Laurence Andrews

Kyiv wasn’t on the itinerary for the #TrainToTurkey because there are unfortunately no trains across the Black Sea. Or ferries either, for that matter. Thankfully economics were in our favour and we were able to make a literal flying visit.

There are direct flights from London to almost all capital cities in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, except it seems to Turkey’s second-largest city and national capital, Ankara. To get home Owen and I would either need to back-track to Istanbul on the train or take an indirect flight. Most of the indirect flights were via Istanbul too, which makes sense since it’s such a large aviation hub, but all of these flights were expensive and with lengthy layovers. There was a cheaper option though: flying via Kyiv. A longer route and a smaller plane but the same ultimate destination.

Even more fortunately, it worked out cheaper yet for us to leave Ankara in the very early morning and then take a late-night flight from Kyiv to London. Just £90 quid each would get us home, which was cheaper than most of the trains we’d taken over the past week. The catch, of course, was that we’d be flying over the recently Russian-annexed Crimea region, flying not far from where Malaysia Flight 17 was blown from the sky and landing in a country which is not only one the most corrupt in Europe, but which is fighting an armed conflict on home soil. But the FCO said it would be fine, so no biggie.

Our flight was the first out of Esenboga Airport that morning and we had opted to sleep in the ibis Ankara Airport, as close as we could, to not miss it. Unfortunately, the hotel isn’t within walking distance so a taxi at 4:30 am was our only option. Ankara airport isn’t particularly big and at this time of the morning, it was completely empty, although the duty-free and coffee shops were all open for business. Of all the flights in all my years this particular flight had hands down the strangest collection of passengers - there were a few rugged, well-travelled Americans, Ukrainian nationals heading back home from holidays and a few business people in the mix too. We were almost certainly the only Brits, which I always love because it’s a sure tell sign that some real travelling is going on. We boarded via bus and Owen was rewarded with a fantastic window seat, no photos of the take-off I’m afraid.

It was a very strange feeling having travelled a very long way by train to then be taking a flight and an even stranger feeling going from a city where we were completely unfamiliar to one which we were not only unfamiliar with but for which we hadn’t even researched. The only research I had done was to confirm that my Three mobile SIM supported roaming - because not having connectivity would’ve been kind of a big deal (as we’d discovered in Ankara).

The flight was short and we landed with apprehension and excitement - we were in Ukraine! We filtered through to security and it quickly became clear that this place was no Disneyland, at least two people were sent back from the border check for not having completed their landing card correctly. The agent took a good look through my passport, took interest in my Russian visa but after a swift stamp handed it back with a perfectly rehearsed “Welcome to Ukraine”.

Easy - we’re in! Unfortunately, my mobile data wasn’t working and despite Three saying they operate their Data Passport in Ukraine, it seems that it doesn’t really work. Thankfully, a few Ukrainian Hryvnia’s got us up and running with a tourist SIM - drama over. Since we were still on a train holiday, we did the natural thing and headed for the train. One of the strangest trains we’d been on for sure, I don’t really know how to describe it other than it was a brand new, short, wide, industrial but perfectly fine little train. It took us directly to the Pasazhyrskyi Railway Station in the city, after passing several other stations, bridges and over the enormous Dnieper river. The scenery, architecture and surroundings were a world away from anything we’d seen yet, high rise soviet era tenement blocks, ragged old cars, trucks and of course, vintage, packed railway trains ferrying blue-collar workers out of the city. It was all very bizarre, even more so when viewed from a brand new airport train.

The train station was enormous, it had a strange 50s vibe and was full of people going about their business, as you’d expect in a train station. It wasn’t like any other train station I’d been to before, it was overwhelming and intimidating and where I’d usually hang around and take pictures I wanted to do nothing but get out on to the street. Passing through the big wooden doors of the main hall we were presented with the city, it was raining, not a lot but enough to be gloomy and annoying. The atmosphere was live, everything was moving and happening, busses, cars, taxi touts and plenty of soldiers geared up and presumably heading west.

We took shelter in McDonald’s just across the street but there was no escaping the madness, it was just as busy inside. We’ve been spoilt in recent years, with the advent of the multi-lingual self-serve ordering system it doesn’t matter what language you speak or what country you are in, you get exactly what you want with no confusion. That doesn’t yet exist in Ukraine, the menu was just as familiar as you’d see in London, but of course, everything is in Cyrillic and completely illegible to me and Owen. We queued up and got our pointing fingers ready. The girl who took our order spoke zero English (which is naturally understandable) and despite my pro-level pointing ran away to find a manager, who also spoke no English but seemingly understood my pointing better. A short while later and after a few minutes of embarrassment we ended up with two breakfast meals and a large coke.

Owen and I headed to the upstairs of this enormous McDonalds and found ourselves a table. We sat there for about 15 minutes laughing about why on earth we thought it was a fun idea to come to Kyiv and how much of a fool I had made of myself in front of the McDonalds staff. It was about the point where we started to relax that the man behind us got up after having finished his breakfast and strapped to his belt was a handgun. We don’t have many guns in the UK and the guns we do have are only ever seen in public in the hands of the police. Seeing a handgun strapped to someone’s jeans isn’t just a bit weird, it’s completely alien. Our thoughts then turned to whether this man was making some kind of point or perhaps making his presence known to the obvious tourists in the room - I have no idea, but we got the hell out of there after sneaking a quick snap.

With a bit of a google in McDonald’s, we had established that the best way to get to the places we wanted to see was to jump on the metro, which happened to be just across the road. Easy, we thought. The station building had an entrance and an exit and the entrance was completely backed up with hundreds of people slowly entering. We queued up and after a lot of shuffling and pushing managed to get into the building. We then discovered that we’d followed the wrong queue for if we wanted a ticket. This presented a problem as we were now in a nether-zone where we couldn’t get out (since we’d need to pass the barriers and had no ticket) and wouldn’t be able to get out of the entrance we’d just squeezed though on account of it being a one-way door full of people. So we stood back and had a bit of a think, perhaps it would calm down a bit. Well, it didn’t, the door was the only way out. We rolled up our sleeves and prepared to do the impossible, this topped the embarrassment of McDonald’s but we managed it in the end.

With the Metro off of the cards we decided that we’d just walk, how far can it be anyway? I have to admit, after walking 20mins or so and seemingly ending up nowhere further than where we were I was getting a bit peed off and Owen certainly was too. After trudging through the pouring rain (in shorts!) we pulled into a restaurant/cafe to have a breather. The best thing we did, it all cheered up from here on! The coffee shop was cool, we have a drink, used their loo and best of all, remembered that Uber is a thing. No more walking for us!!

We took an Uber to the city centre which wasn’t all that much further away and engaged tourist mode. Independence Square wasn’t quite what I had expected, despite seeing it on TV frequently during the 2014 revolution. It’s big, well, massive, but because the buildings are so absolutely huge it doesn’t feel nearly as big as it is. That said, it is pretty impressive and has a strange, sombre feel to it, probably as a result of those who were killed. It’s an absolutely iconic part of the world though, so I’m glad we were able to visit. We set off from the square heading north and up towards St. Michael’s Square and Monastery.

We were getting a bit more comfortable with the city now, the madness of the station behind us and after a wander round found of all things, a funicular railway. We were a bit surprised to see such a thing but having failed in our attempt to ride the metro thought that this would be a reasonable consolation. The funicular was opened to the public in 1905 and takes passengers between the top of the hill, Uppertown and the district of Podil on the banks of the river below. There are two funicular cars, left (Λ) and right (П) which counterweight each other and are driven by an electric motor at the top station, there is a passing loop in the middle of the track which allows the cars to use the same track in the station buildings. A ticket on the funicular costs 25 pence or 8 hryvnias and the ticket booth exchanges cash for a small plastic town which is used in the entrance turnstile.

At the bottom of the hill in Podil, we went in search of a bar so we could dry off and have a quick break and after quite a lot of walking, we found a place called Punkraft. We had seen little in the way of craft beer during the trip so far and I was particularly keen to have some been that wasn’t just macro-brewed lager - this was the place. We walked down an uninviting staircase to a basement bar which wasn’t open but the bartender (who thankfully spoke English) was happy to serve us anyway. The best bar of the trip by a long shot, we played on the vintage pinball machine and had plenty of delicious Ukranian local craft and laughed about the man with the gun in McDonald’s.

We left Podil and headed back up the funicular to another little bar, but it wasn’t nearly as good so didn’t hang around for long. We walked back to the square feeling a bit more comfortable in the city and grabbed a burger for lunch. Walking around the city we explored the Golden Gate a restored version of a medieval city gate which had a church on top. With a renewed confidence in Kyiv we thought it was worth a second attempt at the Metro system. We boarded at Zoloti Vorota (Золотi ворота) and paid for some tickets with no intention to actually go anywhere. The metro stations in Kyiv are incredibly deep, this particular station is 96 meters below the surface and the deepest in the world, Arsenalna a little further towards the river is 105 meters down. For context, the deepest London station is just 58 meters down. As a result of the depth, the escalators are steep and very long, it’s almost a journey in itself.

We rode the metro train to Lukianivska just one stop, but a fantastic experience. The trains go FAST and they have a wonderful vintage vibe about them, whilst being perfectly serviceable. They are somewhat similar to those I remember in Moscow, certainly the station architecture below the surface is similar if not completely comparable.

Metro ride over we visited a local craft shop and Owen bought some Russian dolls to bring home, this took far longer than it needed to, there were hundreds of different options. Just after that, we realised that we should probably think about getting back - that’s when it all went wrong. We had just two hours until check-in closed and the airport isn’t exactly around the corner - whoops. We dialled up an Uber and hoped for the best, a little Dacia Logan turned up with Boris (Борис) at the wheel.

This was the slowest journey in history. We hit traffic for almost all of the 38 miles from the centre to the airport while Owen and I sat in the back sweating about the impact of missing our flight. It did reach the point where I waved our boarding passes insistently at the Uber driver for him to get a shift on. In fact, it got so close to us missing the flight that I was researching where we were going to stay that night if we did miss it. The one good part of the ride was that we were able to see the Motherland Monument from the car, the traffic was so slow we probably could have got out and walked up to it. Thankfully we arrived in the nick of time and ran like madmen through security and to the gate, with just enough time to pick up some incredibly cheap Ukranian vodka!!

We arrived back at Gatwick exhausted, smelly, tired but full of stories. A flying visit to Kyiv, complete and the longest train journey of our lives in the bag. What an incredible week!

The Maldives were lovely, but there were no wrecks. It was time to do some real diving… The M2 is WW2 submarine with the unique feature of a hangar and her own sea plane, a kind of submersible aircraft carrier. She was one of three M-class submarines built for the Royal Navy and after the accidental sinking of her sister, the M1 she was pulled from service and retrofitted with the hangar. Sadly the M2 also sunk shortly after in 1932 after what is believed to have been a failed launch exercise off Chesil beach in Dorset. The wreck lies in around 32 meters of water and sits perfectly upright making it very easy to make out key components of the boat.

We launched around 9am on Saturday morning in pouring rain, of the many dive boats in Portland Harbour we were the only dive boat going out - which was a little alarming. The journey out wasn’t too bad, there was some swell as we travelled down the eastern part of Portland Bill. The sea picked up considerably once we were unprotected from the south-westerly winds and everyone including me got a little bit sick!

This was a big dive for me, since passing my PADI Tec45 I have bought my own twinset, regulators and wing, a significant equipment investment. It had taken quite a lot of logistics to make sure that I had everything for this particular dive, but thankfully everything arrived in time. I was a little apprehensive since I had not dived this particular rig before, but confident that everything was working as it should.

Once we were above the wreck the skipper threw the shot and a short while later we were getting kitted up. I buddied with Art, a technical trained diver who I had dived with before at Vobster Quay in the UK. We were planning for a 30 minute bottom time before heading back up the shot which should take around 20 minutes, giving us a planned 45/50minute run time. Art was to run against his deco plan I was to copy, relying on my computers for if I were to lose Art. Art was running 21% back gas plus a 50% deco mix and I was on 21% back gas for the entire dive.

We dropped down to about 5 meters where I checked my equipment was all in order, Art hung slightly above to confirm. We reached the wreck in just a few minutes after a steady decent, the visibility at the bottom was good, at least 5 meters, which given the weather was surprising. There was some current but this dropped away once we reached the bottom.

At the bottom of the shot the submarine emerged, the hangar was right on the line. I adjusted my equipment and buoyancy and checked my backup regulator was still working correctly. We headed off towards the bow on the starboard side, the wreck has deteriorated after all these years and there were a number of holes on the side of the hull. On the top of the boat there were the visible catapult tracks for the aircraft, leading out of the hangar and steel chains could be seen through the tracks. At the bow there was a lot of sea life, all cosied inside the wreck, protected from the elements.

We headed round to the port side and swam back towards the stern. A number of crabs were crawling on the side covered in barnacles, experienced in evading fishermen! We reached the hangar and swam around the conning tower. This was my favourite part, the ridges on the circular tower just above the hangar can be made out in the picture, looked identical underwater. The tower still had many of the antenna and steel masts, many of these had remnants of lines tied on by boats or other divers. Rounding the tower we descended slightly again and went inside the hangar, we penetrated maybe 3 or 4 meters before being faced with a huge bank of silt which I didn’t want to go near(!).

Backing out of the hangar we called the dive and agreed to head back up the line. We followed Art’s deco plan well and at 20 meters he switched to his 50% mix. Ascending slowly we worked our way up and at 6 meters Art threw up an SMB. We both continued up and after a slow ascent I was left with only a few minutes at 3 meters. We surfaced just off the shot line to a choppy sea and all other divers on the boat. I had about 108 bar left in my twins with a consumption of 17.3l/min so probably could have extended the dive but was happy to keep it short and safe.

Back on board we all spent the next half hour talking about the dive and what we saw. Brett and Jayne had followed around to the stern and were able to see the two horizontal stabilisers, which would have been an interesting sight - perhaps next time! We powered back to harbour and were relieved to reach calmer waters on the eastern side of the bill. A fantastic dive, my new equipment worked a treat and I don’t think I can recall a more comfortable dive. I was warm, had good natural trim, perfect buoyancy and had enough movement to reach valves and gauges. I was far, far more comfortable at 32 meters than I was sitting on the boat!

I came across some old photographs of Lower Upnor the other day and wanted to share them online. I’m not too sure when the older pictures were taken or by whom, but perhaps somebody will be able to help. They show an fantastic glimse into how upnor has changed over the last 70 or so years.

This first picture (above) is the most recent, taken in 2006 by Alan R. Fuller of Albion Place. Not a huge amount has changed between then and the present day. The things I notice are that the pontoon at the bottom of the picture has been removed, the bushes outside the sailing club have recently been removed in order to install a disability ramp and the tree outside of the Waterfront is no longer there. There is a small yacht stored for decorative purposes on the hard area outside of the Pier which has been thre now for some time. It’s difficult to be certain but I believe the covered boat on the bottom left, stored in Patman’s Wharf is still present, or has been replaced with a similar looking boat.

This picture I’m unsure on the age but it’s certainly after 1955, which was the year Courage Brewery merged with Barclay, Perkins & Co to form Courage and Barclay - this can be seen painted on the side of the Ship pub. The most significant change from this picture is that the houses north east of the Pier and behind the Ship are no longer there, replaced with the present Brissenden Close and Margetts Place in the late 80s.

Patman’s yard is a little different, with a mound of what appears to be some kind of aggregate piled up. Some of the present day concrete yard is yet to be built but some of the yard must exist as it has been there a very long time. The photographer is also presumably standing on the (now dismantled and removed) travelling crane.

The cottages between the Waterfront and Ship have changed too, although I don’t believe they have been rebuilt completely. Certainly the doors, windows and even chimney stacks have changed. From what I can recall, the inside upstairs of Upnor sailing club is resonably old, with visible beams supporting the roof.

The village green can be seen with a structure of some kind too, which I believe is a shelter. The concrete base for this still exists but not sure why it was removed.

This is my favourite picture, I think that it is from around the same time as the second. The thing that I love is that you can just about see where our house now sits, to the left of the Ship.

The shelter can be seen more clearly, on the village green and the two barges give upnor a much different look. Surprisingly the dinghy park is still present although the ramp has since been converted into a pontoon.

The number of houses that would have been demolished to make way for Margetts Place and Brissenden Close seems quite mad too, it must have been quite a controversial development at the time.

With an hour before our train we didn’t have much time to spend in Zagreb and we were very keen to make sure we don’t miss the train. We left the station and headed towards to city in search of supplies for the trip ahead. We failed, but probably went the wrong way or something. The parts of the city we did see were good, a very different Croatia to that in Dubrovnik. Giving up on our quest for food we walked back to the station and managed to find a small convenience store, there were a few other backpackers here too which was a good sign. With limited options we stocked up on beer, bread, cheese and salami.

After a short wait on a buy platform a train turned up which looked like it could be ours, it was longer than I expected. We were waiting in the wrong part of the platform, all the rear carriages were on their way to somewhere in Austria and only the front two carriages were headed to Belgrade. We figured this out after seeing our two Canadian friends boarding there. Also boarding were a 30-strong female dance troop, much to Owen’s dismay.

On the train we found ourselves searching for a compartment, both carriages consisted of 6-seater compartments with a sliding door - very old school. We settled into a cabin with a Slovenian guy who had bagged the best seat, facing forwards and by the window. The group of girls were frantically searching for somewhere to sit until about 10 minutes in they decided that they had reserved several of the compartments and kicked people out. Our friends who had sat in an adjacent cabin were among the victims and ended up sitting with us.

The train set off under electric power with a big red locomotive at the front and before we knew it we were out of the city and heading across Croatia. It was quickly getting pretty warm, and we opened the window to get some air in our small compartment. The bloke who was already here wasn’t too happy and insisted that we only have a small part of the window open. Owen was pretty hot and made a bit of a cake of it, sure it was warm but it wasn’t like we were in the Sahara desert or anything. As the countryside passed us by we saw sunflower fields, corn fields and rapeseed oil plants too. It was field after field after field, the land was flat and the track felt like it was built by the romans, straight as an arrow. Thankfully this meant that the engine got some speed up and there were times where it was recalling making some pace.

It was a long journey, we managed to enjoy it for the most part, drinking some beers, eating our sandwiches which we constructed on the train and of course smashing out some blogs too. We spent time sharing stories with Tony and Helen who we later learned had taken a similar journey in the 1980s where before they had met had even crossed paths(!). The best story they told was during a camp when a black bear had stuck his snout on their tent, which was a frightening thought!

The train itself was good, the journey was nothing to complain about and made good headway. The toilet wasn’t ideal but we had some water so were able to wash our hands. Since it was a straightforward drop onto the track there wasn’t much to go wrong, although I wouldn’t have wanted to be a girl! Seats were comfortable and the cabins covered into three beds, the girls in the adjacent cabin had a bit of a party in theirs and were having the time of their lives! The music could be heard when the door was open but otherwise wasn’t a problem.

At the Serbian boarder we had a ‘Papers please!’ Situation, a Croatian policeman checked passports as we left the train then moved into Serbia where we were boarded once again for another check, this time we were stamped but again a very painless process. We had accumulated late-ness on our way and arrived into Belgrade about 60mins late, which wasn’t really a problem. The last stretch into Belgrade was painful, it was slow and since we knew we were close took an extra long amount of time.

We pulled into Belgrade Centre Station which still seems to be under construction, mostly by China Railways. This wasn’t the station I was expecting and with no mobile data proved to be a bit of a problem. Luckily there was a city map printed on the wall so we were able to find a route towards the hotel. A Hot and sweaty 4km walk later we found ourselves at the hotel. It was a pleasant sight, we were tired, hot and in need of a shower!

This was the first decent hotel of the trip, we were staying at the Mercure Excelsior at 70 euros a night wasn’t too bad either. We dragged ourselves out in search of food and walking down the main shopping street found lots of small bistro restaurants. A beer was £1.30 the food was equally cheap and we had no complaints. We had made it to Belgrade.

We were ready for a good sleep after the adventures of Munich and a day travelling across most of Germany. I have to admit, a sleeper train at this point wasn’t terribly appealing, the knowledge that we were going to end up in Croatia and that we did have a bed was fine enough to make me want to jump aboard. We waited on the platform for our train which arrived on to the platform about an hour early. The train was very long and it seemed that the carriages were all heading to different destinations, this was pretty confusing as the train information boards just said Budapest and Rijeka and not Zagreb.

Climbing aboard we were shown to an available cabin, the whole thing was a little different to the pleasantries of Jean in Penzance. The guard explained to us that we should go to bed, lock the door and that at about 7am we would be woken for the police checkpoint when crossing from Slovenia into Croatia. The passport check was necessary since Croatia is still in the process of joining the Schengen Area. The train was filling up fast with an interesting mix of people, mostly toting backpacks but some asian tourists too, with suitcases. Bedding down the train left relatively on time and I fell asleep without any problem. There was a lot of shunting in the night, I assume where the carriages needed to be moved to different locomotives, it wasn’t the best nights’ sleep but honestly it wasn’t bad either. The bunks were reasonably comfortable and the cabin was bigger than that of the Penzance train.

I woke about 6:30 and eager to know where we were in the world got up to scout things out. It seemed that everyone was still asleep and the only person I found awake was an elderly lady right at the front next to the toilets, she seemed to have kept her cabin door open throughout the journey and for some strange reason had a cardboard box on a trolly which was full of salad. I was surprised to see that our carriage was now directly behind the locomotive, which wasn’t the case earlier in the night, we were also travelling in a different direction too. The train was Swiss which was different to the one which brought the train into Munich. Eventually the guard saw me and explained that we are 75 minutes delayed and told that I should go back to bed. I said I’m up and in need of coffee which after an hour or so he brought to me. It was awful coffee but it was free, so I can’t really complain.

The views from the train were fantastic, we were passing through Slovenia along the River Sava, following it’s banks for almost the whole journey. Unfortunately the carriage windows were very dirty so all of the pictures I took are pretty poor, the train was also going at a reasonable pace and my iPhone doesn’t manage that too well! I was joined in my hallway spot with our cabin neighbour, Tony who was also travelling from London to Istanbul with his wife, recreating the orient express route. He was Canadian but spoke fluent Slovenian which for him was pretty handy. We had a chat for a good few hours as our breakfast arrived and we passed through the border.

At the border the train was stormed by police, a Slovenian and Croatian police men checked each passport and in Tony’s case stamped it as leaving the Schengen zone. We were soon on our way again and as the topography flattened out had arrived into sunny Zagreb. We were late but had an hour before the next train which Tony and his wife were also joining. We packed out bags up had a quick wash and said goodbye to our train guard. Four countries in one night, one of which we didn’t even see! Not bad.

Day 3 was set to be a warm up for what was to come, long days spent on trains doing nothing but relaxing and looking out the window. We started the day getting up early and leaving the Ibis, it has served us well, but we couldn’t wait to leave. The walk to Messe/Deutz station was quiet, nobody was really awake, clearly everyone had a late night partying in the streets. We hoped to find some breakfast at the station and needed something for the trip ahead and were pleased to find a McDonalds, which I’m sure won’t be the first of the trip. A beef and egg McMuffin later we were refuelled and headed to the platform.

This is where things started to go pear-shaped. We discovered quite quickly that the train was delayed and then discovered that there was only half of the usual set of carriages, and the carriages missing were the ones where we had a seat reservation. Not good. We hung around on the platform for about 90 minutes hoping that all will be well, the increasing number of passengers congregating on the platform was also a worry.

The 09:36 service to Munich eventually turned up and we jumped aboard and grabbed the first set of seats we came across. It seems that in Germany you can screw up half of the reservations and just pretend like nothing happened to that half, but the other half continue to remain valid. In the UK if there’s ever any kind of delay or technical screw up reservations are simply cancelled and it becomes a free for all. I think I prefer this system more, at least you know where you stand. We were safe in our seats for the time being and settled down and I pushed out the first of two blogs which I hoped to complete that day.

Aside from it having some parts missing the ICE train really was quite lovely, the seats were very comfortable and the recline was more than I’ve ever had on a train before. Toilets were clean, easy and available and best of all the carriage was very quiet, we pushed 300Km/h and I barely even knew it was fantastic. We began to catch up to the previous schedule and were soon at Frankfurt where our squatted seats were expected to soon have their owner arrive. After a small lecture from the conductor we decided to go in search of replacement seats, we failed.

So we squatted again and looked busy, tired and grumpy. 10 minutes after leaving Frankfurt it seemed we made the right call as no seat owner had arrived. Phew! The rest of the journey was very relaxing we sat back, enjoyed the ride and got into the groove. Managed to upload the blogs with images which while on the train has been a bit of a problem. The cellular signal and free train WiFi just don’t cut the mustard, I will say that the ICE WiFi was the best of all though, much better than Thalys and Eurostar.

We arrived a little late into Munich but frankly it was nothing to write home about, in the end the journey was good. Munich station is HUGE we spent some time taking it all in, I have vague memories of that station from when we visited Oktoberfest in 2010 but there’s a lot of time between then and now so I had absolutely no idea where anything was. Outside it was torrential rain, which seemed to come out of nowhere because it was dry when we were on the train, we opted to hang around for a little while and threw Owen’s bag into bag locker to save carrying it around with us.

Five minutes later and the rain had stopped so we headed into town, we had no plan except to drink beer and see some old stuff. Munich centre is very easy to navigate and everything seems to revolve around the main street which at the end of which is the train station. We first headed for the Dom which was not as impressive as the “Big Black Church” this one instead had two big nobbly bits on top, inside it was pretty impressive huge too.

We then went in search of beer feeling like we have satisfied the historic culture requirement. The first stop was to try and find some Kellerbier and we succeeded at a small beer-restaurant where Owen had his ID checked (Ha!) . The beer was good, but wasn’t the best I’ve ever tasted so we quickly finished up and went in search of more.

The best spot for beer in Munich it seems in the Hoffbrau House, an enormous beer hall in traditional Bavarian style with beer served properly in 1 litre steins. We sat ourselves down and strapped in for what would be a good three-hour session. My goodness - the beer here is heavenly. I love Kolsch but this is special, the atmosphere is missing in Cologne, here it is an absolute party. The first litre went down like it was nothing, crisp, cold, malty, perfect. We ordered a pretzel from the Pretzel-girl (6 Euros!) and dived into number two.

This is where we should have stopped. The second for me was just as good as before, it was getting a little louder and we put ourselves in the corner so that I could upload the second blog of the day, which doesn’t take long provided there is good signal. Owen continued to claim that he wasn’t hungry and despite my persistent nagging that he should eat he wasn’t interested. I ordered a wienerschnitzel and coming to the end of the second (and now in the groove) ordered us one last stein because I’m sensible and measured.

Owen decided at this point to reject the beer and filled up the empty steins with the contents of his very liquid stomach. The Irish couple who were sharing our table were not mega impressed, but persevered with their freshly served food while Owen semi-discretely blew chunks. Not ideal. My food arrived just in time for him to need to step outside for some air, seems 2.5 litres of German beer is Owen’s limit.

We headed back to the station and got ourselves some sleeper-train snacks and waited an hour or so for our train to arrive. We enjoyed watching out across Munich station as people came and went the big Grundig logos on the back wall slowly disappeared into the black night sky. With that, we wrapped up Day 3 - thank you Munich, you did your job.

On to third train of this trip and after a short break in Brussels we were keen to get onboard and to Cologne for some beer and a chance to stretch our legs. We waited on the platform in Midi for our Thalys train which was right on time. This train like the Eurostar requires seat reservations so we booked them in advance, they weren’t cheap, 20 euros each but it seemed like we didn’t have much of a choice. We learned later that Deutsche Bahn also run a train from Brussels to Cologne and reservations are optional and a lot cheaper too.

Once at our seats we found that the window was not aligned, which was a bit disappointing. We got to work updating our Internal travel diaries although the guard reached us before everything was completely filled out. We had a bit of a lecture about how important it is to fill out the details before getting on the train as he should charge us for a full ticket. Whoops. We promised to be good from now on! Once the guard left I shuffled seat so that I could see out the window.

Most of the trip I spent blogging, which worked out well. Signal was very bad, but I managed to download pictures and upload when we stopped at intermediate stations. Owen was tired and slept in the most uncomfortable position imaginable. The trip took a long time, the train was on time but it felt like half the time it was either stopped or going very, very slowly. I think they announced that there are works on the track between Brussels and Cologne and as a result had to reverse the train in Aachen. It’s no problem sitting on a train for a long journey but it’s another thing sitting on a train for a long journey when it’s not moving. Hey ho, we arrived into Köln on time!

Once at the station we needed to head to the hotel sharpish, we had reserved a room but hadn’t guaranteed it which meant that after 6pm it would be up for grabs. Given that literally everywhere in Cologne was booked, we didn’t want to be in that kind of situation. We walked over the bridge and towards the hotel, we underestimated the distance, it was a good 35 minute walk and didn’t take best advantage of the trams and trains which would have probably saved some time and effort off! We arrived to the luxurious Ibis Budget hot, sweaty and ready to have a beer, so we did.

Our room was a bit of a gamble, the website showed a picture with a normal bed and a small bunk which mentions that it’s great for kids. There was every chance that Owen wouldn’t fit in the bunk given his length. The room was as basic as it gets, and for some reason the bathroom was in the room itself, and not in a separate bathroom section - with the exception of the toilet which did have it’s own room. Very confusing, not sure if it’s been designed that was to make it seem more budget than usual or if it’s genuinely cheaper to build and service. Who knows! All was fine in the end and after a quick shower we dumped anything that wasn’t worth stealing and booked an Uber to the city centre for some food and drink.

Arriving into the city centre you couldn’t ignore the fact that it was Pride, it was very, very busy and there were more rainbow flags than on @geeklyjames’ stag do. Everyone was polite, friendly and not breaking any rules, all very civilised. We were dropped off at Heumarkt and so walked over to Malzmuhle to see if we could find a table, this was my favourite place when we came and visited Cologne in Christmas last year, it was also the chosen brew house of Anthony Bourdain when he visited. Once again it didn’t disappoint, we were given a table straight away and before I could blink the famous Kölsch had arrived in front of us.

We were joined on our table by a Belgian man called Freddy who spoke English, he was a very polite man who shared stories of his travels around the world. Pretty hungry by this point in the day we both ordered food pretty sharpish, Owen went for a bratwurst and I had the boiled pork knuckle with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. As before, the food was spot on, good German pork-based deliciousness with enough salt to provide encouragement to drink even more beer. We stayed a while longer in the restaurant and Freddy showed us pictures of his trip to Antarctica where he somehow managed to get himself on a Chilean military ship for a week!

With enough beer in our bellies we went off to walk around the city, we hit the main stage and caught a few classics from a tribute act. There was a lot going on, people were enjoying enormous cocktails and phallic-shaped ice lollies. Walking around as brothers we certainly had a few unusual looks, I think we needed t-shirts or something. We made it to the Dom and hung around for a few pictures, this area was less busy than during the Christmas markets which was surprising given that it was bloody freezing during the markets.

Too early for bed we headed to the Früh brewhouse just around the corner for some desert since we’d walked the pork off. The guys here were the same as at Christmas, which I always find strange when going back to places elsewhere in the world. Our Apfelstrudel arrived and it was as delicious as before, full of sugar and in a vanilla sauce it perfect match for more beer. Even Owen liked the strudel which frankly I didn’t even expect him to!

We sensibly took the train back to the hotel and got our heads down for the night, still exhausted from the sleeper train the night before. The mattress was not great, neither were the paper thin walls or noisy people outside but melatonin did it’s job well, day 2 was over.

Early start on our second day after arriving on the sleeper. We were up and ready for the journey ahead, day two should leave us in Cologne, Germany in time for tea which means we have some serious mileage to get through and the two tightest connections of the trip. From Paddington we took the Hammersmith and City line to St Pancras for connection with the Eurostar, oddly the tube was really quite busy, but we arrived without issue. We realised at this point that we should have stayed on the sleeper train for longer than we did, we were are St Pancras about 90 minutes early with nothing to do but twiddle our thumbs.

So we grabbed a coffee and went for a walk! You can’t do much better than a 49p Pret filter coffee, I’m convinced this is the best value coffee anywhere in London and it’s actually very good filter coffee too. The problem is that it’s always a million degrees and literally impossible to drink, especially from a thermal cup - somebody needs to invent a dispensing machine that allows you to select a certain temperature. Perhaps I need to patent the concept and become very rich.

Coffee in-hand we walked around to Regents Canal, somewhere that I look at almost every day but have never actually visited. It was fantastic, lots of fresh flowers, a nice hot sun and a great mix of old and new architecture which makes for a very pleasant area. Owen even said that he wouldn’t mind living here despite not wanting to live in London! I do wonder if it was only pleasant because it was 7am on a Saturday morning, I’m sure it gets busy later and turns into something quite different. Walking back to the station we passed the new Google HQ being constructed and noticed that the floor numbers on the concrete core are the Android Drone, which is pretty fun. We also walked past the YouTube offices and YouTube Space which seems to have been the venue of quite a lively party yesterday!

Checking into the Eurostar was reasonably painless, we had no troubles apart from Owen walking through the metal detector with all of his pockets full - doh! We managed to throw them in the bag before succeeding on the second attempt. Once through we found a seat in the busy departures hall before realising that Owen’s brand new Nalgene bottle was now gone - “Well, that didn’t last long”. Luckily everything important was still in possession.

On board the Eurostar we had a bit of a rest, the journey is one of the shortest of the trip and we didn’t really have time to get too comfortable. The train arrived into Brussels perfectly on time, we lost an hour because of the time which meant that it was now beer o’clock. We walked out of the station and found the most awful looking bar near the station, but it had some nice seats outside. Owen had his first legal European beer, unfortunately it was a Carlsberg.

Heading back to the station we arrived in plenty of time for Leg 3, the ride to Cologne.

We’re on our way! The weather in Cornwall was fantastic, a tropical 25℃ with unspoilt sunshine, it better stay like this across Europe, we’re going to have a mega time if it does. Before we could get going with Leg one we needed a final positioning trip to get to Penzance, we travelled as a four so we could be waved off in proper Cornish fashion, with a G&T! Before we get to that it was time for something new, on the train we had a brand new beer from Padstow, Freddy Has Landed, not a bad beer but not to my taste and was stronger than it needed to be at 6.6, still no complaints. We chased that with a Frog Brothers from Black Flag, a much better beer (in my view). The train was pretty quick, it’s less than an hour down to Penzance and that goes very quickly when you’re passing such stunning views of Cornwall.

Once we were in Penzance we headed into town for a goodbye meal, the first pub was a let down but we eventually found our way to The Turk’s Head on Chapel Street. Now THIS was a pub, absolutely fantastic line up of cask ales with that real pub feeling. Regretting that we didn’t just come here first we set to work with a perfectly served pint of Bath Ales Prophecy, a wonderful light pale ale which is remarkably similar to St Austell’s Proper Job before it changed. The pub reminded me that I still need to write my scoring matrix, I’m confident this place would have done very well. After a bit of a rushed but perfectly served dinner we headed down to the station and en-route had a quick paddle in the water, as you do.

When we got to the station the sleeper train was ready and waiting for us, we weren’t mega early so we had to run to the front for the obligatory photo with the engine. We all boarded and jumped into the onboard lounge bar, which was all new since we last took the sleeper. Newer isn’t always better and as lovely as the lounge looked, with sofas and cute little two seater tables the old one was much more comfortable, fun and nostalgic. The old one had tables service too, which sadly is now a thing of the past!

We shared some lovely Tarquins and tonic and as the train pulled away were officially on our way! A week of trains and travel awaited us (and we were pretty excited about it!). We set to work filling out our Interrail passes, making sure not to mess them up before we’d even got on our way. As the train made it’s way we were spoilt with the most stunning sunset and red sky across Cornwall, not bad at all. At St Austell we waved goodbye to the parents and (now a little worse for wear) I decided to get off and say goodbye, luckily the train wasn’t in a rush!

Now on our own we headed to our cabin and got ourselves some sleep. I was on the bottom bunk and it didn’t take too long before I was fast asleep which isn’t something that usually happens on the sleeper train! A few bumps in the night but nothing really to report, 7 or so hours after we left Penzance we were woken up to a bang on the door where Jean, our attendant had our breakfast and tea ready. We were in London, easy. This really is the best way to commute between London and Cornwall, while I enjoyed the 4 and a bit hour trip the day earlier waking up and being where you need to be is just fantastic. Long live the sleeper.

After a quick shake up we were ready to get going, 6:30am and on to Leg number two!

As all of the very few people who read my blog will know, I am a big supporter of the RNLI. The charity has been close to my heart since childhood, I used to build lifeboats out of lego bricks, subscribe to Stormy Stan’s monthly magazine and became known as Lifeboat Lolly. I recall with glee the fantastic opportunity I had once to sit on the Atlantic 75 stationed at Hunstanton Lifeboat Station. As I grew up into a bigger lifeboat lolly I dropped the name but didn’t drop the passion for the charity, I was lucky enough to have had the chance to ride aboard the Sheerness Trent class lifeboat in the Thames Estuary and with my friend @geekyjames visited all almost all of the lifeboat stations in the North West Wales area in one day.

Getting married is of course a huge life milestone and it wouldn’t be right to not acknowledge the RNLI in some way during such a big event - so we did. I am incredibly proud and honoured to say that on our wedding day we were able to raise £691.43 for the RNLI. It was absolutely fantastic to see such generosity from everyone and while it may not be the best part of the day (that was marrying Mrs Andrews!) it was absolutely up there with the warmest and most lovely part of the day and year. I stomped around Commissioners House in by big stupid yellow wellies shaking a fund-raising bucket and was met with nothing but eager desire for everyone to do their bit for the lifeboats. So to all who contributed on our special day - thank you! A special thank you also to Eileen and John Allison of the Medway RNLI Fundraising branch who were incredibly helpful and kind in providing literature, goodies and the famous lifeboat buckets which made everything very special.

As mentioned in my previous post, it was totally coincidental that in getting married at Commissioner’s House meant that we were right next door to the biggest collection of historic RNLI Lifeboats. Frankly, it would be rude to to take advantage of that fact and so we wandered over passing cheering visitors to have a few photos. My particular favourite is the photo below, where in totally agreeable circumstances we stood aboard a Arun Class lifeboat! Thank you to Mrs Andrews for putting up with me just minutes after being married!

The Medway Regatta is a big weekend of racing for all classes of keelboat. There are races for Sonatas, Squibs, Dragons, Cruisers and even Thames Barges! The past few years I’ve focused my time underwater rather than on the water but not too many years back I used to spend time sailing dinghies on the Medway in the cadet class. This year I had the pleasure of joining my father and brother-in-law aboard Astral to participate in the Medway Challenge Race.

The Challenge Race was a single held on the Sunday which allowed participants to take part in the regatta without needing to race for three full days. The course that morning was identical to that of other competitors also racing cruisers and sonatas for the full weekend but the start time was staggered and a different pennant was used to differentiate vessels. We started in to the wind in Gillingham reach and we got off the line well, with only one or two other boats around us and headed up river and out in to the estuary with about 15 knots of wind behind us. We passed a dragon which while waiting to start had collied with another and dismasted - not a good sight!

It was a relaxed sail out into the estuary with the wind gradually picking up as we began to make our way past the Montgomery. We turned back towards Medway and taking advantage of the now stronger 22 knot wind had managed to keep at least one boat behind us. We were tacking down river against the tide which we had hoped would have changed before we passed sheerness point. In shallower waters we opted to reef the sails to maintain control of what was becoming a reasonably windy race.

Back into Gillingham and the stronger winds and changing tide played into the hands of our immediate competitor who had a better line and cleaner wind across the line. A fantastic Sunday on the river and no shame in losing to a bigger boat! After the race we attended the Regatta Dinner at the clubhouse which was a great little opportunity to get dressed up and have a little too much wine!

This was a flying trip, but Denmark is certainly worth a mention in the blog. On account of the wedding and honeymoon which proceeded my trip to Copenhagen this was possibly the least researched piece of travel I’ve ever done. It turned out that research wasn’t really necessary, Copenhagen is a wonderful small city and is very easy to navigate.

Our office is located in Nyhavn which is essentially central Copenhagen, the trip from what felt like a rather small airport was completely painless, one metro ride straight downtown. Once in Nyhavn you find yourself in a location which feels a bit like a Nordic Amsterdam, everyone is riding bicycles, the cars are all German or Swedish, there are picturesque canals but a subtle Nordic design aesthetic which seeps into the architecture of buildings, shops and restaurants that just doesn’t seem to be present in Amsterdam. Certainly not a complaint, it was very pleasant indeed and I recall mentioning to my colleague that it’s like a ‘nice Amsterdam’ which I do stand-by.

The small cobbled harbour of Nyhavn feels a lot like it belongs in Bruges, with colourful cafes alongside wooden barges and moules frites and seafood on the menu of almost all outlets. Walking along the harbour to the end soon reminds you that you’re in a different city, with views opening up to ultra-modern architecture of an art museum and walkways allowing pedestrians and cyclists to cross the water. It was quite beautiful with much of the new constructions seemingly embracing the water and making it feel as one.

The trip was a breeze and frankly I can’t find many negatives except perhaps the availability of beer which isn’t Carlsberg - it seemed to be in every place we went, although I suppose that is to be expected. Somehow we didn’t visit a Mikkeller, although I did take a few days off drinking so it was probably a good thing! Conversely I did almost lose my mind when I discovered that you can buy bottled Carlsberg water in convenience stores, which I don’t think I’ve seen for any other beer brand anywhere in the world. Having spent some time thinking about it since I can’t decide if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. Would you buy Stella branded water? I’m not sure I would.

Birthdays are always a bit special for us since we share the same day. Every year since Victoria and I have been together we have done something special on our birthday to celebrate. It seems like the level of birthday extravagance increases year on year, last year we went spent a weekend in Singapore, in 2015 we flew in a Helicopter over London and in 2013 we went to the top of the newly-opened Shard.

This year was a little different; it was the most extravagant thing and the best birthday present we could have ever imagined: We got married! …and it was absolutely perfect.

We held our reception and ceremony at the beautiful Commissioner’s House in Chatham’s Historic Dockyard. The venue was fantastic, we were on the banks of the River Medway and a stone’s throw from home and where we first met over ten years earlier. The weather gods were with us for the day and we spent time in the gardens around the house taking photographs with all of our wonderful guests.

Everyone thought I was crazy, but there was only one way I was getting to our wedding and that was on a boat. The Medway is a constant in my life, though growing up, sailing, spending time with grandparents and of course meeting Victoria. We arranged for Bellis of Medway Yacht Club take us on the 10 minute journey to Thunderbolt Pier just outside Commissioner’s House. Thankfully the river wasn’t too choppy and we all arrived safety, although I did wear my wellies just encase!

We held our ceremony on the first floor of Commissioner’s house in a gorgeous room with floor to ceiling glass doors. All of our guests were here on time, a group of people that I’ve never seen together before which was really quite overwhelming! Seeing Victoria in her dress for the first time was more overwhelming, she was absolutely stunning. While we were messing around on the boat she and her bridesmaids had been busy getting ready in the room next door. Victoria’s dress was absolutely gorgeous, looking her in the eye on that Friday is a moment that I’ll never forget.

We had the opportunity to take some fantastic photographs around the dockyard. We were able to visit No.3 slip, built in 1838 which is an absolutely incredible space, we were very lucky to have it all to ourselves. We also visited the Tarred Yarn Store, adjacent to the Ropery, it’s a bit of a secret and famously used in a Kanye West music video. Best of all, we were able to visit the biggest collection of RNLI lifeboats which happens (totally coincidentally) to be located at the dockyard - more on that in another post.

A special day doesn’t quite give it justice, absolutely the best day of our lives. We couldn’t have asked for anything more, we had each other, our friends, our family, a perfect part of the world, fresh Cornish beer and an amazing time.

It’s fair to say there are quite a lot of islands in Finland, I think Finland is second only to Sweden. These islands in combination with the sea and the city centre make Helsinki both very beautiful but also very functional On a nautical map the Helsinki area is awash with cardinal markers to warn ships from potential danger alongside some good depths allowing ferries to dock directly in the city centre. Some of the islands in the city area have small houses where people live all year round, the island in the picture below, Ryssänsaari has it’s own small slip way, jetty and submarine power cable!

One of the most famous islands around Helsinki is Suomenlinna, a fortress built several hundred years ago during Finland’s Swedish era to protect against Russian expansion. The island still has some military presence although this has been scaled back significantly. Instead it is now a very popular destination for Finns and tourists, there are museums, small cafes and attractions.

To reach the island there are two ferries, one is state-run and part of the HSL travel area and another is JT-Line, a private ferry. The HSL ferry is free to anyone with a valid travel pass and runs between Helsinki’s main harbour and the main quay in Suomenlinna, this ferry is reasonably large (see picture) and when we took it a number of motorcycles drove on! The other ferry is a hop-on-hop-off and calls at a number of other places on Suomenlinna, it’s not included in the HSL scheme but isn’t too expensive, the most significant difference is that it had a working bar! Both ferries take around 20 minutes so it’s only a short trip.

One of the attractions on Suomenlinna is it’s very own brewery, built into the pink gate building which can be seen immediately after landing on the island. Beers from the brewery can be found on the mainland and even in the K-Mart on Suomenlinna, they’re quite popular. We opted for a flight of beers and dinner in the brewery which didn’t disappoint, they even had reindeer which is how you know it’s a real Finnish restaurant!

After dinner we explored the island and found the Submarine Vesikko, one of the last submarines to operate in the Finnish navy. The submarine saw action in WW2 after being launched in 1933 and during her career managed to sink a soviet merchant vessel. The boat is really quite big and a significant landmark on Suomenlinna, unfortunately we arrived a little too late and weren’t able to take a look onboard.

Walking on from the submarine we found the island’s fortress, it was in surprisingly good condition with barracks, bunkers and gun emplacements all still visible and with some accessible. Time and weather had taken it’s toll but I was impressed just how good of a condition everything was in. We were able to get up close to the some of the (presumably WW2) guns and some even had the rifling inside the barrel visible, which isn’t something you see too often. Nature very present and amongst the guns and fortifications there were the most delicate little flowers growing across the grass.

Amongst the fortifications we found a gorgeous beach area, which had steps, a changing area and an absolutely gorgeous view. Despite the cool water I couldn’t avoid going for a paddle, although didn’t do so for long! I can imagine this area in particular being very busy during the summer time so we were very fortunate to enjoy it to ourselves while we watched the sun set to the west. We enjoyed some Finnish Long drink courtesy of the K-mart which was really rather lovely.

We walked back to the JT-line ferry point via the King’s gate (Kuninkaanportti) which is where King Adolf Frederisk of Sweden anchored his ship when inspecting the fortress in 1754. It’s a grand and brutally strong looking entrance, behind which there is a lovely pizza restaurant in summer! We timed the ferry very well and got back to the city centre for a few quick drinks before work the following day. A fantastic evening trip out and a very special and beautiful part of the world.

What do you do when your favourite Finnish brewery has a tap-takeover in London? Well, there’s only one option. Hosted at the fantastic Brew By Numbers in Peckham Rye, CoolHead brought ten beers to showcase for one day only with a chance to meet with their Head Brewer.

Brew By Numbers or BBNO have a great unit under two railway arches in Peckham Rye, only a short walk beyond a few trendy bars including Brick Brewery, just around the corner from the station. Their taproom unit is kitted out with a stack of large barrels which sit behind the prominent wood and stainless steel bar. There must be at least twenty lines feeding back to chillers and kegs sat behind the barrels, all visible when you walk to the loo! There’s plenty of dog-friendly space inside and out with sofas and festival-style benches where people were happy to share and discuss beer.

CoolHead aren’t something you see much of in the UK, but they are a very up and coming Finnish Brewery, known well in Helsinki and beyond for their sour beer specialities. My personal favourite is the Salted Liquorice Raspberry Sour which is like nothing else, an explosion of flavour with a sour kick to stop It from being too sweet. I tried all of their beers while at BBNO, my favourite of the day was Haziness, a chilled out Session IPA which was a welcome treat on a sunny Friday afternoon. Others were a little too strong for my taste but they were certainly worth trying.

My craft beer friend Heidi joined us live from Finland when we met CoolHead at Brew By Numbers and we shared the dangerous 10.3% Sapphires on draft in London and by can in Finland! A great evening which was followed up with a quick visit to Brick Brewery before heading back to Central London. Will certainly come back here, eager to try BBNO’s beers too, this is a great little beer spot without the crowds and expensive prices.

After a recent trip to Finland Heidi kindly gifted me a supply of canned CoolHead beers which I successfully smuggled back home! It’s been rather difficult pacing myself with them, very much looking forward to the Deep Double Apple Crumble which I’m saving for a special occasion! If you see CoolHead beers in the UK (or anywhere else) do give them a try, you can’t go wrong.

One of this year’s goals is to tick something off from the bucket list, another of this year’s goals is to try and see as many new countries as possible. What better way to do so than by taking the train to Turkey?

This trip has been some months in the planning and after many different iterations of the route we’ve agreed on taking the more traditional route from London to Istanbul, via Belgrade and Sofia instead of Bucharest. This is the route that the 1920s Orient Express would have taken so should give us a real feel for the Balkans while also taking us through some counties neither of us have been to before. The exception to the traditional route is that we’re going to travel via Brussels and Cologne instead of Paris, because, well, the beer is much better in Cologne.

In addition to the Cologne detour we’re going to start the trip in Penzance, Cornwall because Cornwall is Owen’s home and starting in London sounds really rather dull. We’re also going to end the rail trip in Ankara, Turkey, that way there’s no disputing that we made it to Asia (the other side of the Bosphorus may be considered Asia, but only just), it should give us a chance to really experience Turkish railways too. To top the trip off we plan to fly home via Kiev, Ukraine with time to briefly visit the city and have a celebratory lunch (it was also the cheapest flight home).

Since we’re going to be trapped on a train for many, many hours during our trip I hope to photograph and blog as much as possible, so do stay tuned and expect updates. We’re both very excited and can’t wait to get going.

**Update from after the trip** Here’s links to posts for each of leg of the journey:

* Leg 1 - Penzance to London

* Leg 2 - London to Brussels

* Leg 3 - Brussels to Cologne

* Leg 4 - Cologne to Munich

* Leg 5 - Munich to Zagreb

* Leg 6 - Zagreb to Belgrade

* Belgrade, Serbia - Special Post

* Leg 7 - Belgrade to Sofia

* Leg 8 - Sofia to Istanbul (Not yet written)

* Leg 9 - Istanbul to Ankara (Not yet written)

* Kyiv, Ukraine - Special Post

This was not a planned trip! Over the last four months I’ve been working closely with our Finnish business headquartered in Helsinki. Most trips out to Finland have been weekdays only, limiting options for truly exploring the city. Fortunately one weekend trip came up and we managed to complete all the planned work in good time on Saturday.

Whenever you ask a Helsinkian what they do for fun, most of the time they will tell you that they like to take a cruise. To me, as a Brit, a cruise is a serious affair, it is usually a substantial holiday - to Finns a cruise is usually a trip to Stockholm (over night) or to Tallinn (during the day) the purpose of which is usually to relax and enjoy alcohol at discount rates. Quite literally it is a booze cruise - frankly it puts what I knew of a booze cruise (the Dover-Calais run) to shame, because this is a serious affair.

The ferry to Tallinn we booked the night before for the quite remarkable price of £10 each. The plan was to take the 2 hour trip to Tallinn in the morning and head back to Helsinki later in the day, ready for work on Monday.

The ferry trip was superb, the terminal was brand new and everything was incredibly well organised and efficient. The departure area appeared to be considered outside of Finland for licensing purposes so several passengers were enjoying a morning beer, looking forward to their cruise.

The ship, M/S Finlandia was similar to a Dover-Calais vessel except that it had day cabins, bars, shops, restaurants and to my surprise even a stage(!) where on the way back we would enjoy some entertainment. The voyage was a short 44 nautical mile journey south, on a very calm morning.

We arrived in Tallinn ready to explore the city and since the centre is only a short walk away went straight at it! We first visited the city walls, encasing the old town of the city, which is now recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The architecture is a little similar to that of Trakai in Lithuania, with circular towers and tall walls backed by wooden walkways. There are a number of sections of the wall which are accessible, some of the stairs were very sketchy but the views were impressive.

From the walls we walked up a steep set of stairs which took us to a viewing platform with a stunning sight across the city. This area of the city has a number of embassies and consulates along with government offices.

Walking through this part of the city brought us to the 19th century Orthodox Church, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. It was constructed while Estonia was part of the Russian Empire. The interior of the church was absolutely stunning with ornate gold decoration everywhere.

After the church we explored some of the city’s bars and restaurants. The highlight was an Indian restaurant called Restoran Chakra where the food was absolutely devine!

The ferry back to Helsinki was very easy and we enjoyed watching the singer and guitarist on stage while enjoying a Long Drink (which is a gin-based hard lemonade) - lovely!

New year, new theme! Well, it doesn’t feel much like a new year anymore, as I write this in February(!), things have been moving very quickly indeed. 2019 will be the the second year using the theme concept and I’m really excited to get started having learned all that I did last year.

This year’s theme is The Year of Advancement. With a focus on Optimisation, Development and Improvement of things which already exist - no big changes! Essentially, taking what already exists and making it better, doing better at it or progressing it. Of course there is one big change and that’s getting married and frankly, that alone is a big enough change for one year (50 days to go!).

While I plan on keeping the theme concept there are a few alternations I’m going to take after thinking though last year. The first is to combine the theme with a high-level list of target areas and goals. The shift from a fixed list of annual goals to a theme was good, it gave space to allow things to happen more naturally, but at times it felt I was ‘riding the wave’ rather than driving progress. So instead I am going to maintain both, the theme in addition to a list of focus ares to help move forward - some of these are more traditional fixed goals, others are areas where I just need to be more aware and keep them in mind.

The second change I am going to make is to hold monthly checkpoints - I’ve found checkpoints a valuable process when running projects and hopefully a similar activity will help ensure that everything is still aligned, if it isn’t it will serve as an opportunity to do something about. I’m unsure how to implement this but my hope is that I can become accountable to the checkpoint, perhaps that will be a blog or tweet - who knows!

Aside from this wedding planning is coming along well, almost everything is done! Victoria has done a fantastic job organising things and I very excited for our big day and cannot wait to have all of our friends and family in one place - something that’s never happened before…!

August 2017 and the project to deploy SD-WAN at Cushman & Wakefield was just kicking off. Given the scale of the project I felt that it’d be sensible to make sure we give the first site some extra care and attention before we let the train leave the station at full speed. Turned out that the best location was Rome, Italy since it was reasonably small and the staff hadn’t all left for their summer holidays.

I was pretty excited about Rome, I’d never been before and it was a great opportunity to nudge the country count up by visiting The Vatican State at the same time. On the trip I’d be accompanied by our Italian IT Manager and an engineer from our deployment partner who would be working with us on the project. Since this was the first deployment the plan was to run through the installation script we’d built during the pilot and ensure there were no teething issues for future installations.

I flew out early on Sunday morning to Fiumicino (where British Airways were good enough to bump me to Club Europe!), this was to be a quick two-night trip so I wanted to make sure that I had a chance to see the Colosseum and visit the Vatican as well as do all necessary work. The hotel I stayed in was wonderful (Hotel Barocco), it was not the cheapest but being the height of summer there weren’t many rooms left in the city. I would absolutely stay here again if I were to come back.

After settling in I met up with the engineer from our partner and we got to work on the tourist hit list, first up was of course the colosseum, where we found a fantastic bar/restaurant overlooking the complex. We sat outside and sunk a few beers here and had some of the most gorgeous olives, definitely recommend this spot, it’s on a street called Via Nicola Salvi. Interestingly, the BrewDog bar which has opened between my visit and the writing of this post is on the same block(!). The colosseum is truly stunning, it’s enormous and and while there are a bunch of tours and history walks just enjoying the view was perfectly adequate.

Next up was the Vatican, it really is as tiny as people say, we walked along Via della Conciliazione and found a nice little bar just off St Peter’s Square where again we sat outside and enjoyed the weather and views. The area was pretty quiet since it was a Sunday afternoon but we could see the famous guards, St Peter’s Church and all the things that are recognisable from TV. I took nowhere near enough pictures, but as interesting as the place was, there was nothing that isn’t already photographed a thousand times over. From St Peter’s square we walked back towards the centre of Rome, by this point it was blindingly hot, certainly over 40 degrees celsius and so hit some en-route bars in order to stay hydrated!

We ended the day in the Hard Rock Cafe (like true tourists) since by the time we were in search of food all the restaurants had decided to close. The only reason I remember this is because I have a picture of Yellowcard playing in the restaurant (which I presumably requested!) date stamped at 11pm on Sunday.

The two days of work went very well, we completed the deployment of SD-WAN and the activation was a breeze. There were a few snags we picked up in the script but nothing major, the first European site was all up and running! Rome is a great city, but having now been I wouldn’t rush back there is a LOT of history here, obviously, but Ancient Rome isn’t really my cup of tea.

This is a new mini-series in the Blog, an attempt to write posts that I should have written at the time but failed to do so. Enjoy!

September 2015 Victoria and I went on a long weekend to Vienna, Austria. It was a bit of a treat, we spoilt ourselves to Business class flights and a fancy room in the Hilton on the banks of the Danube. We had a fantastic time although there were a few hiccups along the way…

The first hiccup was taking the airport train in the wrong direction, which meant we spent some time at the very quaint Maria Ellend station, not ideal but we were back on our way reasonably quickly. The second hiccup was on the way back to the airport, where we were fined several hundred euros for not having the correct ticket, absolutely not the highlight of the trip. Note to travellers, the Vienna all city pass does not include the city’s airport.

Aside from that, the trip was fantastic! On our first night we spent time walking along the banks of the River Danube and enjoyed watching the boats slowly pass by from our hotel room. We visited the Hard Rock Cafe (#culturalhighlight) and afterwards stopped by at the Ritz Carlton Hotel for drinks - which was very lovely indeed.

The following day we managed to see Pandas for the first time at Tiergarten Schönbrunn (Vienna Zoo), which is famous for being the oldest continually operating zoo in the world. We even found Panda haribos imported from China in the gift shop! The best memory from the Zoo was the ‘Scumbag Tapir’ which walked into it’s enclosure and into a beautiful clean pool of water and proceeded to violently defecate, no shits were given.

Sunday was spent enjoying the city; we walked around the Heldenplatz, famous for Hitler’s 1938 speech following the annexation of Austria. We saw the beautiful Burgtheater and had a spot of lunch in the wonderful Zum Schwarzen Kameel restaurant, which founded in 1618 was pretty darn old (it was also in a film of which I can’t recall).

Wrapping up the day we had some of Vienna’s famous coffee and of course, Sachertorte; this was really rather lovely and we enjoyed it at the original Hotel Sacher for added authenticity. 10/10 would go back.

Last year I did very poorly on my quest to explore the UK and complete my Rail Map. The only piece of new milage I managed to complete was from Birmingham New Street to Worcester Shrub Hill. This was unplanned, a last ditch attempt to get home from Birmingham via Oxford during the January snow. My failed attempt left me stranded at Shrub Hill where after hours standing in a freezing cold station I admitted defeat and went back to Birmingham.

This year I am determined to do better with the map and that determination was supported by the long-promised 26-30 Railcard being released on the 2nd of January. The new railcard is pretty much exactly the same as my much-missed 16-25 railcard and allows 1/3rd off all off-peak journeys nationwide. Since there is no better time than the present, @geekyjames and I thought we’d give our shiny new app-only railcards a go and take a 148 mile round trip journey to Eastbourne for a quick beer.

We had originally planned to go to Hastings but after checking online it turned out that the journey to Eastbourne was actually cheaper, despite being further away and reached via Hastings. Since we had off-peak tickets we could break our journey which meant we could go to Hastings anyway…! So, top tip… If you’re not buying an advance fare, check to see if selecting a further station brings down the price of your ticket.

Here’s a clever link to my twitter thread from the day with some pictures and details of the journey. The beer in Eastbourne was delicious, a pint of English bitter from Nelson Brewery which is brewed less than a mile from home! In all the journey time was around 4Hrs 20mins, excluding time waiting for connections.

The next trip is being planned…! Watch this space.

There was a lot of rain - but it didn’t stop any of us having a fantastic time in Germany’s Rhineland this Christmas. Years past we have been very lucky and have spent time away in warmer destinations but with the year of smart we decided that we’d keep things real, spend time closer to home with family and hit some Christmas markets instead. The choice of which city was easy, having watched Anthony Bourdain’s episode on Cologne a few weeks before there was only one European city that was on my list! The reason in a word? Kölsch.

How to get there was easily answered too, what do you do when you enjoy taking the train but have a need to drive? Car Train! Somehow I’d never been on the EuroShuttle; always been more of a Eurostar or Ferry fan, but now was the ideal opportunity. The drive to Cologne was supposed to be a breeze, no further in distance than we are accustomed to with Cornwall. Unfortunately when we arrived at the terminal the Car Train was delayed and instantly so our leisurely Friday afternoon drive turned into a less than enjoyable slog spent in traffic on the outskirts of Brussels, but we shared the driving and even enjoyed some hideous continental snacks so it wasn’t all too bad.

First port of call upon arrival was Currywurst and Kölsch, I’ve never been a fan of relaxing in a hotel room and so no sooner had we landed were we hitting the town for the local delicacies. Both were everything I had hoped for and the horrors of the journey were all but forgotten.

The beer scene in Cologne is pretty special, many of the breweries only dispense their beer on premises which of course means spending time travelling around the city and visiting each brewery’s beer house. Inside the beer houses the beer delivery mechanism is a small 20cl glass called a Stange, the glass is designed so that every sip has a perfect foamy head and doesn’t hang around long enough to warm up. Those who have ever had a 1 litre stein of beer will know that the beginning is great, but by the time you’ve reached the bottom the beer is warm, flat and boring - Kölsch is like continually drinking the first few sips of a stein, always perfect. The problem of course is that it doesn’t take long to drink 20cl of beer, and so the waiters (known as köbes) simply replenish any empty glass with a fresh beer. The Germans really have got this all figured out.

Over the weekend Lomas and I visited as many beer houses as we could, my favourite was Mühlen-Kölsch which happened to be the same place as where Bourdain filmed his documentary, the beer was delicious, malty, cold crisp and a with a bitter but refreshing bite. We ordered a boiled pork knuckle for lunch which there isn’t really much to say about, it was beautiful, meat falling away from the bone served with mashed potatoes and crispy onions - gorgeous. As a group we enjoyed the Früh beer house best, located just around the corner from the cathedral it was an enormous labyrinth of a place but somehow cosy and inviting once seated.

Aside from the beer we also visited the Christmas markets, Cologne takes this seriously and there were about six sizeable markets dotted around the city, all had a different style and vibe. My personal favourite was the market with the ice skating rink surrounded by alpine-style log cabin bars. We spent a good amount of time here watching people fall over, enjoying a beer at the same time - absolutely fantastic fun! Victoria and Esme enjoyed shopping in the markets, despite the German Christmas market concept being replicated in the UK there is still a big difference between the real thing and the UK equivalent, the atmosphere is quite different and the products available in Germany are much more diverse and generally superior.

The journey home was a bit of a treat, for many, many years I’ve wanted to visit the Haribo factory store in Bonn, Germany and since we were only a short distance away now was the ideal time. The store is HUGE and has row upon row of every possible Haribo candy, you can even buy 5Kg tups of a single Gold Bear flavour! We spent quite a lot of money stocking up on sweets for the wedding and which I have promised not to touch between now and April.

Readers of the blog will know that 2018 was The Year of Smart, my first attempt at utilising the concept of a yearly theme to help maintain direction and focus on productivity. The good news is it went well..! The theme worked as intended and helped provide overarching guidance and had many good benefits over using a simple list of annual goals as I have done in the past. The theme really helped in providing the space to adjust course and make good decisions as the year progressed; whenever there was a key activity or action the year of smart was always on my mind to provide steer. I even remember Victoria asking me in the car showroom is the new car was in compliance with the year of smart (it was, as far as I was concerned!). There are a number of things that I’m planning on adjusting in 2019 but the good news is the a theme will remain - more on that in another post.

Back to 2018 and having thought about this a little it’s actually quite difficult to list the outputs, the theme touched on many things, almost providing input behind the scene. Below are some of the more significant areas that the theme had an impact on throughout the year.

• We made the decision to focus on improving our financial stability. We now have clear budgeting, minimal credit, rainy day money and all our banking in one system. This is big! It certainly took some work to get it to where it is and I’m very happy with how everything sits. The subreddit r/UKPersonalFinance has been a fantastic resource on making improvements, there is a wealth of good UK-Specific advice on finances here.

• We both made the decision to accept new jobs. Massive! For me it’s been a challenging few months acclimatising to a new organisation but since joining I have managed to reduce my levels of stress and no longer feel like work is consuming my existence. I have a great opportunity with plenty of work in the pipeline at Colliers and am looking forward to making change, you can read about my new job here. Victoria also found a new opportunity in her field of work and it settling in well, I’m very excited and incredibly proud of her.

• A bit if a splurge, but the decision to buy a new car has allowed us to travel to and from Cornwall more efficiently and safely than before. Our trek to the West Country is no longer the arduous journey that it once was and writing this I still can’t quite believe how much of an improvement this has made. Yes, the car is a bit of a shiny toy that goes scary fast but it has a proper purpose (and four doors).

• Lastly and most importantly, wedding planning took front and centre in 2018 and as I write this post there are only 99 days to go - exciting! Victoria has done an unbelievably good job at organising everything from table decorations to the DJ, she even excelled in managing to find what I can only describe as the most adorable place to stay in all of Medway (which I’ll reveal later in 2019!). She has done such a good job that I have demoted myself to the role of Chairman, only weighing in and approving when necessary… That’s not completely true, I have done a little bit of helping, booking the Honeymoon (which was surprisingly difficult) and organising the Singapore Fling Weekend and associated engagement photographs among other duties.

All in all a great and very exciting year. below are some of my un-blogged highlights below..

Network at the National Theatre

Our first taste of theatre at The National, this was absolutely incredible. It was a bit of a treat because it wasn’t the cheapest of things but Victoria and I enjoyed every moment, so much so that we saw another three productions later in the year (Julie, The Lehman Trilogy and Home, I’m Darling).

Our Singapore Fling

This was a bit of a treat… We went to Singapore for a long weekend, stayed again at the beautiful Marina Bay Sands and spent some time enjoying the city. The main purpose of the trip was to get some photographs for our engagement since we were too excited at the time to take any (apart from one photo taken by an oblivious Russian tourist). The photos were taken by Alvin and Michelle at Awesome Memories, we absolutely love the pictures and they don’t show how INCREDIBLY hot it was at the time!

Lomas’ Stag do in Bournemouth

This was my first proper stag do and having never been to bournemouth before it felt like we had landed in the UK equivalent of Prague - There were stag parties EVERYWHERE. Being a bit of an outsider to the group I soon earned rapport since I was the only person on the bus that bought cold beer, I further excelled by walking head first into a lamp post while trying to be funny. Not a weekend I or any of the others will forget any time soon, I’ll save the rest of the details for another time.

James’ Stag do in Nottingham

Nottingham is a pretty fun city, we visited and drank a lot the year prior ahead of our first Tough Mudder. A weekend of Gin, Golf, Gaming, Gambling, Girls (in hooters) and of course… Gay Pride! We all had a great time and the even got some BrewDog hours in too! The gin caves were a personal highlight.

Fireworks at Medway Yacht Club

Not a huge event but it was nice to just be at home and with good company. We had some drinks, food and watched the bonfire and fireworks from the comfort of a bench on the Yacht Club patio. The fireworks were a little more crazy than usual with a few stray ones which added to the excitement!

Christmas in Cornwall

What more do I need to say? We love being in Cornwall, love seeing our family in Cornwall and generally just love everything to do with Cornwall. We had a great time in Charlestown and Harrowbarrow and even got the chance to visit the beautiful Boscastle.