To Oulu -reflections

Posted on 1st Mar 20261st Mar 2026 by insightndes

That was an amazing trip to Oulu and back.

Negatives: getting food poisoning and train delays. Germany really struggles to get trains to go on time. Eurostar also had its issues. I did have a 77 minute delay on the sleeper to Stockholm, but that worked in my favour. The sleeper Stockholm was also too hot and the curtains were poor allowing flashes of bright light into the cabin while travelling.

Questionable things: seeing people smoke on train platforms in Germany was strange, and also a bit objectionable. The speed that cars drive at in Hamburg is ridiculously high and not suited to the roads. Also objectionable.

Positives: the trains in Finland, Sweden and Denmark were great, excluding the sleeper. In time. The rolling stock was high quality throughout including Germany. Met some great people. The cycle facilities in Copenhagen and seeing so many cyclists was incredible. We should be doing this in the UK.

Exceeding expectations: The ferries between Stockholm and Helsinki were amazing, good prices, amazing views, great facilities. Finland in winter, incredible, stunning snowy landscapes.

Tips:

Don’t plan to catch the last train of the day.

Don’t make connections too tight.

Travel in your sports gear, make it multi purpose. (Sensibly)

Travel as light as possible.

Plan for the weather.

Don’t arrive late and leave early, it’s exhausting.

Staying for more than one night is more pleasant .

Rucksacks are better than wheelie luggage.

Make use of the late checkouts in hotels.

Carry just in case food and drink.

Make use of sleeper services.

Double check reservations.

Download apps for local public transport. They can be used to get the correct tickets and give directions.

Double check routes given by apps, sometimes they are sending you to the wrong place.

If in doubt, ask a local.

Chat to people on the trains.

Use tracking apps so friends and family can follow your progress. It’s fun and good for safety.

Give someone your itinerary- routes, hotels etc.

Look at and enjoy the landscape, as you travel through.

Travel

Hamburg-Far North Scotland via Cologne, Brussels, London and Inverness.

Posted on 28th Feb 202626th Feb 2026 by insightndes

I was fit to travel the next day. Decided to reduce the odds of missing connections by catching an early train than planned.

I was traveling to Cologne, we were told there had been a problem with the staff arriving from a previous train. The train departed 40 minutes late. Following the announcements was interesting, as one train to München leapfrogged the other. They were going different routes.

Had time to stroll to the cathedral.

And watch aircraft flying by.

Back to the next delayed train, again 40 minutes and a platform change. Now heading towards Brussels.

The lateness of the train meant that the comfortable cushion to get through border control was disappearing.

I discovered another issue. Somehow the Interrail app had booked the wrong date for the Eurostar, and I had not spotted this, so no seat on the train. Thankfully the very helpful Eurostar employee got me on with a ticket, which strangely had no meal guarantee written on it. I was not sure what this meant.

Then another delay, by possibly an hour, dueto problems in the Netherlands. This would make my next connection in London very tight.

We left 44 minutes late.

I pointed out my non guarantee of meal when I received this meal.

Not very large portion but ideal as my appetite was not back.

It was now dark so no pictures.

The reduction in delay from an hour to 45 minutes meant I made the Caledonian Sleeper well on time. A quick walk from St Pancras to Euston.

And next morning in the Highlands…

Then heading further north.

Almost home.

Travel

The Far North, London, Moreton-in-Marsh, Oxford

Posted on 7th Feb 20267th Feb 2026 by insightndes

A February far flung journey, starting in the north,

The downside to travelling this time of year is that it is dark for most of the journey, so not many views.

I had a really good nights sleep, waking up for breakfast in the buffet car.

Caledonian sleeper have added a new stop at Birmingham International. This looks potentially very useful. I saw the airport just after sitting down for breakfast.

No bike with me this time. I had an appointment in London within walking distance. The time to get there was pretty similar either by foot or public transport, so off I walked.

Then it was off to Marylebone Station, for my first ever visit. Also by foot.

Also first time I had seen the BBC buildings.

Things went a bit awry at this point. A goods train had broken down so the route was blocked.

The notice board with the delays.

Take a picture or filming shows how much the boards must flicker.

The intention is to get to Oxford to change trains. Eventually a train is provided with loads of carriages to enable taking all the passengers from the cancelled trains. The route to avoid the blockage involved travelling to Princess Risborough, the train then reversed heading to Bicester Village, where again it reversed, eventually arriving in Oxford.

At Oxford some of the tracks are sectioned off. There are no trains to Didcot, only rail replacement buses. This is why I went via Marylebone rather than Paddington.

The train arrives

Smooth onward journey to Moreton-in-Marsh.

After my appointment in Moreton-in-Marsh it’s back to Oxford in the dark.

The Thames at Osney Bridge is fast flowing.

Safety, Travel

Manchester, Birchwood, Inverness – drama in Edinburgh

Posted on 7th Nov 20256th Nov 2025 by insightndes

Back to Birchwood, the leaves have been cleared.

The train is delayed by trespassers.

The delay meant I could not get a decent lunch.

A short ride between Warrington train stations

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.

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.

Time to kill so time to grab food.

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.

Environment, Travel

Bikes hold up traffic❌Cars hold up traffic✅

Posted on 10th Jun 2025 by insightndes

You are driving along and there’s a bike in front of you going at a slower speed. Impatience builds, you can‘t get past. Bl**dy cyclist🤬.

In reality you may have a perceived delay of a few tens of seconds. But as you speed on to the next queue of vehicles , where you lose minutes, the bike made no difference. And why can’t you overtake the bike? Because of the oncoming traffic. The problem is the excessive number cars not the bike.

But it’s worse! In 2024 the average UK driver lost 62 hours due to traffic congestion. That’s more than two and a half days. In London that’s 101 hours. That’s a lot of time spent staring at someone‘s rear bumper. Look for INREX 2024. This is due to excessive number of motorised vehicles.

Traffic also delays pedestrians, you can’t get across the road due to the traffic wizzing past. Cars also delay cyclists, sometimes it’s impossible to get out of junction due to the traffic. The congestion also gets in the way of emergency vehicles.

I have had cars overtake me while I was cycling, stopping just in front of me, to turn right, which they can’t due to the oncoming traffic. Its then tricky to get past the immobile blockage on the road. Waste of my time and very rude.

There is another cost of congestion. Pollution! Shortens the lives of the drivers and the non drivers.☠️

The way to reduce that wasted 62 hours or 101 hours in London is to get on your bike. Reduced delays for you riding the bike, reduced traffic because you are riding your bicycle instead of driving. Less congestion, reduced delays for those in the cars. Everyone is happy.

It is Bike Week 2025. https://www.cyclinguk.org/bikeweek.

There are a lot of misconceptions out there. This bike week I thought that I would address a few of them.

Tourism, Travel

Surrey and beyond

Posted on 2nd Jun 2025 by insightndes

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,

There are plenty of stations in the commuter belt.

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

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

The Thames at Wallingford – The Boat House.

Travel

St Pancras to München via Brussels

Posted on 11th May 2025 by insightndes

Early start at St Pancras means that I should get to München at a sensible time of 6pm local time. The ticket told me to be at St Pancras at ten to six. An early start.

We came to a stop. Announcements came periodically as the delay lengthened. The reason was eventually announced. A train had broken down in the tunnel so only one line was available. Trains were being sent in one direction and then the direction was being switched. Eventually we got going.

Eventually we made it to…

The next train left slightly late, a DB IC, heading for Frankfurt, but I was due to change at Frankfurt airport.

The train took a curious route due to work on the more direct line.

The ICE got further delayed so I bailed out at Köln, seeing that I could catch a slightly delayed train heading to München. This proved to be a good move as the train was mobbed at Frankfurt. I had a seat.

The bright sun is getting low near Stuttgart

Arrived at München around 9 local time. Three hours late although the final train was actually early . A long day.

Met some interesting people on the way. The Portuguese lawyer working for the EU who can speak about 7 languages, and the group returning from a family wedding in Eritrea. All evidently having grown up in Germany as shown by German being their preferred language.

Travel

UK north coast to South coast and back a bit

Posted on 7th May 20257th May 2025 by insightndes

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

The breakfast did leave me hungry.

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

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

Barriers going down

Train arriving at Wool

I am about to start my minor backtrack.

Tourism, Travel

Wien to Bucharest

Posted on 24th Feb 202525th Feb 2025 by insightndes

One train, almost 19 hours..,,

I have a bed booked for the train. I have no idea of the quality of the accommodation.

Here’s my ride- the actual carriage that I am going to be sleeping on.

Three of us sharing the cabin. So there followed a game of Jenga to fit everything in.

Bike space, later becoming my shoe rack.

The train set off, crossing the border into Hungary just after half past nine, Austrian time. I slept through most of Hungary, but was woken up by shouting, possibly in Budapest.

We crossed in Romania at around 3:45.

Train station Simeria at seven in the morning.

It’s a long journey from the border to Bucharest, under bright blue almost cloudless skies.

Many of the houses are small but colourful.

It’s cold outside but looks dry with the grass parched.

I didn’t see any livestock, apart from close to houses. Presumably due to the grazing being poor at this time of year.

We start seeing snow.

The snow is getting thicker and the buildings have the look of a resort.

Near Braşov

Near Brasi

The journey flew past in a flash. I slept well, much to my surprise. I shared the cabin with an Austrian and a Romanian who works in Austria, but barely speaks German. They were good company.

Slightly uncomfortable ride across to the hotel, trying to use the smaller roads.

And time for a quick explore.

Travel

Hamburg to den Haag.

Posted on 16th Nov 202416th Nov 2024 by insightndes

Catching the 1243 train I was due to get in to Den Haag at 1910.

The German Premier Inn breakfast was not as good as the British version. Fuelled up for the journey.

Premier Inn – Alster ( nearish to the Alster).

It’s only a 12 minute cycle to the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof.

Arrived punctually at Osnabrück.

The connecting train to Amsterdam was 27 minutes late.

https://videopress.com/v/B7Kyflu5?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

Passing goods train at Osnabrück provided entertainment.

The train to Amsterdam arrived, off we went, crossing the border onto the Netherlands. The train guard had changed from a German to a Dutch person. The announcements went to three languages.

And then the announcement came on, the train was terminating early at Amersfoort Central, due to an accident on the line between Amersfoort and Amsterdam. We were told to catch a train to Utrecht.

Off we got at Utrecht where I followed the crowd who started running. After resisting the urge to join in, I sprinted on the platform to join a very crowded train.

The Christmas decorations are already up.

The next train to arrive at the platform where I had got off was heading to Den Haag, very conveniently. This was the same train I would have caught from Amsterdam. Which meant I arrived at Den Haag on time.

Insight

Insight

No fly zone

Tag: delay

To Oulu -reflections

Hamburg-Far North Scotland via Cologne, Brussels, London and Inverness.

The Far North, London, Moreton-in-Marsh, Oxford

Manchester, Birchwood, Inverness – drama in Edinburgh

Bikes hold up traffic❌Cars hold up traffic✅

Surrey and beyond

St Pancras to München via Brussels

UK north coast to South coast and back a bit

Wien to Bucharest

Hamburg to den Haag.