Tag: Trains

A few days ago, I was able to tick one more item from my impossible list: traveling on the front cabin of a subway train. When I wrote that, I meant that I wanted to see the view from the conductor’s point of view on a tunnel. Since I was in Copenhagen and they have a fully autonomous metro, I did not need to go far to complete that wish.

Originally, I envisioned this item being completed as a shy Henrique asking a conductor for their permission to be in the cabin for a short trip, and how much of a security nightmare that would be and likely never happen. I would still love to see it one day, but traveling on an autonomous metro was incredible enough.

I also want to add that I’ve traveled with the DLR in London. However, my impossible list item was very specifically about an underground metro. There’s something about seeing the tunnel go by. I do admire people that do this for a job and see the insides of a tunnel for hours and hours a day, especially in a fully underground metro system.

Yesterday, we visited the Harry Potter Studios. Since it was quite far away from the center, it took some time to get there, and consequently most of the day. It was worth it. It’s one of those one in a lifetime experiences to see the actual set of one of your favorite franchises. And the butter beer was delicious 🍺!

More iconic even, was the visit to the Transport Museum Shop. Yes, to the shop and not to the museum itself. Sadly, we didn’t have time to visit the museum yesterday. I would say that this shop is quite dangerous for me since I like everything transit. I ended up buying what I think is the most iconic souvenir I could get: a pillow with the same fabric as the seats of the trains from the Elizabeth Line! I love it!

We arrived last night at St Pancras with the Eurostar. It’s the second time doing this trip using the train, and despite taking much longer than the flight, I’m glad I made that decision. It probably helps that I never took the flight from Eindhoven to London, which takes around 40 minutes.

The advantage of the train is, most often than not, that you can just hop in the train and not spend much time as you need to do in an airport. However, since we live in Eindhoven, we need to first go to Rotterdam, do passport control and security. Only then board the train. So the time argument is actually not in our favor, for us. Nevertheless, we still chose to do it.

I always forget how ginormous London is. According to Wikipedia, there’s around 8.8 million people living here. That’s almost as many as in Portugal and half of the Netherlands. It’s nice to be back.

I’m looking forward to enjoy the next few days in London visiting a friend of mine, and checking a few places where I haven’t been yet!

Last month I had the opportunity of visiting Engelberg, in Switzerland. During this small trip, I spent some quality time with my coworkers and took some pictures. Below are my favourites. I had to include two trains, because… why not?