My first class struggle

During this trip I am using a mixture of travel classes. Standard Economy on some flights, Business on others, and occasionally First Class on trains. Yesterday I sat in First Class on the train from Kings Lynn to London Kings Cross. I had the compartment all to myself to start with, but by Cambridge it was nearly full.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the comfort of First Class. Sometimes it's a great deal more comfortable than Standard or Economy Class travel. Often it makes very little difference - the seats are the same (perhaps with a little tissue to lean your head against) but the compartment is sectioned off and separated from everyone else. I suppose there's a much better chance of getting a seat (but no guarantee in Britain) when travelling First Class on a train.

What I don't like about it is (sorry I don't mean to be rude....) some of the other passengers using First Class. The truth is that I don't relate to them at all. They all sit there glued to their super-advanced mobile phone / personal data devices or tapping away on a laptop computer (like I'm doing right now !)... or worse still, they call someone and talk, and talk, and talk through the entire journey.

The talking I can put up with, but the language they use becomes increasingly annoying to me. It's basically drivel and jargon. "We engage with them on a daily basis", or "the senior leaders' group is responsible for delivering the implementation of corporate strategy", or "what we'll do going forward is..." GOING FORWARD ??? Please. Do you mean to say "in the future" ? If so, those are completely wasted words. You can hardly plan to do something in the past ! It's unnecessary.

Why do I react against this ? What exactly is it I'm reacting against ? I think (I'd better be careful what I say here) it's because I've come across rather a high percentage of poor quality managers at companies I've encountered going backwards (sorry, in the past). That makes me cynical about that type of person. I imagine such people to be on highly inflated salaries, and I wonder what contribution some of they really make.

Of course, if I was sitting in Standard Class on a train I might well be surrounded by people I find equally annoying for different reasons. Chatting away about meaningless gossip or making different grammatical errors in their speech.

Hmm.. I think my brain is showing signs of having relaxed, being away from the preoccupations of normal daily life, and is beginning to analyse things again. The way of the world, what direction I might take next, and so on. This is a familiar pattern when I'm travelling for long periods. I tend to think clearly (or at least convince myself that's what I'm doing) when I am not burdoned with everyday life !! That's kind of dangerous, while exciting at the same time.

In previous such situations I've decided to move from London to Scotland, and later.. from Scotland to New Zealand. Let me say straight away that I have every intention of returning to live in New Zealand at the end of this journey.

By the way, I apologise to any reader who is a business person. I don't mean to tar everyone with the same brush. I do wish, however, that business people and managers would use sensible language and actually get things done, rather than spending so much time churning out reports, hosting meetings, "engaging" and so on. I suppose if they didn't do these things, they might have little to actually occupy their time.

I'd better stop now.

London City Airport

Yesterday I flew from London City Airport for the first time. It's in the east of the city, and is very easy to get to. I took the Docklands Light Railway from Bank station and was there within 30 minutes, perhaps even within 20 minutes.

The airport is easy to use and has good facilities EXCEPT... there is no club lounge for British Airways, and therefore no lounge for One World sapphire status frequent flyers like myself. All that means is that I have to pay for my food and drink if I use this airport. On balance, I think that's a small sacrifice for being able to avoid the nightmare that is Heathrow.

So, now I'm back in Madrid for a couple of nights - my Europe base city. I go to Bulgaria on Friday.

The British Airways plane here was an Embraer 170. Quite a snazzy little jet, and comfortable. I thought I was going to have a plane with propellors, but this one had engines :-)

Those who've been following the news will know that BA cabin crew have been involved in a long-running dispute with management. I wonder whether discontent had affected the attitude of the senior crew member on this flight. He was rude to at least two of the passengers within my earshot !

For example, he questioned one man about whether he knew where the over-wing exits were. When he didn't get the right answer he said "that's because there aren't any. If you'd been listening to the safety announcement you would have known that" !!

25%

I have been away from home for 40 days. That's one quarter of my time on this trip. On the one hand, it's frightening to know that I'm so far through it already. On the other, looking back, I have seen and done so much in that relatively short time.

I'm getting excited about the places that are coming up soon. Eastern Europe, Russia, Finland.

Yesterday and today I saw another friend and former colleague. Kate, who I worked with for several years in Scotland, came and stayed a night in Lincolnshire between being in Devon and Manchester. She was travelling with her daughter, Mia, and I was pleased to catch up over a drink in town and breakfast this morning.

Here's a photo of them with my dad, looking at fish in the garden.

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Travel resumes on Wednesday. Meanwhile, here's a look back at Lisbon and the trams that are popular there.

Relaxing in Britain

Well, I've been in Britain since Monday afternoon. Just relaxing at my parents' house in Lincolnshire. The weather has been fine, although rain is frequently forecaset. It's not nearly so hot as in mainland Europe, but they seem to be having a pretty good summer. It's so nice to see my parents after another year has gone by. Usually on my travels they get to see me for a long weekend. This time I've decided to extend that... nine nights now, and five or six nights later during a separate visit in August.

So I am here until the middle of next week before resuming the European section of this trip. I should try to learn some Bulgarian.. well, at least learn to recognise the alphabet in case I'm lost and looking for street signs when I'm in Sofia.

On arrival at Heathrow on Monday I was amazed to find that my British Airways flight was the first (of several recent flights involving Spanish airspace) to touch down on time. The initial excitement of realising that soon wore off. You know you're in Britain when you get a comedy of errors taking place....

Because we'd arrived on time -- in fact five minutes early -- there was another aircraft at the gate we were supposed to use. Unfortunately, said the pilot, that plane has been told he has a lengthy delay because of air traffic congestion. So we had to park and wait as well. 45 minutes later, an alternative space had been found for my plane. We taxied along slowly until eventually coming to a halt in the middle of nowhere. Then we had to wait for buses. Now, can anyone please explain to me why a bus transfer from a plane to an airport terminal doesn't take the passengers directly to the arrivals area ? We were driven to a gate, then had to walk for at least ten minutes (at my fast pace) to get to the passport check and then through to the luggage belts.

One final comedy. The signs said luggage from my plane would be on belt number 9. Most people got their bags. Others were left waiting, including me. I just happened to turn around and see my bag going by on belt number 8. How ridiculous.

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Eating a mint flavoured "feast", choc-ice on a stick.

A boat in the marshes area, near Hunstanton.

Pebbles in the car. She gets driven to places, to go for a walk.

Ah, back in Madrid for the weekend :-)

Four countries down, lots more to go

A month ago I was in Japan. Today I'm in Portugal (having been to Germany and Spain in between).

In one month's time I'll be in Russia - after Britain, Bulgaria, Hungary, Finland and Spain again.

In two months from now I'll be in Argentina - after Britain again, Switzerland, different parts of Germany and Denmark.

In three months' time I'll be in Singapore - after Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Germany (again !) and India.

In four months from now I'll be in Vietnam - after Indonesia, Malaysia and Cambodia.

After that, I'll go to Thailand and then back to New Zealand.

Photo post : Sintra, near Lisbon

On the train back to Lisbon I had a carriage all to myself. That changed at the first stop after leaving Sintra station. A woman got on and squeezed in beside me to take the window seat (I had taken the aisle). Of all the free seats, she had decided to sit next to me. This fellow passenger had an annoying habit. Popping sounds kept coming from her mouth. She had bubble gum. With the help of my watch, I counted an average of eleven pops per minute. During the course of the journey all the way to Lisbon, this will have amounted to something in excess of 400 pops. The train had filled up at the next stop, so I was stuck with her beside me. I thought there probably wasn't any point moving anyhow, since she was so loud and I still would have heard her.

Always remember....

Today's piece of advice is... just because you've found a sign pointing you in the right direction for something you'd like to see, that doesn't mean it's only just around the corner.

I took a train from Lisbon's Rossio station today, all the way to the end of the line at Sintra. That's a journey of about 40 minutes for the ridiculously low price of Euros 3.50 return ! Sintra is a photogenic little town which UNESCO designated a world heritage site about 15 years ago.

Again, I went without a guide book or a map. It was easy to find the town centre by foot from the railway station. In any case, there were plenty of tourists who did have maps, and I could have followed them ! After wandering around narrow cobbled streets and taking a look at the Palacio de Sintra I decided to find the main attraction, the Palacio de Pena. It was built in the 1840s and 50s by the King Consort Don Fernando II and was inhabited by members of the Portugese royal family until 1910. A fairy tale building of various shapes and colours set in a park on the top of hill, and with a castle close by on another peak.

Did I mention the hill ? Oh yes, 500 metres up. I had spotted the sign and thought "I'll head up there and have lunch afterwards". So I followed the signs, up, and up. Walking up, on a road with no pavement. Stopping frequently to make way for cars. Now, I didn't time myself going up - but coming down later took 50 minutes. Down, as you may realise, is easier than up. I imagine it must have been about an hour and 20 minutes of good exercise on the way up. Well worth it, of course, to get into the grounds and see the building. I stretched out those calf muscles once I'd descended back into the town.

And that lunch I was going to have after taking a look at the palace ? There was a cafe right beside the entrance, where I had a juicy chicken baguette and a Cornetto ice cream. Very generously, the prices were no higher than anywhere else I've been buying food.

Photo post LISBON

Lisbon is a nice surprise. By that, I mean I didn't actually do any research about the city prior to arriving. It's been really something to discover it simply by wandering around and seeing where different streets take me. I'm staying just above Barrio Alto, up one of several hills. Turn right and I make my way down into the old district and towards the river. Turn left and I'm on my way to the botanical garden.

More to say about Portugal in my next posting. Finally for this one, a post script about Frankfurt. When I was enduring the extreme heat there (and had confined myself to my hotel room), MTV Deutschland was showing a live music concert and introduced me to a group called Unheilig. Now I want to buy their latest album, which I believe is Grosse Freiheit. Perhaps I'll get it when I'm in Munich or Hamburg later. The singer is a crowd-pleasing, charismatic bald guy with lots of energy on a hot day, who goes by the name of "der Graf" (The Count).

On the move again

I'm back in Madrid, but for less than 24 hours. Using this city as a staging post for a while, I arrived from Frankfurt last night and leave for Lisbon tonight. I'll return to Madrid for the weekend, then go to Britain to see my parents.

I have to say that Frankfurt airport is not the most efficient. Long queues for passport and security checking, then sitting for ages waiting to board the plane. That was probably down to the airline rather than the airport. The plane was there; I could see it through the window. The boarding time came and went with no explanation. Boarding did eventually begin just before the scheduled departure time. An hour later we began to taxi to the runway, and it wasn't until the captain's announcement during the flight that we got an apology and a vague excuse that European air traffic was heavy. Hmm.

Now to Madrid Barajas airport. Let me see. The plane arrived at 11pm (late), and the bags began emerging onto the luggage belt at midnight. Can it really take one hour ? I know it can at London Heathrow, but British inefficiency is to be expected.

Fortunately, the Madrid metro runs until 1am. I suspect it was running a little later last night anyhow, because the new world football champions had just flown back from South Africa and the party was continuing. I saw a lot of tired but happy fans making their way home by underground train after midnight.

A little more about the past couple of days in Germany. I was glad to meet up with another two friends. First, Cord from Cologne. We met back in 2005 while we were both on holiday in Istanbul. He was good enough to drive for a couple of hours and share lunch and an afternoon with me. I also met a friend from Wellington, who happened to be staying about an hour from Frankfurt in a place called Bad Kreuznach. Raeef, who has been home to the Middle East and is now spending some time in Europe. Our paths might cross again later during my journey, possibly in Bulgaria if he can get a cheap flight there.

On Sunday, the shops don't open in Germany (well, most of them). What a peaceful, sleepy atmosphere that creates in the city centre. I sat again among the trees and benches in the Zeil, where I spotted two rats picking their way through piles of building materials in a construction area. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I started thinking about what "they" say about London... you're never more than xyz feet / metres from a rat in the British capital. I should look up how far it is, and let you know !

OK... an internet search came up with the answer of 10 feet.

So very hot

In much of Europe, temperatures are up to 12 degrees above normal for the time of year (the height of summer). In Germany, it's no different. The forecast high in Frankfurt today is 37 degrees. It's very energy-sapping. Many homes - not to mention hotels - are without air conditioning. These dogs have got the right idea.

It reminds me of the best summer I remember from my days as a youngster in Britain. The grass was always brown and there were weeks of sunshine during the school holidays.

Mainz

I took the regional train to Mainz yesterday, which is a journey of about 45 minutes from Frankfurt. Once there, I tried and failed to find the Tourist Information office. No matter; I found my way around by looking at bus and tram-stop maps.

A different river. Not the Main, but the Rhein. As you can see, a fake beach had been created on the riverbank -- complete with volleyball court, deckchairs and (as you can't see) bars.

Mainz has some nice cobbled streets, lots more quaint old buildings and some interesting shops. Like in Frankfurt, there's quite a Turkish influence. No end of kebab restaurants. I guess I spent about six hours in Mainz before taking the train back to Frankfurt. The fare, by the way, was 7.15 Euro each way. I had considered going to Heidelberg, but that would have been more than three times the price.

Back in Frankfurt, I followed a recommendation from one of the Antequera wedding guests and sought out Pizzaria 7 Bello (Niddastr - near the Hauptbahnhof). I sat outside, actually in the road rather than on the pavement, and enjoyed a Hawaiian pizza and a cold beer. An ideal way to spend part of the evening with the heat of the sun withdrawing to a very pleasant level.

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Observations

At breakfast this morning I witnessed a furtive-looking Asian man quickly enter the hotel's restaurant area, look around to see whether he was being observed, then use the tea and coffee machine to fill his instant noodle pot with hot water. Fair enough, there are no kettles in the rooms in Ibis hotels (the beds are very comfortable though). No fridges either. Self catering is difficult in these circumstances.

There are SO many cake shops in Frankfurt ! No wonder I've noticed a big contrast between the fit and the unfit, with no-one in between. I have (so far) avoided cakes, pastries and rolls. Probably a big brezel would be ok (?). I've also noticed that there's a high proportion of smokers here. It kind of spoils the atmosphere when I'm sitting watching the world go by, if most of the others doing the same are wafting carcinogens in my direction. On railway station platforms you'll find a Raucherbereich (smoking area), marked with a yellow outline painted on the ground.

On one occasion when I was sitting and watching the world go by, I was surprised that so many non-vagrants approached rubbish bins and rummaged around inside them. Ususally they went away empty handed. When they did take something, it was a plastic bottle. Germany has a deposit system to encourage recycling of plastics (and glass I believe). When I buy a bottle of water I believe is going to cost me 68 cents, I am actually charged 93 cents at the till. The receipt reveals Pfand of 25 cents. Presumably, I can get a refund if I take my empty bottle back. In fact, I recycle it myself by refilling it with tap water !

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It really is nice, wandering the streets and river banks of Frankfurt on a Summer's day. Just like Wellington, there's a huge number of people who clearly don't go to work between the hours of 9am and 5pm. Perhaps they're shift workers, housewives/husbands, or on their school holidays. The main shopping street has musicians, people applying airbrush tattoos, and others making a nuisance of themselves by trying to sell football trumpets.

Germany and Spain are playing in their World Cup semi-final match this evening. Divided loyalties ? I will see more of both countries before this journey is done.

I think I might take a train trip tomorrow. Somewhere not too far away. I don't want to see everything of Frankfurt, then find I've run out of things to do.. so I'll save some for the weekend. I have already been to the Goethe House, seen Pauls Kirche, the Kaiser Dom, Rathaus and many more landmark buildings. My German teacher back in Wellington gave me some tips, and I will be heading to Bornheim at the weekend to follow up on one of those. More about that later. Oh, and I've had good news that a friend from London (Ben) will be joining me in Munich when I am there next month :-)

Jahrhundert Mensch

There's a nice exhibition of photographs by Karsten Thormaehlen on at the Haus am Dom.

It's a display of phots of people who are 100 years old or more, with their words quoted on the reverse of the enlarged pictures.

Erich Buettner, born November 3rd, 1907, says "Etwa 20 Glaeser Beinenhonig pro Jahr und taeglich einen halben Liter Milch. Sport ? - Mein Sport war die Arbeit im Laden".

About 20 glasses of honey each year and a litre of milk per day. Sport ? My sport was working in the shop.

For those among you who are German speakers... I apologise for my computer's inability to produce umlauts. Where one is required, I have followed the vowel in question with an "e".

Der Blick aus meinem Fenster

Well, it's not entirely true. The Westhafen Tower is what I see, directly out of my hotel window, but this photo was taken from ground level and outside the hotel.

I walked alongside the river Main to St Leonhard-Kirche (church) this morning, where I met a woman who explained the history of the building in great detail - mostly in German. It was built in the 13th century. The stained glass windows were remade after being destroyed in the Second World War. Some more renovation was carried out earlier this year, to protect against potential flooding from the river.

Later, I went to the historical centre, the cathedral and the Zeil (shopping street). I couldn't help buying myself a pair of jeans shorts for only 10 Euros in H&M. Twice now, airline check in desks have weighed my bag at 18 kilos. I don't know how that happened, but it's 3 kilos more than I'll be allowed on some later budget airline flights in Asia.. so something will have to go. Luckily, I can leave some clothes behind at my parents' house when I get there in a couple of weeks.

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Poor Ed, who I was visiting in Madrid, was supposed to come to the wedding as my guest. He'd had problems getting the time off work. In the end, however, the reason he couldn't come was that he was sick. I spent hours waiting with him first at the doctor's surgery, then at the hospital. They thought he might have got an infection, but it turned out to be what I understand are kidney stones :-(

I'm using Madrid as a base, from which to visit Germany, Portugal, Britain in a couple of weeks, and eastern Europe at the beginning of August. It was very hot and dry in Madrid. High 30s centigrade, with a hot wind that quickly dries eyes, mouths and nostrils. It's a bit cooler in Frankfurt. Perhaps as much as 10 degrees cooler than I've had in Spain.

Wedding in Antequera

Over the past weekend I was in the south of Spain, attending the wedding of two Scottish friends in Antequera. I had wanted to go there by train from Madrid, but it worked out cheaper to fly to Malaga and continue by bus.

The happy couple are James and Rachael Cook, who were good enough to join me and several others for my 40th birthday party in Dubai in 2008. By now, they'll be on their honeymoon far away from Europe.

It was really nice to see so many of my former colleagues from BBC Scotland again. The church was beautiful, and the every morsel of the meal at the reception afterwards was delicious. The speeches were entertaining - especially the one made by the father of the bride, Bernard Cunningham :-)

Father John, who'd flown over from Glasgow to conduct the service, has a good memory for names. After having met him only briefly on Friday, he engaged me in conversation on Sunday morning and remembered who I was. Part of his calling, of course, is to seek out lost souls. So perhaps he thought someone who is wandering the world for five months fits into that category. The theme of religious signs was continued today in Frankfurt (where I am now). I was walking around the perimeter of the cathedral when I heard a crack, and part of a tree branch fell to the ground in front of me and broke into small pieces.

Photo post : Friends in Japan

Last year's spooky coincidence was that I met up with three people I know from Wellington, when I was on my travels and in London. Ok, well two of the meetings were pre-arranged and the third was a chance encounter.

This year, it was Japan that provided friendly faces from New Zealand. In Shizuoka I was able to have coffee with a former work colleague during a break in my train journey to Tokyo. Victoria is teaching on a special programme in Japan for a year and having some interesting experiences. She is a traveller, like me, and is always thinking about her next adventure :-) It's a shame I didn't think to get my camera out and take a photo.

In Tokyo itself, I had a delicious evening meal with no less than two of the people I've studied German with over the past couple of years and the partner of one of them. Peter (and his other half Charlotte) are also now in Europe. They'd stopped in Japan for a couple of nights on the way. Hiroko, who is Japanese but lives in Wellington, selected the restaurant for our meal in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo. She was very helpful to me in providing a lot of information and advice about Japan. The best tip of all being that I should pre-purchase a Japan Rail Pass for travelling around the country. It was a great saving on what would have been the total sum of individual fares.

Now I'm in Spain, where I will head south tomorrow for the wedding of two lovely friends from Scotland. You'll hear more about that in the coming days. I'm also spending some time with a dear friend here in Madrid, which is something of a base for jaunts within Europe... to Germany, Portugal, Bulgaria and of course the UK.

It means a lot to me, to be able to spend quality time with friends during my travels. I look forward to the later part of this trip when I will be joined in India by one good friend from Wellington, and in South East Asia by another.