Nottingham to Berlin by Train, all in one day

The conference was lovely, my keynote well recieved. I learned a lot from the other talks, even some stuff I can use in my lecture this coming semester. I planned on taking all day Friday for the return back. I bought first class tickets (not that much more expensive) so that I could spend the day working and be home by midnight.

It didn't happen like that.  

I had a boring breakfast (not much selection for people who don't want English breakfast) and left the hotel at 8:15 for a nice, leisurly walk down the hill into town. No need to take a bus and good to get some exercise since I will be sitting most of the day.

I made it to the Nottingham train station in such good time I could have had an earlier train, but I just waited for the planned one. It was uneventful, a Midlands Railway Express, but the Internet didn't work. Oh well, I do have all day.

We got into St. Pancras on time and I wanted to look through the shops. Except they were mostly fancy-pancy designer places. I went through the bookstore, found a W. H. Smith's with actual newspapers and bought myself a Times and an Economist, and got some food at M&S. As they say, NEVER get on a train in Europe without food and drink! Although it was early, I decided to go through the security routine and just wait for my train to Brussels.

Pandemonium! I made it through security without event, but the waiting room behind it was PACKED with people! I managed to talk a woman into removing her bags from a seat and sat down. I didn't dare fight my way over to the duty free or the cafe, I had a seat and started to read the Times.  The place got fuller and fuller, as one of the Paris trains was delayed and kids were cranky and babies screamed. People were talking loudly with each other, as it was loud anyway, and this made it worse and worse. 

Finally, our train was called and 1000+ people pushed and shoved their way to the sloped people-mover that took us to the upper level. Again, a long train, but I was at least in a nice small compartment and had a seat to myself. It took half an hour for them to serve food, just before we hit the Chunnel. There was a little bottle of wine, water, coffee and a vegetarian meal. Not bad! But after all was cleared away: no stable Internet. 

Outside of Lille we stopped. And waited. Were told that we didn't have a platform yet. By the time we left Lille we had 15 minutes delay, I had 21 minutes to change in Brussels. The German DB sold it to me that way. And of course, we added minutes on the way in, so we were 22 minutes late and the train to Cologne did not wait. 

I got a piece of paper in the train stating that we were 15 minutes delayed, and asked in 3 places about getting a reservation on the next train to Cologne in an hour. I only got another piece of paper documenting the delay, and was told to contact the train manager on the platform. Which I did, finally finding the right platform. "We are fully booked," he said. I noted that I had a first-class ticket. "All gone. But I have one more seat in second-class." So I took it.

It was a cramped window seat next to a very large Frenchman who kept encroaching on my knee-space and arm-rest space. There was no Internet. A Brit in the row in front of me was loudly complaining that the Europeans couldn't organize a proper Internet. I kept my mouth shut, we were headed for Cologne. And indeed, we got there just a few minutes late. I needed to use the lavatory, but the next train from Cologne to Berlin was in 30 minutes, so I just got a roll with cheese and one slice of tomato for 6.20 € (!!!) and went to the platform. Just in case I booked a seat by mobile phone, as there were only 6 left, it seemed. This train was delayed by 5 minutes. Then 10. Then 15. Then 20. Then it disappeared off the board! We asked every human from DB we could find, no one knew what to say, other than: it is coming soon.  

50 minutes after the scheduled time the train pulled in—with no people on it, it was apparently a new trainset. There was PLENTY of room, I would not have needed a seat reservation. Oh well, I hit the lavatory, unpacked my food and drink, and dove into the functioning Internet. I might make it home by 1am, I thought. But between Hamm and Hannover there was a call on the intercom, if there was a doctor or nurse on the train. And soon we stopped. It was explained to us that there was a medical emergency, we had to stop. We soon continued, slowly, to a little train station where the train was apparently met by an ambulance. It seemed to take forever. Luckily I still had food and drink with me. 

We finally continued to Hannover, where we again had to wait - too many trains wanting to go in the direction of Berlin! Due to conscruction both north and south of Berlin, many trains have to take this route. Just before heading into Berlin-Zoo we stopped AGAIN, this time, no reason given. We finally made it, around 1:30 am (I was supposed to be there at 10:55 pm) and I hopped into a taxi. I did not have the energy to deal with the BVG.

So the trip to Nottingham: great! The trip back to Berlin: horror! I'll probably fly next time... 

Taking the Train to London

I have been following the Man in Seat 61 for quite some time now.  He travels throughout Europe by train (always trying to sit in seat 61) and blogs about his experiences. He has very detailed explanations on how various train connections work.

So when I was invited to give the keynote presentation at a conference in Nottingham, I thought: Okay, why not? The Eurostar goes from Brussels to London St. Pancras, and the Nottingham trains go from exactly this station. No fussing around with getting across London! It's a bit more expensive than flying, but it is more climate conscious, so let's give it a go.

I was a bit chicken about doing the entire trip in one day, German (and Swedish!) trains are notoriously delayed. So I took a train to Cologne in the late afternoon on Monday and spent the night in the Ibis right at the train station! I had a gorgeous view of the Cologne cathedral, the room was small but quiet and comfy, what more do I need?

I then got the 9:41 from Cologne to Brussels, no rushing necessary. The train was a bit crowded, but I had reserved a seat. However, in my chilled out state I got off the train at Brussels-North, not Brussels-Midi. No problem, the kind information guys told me what track to stand on and take the next train in 8 minutes. Good thing I had an extra 30 minutes in the schedule!

At Brussels-Midi there is a loooooong line to go through a metal detector. I was already saying goodbye to my pocket knife and my water... I was permitted to go through the priority line as I was walking with my stick. Turned out I was allowed to keep the knife, there is apparently one that looks like a Swiss Army Knife, but is in reality a switchblade. What a relief! Then we had to go through immigration, once with a human guard and once with a machine that took my picture and compared it to my passport (and probably is using the data to train some AI system).

Behind all this was a glittering "Duty-Free" shop, and then you landed in a large hall with airport seats, full of people! Construction was apparently going on, at least there were toilets. I convinced a German gentleman taking up 3 seats with his stuff to let me sit on one, so it was not too bad, just crowded and ugly. About 20 minutes before the train was to leave at 12:51 we were able to board the train. It had something like 20 cars! I currently don't have a seatmate, but we are stopping in Lille to pick up more passengers. 

As I went to plug in my computer I realized what I have forgotten: converters for the electrical outlets! I had thought of these one night, but my husband was sleeping in the room where we have them, so I told myself: I'll get them in the morning. Oh well, at least I know now what I forgot, I'm sure I can get one for a good chunk of cash in London.  

The Chunnel itself was very boring. I'm glad the Man in Seat 61 advised me that it would be about 20 minutes, there was no announcement made on the train. It just got dark outside shortly after we breezed through the station at Calais. Nothing exciting happened, we were exactly on time in London St. Pancras!

I spent some time looking around for buying a ticket for London-Nottingham. It took three tries before I was in the right place. Since I am coming back on a Friday before 10am I need a sort of flex ticket, more expensive than many of the other legs of the trip and no senior citizen discount!

Now, on to the Conference tomorrow! 

 

Iceland 2025

I just spent some time reading my previous blog entries on Iceland and realized how nice it is for ME to be able to remember our good times. So while I still remember what we did, I'll at least put up a list and hopefully get some pictures up, too.

We got off to a nasty start, as we were planning on flying out on Monday, March 10. Except the BER airport was closed down because of strikes that day. We spent a good bit of time on the Saturday getting seats nailed down for Tuesday. We had booked the flights ages ago when there was a sudden offer of 50 % off on Icelandair flights. We decided to use the discount and splurge on Saga Class (the business class). One could get used to this! Very short lines for baggage drop, you can take 2 suitcases each, you can spend time in the lounges with seats and food and drink, the seats are wider and you get a bottle of water the minute you plop into your seat. There is also a meal and alcoholic beverages served in Saga Class. We were quite pampered on each trip, we really enjoyed it! Okay, the fourth bag was the LAST one out at BER, despite having a "priority" tag, but hey, this is Berlin, okay?

I offered our friend, who is a professor at the University of Iceland, to give a talk on my favorite topic, plagiarism and AI detection. It was a quite well-attended talk with a very good Q&A session. It was brilliant weather, warm (okay, 6°C) and sunny. WiseMan took off to see the Edda manuscripts at the National Library, I enjoyed lunch in the cafeteria and browsed the bookstore afterwards. I feel so much at home at universities, one knows how they function and can get essentials sorted out.

We also had a visit another day with a former student of WiseMan who is now living in Iceland, and our old friends from Kiel came over for a fun night of food and talk and pictures and talk and talk and talk and talk!

We walked around Reykjavík a good bit, exploring the spooky old cemetary above the Tjórnin and walking around the embassy street. Just around the corner from the Russian embassy is a little park with a sculpture called "Support". The park has been renamed "Kyiv Square" (1 - 2):

"Support" in Kiev Square, Reykjavík

 

There were a surprising number of tourists in Reykjavík for it being March! Okay, we had great weather, only one day of pouring rain and snow on our last day, but unfortunately cloud cover every single evening. WiseMan lugged his cameras and tripod with him for nothing. 

We spent a day visiting the Art Museum with a good bit of very bizzare stuff and an Erró exhibition. Buying a ticket also gave you free entrance to the Ásmundur Sveinsson museum which was a good 3 kilometers away. It was nice weather, just a bit of rain, so we walked out and took the bus back. The guide at the entrace was happy to give us the introduction in German, as he was originally from Germany. This was the last place the artist lived with his family and worked. There are many sculptures and replicas both indoors and in the garden.

A woman making butter

Copy of a woman carrying water,
the sculpture itself is in downtown
and was used as an image
for the women's protests in 1974.

The big excitement was that we actually made it to Ísafjörður in the Westfjords! This time of year is always iffy, as landing a propellor plane on the landing strip at the base of the fjord takes a lot of experience! The wings almost seem to scrape the mountains as the land or take off. If there is too much wind, the plane doesn't fly. We had a wonderful time visiting old friends, walking in the wind the next fjord over, visiting the Dynjandi waterfalls (wonderful, no tourists except us!) and the birthplace of Jón Sigurðsson, the leader of the Icelandic Independence movement. The sun actually shined quite a bit, and we had some great lemon cake made from lemons grown in the greenhouse the friends have! One friend drove us around, the "highways" have lots of potholes, sharp stones that have rolled down the steep mountains, and patches of snow here and there. Not every street has a guardrail, I would not have wanted to do the driving!

We had to leave days before and after this adventure because of the uncertainity, so when we got back we spent a good bit of time in the local hot tubs. On our last day in Reykjavík I attended a doctoral defense at the university. The doctoral candidate was one of our friend's students. The university hoists a flag when a defense is happening, the main hall is used for the occasion. The dean and the two opponents were dressed in gowns, the candidate spoke for 30 minutes, then each opponent grilled the candidate for 30 minutes each. She passed! There was champagne in a special room after the candidate was given her certificate: In English, Icelandic, and Latin!

Since the flight back to Berlin was at 7:30 and we were to be at the airport at 5:00 (!), we spent the night in a hotel next to the airport. Expensive, but worth it to have a few more hours of sleep. Hotel Aurora is within walking distance of the airport, is comfortable and quiet, and you can get skyr or drinks at any hour.

It was another great trip to Iceland, now I want to speak Icelandic when shopping back here in Berlin!

Land og synir

I first saw this 1980 film by Ágúst Guðmundsson, Land og synir (Land and Sons), back when it came out at the Nordic Film Festival. My Icelandic was not that hot when I first saw it, but there is not that much speaking anyway and there were English subtitles. On the flight back from Iceland this year I managed to squeeze in this film as a second film. I skipped over some of the bits in the middle that I remembered as being quite brutal. There was a real horse shot in the film which caused quite a public stir.

This is a film about the harshness of living in the countryside of Iceland during the Depression days. You could work from dawn to dusk and still not have enough to eat and still owe the co-op money. When Einar's father dies, he decides to quit this life and move to town. He sells everything he can, either slaughters the animals or sells them, and asks the girl from the next farm over to elope with him. They are to meet at the hotel in the next village, but she doesn't come, so he boards the bus alone.

The landscapes in this film are fantastic, Iceland nominated it for the foreign film Oscar, but it was not in the final nominees. Many Icelandic habits, such as drinking coffee at all hours of the day, are portrayed. The hardness of a sheep roundup and the swearing and drinking that go on during this yearly happening are in sharp contrast to the dancing celebrations.

You want to put a sweater on because the film so aptly portrays the cold and rain people have to put up with. The topic of people moving to the cities is still an acute one. We saw some abandoned houses in the Westfjords of Iceland, people just finally giving up because they can't make a living off fish or sheep. Another film worth watching if it shows up on a streaming service - or on a flight with Icelandair. 

Mamma Gógó

Just got back from a wonderful visit to Iceland! On the flight over I saw one Icelandic film that was very boring, so no review. On the way back I managed to squeeze in two films, the first one was Mamma Gógó by Friðrik Þór Friðriksson. I am quite a fan of Friðrik Þór, having had the good luck to have met him at the Nordic Film Festival in Lübeck many years ago. I had seen his Children of Nature (Börn náttúrunnar) and was so impressed with it, I wrote an article for Nordeuropaforum in 1992 about Icelandic films in general. 

Anyway, Friðrik Þór has quite a sense of humor and includes lots of little jokes in his movies. In Mamma Gógó he starts out referring to Börn náttúrunnar and so you immediately see that the director in the film is none other than Friðrik Þór himself, with a bit of poetic license.

The story is mostly about the mother of the unnamed director (played by Hilmir Snær Guðnason), Gógó, who is succumbing to Alzheimer's disease. The mother is so wonderfully played by Kristbjörg Kjeld (isl) and I spent some time wondering how Friðrik Þór managed to find an actress to play Gógó as a young woman in the black-and-white flashbacks. Imagine my surprise to understand the joke when I started reading up on the film and participants when I got home: Kristbjörg herself played the role of Gógó in a 1962 film 79 af stöðinni (isl, film is on YouTube, english title is "The Girl Gogo"). And the actor playing Gógó's dead husband in the newer film, is none other than Gunnar Eyjólfsson, who played the taxi driver who falls in love with Gógó in that film (which also caused a bit of a kerfluffle in the USA about the way the US soldiers stationed at Keflavík were portrayed, but that is another story). No wonder there was such a similarity between the young actors and the elderly ones: they were played by the same people, just 47 years later!

There are other little jokes in the film, which was filmed in 2009, just after the kreppa, the world-wide economic crash. One has to do with deCode, an Icelandic company that sequenced genetic material for about 2/3 of the Icelandic population, then went bankrupt and sold the data to a company in the US. The director invests money he obtains from selling his mother's apartment in this company, losing his investment. Bank people are, shall we say, not portrayed in a good light :) Another is how Gógó manages to escape losing her licence for drunk driving, she has the director's son in the back seat, she is bringing him home from the hospital where she took him after she discovered that he had drunk a lot of alcohol. When she fails the breathalyzer test, she suggests it is broken and it should be tested on the boy. He, too, displays a high alcohol content, so the police figure that the device is broken and let her drive on home. And of course the final joke is that all of Friðrik Þór's films have to have pissing scenes in them. This time it is a woman, Gógó, getting her diaper changed by her son, a very touching scene.

It is a thought-provoking film about getting old and having to deal with a parent who has Alzheimer's. The film should have attracted much more attention than it did, even if some of the jokes escape a non-Icelandic audience. If you find it streamed somewhere: watch it!

The Big Guy

I'm on a train back to Berlin from Munich, where I participated in a live discussion about AI for one of the ZDFs YouTube channels.  The train is very full, the table I have booked has all four seats taken. Across from me is a big guy and a woman. They spent the first half hour with his hands all over her (while she tried to watch a movie on her phone). He then decided to sleep, and put his head in her lap with his knees sticking out in the asile making it difficult for people to pass by. He tried to put his head on the table, but his fourth of the table is too small. Now he is sitting (shoes off) sideways in the seat with his legs in the asile. 

I realize that it is difficult to get comfortable on a train if you are big, but the disrespect for those around him I find galling. There are, of course, a handfull of sneezers and coughers on the train as well, so I am wearing a mask (as the only person, apparently). I wish the Deutsche Bahn was able to have more trains running this route so that it would not be so crowded.

Skånes Djurpark

Goodness, it's been over a year since I last wrote. Probably no one reading anymore, but I need to get my anger out, so this is probably the best place to do it.

I'm in Skåne and WiseKid was up with his family for a few days. He wanted WiseKidKid2 to see how nice the forest and the grass around the house and the fresh air is. WKK ran barefoot around and around the house a zillion times (they live in an apartment building in downtown Berlin). He found some frogs and oodles of slugs (yuck), enjoyed picking and eating blueberries and raspberries right away, and studied the flowers - and of course watering them, getting your feet wet is really important if you are 3.

We decided to go to Skånes Djurpark yesterday morning, that used to be a very nice zoo that focused on fostering local animals and teaching kids all about the forest. 

The wierdness started when we checked the prices. There are different prices for every day, and it is cheaper if you buy it online, they are asking 399 SEK (around 35 €) at the door. Of course, the weekends are much more expensive than during the week, but we felt Monday was good. I don't like this "buy your tickets early for a particular date/time"-thing. It's horrible to have bought tickets and then someone is sick, or you miss a train, or the thing you were doing before is fun and you would have preferred to go an hour later. Anyway, they are to be 279 SEK a person (no discounts for children or senior citizens). But look what happens when you start adding people:

Even though the price on the calendar stays the same, they now want 299 SEK a person! Sure, that's only about 2 €, but it irritates me no end. I decided I was too tired Sunday evening and tried it again the next morning. Imagine my surprise to see that the price has now CHANGED, both in the calendar and in the basket they are now another 20 SEK more!

I gritted my teeth and paid the 319 SEK price, as WKK2 was babbling about going to see a moose today. Of course, I had to use a credit card. Must not let this valuable data point go missing!

We drove up, there were not that many cars there. They scan your license plate as you drive in and then you can pay at a station (with credit card) when you leave, or use an app. Sweden seems to have an app for everything.

WKK2 is so excited and runs way ahead of us, but Grandma is going to have words with the people at the cashier's desk. And indeed, they agree to refund me 160 SEK, that what I paid above the published price. Except that went on my credit card and has not shown up yet. The debit was taken momentarily. We'll see if it ever shows up, I demanded (and got) a receipt.

So, shall we now enjoy the park? I point to the left where the petting zoo is - and right behind it is "Shaun the Sheep Land". What on earth? Okay, at least there are some goats and sheep to pet, no rabbits or chickens or baby pigs to be seen as there used to be. We don't stay long, as WKK2 is racing up the hill to the tractors! They have an amusement park ride where two children can sit in the front, "steering", and two adults in the back. The tractors are on a track and are dragged though some cheesy figures, more than half of which don't work, WiseKid said. But the camera sure worked, and we were able to buy pictures and keychains of the event. At least the cost of the ride was part of the steep entrance fee. 

On to the next animal place, except this is now a bunch of wagons for people who want to sleep at the park. O-kaaay. The pig is at least still there, fat and bored. And there are big signs with figures from the mole book and a big button to press - and the painted animal "shits". Yes, a big hit with the kids, but not about learning about real animals! I tug the door that used to go to the building for observing the storks - locked. I peer around, no storks visible. Maybe they got angry at all the beeping and pooping?

And now there is a truly awful plastic TREE and people are taking selfies with themselves in front of the tree! I go with WKK2s mom to the seals, and yes, they are floating under the surface in very dirty water. The place seems quite run-down, although a worker is sawing away at bushes that are quite overgrown. A seal pokes his head up and has such sad eyes. I am reminded of the seals we observed in Labrador a few summers  ago, much more lively in their natural habitat. 

We continue up the hill past overgrown and decrepit pens. Yes, there is a fox walking around, but nothing else. We come to "Dinosaur Land"! Oh my, these look like the stupid dinosaurs we saw in a little amusement park we went to when WiseKid was a pre-teen and his cousins were 3-5. At least they seem to have gotten a bit of paint, some of it perhaps not intentional.

I didn't go in, but sat at what I thought was just past the exit in front of the wild cats. Except they came out above the cats and there was another dino you could take a selfie with. The booth at the "archeological dig", as many of the other booths, were closed because in Sweden school started today so be damned if any foreign tourists are here. We looked for some wolves from the viewpoint, but everything was overgrown. On to the bears - in decrepit pens, just sitting there, waiting for food. 

The place where you used to be able to pay 20 SEK to have your child ride a pony around and around is now just for children riding STICK PONIES! Pretend horses!

We pushed on, past more and more overgrown pens. We did see a wild pig in the pig stys, but there were no piglets. At least there were two eagles on a perch, but they were hard to see in the overgrown foilage. We saw some deer at a distance and finally finally finally found some moose!

You weren't allowed to feed them like we used to do, the branches for them to eat are behind a fence. I suppose too many people were giving them other stuff to eat. This was, of course, one of the reasons for coming, to see a moose, and WKK2 was very excited.

We waved at some bison on the way out, past some cabins now on the grounds of the place. WKK2 played in the water playstation (plastic) for a while, then we took the tractor ride again. The lines were not long, as there were not too many people here.

We made it past the collection of stuffed toys and ice cream on the way back to the car. The machine told me it would send me a receipt for the parking fee (50 SEK) by SMS. Of course, none has appeared yet. 

Can I say something positive about the park? Yes, they have more toilets now. 

The bottom line? WiseKid was very disappointed, he wanted his kid to experience what he had enjoyed as a kid. Of course, WKK2 had a wonderful time, but it was all plastic and figures from TV shows he watches, all commercialized. I'm afraid this is the last time I've been there, I have taken adult friends there previously without a kid and they enjoyed learning about the animals. The focus now is just on earning money and having fun fun fun.

I will be informing the Konsumentombud about the situation with the price gouging, I find it unacceptable that the price charged to you is different from what is advertised. We'll see if that gets any action.

Edit: WiseKid suggests that I include what he experienced after I haggled with the cashiers to get the 160 SEK back. They had heard us speaking German and me discussing in Swedish with a German accent. Once I left, one noted to the other that she found it so silly to worry about such a "small amount of money" (note: almost 15 €!). They didn't know that WiseKid speaks Swedish, too :)

Edit 2: The refund made it back to my account four days later, so that's taken care of. I still reported them to the Konsumentombud for price gouging. I wonder how much money they have made with this "error".