Amsterdam here we come.

It really is happening.
The hallway is full of stuff ready to grab when I go through the door, the bikes are packed and we are ready to leave for the night train to Amsterdam.
Tomorrow morning, all being well, we’ll pick up the Bakfiets and start coming home. I’ll get online when I can and try [...]

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‘The Railway Museum’

Yesterdays Post seems pretty maudlin reading by the light of today, so let’s look at something more positive, and furthermore actually on topic for this blog, namely a visit to ‘The Railway Museum’ in Tokyo. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Japan has a tendency to make this sort of thing rather kitsch, with lots [...]

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Hamamatsu-Fuji

Whatever reason people use the Hamamatsu Grand Hotel, they don’t come for the view: a dreary mess of houses, punctuated by high-rise buildings stretches into the distance. The occasional taxi prowls between buildings. Utility poles and plastic convenience store signs spike into the sky. Some of the biggest buildings are car parks.
Interesting ritual by the [...]

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Day 1: Ise-Hamamatsu

We leave Ise-shi, Beautiful Wife’s home town, at 1930, packed into a minivan with curtains and all mod cons except legroom. As we leave I realise I’ve lost my spare memory card and I hope it isn’t going to set the tone for the journey. Travelling at night in Japan proves pleasant enough, and a [...]

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On the road again.

There’s good news and bad news at the moment: The good news is that we’ve now got our Japan Rail Passes, so from today we have unlimited travel on Japan Railways for two weeks. I’ve also had some opportunities to travel about and get a feel for the local lines, take some pictures and I [...]

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More misadventures

I knew there may be a bit of a delay between posts, but I wasn’t anticipating it to be this bad. Getting ready to go to Japan, sorting out bits of moving, and of course that pesky thing called ‘work’ all conspired to keep me away from the modelmaking desk. Suddenly it’s nearly August and [...]

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Stuttgart S-bahn Construction

Construction work continues at Wendlingen in preparation for extending the S-Bahn system to Kirchheim. This is part of a major package of investment by Deutsche Bahn which will see a number of extensions and new trains replacing the 1960’s built units that are still used here. The old units are in pretty good condition having [...]

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Revolutions

On my first visit to Germany I stayed at Esslingen-Am-Neckar, in the valley of the Neckar river. At the time, the town was still pretty car-dominated: The bus and rail stations exuded shabbiness: the station in particular was a rather dingy hole: my main memory of it was the darkness cast by an ugly canopy [...]

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Sardine Can

We’re working on reducing the crud our lifestyle pumps out into the environment: we use a car about twice a year, and in between we travel long distance by rail, and locally by bus or bike. We’re sourcing more food locally and trying to avoid things that require lots of transport, and we’re looking at [...]

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Steel and Snow

DB class 218 number 218 499-2 racing through the snow on the Teckbahn to Oberlenningen. I’ll write a full post on this journey soon. I’d make this my banner picture if it would only fit.
The colour version is here, but I prefer it in black and white.

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