Moorgate Gets Ready To Welcome Steam Trains
On Sunday, London s celebrating one hundred and fifty years of the Underground.
Moorgate Gets Ready To Welcome Steam Trains
A steam train will run through to Moorgate from Kensington Olympia.
Interchanging At Walthamstow
For years it has been claimed that you can interchange between Walthamstow Queen’s Road station on the Gospel Oak to Barking line and Walthamstow Central station on the Victoria line.
But the promised footpath hasn’t been delivered.
It should make a lot of difference!
The Mpemba Effect
I was alerted to this tale of a scientific curiosity by The Times.
A Tanzanian student; Erasto Mpemba, found that hot water freezes quicker than cold water, contrary to what would be expected. It is now called the Mpemba effect.
I don’t find it surprising that no-one has fully explained the phenomenon, despite it apparently being known to such as Aristotle.
I think it does show though, that sometimes anybody can make a scientific discovery with the most basic of equipment. And in most cases, to be taken seriously by the establishment.
There are some curious phenomena out there in the real world.
One is that when water freezes it expands and thus ice always floats on ponds. If it didn’t you wouldn’t get any fish in water that could freeze.
And then there is the odd property of the speed of sound in air and water. In the former it is 343.2 metres/second and in water it is 4.3 times as fast at 1484 metres/second. Now I know my physics and when asked what the speed of sound in a bubbly mixture of air and water is, I did what I thought was obvious and said somewhere in between.
I was of course wrong, as surprisingly it is less than 50 metres/second. There’s an interactive display here.
I have used this phenomenon to mix oil and water. They do mix, if you get the parameters right.
Eating Gluten-Free In The Hague
In The Hague on Tuesday night, we went out to dinner to a restaurant called Sapori d’Italia in the Javastraat. It’s the second time, I’ve eaten in that road and although both weren’t cheap they were excellent and knew their gluten-free.
We had a lot of real Italian antipasti of which the most unusual was a very garlicky crostini on gluten-free bread. It was obviously, easy to make and surprisingly gluten-free toast makes a good crostini.
We also went for lunch on Wednesday to an Italian style cafe, where gluten-free was again no problem.
The Netherlands may have very quirky train ticketing, but their cooking for coeliacs is pretty good.
Irene’s Law – Estimating Tube Journey Times
I may have talked of this before.
If you want to get an estimate of how long a journey will take on the London Underground, you count the number of stations and multiply by two, before adding five for every interchange.
That is then an estimate in minutes as to how long a journey will take.
My mother and I used to do quite a few long journeys on the Tube and it may have been something that she developed to keep me interested in the journey. We certainly always played lots of mental arithmetic games all the time. But then she’d been a comptometer operator at Reeve’s in Dalston and that was a job all about memory and mental and manual dexterity.
Incidentally, with the introduction of the Harry Beck map for the Tube, the counting became a lot easier, so was this law something that evolved as people learned to use the new map?
Incidentally, most of our journeys were up and down the Piccadilly line, where because it is long with lots of stations, the rule will work pretty well.
The rule seems to work for the DLR and the Overground too!
An Incident In Walthamstow
I was walking to Walthamstow Central station yesterday, when I passed the building site, where they are building a new hotel. outside the gate were four builders, in fluorescent jackets and hard hats, chatting to each other. The sort of thing you always see.
one of the group was obviously a woman and then the biggest and oldest man in the group picked hold of her shoulders and gave her a good shaking. This looked to be odd behaviour and possibly inappropriate.
A few seconds later, when I looked back, the woman had grabbed hold of another of the group and was repeating the shaking.
It was only then, that I realised what was happening, as I noted all of the group, were wearing full body harnesses and they were going to go climbing on the tall unfinished building.
Certainly, Health and Safety was being taken very seriously.
Dutch Train Tickets
I think it is true to say, that Dutch train tickets and how you purchase them will be rather strange to many British travellers.
The use of credit cards is actively discouraged and for example, you’ll pay a surcharge if you can find a machine that accepts cash or credit cards.
No machine seems to accept notes.
At least at a few stations, like Den Haag Central and Schipol, there will be a ticket office, but I never found it at Den Haag HS.
I don’t know what you do there, if you haven’t got a debit card!
I did buy a ticket at Den Haag Central ticket office, but I was in a queue for twenty minutes. Just imagine, the flak a UK train company would get if you had to wait that length of time for a ticket. And we’re supposed to like queues!
I’ve used machines extensively in Italy and the Dutch system is certainly inferior. It’s also very foreigner friendly with several languages being shown. The Dutch use just two; Dutch and English.
On my way out at Schipol, I met a student from Delft University, who was researching the ticketing on Dutch trains. He was effectively being a ticketing advisor to all of the foreigners coming into the airport and wanting to take a train from the airport. When I last came into Gatwick, there were three Transport for London employees to make sure travellers got the right ticket advice.
Is it rather arrogant to expect visitors to your country to immediately know how buy tickets in a language they’ve never seen before, from a strange machine, which won’t accept cash or credit cards? A New Yorker wouldn’t be able to pop back to get his debit card!
This afternoon I was in Walthamstow Central station and gave the ticket machine a good once-over. The first thing you notice is that the UK machine, as are the Italian ones I remember, is very much bigger than the equivalent Dutch machine. but then it accepts coins and notes, as well as most credit and debit cards. It also deals with a lot more operations, like collecting tickets bought on-line.
The Dutch machine is a lot simpler and has much less glitz, so I suspect it was designed down to a price and as it looks cheap and nasty on the outside, I suspect the inside isn’t very bright.
After all it does the same thing as the British machine does and just issues you with a small piece of card.
The on-line tickets are all print yourself jobs on a sheet of A4 paper. In theory print at home tickets are one of those ideas that looks good on paper, but in practice could be a serious nuisance and especially at times, when it matters. Printers do run out of paper and ink and just suppose you book a ticket in a hotel room on your laptop.
When I bought the ticket for Brussels to Den Haag, I got one ticket for each leg of the journey. I didn’t have a problem, but the layout of the information like carriage and seat number is not good and I had to get someone to tell me the latter, as I got it wrong and was going to the wrong seat.
On the high speed train, you need a reservation and walk-up tickets seem very discouraged. Not having tried it, I wouldn’t know and if anybody has, I’d like to know.
But Dutch train ticketing seems to be a system designed to be cheap to run and easier for the company, than the customers. The very fact that two months ago, one ticket got me from London to The Hague and this week it was three tickets is surely a retrograde step.
They may be very last century, but I’m beginning to like the simple card tickets designed by British Rail more and more.
An Excursion In Brussels
I had nearly three hours to wait for my train in Brussels Midi and as I wasn’t sure about our eating arrangements, I thought a quick snack would be in order in the city. From previous experience, I know that the city has good places where I can get a good gluten-free meal.
A quick look around the station after my gentle argument with the guy in Information, indicated that there was nothing but bars and gluten-rich snack places in the station. There was a Starbucks, but you don’t go to one of the gastronomic capitals of the world to go to Starbucks.
So I decided to get a Metro to the area around the cathedral. I couldn’t fathom out the automatic machines, but at least there was a friendly ticket office, where they could understand my French. After getting confused and being sorted on the line to take to go north by an Italian from Milan, where we mused on the confusing maps and directions in the Brussels Metro, I finally got to a station called de Brouckère somewhere near where I thought I wanted to be. I emerged and found my way with ease.
If I’d had more time there was an exhibition of the Terracotta Army, which looked worth visiting.
Eventually, I found a street full of Thai restaurants, which I walked down to the end and found a welcoming-looking place called Le Roi des Belges.
So I took a chance and entered.
I asked if the waitress if the food and especially the plat du jour of salmon was gluten free. It wasn’t just gluten-free but delicious, being cooked with asparagus, tomatoes, herbs and mashed potato. The Belgian speciality of frites was absent. with a Pepsi, it cost me just €12.
it appeared to me though, that this could be the sort of restaurant, that will often be full. So be prepared to go somewhere else, if you turn up on the off-chance.
I walked on to the next Metro station and got the tram back to Brussels Midi.
When I was on the high speed train, it made another stop in Brussels Central station. If you know the city, then you might pick up your onward train to The Netherlands from here.
To The Hague And Back
On Tuesday, I took the Eurostar to see a friend in The Hague. This is a picture of me, eating a gluten-free breakfast in Premium Economy on Eurostar.
Eating A Gluten-Free Breakfast On Eurostar
I know it is only a snack, but it is nice to get something if you’re a coeliac and need gluten-free food.
I had orange juice, yoghurt, as much tea as I wanted, some Dove Farms biscuits, gluten-free bread, butter and a small pot of Tiptree jam.
This leg of the journey cost me £107. That may seem a lot, especially as I could have flown to Brussels on BA for £59, if I’d have booked earlier. But I would doubt, I’d have got such a nice breakfast and I would then have to get to and from the two airports at Heathrow and Brussels.
I actually booked a few days ago, but Standard Premier, always seems to be the same price of £107. I could have travelled in Standard for less at less than forty pounds or to any Belgian station for just £44. Standard Premier to any Belgian station is £116. For many travelling to the southern parts of the Netherlands, that will be a good option, as you can go to Antwerp and travel on from there. You’ll also get to see the triple decker station.
If you’re on an evening train, I’ve usually found the dinner and free wine to be excellent.
I had booked a connection in Brussels, that gave me over three hours in the Belgian capital, so I had time to do two things. One was to take an excursion to get some lunch and the other was to see if I could get a ticket on the InterCity train to The Hague.
I tried the Information, and the guy there said that the train had been discontinued. He did offer me a local train, that went via changes at Antwerp and Rosendaal, but I didn’t want to go on a mystery tour of the Low Countries. There were no machines to try out, so I decided to stop being a nuisance and use my ticket on the Fyra high-speed train to Rotterdam. Incidentally, there does seem to be a few teething problems with the organisation at Brussels, with Eurostar and Thalys up one end of the station and the Fyra at the other. They also changed the platform about fifteen or so minutes before the train departed. The carriage numbers are a bit confusing too, if you’ve been used to the old British Rail system of A-K and First generally towards London. Sometimes, I think the EU should lay down a few standards that would help us all.
Fyra Arrives At Rotterdam
The picture shows the train after arrival at Rotterdam.
The train is a typical boring train, where in Standard Class, you get comfortable seats with only minimal leg-room. It was no more comfortable than the Mk 3 coach, I ride in to Ipswich. But one thing that was disconcerting was that there were quite a few thumps coming from the suspension. My neighbour on the train; a Greek physicist, said that that was common. Incidentally, she’d paid the same €22, that I had for my ticket. It was just a sheet of A4 paper. More on this later.
I then took the local train to Den Haag HS station. I stood all the way, as I was talking to a Swiss lady with a Canadian accent, who worked for Rotterdam police.
I actually arrived earlier than I’d expected, as the Den Haag train I got was an earlier connection, so I had a look round the station, as the next day, I would be getting a ticket from there to Schipol for my flight home. I did find an automatic ticket machine, but it only took debit cards and not even cash. I couldn’t find the ticket office either.
Going home, I was dropped at Den Haag Centraal station and the machines were the same; debit card only. After a twenty minute queue at the ticket office, I eventually used cash to buy a ticket to Schipol to take my flight to the jewel of the Essex coast; Southend. If the Dutch are serious about attracting visitors, they need to look at their ticket machines.
The take-off time was 18:00, but we left early and at 18:05 or sixty-five minutes later because of the time difference, I was on the train towards Liverpool Street. I was sitting watching the television with a cup of tea soon soon after seven.
That six o’clock easyJet flight is certainly the fastest way to get back from Schipol to East and Central London, if you have no baggage, as they always seem to be early at Southend. It also cost me less than forty pounds for the ticket and I had a nourishing gluten-free tomato soup on the journey. Not to Eurostar’s standard but who could serve a meal properly in less than forty minutes. I even got an apology from the stewardess about the soup, as she couldn’t give it enough of a stir. But there were other passengers to serve!
The Anonymous Widower 