103 posts in Travel
I love the idea of more trains, but let’s look at how Japan (and, increasingly, China) does it. Night trains are romantic and all, but in all fairness, who wants to travel for 12hrs+ on a train with barely working WiFi, no (fancy) restaurant or entertainment, no proper working desk, and sleeping in a metal sardine box. All that at €300? You do this once, maybe, as an experience, and then never again.
Growing up, I always wanted to be in the heart of the city—a densely populated, well-connected place (which is why I moved to Singapore). But gradually, I’m starting to crave a quieter life… something more remote, peaceful, and slow-paced.
I’ve spent countless hours dreaming about living in a small town in the French Alps, a secluded village in Bali (away from the tourist spots), maybe on a boat, or nestled in a Norwegian fjord with a breathtaking view, perhaps a smaller town in French Brittany, or a tranquil town in New Zealand.
The promise of travel has always been transformation: we go away and return changed, more broad-minded, more enlightened about the world. In ‘The Case Against Travel’ (non-paywalled archive view here) Agnes Callard argues that not only does travelling rarely change us, we’re the ones changing the places we visit:
“Touristic travel exists for the sake of change. But what, exactly, gets changed? Here is a telling observation from the concluding chapter of [Hosts and Guests, the classic academic volume on the anthropology of tourism]: ‘Tourists are less likely to borrow from their hosts than their hosts are from them, thus precipitating a chain of change in the host community.’ We go to experience a change, but end up inflicting change on others. ...
Source: Kottke
"Moving some of our passenger operations to other UK airports at such short notice is also not realistic," the airline said. "Ensuring ground readiness to handle and turnaround a widebody long-haul aircraft with 500 passengers onboard is not as simple as finding a parking spot at a mall."
Source: BBC
It's worth asking how come (European) airports were unprepared for this rebound. I've travelled quite a bit within Asia1 the past few months, and I fail to see any of the same problems Europe is facing.
DB joins Star Alliance. Wonderful news.
Just like Air France-KLM is already offering Thalys tickets for some of its flights from Brussels: instead of departing from BRU airport to AMS or CDG; just take a train from Brussels South.
It looks like Lufthansa, and soon all of Star Alliance, will offer more comprehensive (long-haul) tickets including a train ride to or from your final destination.
Can only applaud this: planes are here to stay; but I’d 100% prefer to take the train (at least a high-speed one like Thalys, Eurostar or the Shinkansen) over a small CRJ9, A220 or other sardine cans for my layover flight (BRU doesn’t have a lot of decent direct connections to Asia). These inter-city flights (short distance, frequent take-off and landing) heavily contributing to noise and environmental pollution.
