Safety, Travel

Manchester, Birchwood, Inverness – drama in Edinburgh

Good morning Manchester
Manchester Piccadilly is busy
Waiting for the train
Birchwood Station
Back to Birchwood, the leaves have been cleared.

The train is delayed by trespassers.

Off at Warrington Central.

The delay meant I could not get a decent lunch.

A short ride between Warrington train stations
Warrington Bank Quay

The train to Edinburgh was delayed due to trespassers. However there was plenty of leeway to catch the connecting train, especially if I changed at Haymarket.

River Ribble
Lancaster
River Laune

As we headed north the delayed train lost time rather than catching up.

We arrived at Haymarket. As I got off the train. I heard the Inverness train leaving. That added another hour to the journey. Why can’t the trains cooperate to avoid these problems. It was minutes. And why was the Edinburgh train continually slowed down.

Food at Fava Greek Kitchen

Time to kill so time to grab food.

Back to Haymarket

Now this is when things got crazy.

I was looking at the display times for the trains on platform four. A man stumbled down the stairs grabbed hold of one my belt loops, span round out of control, falling off the platform, onto the train track. At that point my thoughts were , was a train coming, how do we get this man off the tracks, going down onto the tracks was not an option, too risky. We coaxed the man to his feet, and four complete strangers hauled the man onto the platform.. We restrained the man to stop a further incident.

I thought that the next train was mine, got on discovered it wasn’t. After getting on the correct train I realised just how traumatic I had found the incident.

Arrived in a foggy Inverness
Foggy view from the hotel
Travel

North

No window seat on the way to Paddington, so no photos.

A dingy platform at Paddington.
Dinner at the Great Nepalese Tandor next to Euston station.
Yum!
At Euston
The sleeper cabin
I am in the last carriage
And we’re off
I wake up near Pitlochry
River Findhorn
Arrived at Inverness

Still had a four hour journey north and the sleeper breakfast is not sufficient. So..

Second breakfast
At Premier Inn
On the far north line.

Too much chatting to take pictures. I reach my destination only ten minutes late.

Tourism, Travel

Surrey and beyond

It’s green next to the railway lines
Interesting location for a coffee.
Debenhams demolition in the distance
The worst cycle infrastructure on Epsom Road in Guildford.

The cycle lanes marked out in Guildford are beyond useless. No segregation, suggesting a totally inappropriate position for the cyclists to take on the road. I would cycle at least at the line. I actually cycled in the mostly in the middle of the lane to take the decision away from the drivers, so they did not attempt to overtake at the frequent traffic islands. Of course I was hooted at, but ironically I was going faster than the motorised vehicles. Guildford suffers from pollution,

Clandon

There are plenty of stations in the commuter belt.

Delays

Someone had pulled a communication alarm on a train causing all the trains to be delayed.

Heading into Guildford.

Two days later headed back to Oxfordshire. Dodged the rail replacement buses by travelling from Farnborough.

Farnborough
Change at Basingstoke
Church spire Mortimer
Approaching Reading from the south
Boats at Goring
Boats on the Thames at Goring
Thames near Cholsey.
Bromptons
Didcot – another change
Cholsey
The Thames at Wallingford – The Boat House.
Tourism

Budapest

Budapest is a photogenic city.

Athletics stadium lit up in the national colours.

A good way to see Budapest is from the river Danube,

Petiöf Híf with tram.
The Liberty Statue
Cathedral of the Assumption
Gerard Segredo Monument
Passing under Szécheny Lanchid
Parliament
Walzing up the Danube
Turn point
Heading downstream
Margit Hid
Parliament

Next day some sightseeing on dry land.

Mathias Church
Looking towards parliament
Tram on the other side of the river
A 3D guide with braille.
2D guide
National Gallery
Barge
The Liberty Statue
Széchenyi Lanchid
National Gallery
Liberty Bridge from a tram

Travel

München to Budapest

I set off early from the hotel to allow for the ongoing work on the S Bahn. Which meant I arrived well ahead of time at the Hauptbahnhof. So purchased some bread based snacks for breakfast and the journey plus some fruit.

München Hbf

The train was an Austrian train, OBB, starting in Germany and ending in Hungary.

South east of München- wall to mitigate noise.
River Inn near Rosenheim
Now in Austria
Salzburg
Near Salzburg
Heading away from Salzburg
Industry on the Traun
Weißkirchen in the distance
Near the Danube- is that a power station?
Coming into Vienna
Former arsenal and comms tower
Turbines
Into Hungary
Komáron in the distance
Tatabánya
Budapest Kelenföld

Hotel-Radison

The Danube

Travel

UK north coast to South coast and back a bit

The far north is a joy when the views are clear and the days are long.

Iconic view from far north train.
River Helmsdale
Looking across the Moray Firth
Beach near Brora
Looking towards Nigg
At Invergordan
Boarding the sleeper- but no bike.
View from the sleeper near Tomartin
Early near Atherstone
Breakfast

The breakfast did leave me hungry.

Mist approaching Rugby
It’s green near Buckby
Arrival at Euston
Waterloo

15 mins of delay at Waterloo due to incoming train being late, there was an obstacle on the line.

Long train

I had to get myself into the front five carriages as the train splits at Bournemouth.

More green landscape near Hook
Poole
Arrived at Wool
Barriers going down
Train arriving at Wool

I am about to start my minor backtrack.

Southampton




Near Otterbourne
Change at Winchester
Reading station
Reading Ibis
Travel

To the south west

Starting in sunny Thurso.
Loch Lucya I believe.
View across the Moray Firth
Waiting for the next train
Near Golspie
Cromarty Firth
Looking inland near Invergordan- low clouds
A monstrous cruise liner at Invergordon.

How could someone design such an ugly ship?

Approaching Inverness

I had to catch the lunchtime train to Inverness due to a reduced timetable.Time to kill in Inverness.

At Eden Court

Were they playing or tuning up?

Complementary drinks and snacks at the Sleeper Lounge.
Boarding the sleeper service
Started raining just after boarding
Breakfast at Rugby
Euston
Paddington Grand Union Canal
Grand Union Canal end
With waterfowl
Heading to Bristol

I had a seat booked in this train, which someone sat in- no point moving them as the seat next to it was free.

Bristol

I caught the Penzance train here. A few issues. Firstly the train rolled past platform 5 to platform 6, leaving everyone rushing over to get on board. And it wax crowded.

The Penzance train leaving Bridgwater
Bridgwater

Bridgwater is not particularly bonny, but I did find a picture to make it look good.