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Host Jazzbeau

By Host Jazzbeau,
in River Cruising

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notamermaid Excellent Advice! Rare

notamermaid

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You all sound as if you have spent months of your lives on planes. With me it is less than 24 hours. Those short journeys have been - apart from minor delays - uneventful thankfully. My life instead is filled with unpleasant ferry crossings, but also spectacular sunsets and weird night journeys on water. And train journeys galore! I commuted for years along the Rhine valley but have also been around Europe on trains. Spectacular sunrises to hours waiting at the channel tunnel, the lot...

 

I am trying to find the photos of the heritage train I took (the photos, not the train) in Carlisle in the North of England.

 

But back to planes: I was surprised they let planes fly so close to the Houses of Parliament in London. They look so near from the plane, but the village housing at Heathrow looks even closer. I cannot imagine how people can stand still living there!

 

Some of my wider family live in the flight path near Frankfurt and that sounds bad enough (meaning I have heard the planes).

 

notamermaid

 

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gnome12 Excellent Advice! Rare

gnome12

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1 hour ago, Daisi said:

 

We left Amsterdam Centraal around 2:30, and all roads were still open, so maybe they only close for evenings?  I know most of the stores outside the tourist district were closed, but in the tourist area, we had no trouble finding places to look into.

 

When I was there in 2010, I disembarked early in the morning and walked to my hotel, where I was able to check in about 9 am. By the time I walked into town (about 10 am) there were already a LOT of people, and there would be absolutely no way for any vehicle to move in the area around Dam Square. I tried to do a Resistance walking tour, but it was almost impossible to get to most of the places because of the crush of people. Many places were closed, (excluding restaurants and bars which were very busy) but the Resistance Museum was open. The crowds were so thick it was hard to walk anywhere. (It would have been possible to take a cab from Centraal, but you could only go away from town, other roads were closed as far as I know.) Downtown and the canals were jammed with people dressed in orange, many of them inebriated. This was true all day. Maybe things have changed since then.

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Host Jazzbeau Great Review Rare

Host Jazzbeau

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@notamermaid since you love Kent and trains, you should look at the Noble Caledonia Travel Post articles by Cruise Director Neil Horrocks:

https://www.noble-caledonia.co.uk/the-travel-post/cruise-director-s-corner/

He lives in Kent and has been making ends meet delivering groceries throughout the area, plus he is a train buff and has now switched temp jobs to work on the 1/3 gauge Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway.

 

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notamermaid Excellent Advice! Rare

notamermaid

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7 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway.

Ouiii, thanks for the link. And seeing that I am "often" in Kent, I have of course been on the RMHR. Happy memories of fish & chips and ice-cream on the Dymchurch embankment and beach. Hythe is quite a nice small town. Have not been as far as Dungeness yet.

 

notamermaid

 

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ural guy

ural guy

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My train story from last Tuesday:

 

In Alaska for my daughter's promotion, Army Captain to Major.  Solo trip to Fairbanks as wife was just up to teach a class.  Daughter gets a 4 days pass, D/SIL and I drive to Valdez stay 2 nights, and get to cruise up and see the glaciers, orcas, porpoises, seals, great weather day...amazing experience, highlight of the trip, right?

 

Nope, a night in Wasilla, then D/SIL drop me in Telketna to take the Glacier Express from there, past Denali, and up to Fairbanks.  Supposed to be 9 hours, takes 10 wonderful hours.  I splurged for the Gold Star, which gets you the two story car, lower is dining for your included lunch/dinner, upstairs is seating with the domed glass roof, and rear open sided deck about 15 feet long for photo taking and enjoyment.  The web site and brochure said 2 drinks included along with all soda/coffee/tea you'd like.  We got an open bar. 

 

train.thumb.jpg.9e8cbb99f3658ec3e64987a687f82e51.jpg

 

Great scenery for the 4 hours to Denali, then everyone in my car got off, there is a line of people getting on in car C, but no one comes forward to my car.  The bartender is cleaning up, and asks if I want to move back...Nope, I'm just great up here.  They bring me my dinner and check on me for drinks, which is easy as I'm on water by now, I want to remember the amazing views.

 

 

train.thumb.jpg.53ca433a0123319567af6cc63d7be535.jpg

 

115209651_trainb.thumb.jpg.1421e8533e8e9b35e55a1dc24c73c3a8.jpg

 

mtn.thumb.jpg.3a11ad5ae2ef5e5b465b41403cf9b5b0.jpg

 

And the view from Wasilla B&B at 1130 pm, a few days before solstice.  

 

tic.thumb.jpg.2bdcc448e0c21e17161e06f1fb8073af.jpg

 

 

For D/SIL, about 1,000 miles of driving over frost heaved roads.  Definitely made the train a much easier choice.  We had a bunch of podcasts for the drive, and kiddo is still great with the snacks, so a real fine time was had by all.

 

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notamermaid Excellent Advice! Rare

notamermaid

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2 hours ago, Canal archive said:

Flights to and from Heathrow and Gatwick are have restricted times which helps a bit. So you can understand why the fight against another runway especially at Heathrow. CA

Oh, yes. Much protest at Frankfurt, too. Not sure about currently but in the past they had camps in the forest so that trees could not be knocked down.

 

Strange how coronavirus might change such things (or not) - also overtourism. Anybody remember those discussions? Seems ages ago.

 

notamermaid

 

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CPT Trips

CPT Trips

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8 hours ago, notamermaid said:

 

 

But back to planes: I was surprised they let planes fly so close to the Houses of Parliament in London. They look so near from the plane, but the village housing at Heathrow looks even closer. I cannot imagine how people can stand still living there!

 

Some of my wider family live in the flight path near Frankfurt and that sounds bad enough (meaning I have heard the planes).

 

notamermaid

 


The flight path for DCA (aka Ronald Reagan) in Washington DC is quite the experience. Quick turn in order to avoid overflying downtown DC, follow the river with restrictions on air speed and altitude for noise abatement.

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CPT Trips

CPT Trips

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6 hours ago, ural guy said:

 

 

mtn.thumb.jpg.3a11ad5ae2ef5e5b465b41403cf9b5b0.jpg

 

And the view from Wasilla B&B at 1130 pm, a few days before solstice.  

 

Great views and photos. We are heading south from Fairbanks to Denali later this summer. Hopefully we’ll get weather like you show.

 

I can’t spot Russia in the photo above. 🙄

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notamermaid Excellent Advice! Rare

notamermaid

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I have not flown towards an airport to land at night, but a very dear person has told me that it is a great experience to fly into Frankfurt/Main, it is fully lit up of course and so big it looks like a town. I could be persuaded to fly to see that. It is certainly a huge place and I got lost as a visitor.

 

notamermaid

 

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gnome12 Excellent Advice! Rare

gnome12

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I have flown into Toronto fairly often at night. We used to have one short stretch of highway that used yellow sodium lights, and it was possible to orient yourself with that roadway running north/south, the lake on the south, and a major highway running through the centre of the city. Unfortunately, they replaced the lights with lights similar to others, and it is much harder to orient yourself. There is, of course, always the CN tower which is lit up at night.

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gnome12 Excellent Advice! Rare

gnome12

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1 hour ago, Canal archive said:

Oh I remember that, my husband refused to walk on the CN towers glass floor. Now the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth also has a glass floor and he will not stand on that. CA 

I have never been up the CN tower, and I live here. Now, beyond the glass floor you can do the Edgewalk. Because it is currently closed there isn't a huge amount of information on the website

https://www.cntower.ca/site_Files/Content/PDF/2017/EdgeWalk_Facts.pdf

but if you google "CN tower edgewalk" there are pictures. I will NEVER do the Edgewalk!!

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Daisi

Daisi

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We did the glass floor on the CN tower when we were there, it was a little hard, as people were laying on it to get selfies.  Mind you, I was the 7 yr old out in the middle of the Capilano Suspension Bridge  madly trying to see how much I could get it swinging.  I think my Dad had to make me come off so people could cross... 🙂   Not sure I would do the edge walk, but as long as I know I'm secure, I'm ok.

 

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CPT Trips

CPT Trips

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The glass floor at the CN Tower is terrifying! 
 

When we lived there in the 70s, flying into Berlin at night was spectacular. The city itself was an island of light in a sea of darkness and to top it off it was ringed in the lights illuminating the “death strip” on the DDR side of the wall.

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CPT Trips

CPT Trips

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1 hour ago, notamermaid said:

If you happen to be in Koblenz and have a chance to use the cable car, no. 17 has a glass plate in the floor: https://www.seilbahn-koblenz.de/homepage.html

 

notamermaid

 


Thanks for the warning!

Ran over a glass floor panel on a cruise ship, NCL Breakaway according to my wife. I could look down through it, but couldn’t step onto it.

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notamermaid Excellent Advice! Rare

notamermaid

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18 minutes ago, CPT Trips said:

Ran over a glass floor panel on a cruise ship

This one in Koblenz is mild. Despite what it says on the website, it is not actually directly in the floor to stand on it. It is like a low table, looks like this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ferkel/4860677673/in/pool-1245751@N24/

 

 

notamermaid

 

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