Put yourselves in the shoes of a terrorist for a moment. You need to transport your home made bomb from Frankfurt (Main) in Germany to Brussels in Belgium. You know the plane is no good for this – they’ll check your bag. Loads of documentation is needed to hire a […]
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Taking the train is a strain – Newport to Berlin case
My parents live in Newport in South Wales. I live in Berlin. I am going home for Christmas, and so – on 27th December – I want to return to Berlin. All in one day. By train. If I wanted to do this in a few weeks’ time, it would […]
Three weeks in Central Asia – a review
I’ve just returned from a three week trip to Central Asia. This blog entry is part review of what I saw and did, and hence partly a suggestion about what to do, and how to do it. Hence the blog entry is rather long. My rationale for going to Central […]
Walk 500m to avoid STIB’s security checks – that’s not security, that’s a joke
I’m in Brussels today (Thursday 24.3.2016), two days after the Brussels attacks at Zaventem and Maelbeek. STIB, the Brussels public transport network (operator of buses, trams and metro) is operating a limited service today for security reasons. A screenshot explaining the situation is here. Brussels however has one peculiarity – […]
Thalys IZY: market segmentation is not the same as competition
So Thalys – whose rail service always strikes me as the worst combination of anglo-saxon economics and Belgian service – has a new wheeze. A new, lower cost, but slower train between Paris and Brussels, branded IZY (Easy – geddit?) It’s like Thalys’s version of OUIGO, the low cost TGV […]
Is a Rimowa suitcase worth the money?
€529 for a suitcase? A suitcase? Yes. I paid that, back in June 2013, for a Rimowa Topas Cabin Trolley IATA 55cm (model details here). It is one of the very best purchases I have ever made, and now, with hindsight, I do not regret it for a moment. First, […]