I’ve done a fair bit of train travel today to get oitto a meeting. The trip was easy enough to pln online and even buy the tickets in advance but there were a few simple failings that made the trip more difficult than it should have been. Firstly the website conveniently allows you to reserve seats online but it makes you reserve seats in both directions or not at all. If you’re not sure when you’ll be returning you’re left with pot luck as to whether you get a table and power point on that busy morning train. Oh well. Then you get a handy little urinary for the trip showing which stations you change at when you arrive at each and when you depart again. Sadly all the signs at the station show the final destination of the train instead of the stop you want. So the 8:40 train to Banbury you’re looking for doesn’t exist. You need to go to each platform to fin the more detailed sign that lists all the stops. The key lesson is to make sure that you sync up the information you’re providing rather than just showing the minimum required information. In this case the final destination actually really important to know purely because that’s how the train was most commonly identified. Still, I made it just with a little extra excercise going up and down the overpass stairs.

Since my wife and I will be in the UK by ourselves for Christmas this year, we figured we’d stave off home sickness by going somewhere so beautiful, so classic white Christmas and so enviable that everyone back home will wish they could swap places. I know it’s early to think about Christmas but we’re in a travel planning mood and flights are cheap if you book early.

So veteran European type folk, where is the best place to spend Christmas in Europe?