Simon Hawthorn

A Cambrinus bottle of Czech pilsner

A plain green bottle with a cork

We ended up in a bar with a "vintage" menu. I have a pilsner from 1996. Rhys has a Liefmans Oude Kriek from 1986.

Mine is interesting. His smells like a Christmas pudding.

Glass of white wine and some snacks

Party split. Friends entered the Beer Museum. I respawned at the nearest wine bar as is traditional. Different playstyles. No wrong answers. (There are wrong answers.) My build has always been INT/CHA with wine specialisation.

Honestly, I take people to interesting and historic buildings and this is what happens. Still, shouldn't be surprised!

📸 P-trein Leuven - Hasselt (voor het IDREM nemen) 📍 Leuven, bundel Q 🚆 2 breaks (MR80m)

📸 S2-trein Leuven - Braine-le-Comte 📍 Leuven, lijn 36, spoor A 🚆 1 desiro (MR08)

📸 S2-trein Braine-le-Comte - Leuven (na uitwijken) 📍 Leuven, bundel Q 🚆 1 desiro (MR08)

🗺️ het traject van deze dienst

🗓️ vrijdag 6 maart 2026

Braine-le-Comte op het programma, dat was bijna 2 maanden geleden.

‼️ Beelden uiteraard gemaakt in veilige omstandigheden!

Electric trains. Will work out my footprint but it won't be as much as for example, driving to the Lake District. We should electrify all train lines and encourage modal shift from roads to rail. And especially improved cross border rail for huge gains.

A yellow and white Belgian M7 train

Anyway, ticket purchased and all aboard this SNCB/NMBS M7 train, IC1535 towards the coast.

By the way, this is not so much a shenanigan as a pleasant weekend in Belgium to drink some of the best beer in the world, maybe some light tram riding but mostly rest in a lovely place.

SNCB train pulling into Brussels Midi

Oh damn I let my Train+ lapse. Oh well, full price ticket for me.

*plots emails to send you on Monday. Fiendish ones*

I spent nearly 15 hours in the UK so I feel like this is an entirely rational decision.

But alas I am back at work on Monday so this will be a much shorter trip. And more sedentary.

Simon with a Eurostar train

Ok. But. Hear me out.

This would appear to be a breach of UNCLOS Article 98 and the Geneva Convention. Even the US Naval War Academy would seem to suggest this digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cgi/viewcont...

Well for entirely mad reasons, I might be doing the same thing again sooner rather than later... Hope you enjoyed your day off!

Thanks for sticking with me and following my random ten days of madness, Romans, trains and pictures. I took over 2000 photos and have to work through the almost 8gb of space that's taking up on my phone.

But first. Shower, dinner and sleep.

Have a great evening all!

Simon, out.

A very tired and slightly blurred Simon by the Eurostar

St Pancras station roof and clock

View from Blackfriars station of the Thames and London

And back to jolly Old London St. Pancras. Decided to take the Thames link down to black fries and walk to Waterloo. And now just made it home, just under 23 hours since I left Innsbruck.

A total of 7,056km travelled over the ten days; by train, tram, bus, ferry and a few cable cars.

SNCB double decker train

Waving at random Belgian trains as we approach Brussels just in case one of them contains @traindrivertom.trains.blue

Rotterdam Centraal station platform and sign

"This could be Rotterdam or anywhere"...

Actually the other day when I was in Rome, I spotted that @raves.bsky.social was in Rotterdam and another friend was in Liverpool. So we might have created the song via the medium of shared map locations.

A Siemens Velaro e320 Eurostar set pulling into platform 15 at Amsterdam Centraal.

Het was fijn om mijn vriend te zien en samen te lunchen.

Alas all good things and that. Now back to Centraal and pick up the ES9147.

Amsterdam Centraal

A tram in Amsterdam

Tram! DING!

Night jet coach with an NS locomotive

An NS Vectron

The night jet

View across to the IJ

And so, Amsterdam! Couple of hours to kill so going to find @chiel.uk and bug them for a bit.

Day 10: I should probably head home soon

bsky.app/profile/simo...

Screenshot showing the arrival time into Amsterdam

I awoke earlier than I hoped - the pillow is more a suggestion than a reality and the repeated heavy braking throughout the night was not restful - and checked my location.

Ah yes. Or course. We were DB'd. Only 1h24m late so far.

But good news, now in the Netherlands so should be fine.

Yes. I have things to save about the sheets. They are the wrong shape, size and have been stitched along two sides and they are not long enough for the couch.

An OBB locomotive pulling into the platform

The NightJet logo on the side of the carriage

A small cabin

But now, time to go check into my hotel for the evening. A capsule hotel. On wheels. With a locomotive.

Yep, off to experience the NightJet to whisk me to Amsterdam (a city I've been to a lot in recent months).

I have things to say about the bedding in this cabin.

Statues of a king on a horse

Church frontage

Triumphal arch

Lights of cablecar stations on the mountain

A walk around Innsbruck and some dinner followed. It's a pretty town and obviously very popular with mountain sports types, the sheer number of outdoor shops and people wearing good walking and skiing clothes. I didn't even get blinked at walking into a wine bar in walking trousers.

The cable car station

View from a table some 1905m up.

A spritz and a view of th ciry

A drink with a view. Alas the restaurant at Seegrube was closing otherwise that's a fantastic spot for a refreshment. So down to Hungerburg instead.

Time to descend. First the Hafelekarbahn and then a change to the one down to the Hungerburg station and then the Hungerburgbahn down to town again

Thanks to @kadei.net for helping me cut down the video because I am a numpty

Another gratuitous selfie

View across innsbruck to distant mountains

Snowy mountains

The cable dropping steeping down the mountain

The air is clear, the sun warm and the skiers below seem very happy.

A snowy mountain top

Simon on a snowy mountain top. Without his sunglasses like a silly billy

More snowy mountains

Gps location app showing altitude at 2300.9m

It's quite pretty up here. And yes I did walk a little way up Hafelekarspitze to claim the full 2300m bit.

The shadow of the gondola over the ski lift

View upwards towards the top

View across the tops of the mountains

Next, another cable car (danglebahn) up from Seegrube to Hafelekar. And the views keep on improving.

The curved station roof

View up past the gondola and up the cables

View down the cable route

View along the side of the mountain

Next, a danglebahn! The first cable car up from Hungerburg to Seegrube.