I’ll add a brief write up of my trip last week.

Finished work in Plymouth at 2224 (driving a falcon), caught the 2300 Plymouth to Bristol Falcon (staff travel pass), where I slept for a couple of hours. As someone I get on well with was driving I went into the city and back out to the airport, arriving at the airport at 0400.
My flight was 0705 with EasyJet to Geneva. We landed at 0930 local time.i was out of the airport and on a train into the city centre by 1000. Passport checks on arrival was very quick.
I took the train to the main city station, where I transferred to a tram out to the UN HQ^▸ (HeadQuarters), had a 10 minute look around that area of town, before heading back to the centre. I walked along the lake before taking a ferry across the lake which was a pleasant crossing and included in the day transport pass. I walked back round the lake from where the ferry dropped us taking in various scenery.
Approx 1300 I found a nice little brasserie for lunch. I had a bacon cheese fondue burger, chips and drink which came to just shy of £30, but it was without doubt the best quality burger I’ve ever had. It was made from Swiss mountain beef.

After lunch I headed down to the lake, and it was a pleasant warm day touching 20C, so I sunbathed for a couple of hours and made  a brave attempt at cold water swimming in the lake, joining in with some locals. I lasted 3 1/2 minutes!

I grabbed a supermarket sandwich for dinner before heading for home.

Total cost
Falcon to airport - nil ( staff pass, normally £43 return from Plymouth, discounts available  for over 60/ under 25)
EasyJet flights £35.98 return.
Travel pass £7.04 (8 Swiss francs) it’s 10 CHF if purchased before 9am.
Lunch £30
Sandwich dinner and bottle of coke £5. 
Total for a day out £78. I’d have spent more than this for a day out in this country, and I got to see somewhere new.


I did 48 hours in Krakow last month having been inspired by the channel 4 show Travelman, 48 hours in. Krakow was incredibly cheap. 2 nights Ibis hotel was £44, and I struggled to spend money, I only took £75 changed into Zloty, and started buying little Polish sweet packs for the kids to use it up. Beautiful city.

I’m sure I seen a sign up recently that the drop off went to a minimum £7? I’m in and out twice a day.

Hmm. 

Yesterday evening, I found myself chatting with a red squirrel, over a beer, about Pilning station. We agreed that it hopefully does have a future - but it's possibly not in quite the right location.

CfN. 

Under 25s get the discount too. (I’m a falcon driver)

A solution to capacity issues on the London Underground.

I get the 3 year version and renew accordingly.  The other half for some reason or another has purchased annually although this year has used Tesco Clubcard points to get one at a very reasonable price.

I thought GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) were trying to do a joint order with Chiltern and East West rail unless the dft have decided they can get GWR some new rolling stock before then by tagging some onto Northerns.

Sadly, I wrote this and it failed on my believability test

Rail Bus services to be re-introduced on railway lines in the South West of England as from 1st April 2027. "The rail bus will follow the normal service trains" said Andrew Hendy, head ponco of the forthcoming rail network "allowing connections off incoming main line trains, then connection onwards with the next main line train when they raech their destination".  Trials will take place in 2026 with services from Ernesettle to Bere Alston and from Taunton to Dunster.

From my own home to the plane push back is an absolute minimum of 2 hours. That's driving to Southampton, Bristol or Bournemouth Airports and parking short term / walking in to terminal 30 minutes before departure, which is cutting it a bit fine.  On return it might be 15 minutes less from arriving at the gate to being home.

First train of the day to Southampton is the 06:32 getting there at 08:22, last return at 19:47 from Southampton into Melksham at 21:31.    Amsterdam - flight at 09:20, getting to Schipol at 11:30 would be possible, with a 16:50 return flight getting in at 17:00 to Southampton - might catch the previous train.   Jersey and Guernsey also possible, I think.

No thank you - not these days; I would need to find a deckchair and grab some sleep in Amsterdam to recover from the outbound flight in time for the return one.   A decade ago, yes.

I would have voted 'No - but I have in the past' if it had been an option.

We typically use the train for London trips and we have not been recently.  When I am next planning to go by rail I will renew it.