Category: TravelPage 1 of 2

Stories from my journies

The joy of the ‘train classique’

France is well-known for its TGVs. But there is a place in my heart for the ‘trains classiques’, the older, long-distance trains that still trundle round the older…

Global zoom confession

I have a confession to make. Sometimes, when online meetings are getting really dull, I gaze at the globe on my desk and search for islands. My eye…

Microadventure #1: Garden Sleeping

For my birthday this week my partner Mary gave me Alistair Humphreys’s inspirational book  ‘Microadventures’. According to Humphreys, a microadventure is an adventure that is short, simple, local,…

The joys of ferry travel – a postcard from Crete

You can get from London to Crete by land and sea but it takes about four days each way. I was due there for a four-day meeting and…

Derive #2 City of London – Log book

19/3/18 Derive #2 Location: City of London Context: preparation for my talk ‘Circling the Square‘ 0:00:00 Moorgate and London Wall. Once solid-looking stonewalls are now façades pinned in…

Surface travel – Münster to London

Overview Six trains and one monorail Leisure 709km £130 Today I take my journey home from Münster to London via a different route from my way out. Outbound…

Surface travel – London to Münster, Westfalia

Overview London – Harwich – Hook of Holland – Den Haag – Enschede – Münster Six trains, two buses and a ferry. Leisure 365 miles. £90. When I…

#8 – Eiffelover on tour in San Francisco

This is the first of two episodes of the Eiffelovercast recorded in San Francisco earlier this month. I was in the city to run some Think Up workshops,…

Eiffelovercast #6 – Riding the Northern Line Ghost Train

In this episode of the podcast I attempt a sonic recreation of a part of the London Underground that never got built, a stretch of the Northern Line…

Eiffelovercast #5 – Nick Cobbing: photographing the Arctic

Photographer and photojournalist Nick Cobbing talks about photographing the Arctic, what happens to photographic equipment at minus 38 degrees, using drones to take photos, the role of the…

Eiffelovercast #4 – Crossing France very very fast: a paean to TGVs

Ever since I saw my first one zoom past as a boy I’ve loved TGVs. In January I travelled from one side of France to the other and…

Follow the deer tracks, who knows where they’ll lead

Every time I go to the woods I find new insight or inspiration that I can use in my teaching. Today’s comes from deer tracks. I know the…

Greenwich Peninsula

I snapped these wandering along Greenwich Peninsula last Saturday.      

The view from More London

It’s a curious place, More London.    

Harrow: my original civil engineering inspiration?

This morning I was down at our local primary school arranging to do a talk about civil engineering for the Year 5 and 6s. The head teacher remarked…

The bridge between mechanical and civil engineers

Last night I was reminded of the fascinating world of moveable bridges. From the glorious transporter bridges of ports and river estuaries to hulking swing bridges of the…

Teaching at Queens – part 1

Over the next couple of days I’ll be at Queens University Belfast to do two things: to kick off a new sustainability-themed student project, and to run a…

In Praise of Euston Station

I know it is not often that you hear people say this, but I do really like Euston station – from an interpreted transport perspective, it is a…

Taking inspiration from the Transcontinental Railroad

As I tweeted earlier this morning, today at Think Up I have been working on Build Camp, a concept for a week-long hands-on learning event designed to encourage…

Negotiating the lifts at Kings Cross

Pushing a pram, as is my new daily habit, has made me much more aware of the relative accessibility or inaccessibility of London. Today I decided the best…

Archive photos/early attempts at developing/les arcs

Probably the best module I studied during my year at ENPC was not engineering-themed – but photography. The module was run as an English language course: the subject…

Things to do in Berlin: go to the Museum of Things

On the to do list for my next visit to Berlin (which may not be for some time…*), the Museum of Things. See this link from the museum’s…

Travelling on Eurostar with a baby

This week we took our 5-month old by Eurostar to Paris. The experience of travelling with a baby is adding a new perspective to my journeys. Long-distance train…

Tips for riding the Caledonian Sleeper on a work trip

This is only the second time I have taken a night train as part of a business trip. As we slip into Edinburgh in the early morning, having…

Going full circle on the Overground

I feel like a bit of a wally standing here in the rain at Clapham High Street Overground station. There are many shorter ways to get me home, which…

The New River Clissold Park to Finsbury Park

[slideshow]

Good times at Shambala

I think I often say this when I come back from a music festival, but Shambala is one of the best festivals I’ve been to. It could be…

Train + bike: the easy way to get to a festival

Last year for Cloud Cuckoo Land and this year for Shambala, I’ve taken the train most of the way, and covered the final leg by bike. Often the…

Notes from Hazel Hill/Slow Learning for teaching sustainability

I recently returned from a conservation weekend at Hazel Hill wood, the sixth such weekend in which I have participated, and a visit that prompted some more thoughts…

Time Travel at the Beach

I am sitting at the Kit Kat Cafe, perched on the dune at the back of Camber Sands, a vast stretch of sandy beach in East Sussex. The…