10 Tips for Surviving Train Journeys
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I recently traveled down from Hull to Torquay on business which meant a 6 hour journey and luckily, only a couple of changes (but could have been many more).
Train travel is a much better option for business, because as we all know, it means that you can (hopefully) get some work done, and you don’t end up being completely shattered after a big drive. However, there are a number of tips which I suggest when you are going by rail.
- Don’t take too many bags. There’s nothing worse than struggling about with mulitple bags, and also finding places where to put them. I usually travel with my Tom Bihn Empire Builder Laptop bag, and a Tumi roll on. These two bags are both a good few years old, but look virtually new and are perfect mix of form, design and function.
- Book a seat. No excuse not to nowadays. You can use thetrainline.com and they post you your tickets. There was a real shortage of seats on the main line was on, and it is no fun standing.
- Get some noise cancelling headphones. These are essential for any sort of travel and make a real difference to your quality of journey. There are many sorts available, but my Bose ones have been going strong for 5 years and I would not travel without them.
- A decent book (or two). Check out my recommendations here.
- The Trains iPhone app which you can get from the App Store here. This will tell you all the departing and arriving trains from any station in the UK - I’ve just downloaded this and it is excellent.
- A light weight laptop. My current MBP is not cutting it right now, too heavy and a little slow
The Air or a Linux Acer One is now looking very tempting, but hanging fire until Apple have a refresh and I can afford one! - Bring your own food and drink. The stuff available onboard is not the best and way overpriced.
- Make sure you put your mobile on silent. This is not a hard thing to do you would think, but the amount of people who don’t bother is staggering. It is rude, ignorant and annoying. Especially if you have the “Final Countdown” as your ringtone.
- Make sure people know you are on a train if they want to speak to you. The reception, even on mainlines, is rubbish and you will spend the whole time having dropped calls. So don’t schedule any telecons as it won’t work, and long loud phone conversations are rude, ignorant and annoying.
- Dress appropriately. If you can avoid it, don’t wear a suit. It will be trashed. Something lightweight and warm is my preference, howies merino stuff does the job well.
Now I know I said 10 tips, but here is one extra for free. Travel in first class if you can. You may even get some work done.
PS Try to avoid the carriage where two “professional” dog owners have decided to bring their 4 dogs and two travel cages onboard.
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Flattery from Kimpton Hotels
Kimpton Hotels are amongst my favourite when I stay in the US. I’ve used them in NY and also Boston. Both times there have been lovely rooms, free WiFi, great locations and very friendly staff.
So, I was pleasantly surprised when their email newsletter pinged in my inbox yesterday announcing their ‘Apple of My Eye’ package. Thanks guys, I expect a decent discount!
Technorati Tags: hull marketing, hull marketing consultant, kimpton
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Back in the UK
Morning all!
I’m back in the UK after amazing week in Sauze d’Oulx in the Italian Alps. As you can imagine, and especially after not taking the MBP, I have a load to catch up on - email, feeds, work, websites etc etc. I only took the pocket point n shoot camera but managed to get some ok snaps and movie clips, so I will post them soon! For those who cannot wait (westerly side of the UK) here is a couple of quick pics for you!
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My hotel in NY and Tripadvisor
As some of you know, I had a great trip to NY a few weeks ago, stayed with a new friend, Richard and had three days in Manhattan. Previously, we had stayed at 70 Park Avenue, part of the Kimpton Hotel Group, which I am a BIG fan of (I’ve also used their Hotel Marlowe in Boston on two occasions). Unfortunately, this time, it was full so I had to find somewhere new….
Tripadvisor
If you are going ANYWHERE, please do use Tripadvisor - it is a shining example of user generated content, with people from all over the word, submitting reviews and and thoughts on hotels and destinations. I would now, never book any hotel without consulting it first. Yes, it is that good. I also try and fins time to submit my own reviews and this is the one I wrote for the Alex Hotel in New York:
“The “nightmare” of getting a good, and reasonable hotel in NY surfaced once again. After consulting Tripadvisor and looking at a number of hotels, I chose the Alex Hotel - good reviews, good location (5 minutes walk from Grand Central Station) in Midtown and not TOO expensive, but hey, we are in NY, right?
After flying into Newark (would go to JFK next time as I have done previously - and if you can afford it, use US Helicopters to fly straight to Manhattan = awesome!), it was on the train and then a taxi to the Hotel Alex. Impressions were immediately excellent after being greeted with those wonderful words - “Mr Moss, we have a beautiful upgrade for you”. I am nobody special and did not ask nor expect this, but it was very welcome. The staff were friendly and efficient, and to be honest, this was my experience throughout my 4 day stay.
My room, a King suite was clean, huge and well appointed. No view but did I say it was big?! I had a kitchen area, lounge, bathroom and bedroom. Excellent beds and Frette linen, reasonably fast internet access (a must for me) but no wireless in the rooms themselves (there is in the lobby/lounge).
I had an American breakfast thrown in as part of my deal and I had this on two occasions - very nice, seemed very fresh and one day I rocked up with minutes to spare and they accommodated me with a smile.
Beyonce’s entourage was also staying whilst I was there, so if they were there, then hey, who am I to complain?!
Finally, I was granted a late check out with not too much hassle, and they booked a car for me to go to the airport. So, in review:
- a stylish, cool and well appointed hotel
- friendly staff who really were very helpful
- top location - Grand Central in 5 minutes and another subway about 10 minutes away.
Would I stay there again? Yes I would, I had a great time and will be back”.
So, talking of travel trips, can you name the best hotel you have ever stayed in, and also the worst? I look forward to reading about them!
Technorati Tags: alexhotel, NY, travel, tripadvisor
NY photos now on flickr
I’ve just managed to post my NY photos to flickr, so please have a look and feel free to leave comments.
Hope everyone is having a good Wednesday!
Technorati Tags: apple, newyork, NY, photography
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Travel is good - have you seen the world?!
This video from www.wherethehellismatt.com is truly inspirational. Please take three minutes to watch it.
Matt was 19 and thought that all he ever wanted to do was play and design video games 7 years later he realised that he was unfulfilled so bought a round the world ticket and went and saw the world. He said that the hardest part of it was deciding to do it. Leave the comfort zone, leave your safety behind and do something you really want to do, not something you think you NEED to do.
I made a similar decision in 1993 after Uni and went and did two ski seasons and then lived in Asia and Oz for a year. Some of the best times of my life.
It’s not just about travelling though, to me it really is about doing something every day that you enjoy. We only have a certain nunber of days left in our lives. Wouldn’t be good to have a higher % of them that you can look back on and say, that was a great day! My life is changing hugely very shortly. I will tell you more about that very soon. One thing for certain, I am going to have a many more great days than I have had before.
Old friends
So, following on from my post a few days ago, I am now back in England and thought I would tell you a little bit more about what I got up to in NY. So, after another B&H visit, I went into Soho and met a very good friend called Tadgh outside the Apple Store.
11 Years ago
Tadgh and I worked together in The Mercantile Hotel, on the Rocks in Sydney, Australia. This was in 1995-1996! It was great to see him again, although we did meet for rather a few Guiness in London at The Toucan pub in 2000. He has been living in NY for 5 years, and is pursuing his career in acting and it looks like he has some amazing opportunities this year.
He lives in Soho, and we I failed miserably to see him last October when I was last in the city. It turned out we had probably walked past his apartment whilst we were walking around!
Monster Pizza
He showed me around the neighbourhood and we went for amazing pizza at Lombardis, a very famous restaurant. He showed me is apartment which looked great and then we went for a a really nice walk to the waterside. He also showed me the Magnolia Bakery, which is very famous and has appeared in an episode of Sex and the City, which his ex girlfriend owns. It started the craze of cup cakes, and there were queues outside it when we went past. We finished up by looking round the meat packing district and we went to an amazing warehouse, which had been converted to shops and restaurants. It provided a great opportunity for some photos.
We had a great time and it was amazing catching up and finding out what we had been up to over the past few years, well 7 to be precise! we said good bye, arranging to meet up tomorrow and I headed back on the rather sweltering subway back to Hotel Alex. After a quick shower, I walked up 3rd Avenue to the famous Smith & Wollenskys and had a very impressive burger in their grill. (This was after going into the main restaurant, which my shorts and T shirt didn’t really fit!).
So a top day, and time for bed, to get ready for the Apple keynote tomorrow at 1pm!
Technorati Tags: newyork, photography, tadgh, travel
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Monday in NY
So, I’m in Manhattan! What to do?! I started the day with a great breakfast in the hotel - I got a voucher for free American breakfast each day as part of the room rate, so that was pretty good. I then ventured out and went up to the Apple Store on 5th Avenue to have a play with the iPhone, although I did pop into Ferrari on the way to check their 599 availability.
iPhone impressions
Why on earth of we not got these yet?! The first impression was one of pure jaw dropping drooling. Words cannot convey how cool it looks, it feels, it works……. Amazing
Everything worked perfectly, simply and with every little detail thought through. I cannot wait to get hold of one of these when they are released in the UK. The things that really stood out for me were:
- Screen clarity - gorgeous, bright colour
- Safari - excellent browsing
- Photos looked excellent
- Touch screen - so nice to flick and scroll your contacts and your music
- Everything just seemed to work - I was using it pretty confidently after a few minutes.
The Safari web rendering was very impressive!
I then headed down to Soho (walked to Penn station and then thought better of it and got the subway!). (A cheeky 15 minutes in B&H was also factored in!). Once at the Spring Street station I walked into Soho - this is by far and away my favourite part of NY, which I have seen so far in two visits. A really cool and relaxed atmosphere with a HUGE variety of people, places, shops and sights/sounds.
I was in Soho to meet an old friend…. and I will tell you about him in the next post! (I am getting hungry and need some sustenance!).
Technorati Tags: apple, iphone, newyork, photography, travel
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A superb trip
I cannot believe how fast the time has gone! It’s now Wednesday afternoon and I am due to fly back shortly from Newark. There have been storms during the night, but everything seems ok now.
After arriving in Ten Mile River, I spent two great days with Richard and Anne. They were the perfect hosts and treated me like royalty. It was a privilege to meet them and see their lovely home and the amazing location!
We spent a very chilled Saturday chatting about various things, surfing and checking out the new camera gear. It was roasting again and we really felt the heat when we went to the local Preserve, only a few minutes away. We managed to take some pictures, but the Monarch butterflies were proving somewhat elusive! It was a great place, very tranquil and had a real sense of wilderness about it. Here is Richard snapping away. He is a very measured photographer, very detailed and gets some fantastic shots.
We went out for a fantastic pizza in the evening at a lovely little Italian restaurant nearby and then headed to the lake for a quick walk. The light was fading fast but managed to take some pictures.
On Sunday, I was up relatively early (still adjusting a bit to the 5 hour time difference) and was greeted again by Richard’s great fresh coffee. We ended up getting a 12.30pm train into Grand Central station, where we said goodbye to Anne, who went to see a friend. Richard and I walked up to my hotel, the Alex (review to come shortly) and dropped off the bags before heading to Penn Station on the subway. This proved to be a wilting experience with the humidity underground being quite impressive!!! Once at Penn, it was a short walk to the Mecca of photography, B&H. It was great to go in, as it had been shut on Kate and I’s last visit in October last year.
It was packed, due to it being a Sunday, but managed to get a couple of items I needed. We then walked down and met Anne and her friends. They had been having a good catch up and we watched a film project that they had been working on which was very interesting. After saying goodbye, Richard, Anne and I went into Soho and ate at the Spring Street Cafe (I think this is the right name) - great atmosphere and location and top food). From there it was back to Grand Central and we said our goodbyes. I cannot thank them enough for being so hospitable and fun to be with. MANY thanks!
I walked back to the Alex, and unpacked and hit the sack after an exhausting but brilliant weekend!
Technorati Tags: b&h, newyork, travel
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Two dudes with their weapons
Two dudes with their weapons, originally uploaded by Richard-.
When saying goodbye to Richard and Anne last night, we had a great chat with this gentleman, who was also packing some serious hardware! Thanks for taking the photo Richard! You can find his blog entry about this here.
I’ve just got in after a busy, but excellent day, and will be posting some more photos and thoughts later.
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BBC News- You may like to read this...
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