Mini Travel Update: Departing from St. Pancras International on Eurostar 9022 to Paris!

Update: Already in France before I could get a signal strong enough for the photo to upload!

Today was spent mostly at the Tower of London, which I really enjoyed. It’s incredible to see the structures built over the ages, including nearly 2000 year old remains from the Romans as well as many towers and keeps from the 1200s to relatively recent Tudor era timber framed buildings.

Here, the White Tower is the central keep of the fortress and is nearly 1000 years old!

The Queen’s house (note the royal guard) is an example of the Tudor style.

The Tower of London also serves as a reminder of England’s often brutal past, as this location served as a prison, torture dungeon, and a place for executions.

Here a memorial marks the site of several executions, most famously that of Anne Boleyn.

One thing that struck me in several of the keeps used as prisons was the inscriptions left in the walls by prisoners over the years. They were numerous and, at times, elaborate.

Here you can see Traitor’s Gate which was a water entrance off of the River Thames, so called because it was a commonly used entrance for prisoner barges.

The Tower is also home to the Crown Jewels (no photos allowed in here, folks!), including the current crown worn by King Charles. Curious that they are kept in a place with such a dark history.

The Tower grounds are also home to several ravens which are tended to by the official Ravenmaster. (Best title ever?) The legend goes, the kingdom and Tower of London will fall if the ravens ever leave.

Next, I walked over the Tower Bridge and headed along the Thames towards Borough Market.

I ended my day out taking the train back to the Bull and Last. You’ve heard of the London Underground, but did you know there’s an Overground?

Since the weather cleared, I took the long way back through Hampstead Heath and enjoyed the moody sunset.

Tomorrow, it’s the Eurostar to Paris! Goodnight!

My flight touched down at Heathrow airport early this morning (before 7am).

I didn’t check a bag, so getting through the border and exiting the airport was a breeze.

I decided to take the train to get from the airport to the neighborhood where I’d be staying (how could I not??). I took the Elizabeth line from the airport and transferred to the northern line on the Tube.

I’m staying in London at The Bull and Last a pub and inn right next to Hampstead Heath park in the NW5. A real pub is something I wanted to experience while in London, so why not stay at one! But seriously, I think it’s great how they’ve remodeled this old pub and brought it back as an active inn.

My limited touring around today (lack of sleep on the plane got me–the flight was comfortable, a 5pm departure was just too early for me to fall asleep) involved walking through part of Hampstead Heath. I quickly learned this part of London is very dog friendly (which makes me like it even more). There were tons of dogs in the park, many off leash. Even better, there were lots of dogs in the cafe I visited this morning and in the pub.

Another creature that’s abundant here: snails. Not sure if all of London is like this or it’s just this neighborhood. 🐌

Before dinner, I wanted to try and see a little more, so I headed out toward the Barbican where I hoped to see the conservatory. Unfortunately that was closed but I checked out a gallery and the surrounding area.

Then back to The Bull and Last for dinner, which was good. I ordered a tomato salad and the BBQ cod which I really enjoyed.

Tomorrow is more sightseeing before I take the Eurostar to Paris on Thursday.

Goodnight!

Good morning, or is it goodnight? Either way, that came quickly.

About an hour until departure on my Europe Train Adventure!

I haven’t talked about this much here, but in March I left my job with the intention of taking some extended time off. Travel is one of the things that I want to do during my time off. And my first big trip is coming up this week:

I’ll be traveling from London to Rome via train!

The trip is structured so I’ll have 2 nights in each city along the way, which I hope will give me a chance to have a break and do some sightseeing in-between travel days (plus a buffer if there should be an issue with one of the trains).

Here’s my itinerary:

• London
• Eurostar to Paris
• TGV to Lyon
• SNCF regional to Geneva; Swiss regional to Zermatt
• Glacier Express to St. Moritz
• Bernina Express to Tirano, Italy; Trenord to Milan
• Trenitalia to Rome

Oddly, Google Maps won’t let you enter a multi-stop public transit trip, so I had to enter this as a car journey. It’ll be roughly correct. (You’d think they’d support this for train transit!)

There’s a couple of train highlights for me on this trip. First up is the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse, “high-speed train”) from Paris to Lyon.

Somehow as a child, the image of these orange, high speed trains got filed in my brain as very cool and futuristic. Although the Eurostar will be the first high speed train on this journey, I’m most looking forward to this orange beast. As an adult, I’ve been upset and jealous that the US doesn’t have anything of the sort! So, I’m excited to finally be experiencing world-class high speed rail.

The next highlight is the Glacier Express which is a scenic train through the Swiss Alps.

This should be the star of the show. I’m spoiling myself by booking an Excellence Class ticket that includes fine dining and wine at your seat next to giant picture windows. I’ve heard nothing but great things about this particular train and its incredible journey through the Alps. I can’t wait!

The Glacier Express terminates in St. Moritz where I’ll take the Bernina Express to finish my pass through the Alps and transit into Italy via Tirano. Two nights in Milan is followed by Italian high speed rail down to Rome, where I’ll link up with my wife.

There’s a lot of firsts for me in this trip: every country on the itinerary, high speed rail, and an extended solo journey. I’ve traveled solo for work and conferences in the past, but never on vacation. So, this will be a true adventure for me. I’m mostly excited, but also a little anxious.

In Rome, I’ll meet up with my wife, who’s traveling separately after a trip with her sister. From there, we’ll spend the next two weeks together traveling in Italy. In addition to Rome, we have Florence, Tuscany, and Puglia (via Bari) on our Italian itinerary.

If you’d like to follow along with my journey, I plan to post updates as I go right here on this site. If email is your thing, I’ve turned on this site’s newsletter feature (subscribe here) so you can these posts right in your inbox.

The journey begins this week on May 20 when I take the overnight flight from Atlanta to London. Thanks for reading! Next update from London!

A view from Cedar Key, Florida.

The Butterfly Rainforest at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the University of Florida’s campus.

Spotted one of Brood XIX in Macon, Georgia.

My drink is called [The Placeholder].

Spotted a juvenile and adult barred owl tonight! There was a third owl that I think was another juvenile, but wasn’t able to get a photo of that one.

Emulators Will Change the App Store Forever - Wavelengths

The introduction of emulators offers an alternative within this ecosystem, providing games with immersive stories and gameplay systems that are designed for extended play sessions. These games, though designed for other hardware, still offer complete experiences counter to the endless treadmills of most apps found in the Games tab today which funnel users into shops loaded with in-game currencies. As the concept of emulation becomes more prevalent and ubiquitous across all mobile devices, I feel as though it can introduce a much-needed shake-up to the MTX-laden landscape we live in today.

Like many people, I’m excited to see Delta and other video game console emulators come to the App Store. It’s been fun to get Pokémon and other classics running on my phone. These games appeal to me while most mobile games do not. So much so that I ordered my first iPhone controller grip.

However, what’s been a sad thought is that the library of retro games is fixed and finite. There never will be a new Game Boy Advance game to get excited about. True, it’d take time to play through this whole library, even the subset that I now have loaded on my phone. But I think I’d be much more excited by a new game in the style of these classics that I was able to play on my phone, rather than games I’ve played in my past.

I hope the Wavelengths post is right that this does prove out the interest and audience for more immersive and gameplay focused mobile games, in the spirit of these retro classics that many love.

Schmidt’s Sausage House, Columbus, OH.

Currently reading: Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod 📚

The Best Photos and Videos of the 2024 Solar Eclipse - kottke.org

Great collection of photos posted around the web. I especially love this tiny planet time lapse:

Just added my blogroll using the new-ish Micro.blog feature:

Blogroll

Totality timelapse 🌘🌑🌒

Beautiful wildflowers from a hike near Arabia Mountain.

Finished reading: Batshit Seven by Sheung-King 📚

This one lives up to the title. I enjoyed it though.

Currently reading: Dune by Frank Herbert 📚

Saw Dune 2, which I really enjoyed. Now, while caught up in the Dune universe, I want to re-read the book!