station cat

I am surprisingly cake resistant - except at model railway exhibitions. And I took chunky kitkats with me. Whilst in Stockholm you should go to Skansen which is on the museum island with Vasa - it's an outdoor museum of Swedish life with old buildings from all over the country and demonstrations of traditional crafts etc. And bears (plus lynx, reindeer and goodness knows what else). In terms of budget, i'd allow between 1.5 and 2x what you normally would for food etc. I'm trying to remember how much money we were getting through but I suspect my brain has expunged it as overly traumatic. Plus our hotel did the most amazing breakfast which meant that we didn't really eat lunch the whole time we were there.

Sounds like a proper job cat Andrew, I hope he has a bright future.

Happy Birthday Pete and best wishes to Louise, it certainly sounds like things are progressing in the right direction. For them as wishes to look at *whispers* trains, the remaining pictures of my Austrian venture can now be seen http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/88536-a-trip-to-the-tirol-via-munich/ Sympathies to Andy, maybe your children should be unable to play later as they are too busy repairing the flower bed?

How about marmite? Or vinegar as mentioned by Tony? In other words - no I don't know what you could use.

Bung something of equally strong but far nicer fragrance into them?

Ok you got me. I admit it. I'm actually sitting at my desk with my toes in the plug socket.

*Is suitably chastened and sitting in the corner with me fingers in the plug socket*

Bloomin bright spark

Bold call when it wasn't even 2pm yet. Though the intervening 55 minutes haven't produced any shocks

Hope you have fun Mal and do report back on what it's like - it's on my list of places to visit. Glad you all enjoyed my pictures, collecting 20 odd likes for each post makes me feel very appreciated. Must do something about the train pictures...

Good news Jock - onwards and upwards! Bluebottle I hope your kitchen conondrum is solved quickly - failing that it's a great excuse for a barbie. I must go and weed the veg patch but first the final installment of non-train photos I spent my third day on a trip to the Achensee. S Bahn to Jenbach, Achenseebahn to Seespitz and then the 'steamer' round the lake getting off a couple of times en-route. The Achenseebahn is expensive (my ticket including the boat cost 45 euros) but well worth it. Achenseebahn loco being prepped Rails up the mountain (I was sitting on the front platform of the carriage - great fun (they take a relatively relaxed attitude to health and safety, the guard goes along the running boards of the coaches checking tickets whilst the train is in motion and they've got a nifty coach slipping trick) Eben, the high point of the line, where the loco runs round Seespitz The 'steamer' Looking up the lake towards Achenkirch Museum of Tirolean life in Achenkirch Pop up restauraunt at Achenkirch, run by something like the Lions I think Oh go on then Looking back down the lake towards Pertisau Sailing boats at Pertisau, the water is a wonderfully bright blue-green which this photo doesn't really capture The clouds descend When I got back to Seespitze it was very, very wet. Thus no pictures of the ride back to Jenbach. I took the train back to Innsbruck and the bus back to Zirl. The following day it was home via an afternoon in Munich. In summary a beautiful part of the world and an excellent destination for visiting with people who don't like trains. Masses of freight movements and lots of interesting passenger stuff for you (plus the Achensee and Zillerthal) and plenty of interesting sights and beautiful scenery for anyone else.

Onto part the second. My day trip to Liechtenstein (and briefly Switzerland). This was quite a big effort for a daytrip: bus into Innsbruck, two hour train ride to Feldkirch (lovely ride) and then a bus to Vaduz the capital of Liechtenstein which took about 45 minutes. My train to Feldkirch was the remarkable IC 118 which leaves Salzburg at 0700 and terminates at Munster 44 stations and 13.5 hours later. Sneaky picture of the loco (an OBB Taurus) and some of the scenery The bus to Vaduz, kind of unexciting for a journey that takes in three countries (the far end of the route is in Switzerland) Vaduz Post is the most central bus stop, Liechtenstein's bus stops almost all have good shelters and snazzy signage. Vaduz itself is small and really not that interesting. The area around the town hall is seemingly devoted to relieveing Americans of their money. But if you walk down to the Rhine the views get pretty nice (this is looking back into the center which gives you an idea of how big Vaduz isn't) The river is spanned by a modern road bridge and also this covered bridge which was originally built in the 1800s The border, which is the middle of the river, is clearly marked I stopped on the Swiss side for 20 minutes or so because it was far shadier than the Liechtenstein side. Then I made my way back across the bridge and off to see the old and new Parliament buildings I then took the bus back to Feldkirch where I had time to look round before my train back to Innsbruck. Feldkirch is a lovely little town, far prettier than Vaduz or Innsbruck It even has a cute old electrical station (the dammed bit in the foreground is full of water) Incidentally the border between Liechtenstein and Austria is clearly marked... It's the end of a motorway toll zone My ride back to Innsbruck was a Railjet, the first time i've ever been on one. Really nice trains with free wifi and moving maps on the info displays (hideously wobbly picture alas) And here endeth the second bit

I wondered if it was a crumple zone... It does split into a stepped type thimg on steep sections. Further pics follow when Simba gets off my lap

Pic spam part the first from my trip to Austria (and Liechtenstein, and Germany, and rather briefly Switzerland). I won't post too many train pics here, definitely not suitable for early risers. Which means there won't be many pictures of Germany. Ho hum. Anyhow I bought a flight plus hotels package from BA (these tend to be excellent value, often cheaper than the flights on their own) but because BA only fly to Innsbruck in winter my flights were to Munich instead. I don't know if I could have booked transfers through BA, I didn't bother looking - just went straight to the DB website. Innsbruck is about two hours from Munich by train. I was actually staying in Zirl which is about 20 minutes by train from Innsbruck (in the opposite direction to Munich). I caught the bus from Innsbruck to Zirl because the bus stop was across the road from my hotel whereas the station was miles away - in fact it was so far that, having walked to it, I decided to return to the hotel via Innsbruck rather than walking back! Which worked out rather nicely because the Orient Express was at Innsbruck. The hotel very generously gave me a free room upgrade because I was staying for four nights. So I got a double room with a balcony from which the view was rather nice The hotel itself was also quite picturesque (and the food was great) Zirl is a rather pretty town surrounded by mountains. On my first day I caught the bus into Innsbruck and went to see the sights I stumbled across the Nordketten Bahn which is actually three trains in one: The first is a cable railway up to Hungerberg about 300m above Inssbruck. Two cable cars then carry you up another 1500m. I only went as far as Hungerberg. Where do you put the entrance to a mountain railway? Underground obviously. One of the trains HermannBuhl Platz at the Hungerberg terminus, aptly named after one of Austria's most famous mountaineers (Buhl is the only man to have made the first summit of an 8000m peak solo) The view The cable cars for the next leg of the trip Route map Avalanche warning beacons Later in the day I made the quick journey to Hall im Tirol. Pretty town with a wonderful marshalling yard! I think that's enough for one post.

The Austrian Railjets have maps in their info screen cycle as well as speed and next stops. Mind you they are definitely trying to be plane like, they have first, business and economy classes. Am I the only person who finds the moving map far more interesting than anything else on the IFE on a plane?

Gruss Gott! I have returned from the Tirol (and Liechtenstein, Germany and Switzerland) bearing chocolate, haribo and several hundred pictures some of which will find their way into one bit of RM web or another. My apologies for not reporting live but I don't think it's possible to transfer pics from camera to kindle (I avoid internetting on my phone) and the hotel wifi seemed to find RMweb a bit much anyway.

Can't have been that tough if sandpaper was included. Surely you should have had to scrape it down with a flint or rub it on the soles of your feet (which were very hard on account of the 12 miles walk to school, uphill both ways, barefoot over sharp stones etc)...

Yup. Even works with my incompetent hammering. Doesn't half hurt when it pings out and hits you on the shin though.

He'll cut the bottom out first and then the top bit will be much lower. Simples

Somebody who posts on another website I post on was originally booked on MH17. His plans changed but a friend of his was on board with his family (I think they may be the family featured on the front page of one of today's newspapers). Another member of said website has calculated that the Dutch losses are roughly equivalant to 3000 Americans if extrapolated from percentage of population. So definitely a national disaster for Holland.

Definitely a win for the best team

Well the first semi was far more fun than the second one. I fancy Germany to beat Argentina in the final, not so much individual brilliance but a far better team. Interesting article on a piece of research concerned with the three words most associated with each team http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2125327-cambridge-university-study-finds-three-most-used-words-to-describe-wc-teams?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=programming-UK

I don't care for it personally I find it a bit too acidic If you get really desperate Il Dottore you could always try booking a few club Europe flights on BA - they serve blue top on board. Happy birthday Jock

I'm not sure if I should post this railway related content here but it's too fun to be limited to the TdF thread. Chris Froome cycles the Channel Tunnel

Sounds like a very interesting project, look forwards to seeing how it develops - and hopefully seeing it in the flesh at some stage