniatur Wunderland many times and knew what to expect. I think it exceeded our expectations:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/colinchurcher/albums/72177720303919593

We broke our journey to England from Germany at Amsterdam where we had an interesting afternoon:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/colinchurcher/albums/72177720303953557

The Warley Model Railway Show highlighted the best of British railway modelling

https://www.flickr.com/photos/colinchurcher/albums/72177720303991345

We have always liked York. It was good, even in a gloomy, cold November. I was happy to renew acquaintances with some old friends Clun Castle 7029, and (4)2500 which I fired in regular service:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/colinchurcher/albums/72177720304045362

Newcastle was an interesting interlude. The Tyne and Wear Metro is a good example of how to set up a system using common sense - pity we did not use common sense in Ottawa:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/colinchurcher/albums/72177720304045362

And finally London where I renewed acquaintances with some old school friends. The Malt Shovel at Eynsford brought back memories, particularly of listening to Beethoven's third piano concerto, with the magic piece at the end of the first movement, while eating a Ploughman's lunch, this was while excavating at the Roman Villa in 1959. It was great to see the Lullingstone Roman Villa and my visit ended with some time with Trevor, my cousin, and his wife Doris, and my second cousins Linda and Frances,

https://www.flickr.com/photos/colinchurcher/albums/72177720304143946

After a little down time we now need to start thinking about our next adventure.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Railfan Tour of Switzerland - Wednesday - Zurich Hauptbahnhof Part One

Image
Zurich Hauptbahnhof  Paul has prepared some extensive notes and photos of the Zurich Hauptbahnhof.  This will be in several parts.  The busiest station in Switzerland is Zurich Hauptbahnhof (Zurich HB) which is used primarily by the SBB. It has 26 tracks serving almost 3000 trains daily and it is one of the busiest stations in the world. It was built in the 1870s and is a main shopping destination as well as a transport hub. There are three levels for platforms and the "Shopville" shopping plaza.  The river Sihl river passes right through the station with platforms passing above and below the river. This shows the general layout of the station with the surrounding tram tracks shown in purple Tracks 3 to 18 are terminal tracks located at ground level, served by two side platforms and seven island platforms. These are used by long-distance trains from throughout Switzerland, and by international trains. Tracks 21 and 22 are underground terminal tracks, served by a single island
Read more

Thursday 21 September - Wrap Up

Image
  Flytoget at Oslo Central I caught a Flytoget express train to Oslo airport. These run every ten minutes throughout the day. Every other one stops at Lillestrom which was convenient as Paul joined me there, (he was staying at a nearby Lillestrom hotel). This is a high speed train which runs from the airport to Oslo Central station in 20 minutes. The trains are frequently crowded. This is an excellent service. Compare this to the "service" OC Transpo will be providing to Ottawa airport. A diesel train a couple of stops to the Trillium line, change to another diesel train to Bayview, then change to the electric Confederation line to get downtown. Tourists are going to love this with their large cases. We took a KLM flight to Amsterdam where  we changed to a KLM flight to Montreal and finally the KLM bus to Ottawa. We had anticipated some problems in Amsterdam with a relatively short transfer but everything worked out to the minute. The cabin crew on the flight from Oslo were g
Read more

Monday 18 September - Oslo Trams

Image
The weather here is atrocious cool and wet with heavy rain at times. I bought a 24 hour local transport pass at the tourist office. This allows me to travel around for 24 hours. I first had a look at the Central Station. The older units make quite a bit of noise Some cars are for people who need to buy a ticket. I then started to ride a few trams. Routes 12 and 19 seemed the most promising. I started with the 19 route and rode it out to the end at Majorstuen and then back through town but the trams were not running beyond Oslo Hospital because of track work. I then decided to sample route 12 which I rode out to Majorstuen and then back all the way to Kjelsas. This is a delightful ride. It runs close to the water then along major parks as well as climbing quite high at Kjelsas which gives good views over the city. At Majorstuen route 12 trams become route 11 and vice versa. Route at at Central Station route 12 at Majorstuen Route 11 at Kjelsas My day went well although the weather was a
Read more