The Joy Of Birmingham By Train
An old friend phoned up last night and we decided to have lunch in Birmingham today.
So I got on the Virgin Trains web site and bought myself a ticket to Brum for this morning at nine last night for just £25.75, which gets me to New Street station in good time to walk to Carluccio’s. I should be in the centre of Birmingham about two hours after leaving home
I didn’t buy myself a return ticket, as I want to look at several things in the city and am unsure about, whether I’ll come home to either Euston or Marylebone. So I’ll buy a walk-up ticket in steerage, when I decide to come back.
I just used the Transport Direct web site to see how long it would take someone else to drive. They reckon it will be just under two and a half hours, but they recommend taking a fifteen minute break. The cost in a medium-sized petrol car is £20 plus the parking.
So cost is probably about the same, if you exclude the cost of ownership of the car, but the train is thirty minutes quicker. I can also use my phone and wi-fi.
My one beef at a lot of big stations, is that they don’t have a decent restaurant, cafe or pub, where you could have a quiet meeting, close by. Birmingham New Street is a special case, as they are rebuilding the station, but some don’t provide hardly anything except gluten-rich fast food. Manchester Piccadilly, Kings Cross and Waterloo are setting a standard, that all others should try to follow. Where for instance is a good Indian restaurant in a station?
Romeo’s Gluten Free Bakery
It’s not open yet, but this is an interesting development opposite Islington Town Hall on Upper Street, just ten or so shops towards the Angel from the Fish and Chip Shop.
Romeo’s Gluten Free Bakery
I wish Romeo, his staff and of course his products well. I shall try to be there the day the bakery opens.
My First Tomato And Onion Salad
I’ve always preferred tomato and onion salad to those with greenery, so today I made one to go with a steak and potatoes.
My First Tomato And Onion Salad
I got the recipe idea from the Daily Mail and all I did was slice an onion and some tomatoes and put some lemon juice and olive oil on top. The recipe is here.
I do wonder whether my liking for tomato and onion salad is because it seems to calm my mouth, when I get dried out in the winter. After all I like eating tomatoes! Is that for the same purpose?
Rescued By Eurostar
I hadn’t got a ticket for Eurostar, as let’s face it, what good would it have done me, as I didn’t turn up in Brussels at a date and a time, remotely near anything I could have expected.
So when my number was called after a wait of a few minutes, I approached the ticket counter with more than a little apprehension. After my luck, I fully expected to be told that as it was a Friday and the start of the school holidays, that no seats were available until Tuesday at the earliest.
But the pleasant lady smiled broadly, like air hostesses do in adverts, except that she meant it, and said she could get me on a train in an hour for €190. Expensive, but then it was a last-minute walk-up and what else could I do, as I can’t swim? I then asked how much Premium Economy was and she said €204. So I paid the extra fourteen euros and within an hour I was on my way back to Blighty. Incidentally booking now for next Friday, I’d save somewhere around £80.
On the train, I got a fulsome apology for not being served a gluten-free meal, but I knew that to get one, you have to book in advance. But at least the food was infinitely better than the rubbish you get on German trains, where gluten is compulsory in all snacks.
The train had a very unusual passenger.
A Very Unusual Passenger
The balloon was tied to a child’s buggy. It did give one of the stewards a bit of a fright, as he came through the door.
I was of course, on time in London. But let’s face it, Eurostar have one great advantage. With the exception of the Channel Tunnel and various junctions, it is a virtually straight line largely under their control. So could we expect that HS2 will be a more reliable railway than the West Coast Main Line? I think the answer will be yes!
A Few Hours In Hamburg
I got to Hamburg about eight in the evening and my first priority was to get a hotel. It was a new hotel by the station and I booked for two nights.
Hamburg Station
The hotel was a disaster, or more likely the weather was, as my meter was showing 32°C and 70% humidity. I had to wedge the window open with my shoe and that just made the room hotter, as the air outside got in.
When the Tourist Office opened at ten, I was outside and got myself a free map, after a breakfast of orange juice and coffee, as true to form, there was nothing gluten-free in the station.
The map wasn’t the best, as it was far too large and was gradually disintegrating in the heat and humidity.
Hamburg’s Street Map
As the picture shows, it was impossible to hold with one hand. Luckily there were a few decent signposts and maps.
A Map In Hamburg
Eventually, I found my way to the impressive Rathaus.
Hamburg’s Impressive Rathaus
I had heard of a restaurant called Rudolph at Hafen City, that did gluten-free pizza. If this was as good as those in Munich, then this looked to be worth investigating for supper in the evening. The Internet entry said, that it was near to the U-bahn station. So I went into the U-bahn, quickly and easily bought a ticket and then spent thirty minutes wandering underground trying to find the platform for Hafen City. If I sometimes find Green Park and Kings Cross stations bad in London, they have nothing on the Rathaus station in Hamburg.
Eventually, I didn’t get tpo Hafen City, as the station hasn’t been built yet. So was this a case of “We have ways of getting you lost!”. It was also so unlike Munich, where things the information systems seemed to work well. But I also had a good map from the hotel.
It was then that I said that I should cut my losses and move on. So I went back to the hotel, packed my bag and then returned to the station, where I bought a ticket for Amsterdam.
Lunch In Copenhagen
I had lunch in Copenhagen, by a canal that was lined with restaurants.
A Restaurant-Lined Canal
The food was good, but it was probably served at the slowest pace I’d ever received. I was so bored at one point, that I took to taking a photo of the chair opposite.
An Unsuitable Chair
Why do you put such a chair in a restaurant? It’s impossible to put your coat over the back of it, so I used the chair next to me for my coat. So they might have lost a cover because of the unsuitable chairs.
In the end, this restaurant ruined my afternoon, as they were so slow on service, I didn’t have time to visit the Jewish Museum in Copenhagen. I’ve always been fascinated, as was my father, about how the Danes got most of their Jews out of the country to Sweden, after the Nazi invasion.
At least though I ate well! Albeit very slowly!
Unwelcoming Copenhagen!
My stay in Copenhagen was not the best.
I arrived in the city at six in the evening, to find the tourist office closed and all the hotels full. I eventually got a room in a rather poor hotel at a five star price. The Danes may be nice people, but some of them know how to rip off tourists.
The room was a fifteen minute walk from the station, so I decided to go there, get some food and then book my onward travel to Hamburg for the morning. I did have the train times, but I only had my tablet and felt that at the station there would be some of the excellent German ticket machines.
In the end, I got an excellent gluten-free meal at an Italian restaurant by the station, but by the time, I’d finished it was eight and the station was shut. There were no automatic machines, that sold tickets to Hamburg either. Customer Service? Forget it!
So I went back to my grotty hotel room and went to bed. There wasn’t even any reliable wi-fi, and there was nothing I could understand on the television. In fact, I doubt that even a Dane could have understood it, as both the sound and the picture was excrutiating.
Would I Go Back To Stockholm?
Most certainly! Yes! Although, I wouldn’t stay in the Stureplan Hotel again!
I’d probably try to get in Hotel Rival. It looks like I can get a room at a reasonable price for a couple of weeks ahead.
The hotel also knows its gluten-free, as it appeared did most of Stockholm.
Perhaps next time I go, it’ll be a stop-over on the way to see the bears!
Everybody needs to go to Stockholm once, just to see the Vasa.
A Walk And A Taste Of Stockholm
After checking out the tickets, I went for a walk with lunch thrown in using my Walk and Eat Guide.
The pictures tell the story of the walk.
I actually had lunch in Cafe Rival, which is in the hotel of the same name. Again there was gluten-free bread. I think, if I go to Stockholm again, I’ll try the Hotel Rival first.
A Good Hotel, But!
I stayed in the Stureplan Hotel in Stockholm.
Hotel Stureplan, Stockholm
It was a good hotel, for what I paid, and I couldn’t complain about the position, staff or the food, where I even got gluten-free bread for breakfast.
But it had various faults that annoyed me.
The first and one of the most serious was the intermittent wi-fi. I couldn’t get it in my bedroom unless I connected first in the lobby that was on the way to the lift. Security on wei-fi doesn’t bother me, but this can’t be the most secure, if you have to use your device in the open.
I think the hotel had had a makeover from a designer. Look at this picture of the shampoo and shower gel.
Shampoo And Shower Gel
The only way to tell is to read the small writing on the back, which for me, means glasses. But as I don’t shower in my glasses, I couldn’t tell which was which, when I needed them. Anbd trhen there was the shower controls.
Unfathomable Shower Controls
it worked well, but which side was the water control and which was the temperature. The only way I worked it out, was by experiment, after giving it a good once over with my glasses. I still haven’t found a hotel shower as good as the digital Aqualiser Quartz, I had in Suffolk.
I think partly, my problem may well be my left hand, which doesn’t work that well and also because I need my glasses to decipher things like this. Surely, all controls should be obvious to someone who is virtually blind!
I wasn’t struck with the shower door, as water leaked underneath and made the floor slippery.
A Useless Shower Door
My balance is good for someone, who had a bad stroke, but I know quite a few people, who would have found the floor dangerous.
But it was the little touches that I didn’t like. The hotel seemed to have quite a few steps like this.
A Tricky Step
If my house can be designed with totally flat floors, surely a good hotel can. Luckily, I didn’t trip up badly.
I also didn’t like the tissues.
A Silly Box Of Tissues
With my rhinitis, it was just one good blow and they were in the bin. Not very green!
The Anonymous Widower 