The Anonymous Widower

Are Ferries and Trains Profiteering?

Out of curiosity I looked at the Norfolk Line website to see how much it would cost to go out Dover to Dunkirk on the 23rd and back on the 28th.

The prices seem to be very similar to those that I normally get.

I also found that you can get from Perpignan to Paris for about £90 on Wednesday.  There are even seats available tomorrow, although they are a little bit more.

Remember those TGV Duplex are massive trains carrying over a thousand people in one go.

On the other hand the cheapest train fare from Paris to London is £223.  Is that rip-off Britain?

April 19, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , | Leave a comment

The Tower of London

The Tower is partially under wraps at present.

The Tower of London

Strangely, I’ve only visited the Tower once.  And that was when I showed a fellow student from Liverpool around London.

April 19, 2010 Posted by | World | | Leave a comment

The New, the Venerable Rowing Club and the Curious

I took this picture of Poplar Rowing Club with Canary Wharf in the background.

Poplar Rowing Club

The rowing club is the third oldest in Britain and dates from 1845.

But what is the round building on the right?

It’s one of the entries to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel.

That incidentally is about sixty years younger than the rowing club.

April 19, 2010 Posted by | Sport, World | , , | Leave a comment

Are We All Going to Vote Lib Dem?

Possibly!

A poll has shown that people don’t vote for them, as they are unlikely to win.  But now some polls show them in the lead, so people want to vote for the winner.

If they got a majority on their own with forty percent of the vote, would they bring in proportional representation?

In some ways, I’d like them to win decisively.  We could then join the Euro and the Shengen Zone.

April 19, 2010 Posted by | News | | Leave a comment

The Navy’s Going

So Prudence has called in the Royal Navy.

Knowing his luck, this will mean the wind changes and everything will be alright.

April 19, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , | Leave a comment

The O2 Arena

The O2 Arena dominates the River Thames.

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I’ve only been to the Dome once, whilst it still had the millennium exhibition.  It was a great building full of total crap.

April 19, 2010 Posted by | World | , | Leave a comment

Can We Fly Round the Volcanic Cloud?

I’ve never flown an airliner, but I have flown over a 1,000 hours in small aircraft.

So let’s put in a few stories.

  • I have flown to Cardiff airport many times and several times when I have been there, British Airways have been doing circuits and practice landings and take-offs in a 747.
  • I once flew into Dulles airport on a very quiet Sunday and the pilot did a short approach turning on to finals at just a few hundred feet.
  • I read a safety report about a pilot who ditched and had his MayDay call answered by a TWA 747.  It then did steep turns at a few hundred feet to mark his life-raft.

So contrary to what you may think, big aircraft like 747s and Airbus 330/340/380 are not lumbering giants, but very manoeuvrable aircraft that can fly happily at lower levels.  It doesn’t do too much for their fuel consumption though. 

Now the volcanic cloud is generally above 3,000 feet, so could we not fly to Spain, which is open?  It would need to be  in Visual Flight Rules, but it would surely be possible to create an airbridge to say Madrid.  Most of the flight would be over water and it should not be difficult to create a low-level airway.

Why has there been so little talk of doing this?

There was one article in the Daily Mail. Read it!

April 19, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , | Leave a comment

Barrier Point

We nearly bought a buy-to-let in this impressive block by the Thames Barrier.

Barrier Point, London

I just wonder what would have happened, if we’d bought the flat.

Would I now be using it as a pied-a-terre?

April 19, 2010 Posted by | World | , , | Leave a comment

Some People are Winning

There are about 150,000 Brits abroad, who can’t get home because of the flights.  There are also an awful lot of Europeans stuck here.  When I was at the services at Stansted yesterday, there was a couple of girls with a plaintiff sign asking for a lift to Germany.  We will start to here a lot of hardship stories, as the ones who’ve made it home are the ones with money.

A friend of mine was stuck in Cologne with his car at Stansted.  He got charged £65 as a foot passenger on a ferry at Calais.

It will be interesting to see, what sort of profits the ferries and Eurostar make this year.

But seriously, we must start to find a solution to the problem of Icelandic ash.

April 19, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , | Leave a comment

The Thames Barrier

The Thames Barrier protects London from flooding.

You can see it from around Pontoon Dock station on the DLR and also the Thames Clipper passed through it between Woolwich and the O2.

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The Thames Barrier is something worth visiting.  The easiest way is to go to Pontoon Dock station and then walk through the attractive Thames Barrier Park.  There is a very nice cafe in the park too!

For those who are sceptical about global warming and rising sea levels, just look at the statistics about the closing of the Thames Barrier.

April 19, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel, World | , , | Leave a comment

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