Tag: commuter

The train home from Edinburgh

from the train window, Edinburgh to London King’s Cross

Thus ends our trip to Scotland. Below, a few snaps of the train journey to London and then on to Farnham, either through or reflected in the train windows. Click any of them to see them full sized (you may need to click the post title first if that doesn’t work and you’re seeing this in an email or on social media).

Antwerp

Antwerp train station, Belgium

This is the view from inside the Antwerp train station, coming up from the depths of the modern platforms. From the outside one can see the magnificent, baroque, historic (well, turn on the 20th century) structure, which I failed to take a picture of, pushing a suitcase as I was, but you can learn about this most beautiful train station from Wikipedia and get a sense of its significance from W G Sebald’s novel Austerlitz.

Brussels Midi

We walked down Stalingrad, past all the Arab coffee houses, to the crowded platform at the Brussels Midi-Zuid train station. “In your own time,” might be the motto of the Belgian train service as only one train we took out of about eight trips actually left on time. OTOH, you can really travel all over the country relatively easily by train, something that can not be said of the US.

Unmasking the Unmasked

86th St and Central Park West subway station, New York

In New York it is still required to wear masks in the subway and the buses. Whether this is scientifically indicated anymore, it feels to me like part of being a member of civil society is following the norms that have been agreed and demonstrating to your fellow citizens that, regardless of your personal risk assessment, you will show them the same respect you would hope to be accorded yourself. After all, I can’t tell by looking at you whether you’re vaccinated and boosted or a radical, anarchist anti-vaxer who poses a health risk to me and the others in this enclosed place..