LARP season continues, and I get to each event by bike/train. Arguably this is absurd, but it has advantages over driving (I avoid traffic jams on motorways) or getting a lift to/from the station (more independence). I wrote about the logistics last year but I've made some changes this year for the June/July events.

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Previously in my blog...
In part 1, I travelled to Lapland for the Winter Swimming World Championships.
In part 2, I competed in races and survived exposure to sub-zero water ( Read more... )

Last month I took part in the Winter Swimming World Championships, held in Finnish Lapland. Most of the team flew out there from London; however, as I mentioned in January, I used trains and ferries to get there and back. This took a bit longer, but there were a few interesting things along the way.

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It's now 8 weeks until the Winter Swimming World Championships, and I've just finalised my travel arrangements. There's a team of us going from my local swimming club, and most people are flying from Stansted to Tampere, then taking the train to Rovaniemi. However, I try to avoid planes nowadays (to reduce my oil dependency) so I'm taking a ( Read more... )

Yesterday I had a tourist day out in London, showing my nephews some of the sights. Here are a few notes on the day, which may be useful for anyone else who wants to do something similar. In particular, I tried to fit in as many different forms of transport as possible.

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Well, that's annoying: today is the second day in a row that I've been issued with an £80 penalty fare notice for "failing to produce a valid ticket" on the train. I've appealed both of them with IRCAS (Independent Revenue Collection And Support), and hopefully they'll see things my way. However, my experience may be useful as a cautionary tale for ( Read more... )

There's been a bit of controversy in the news regarding an incident in New York. Basically, a man was pushed in front of a subway train, and subsequently died. Another man was on the platform, and he took photos of the incident: one of these photos subsequently appeared on the front page of the New York Post. Some people are criticising the ( Read more... )

I cycle to work as part of my daily commute. However, being lazy I normally cycle to a station, take my bike on the train, and cycle again at the other end; if I cycled the whole way then it would be a 55km round trip. There are restrictions on carrying "normal" bikes at peak times, which is fair enough: basically you can't take them on trains ( Read more... )

Last summer I spent a few days travelling around Europe. Basically, I took the Eurostar from London to Paris, then another train from Paris to Frankfurt for a wedding. Afterwards, I came back to Paris, then went down to Disneyland. Finally, I came back through Paris again, and took the Eurostar back to London. I knew about the wedding several ( Read more... )

As most people have noticed, it's been snowing in England recently. However, some local authorities and train companies handle this better than others ( Read more... )