Back in England

I’ve just got back from a week in Switzerland, travelling all the way by rail, with a stopover in Luxembourg on the way out, and Köln on the way back.

I haven’t got time for a full writeup, but here are a few random observations:

• You know you’re a Mostly Autumn fan if you use the phrase “The weather was absolutely Murrayfield”. It didn’t rain all week, fortunately.
• Now I know why travellers don’t recommend the EC “Vauban”. 5 hours from Luxemboug to Basel with no catering. Argh!
• Only serious delay was on the way back, where the Deutche Bahn ICE-3 from Köln to Brussels broke down. So much for the wonders of German engineering promoted in all those car adverts. Fortunately I managed to get on board the following Paris-bound Thalys TGV and make the connection into the Brussels-London Eurostar with just a couple of minutes to spare.
• Rosa Klebb has a new job as the sleeping car attendant on the Frankfurt to Moscow sleeper that I saw departing from Köln on Wednesday night. The contrast between the shiny red Russian sleeping cars and the absolutely filthy German locomotive wasn’t something I would have expected to see.
• Swiss beer is good. Cardinal, Gurten, Eichhof and Walliser Beir all taste great. It’s not just the atmosphere and ambience that makes it seem good; I ate at one restraunt in Brig where the house beer was Heineken. And it tasted, well, like Heineken

And now I’m off to see The Reasoning at The Borderline in London, for the final gig that bookends the holiday.