If you bike or walk around the Netherlands you’ll become a bird watcher, a sheep farmer, or a cattle herder, whether or not you intend to. There are animals everywhere – they’re mostly just outside the city centers but sometimes in the center, too! Need a better vantage point? Find a nature tower.
You’ll see swans, geese, ducks, magpies, herons, coots, pheasants, and meadow birds. Two cities have deer parks. Sheep – and lambs in the spring – are grazing along the bike paths. Texel island has two breeds of cattle and in Rotterdam there’s a group of Scottish Highland cows freely roaming in a small section of natural area without a fence that you can bike through.
Oh, there are also a lot of outdoor cats. And a campaign to keep them inside at night.
A heron flies from its perch on a bridge railing.
This post shows a selection of the animals I saw over six days exploring Rotterdam, Delft, and Zoetermeer, and the surrounding areas.
A family of geeseA sheep on Texel islandScottish Highland cattleA deer at a deer park in Kralingse Bos in Rotterdam.Loafing catLambs on Texel islandCat walking down the middle of the road towards my oncoming bicycleSheep next to the bike path on Texel island
Geese at Kralingse Bos in Rotterdam
Speaking of that nature tower…it’s in the Ackerijkse Plassen nature reserve and you can see the skyscrapers of Rotterdam, 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) away.
Rotterdam in the distance, seen through the enclosed viewing area on the towerApproach to the tower
My friend and I walked down about 190 steps in Covent Garden. Northern Line stations are “deep tube” stations” and several rely on large elevators to move passengers between the street and the platforms. There are staircases, of course, but the London Underground uses blunt messages on signs to discourages using them to go up.
We met our other friend for breakfast at Polo Club, a diner across from Liverpool Street station. He then set off to the airport to go back home.
My friend and I then took the tube to Farringdon station where we boarded a Thameslink train to Brighton, a city on the sea. (Read more about Thameslink below.)
Brighton is a place for resorts, attractions, and shopping. There are plenty of pedestrian streets with national and independent shops, many of them are quirky or vintage shop, and there are tons of restaurants and cafés. I got a millionaire’s shortbread from Jolliffes Coffee Shop. (I bake these, also called caramel slices, a few times a year after first having one in Australia in 2019 and I’ve sampled the Scottish and British versions at nearly every opportunity).
In Brighton we visited the pebble beach, had some beers at Palm Court Restaurant in Palace Pier, and checked out the Volk’s Electric Railway, apparently the oldest operating electric railway in the world and now a heritage line for tourists (although it provides a costly transportation route if you want to save walking east along the boardwalk by 1 km).
We rode a double decker Brighton & Hove bus uphill back to the train station, and had a beer and a snack at Grand Central. Then, we grabbed snacks and sandwiches at the M&S to-go shop at the station for the train ride back to London Bridge station.
From there we headed home to Covent Garden, walking over the Millennium Bridge, past St. Paul’s Cathedral, along Strand (a street name without a suffix), stopping in a pub for a pint (okay, I actually got half pints which I’m glad is a possibility at every place we went since I reduced my drinking to put off potential migraines).
Covent Garden station signs discouraging people from using the stairs to go up.Jolliffes Coffee Shop
Day 7 (Tuesday)
Tuesday, May 9, was the trip’s final day in London for my friend and I. We spent the day trainspotting.
First we went to Embankment station on the Northern line to see the extreme gap between the train and the platform. A Transport for London (TfL) employee is always present to watch the platform and use a paddle to signal to the driver, via CCTV, that the train is ready to leave. They also have a wireless microphone connected to the PA system and shouts “mind the gap, mind the gap”.
From Embankment we took the Northern line to Nine Elms, in order to check out what a brand new Underground station in London looks like. We grabbed snacks at the Sainsbury’s hypermarket next door and then hopped back on the train to disembark at Battersea Power Station. BPS is a brand new, mixed use mega re-development of a former coal power plant. There are offices, residences, and an indoor mall, nestled in some prescriptive landscaping.
(Between the Sainsbury’s and the station there is a pedestrian alley with a very basic but acceptable design. Let’s call this the inter-building space. I like how common they are, even if not all of them are very pretty.)
We boarded a Thames Clippers “Uber Boat” which is a semi-frequent transit option on the River Thames. It’s a bit slow and expensive, but it has a bar on board, it’s relaxing and you can see a lot of the city. (The “Waterbus” in Rotterdam is much faster, but the Maas and IJssel rivers are wider and have less boat traffic.)
Embankment stationNine Elms stationThe pedestrian street between the Nine Elms station and the new, adjacent, mixed-use development The “Uber Boat” (branding of the Thames Clippers transit boats).Battersea Power Station in the background from the river busI saw on Twitter that people were complaining about a war on cars because the city had modified a road to force drivers to go at a safer speed.Buns From Home café on Camden Passage in the Islington Borough of London
Almost done!
Next we went to Camden Passage, a pedestrian street behind Islington High Street, and encountered a controversial minor change to a roadway to slow drivers. This is also where we first tried some cinnamon rolls – including one with dulce de leche on top – at a Buns From Home location.
Regent’s Canal and Broadway Market were our next stops. The canal is used more as a place to live than to transport cargo. We had pints and a nutty snack at Dove Treehouse & Kitchen, a pub. I’ve been pleased at the variety of non-alcoholic beers on offer as well as the ability to get a half pint of beer anywhere.
On our way back to the flat in Covent Garden I got a döner box from a franchise called German Doner Kebab – and it was great. I first had döner box in Rotterdam in 2016 from a small chain (found only in large Dutch train stations) called The Döner Company.
A London Overground train crosses the canalSomeone is using a cargo bike, shown parked along the canal, to deliver boxes of flowersA shared cargo bike for rent; the cargo bike was built by RaleighA gasometer near Broadway MarketA gate at Broadway Market prohibits drivers from using it as a through street, reducing noise and traffic along the mixed-use street
Transportation notes
The view from the upper deck of a double decker Brighton & Hove bus in Brighton.
Thameslink is a fascinating “subnetwork” of National Rail, running 24 hours a day on certain services of its many lines. Lines run through London to the suburbs. I would probably characterize it as a long-distance regional rail. The route to Brighton is high speed, sometimes reaching speeds of 100 MPH using third-rail electrification. The trains are fully articulated, so it’s always possible to move to a different car easily.
The interior displays rotate through several screens showing train loading to advise passengers where cars are less crowded, and which of the five bathrooms, including the accessible one, are occupied.
Day 3 (previously published in days 1-2): The train arrived at Euston Station at 6:30 AM, about 37 minutes earlier than the Caledonian Sleeper’s “tips and tricks” webpage indicated. This is also when the attendant brought everyone in my carriage their coffee and breakfast snack.
Passengers must disembark by 7:30 AM, and that’s about when I did. I exited the station from the very long platform – Caledonian Sleeper says these are the longest passenger trains in the UK – and walked two blocks to my hotel for the next three nights in London.
Bags dropped off, I walked over to Warren Street Underground station to take a train or two to Westminster station. (I used my photographs of the fascinating design of that station to joke on Twitter that I had actually been in the never-opened Block 37 “superstation” in Chicago.)
I was trying to show how long the Caledonian Sleeper train isA tube train at Warren Street StationInside Westminster Underground station
I walked around Westminster Abbey, St. James’s Park, and Green Park, to observe the preparations for the coronation of Prince Charles III on Saturday (in two days). There were a lot of police officers, private security personnel, and tons of barricades all over the place. People were even camping along the Mall to save a spot from which to watch the procession of the Gold State Coach from the church to Buckingham Palace.
I saw a lot of people commuting to work by bicycle; compared to Chicago and New York City, more people in London seem to wear cycling kit in the morning.
Having enough of that, I walked around East London where a lot of the higher end shopping streets are – near Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square.
The time was nearing 10 AM so I headed over to the London Transport Museum to join the queue prior to my reserved entry time. (I’m not going to explain the contents of the museum, but it reviews the history of growth and development in London and the surrounding areas that were rural and became suburbs and then were absorbed into the city, as well as shows and explains the workings of many past and present transportation agencies in the Greater London Area.)
Houses of ParliamentA sign directing coronation visitors to a site where the event will be projected on a screenHorses being ridden by future participants in the coronation at the Horse Guards Parade grounds London Transport Museum
I had lunch with a friend from Batavia whom I hadn’t seen in ages at a Vietnamese restaurant in a viaduct underneath the Charing Cross station tracks.
After lunch I went back to the hotel and took a shower and nap.
For the evening, I walked over to a friend’s friends’ flat in Covent Garden and we had drinks on their courtyard balcony and ate takeout pizza from Pizza Pilgrims, a local chain.
I rode the tube home (it was about twice as fast as walking).
Victoria line train to CockfostersCharing Cross station is beneath the Embankment Place office complex, and beneath that is an arcade of shops and restaurants.
Day 4 (Friday)
Two Chicago friends and I had breakfast at Dishoom – I had the “Wrestler’s naan roll”, which had a sausage, egg, and bacon wrapped in naan.
We then hopped on the Elizabeth Line at Tottenham Court Road and rode it a few stops until my friend who is staying behind and I needed to change trains to go somewhere else while our friend continued heading to Heathrow.
That somewhere else was Canary Wharf station, which I believe was under construction when I was last in London in 2014. Now it’s a huge structure that looks kinda of like a tube with angularly sliced ends. On top is a restaurant, Big Easy, and an open air botanic garden.
Soon, I headed to meet someone at University College London and do a kind of walking tour around the Camden borough to see the new streetscape changes.
To get to UCL I changed trains at Baker Street, one of the world’s oldest subway stations – it opened in 1863. Chicago’s first ‘L’ station opened in 1892.
Covent Garden station building as seen from the upper floor of a Boots storeCanary Wharf stationCanary Wharf station’s roof gardenBaker Street Underground station, which is used by the character Sherlock Holmes
After the walking tour I headed over to the “City Centre”, an exhibit from New London Architecture where there are three 3D models of the city alongside posters about proposed and under construction “mega developments” in London. (This was also a good place to use the loo.)
My friend and I reunited outside St. Paul’s Cathedral and headed to a pub on Bow Lane to have a pint alongside the after work crowd.
While walking through the narrow streets from the pub to a subway station I took a fantastic photograph of the cathedral from several blocks away.
For dinner I joined a big group of friends for Punjabi food at Tayyabs in Whitechapel. We rode the Elizabeth line from Tottenham Court Road to get there. The line is important to describe because it opened in May 2022 and by November 2022 more people rode it than rode all eight lines of the CTA (counting ridership on a daily basis). The line is so useful to so many people because it offers faster crosstown trips; it has induced additional trips rather than cannibalize ridership on other subway lines.
We returned to the flat where we had pizza the night before to freshen up and head over to a bar that turned out to have blaring and poorly tuned speakers before going to the Hippodrome Casino to listen and sometimes sing along to musicals played live on piano.
Newly built bike lanes in Camden BoroughThe Building Centre on South CrescentA model of the River Thames at the London CentreOverhead view of a 3D model at the London CentreSt. Paul’s CathedralOld and new office buildings in the City of LondonA group of people around the pianist at Overtures, in the basement of the Hippodrome Casino
I arrived at London Heathrow airport at around 11:30 AM. Immigration was quick, using e-gates that only people with passports from select countries can use. The distance between the arrival gate, immigration, and the train station was immense. Much longer than even the new, longer distance at SLC. I took the Heathrow Express to Paddington (paid for via contactless credit card), and then took Underground lines to King’s Cross (again, paid via contactless).
At King’s Cross (KGX) I bought a ticket on LNER Azuma service to Edinburgh Waverley, which was leaving in 20 minutes. The train passes through countryside but “calls” at York, Durham, and Berwick-upon-Tweed; nearing Edinburgh the East Coast Main Line hugs the North Sea coast.
After arriving at Waverley I walked up the stairs to High Street and then over to my hotel. I dropped things off in the room and headed over to the base of Arthur’s Seat and hiked up to the peak before sunset.
Once back down at city level, I walked around the city and then got a pie and pint at Halfway House (which I had seen on the walk up the stairs several hours prior).
The view from halfway up the hill to Arthur’s SeatTop to bottom, left to right: Rapeseed field in Scotland, Waverley station in Edinburgh, an LNER Azuma service train in St. Pancras station (London), people watching the departure boards at St. Pancras, and the Edinburgh city center as seen from halfway up the hill to Arthur’s Seat.
Day 2 (Wednesday)
I checked out of the hotel at 11 AM and walked over the to Left Luggage business at Waverley station to store my big backpack for the day. After that I walked over to the platform where a ScotRail DMU train was waiting to depart for Cowdenbeath. (I bought tickets at a machine.)
I alighted (disembarked) the train at North Queensferry and walked down the hill to the riverside to get a better view of the Forth Bridge (the first one, that carries two railway tracks). I also used a public toilet at a little car park here. (I placed all of my Forth Bridge photos below.)
The hill back up to North Queensferry station was pretty steep and I hoofed it to make the next train in the return direction so I could get to the other side of the River Forth to Dalmeny. (Trains are only ever 30 minutes on this line.)
Once in Dalmeny on the south side of the Firth of Forth (a river estuary) I walked down the hill to the riverside, which is in (South) Queensferry, and over to a pier where I bought a ticket for the day’s final sailing of the 90-minutes-long Maid of the Forth river cruise – I didn’t plan ahead for this, it was something I spotted and the schedule worked. When you’re traveling solo, you don’t have a hotel, and your train leaving the city isn’t for another nine hours you need stuff to do to fill the time – but the river cruise turned out to be a pretty awesome way to spend the time and £17.
Back at the dock I walked over to the town of (South) Queensferry. Both towns are named such because former Queen Margaret of Scotland used both points to cross the river. Queensferry has some great urbanism: being set in a hill, there are shops on the flat part at the bottom of the hill, then a large sidewalk above them and entrances to shops and row houses next to this sidewalk – the hill is completely disguised.
Next to Queensferry are two road bridges over the River Forth. The old one was found to have structural issues and is used only for taxis, pedestrians, cyclists, and transit. Adjacent to it is the bridges’ maintenance and monitoring facility and a public viewing deck that offers views of all three bridges. There’s another public toilet here, and a kiosk.
I walked back over to Dalmeny (the town under the Forth Railway Bridge) and had my dinner early at The Rail Bridge Café. I ate a plate of haggis, neeps, and tatties (haggis is “savoury pudding containing sheep’s pluck (heart, liver, and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock”, and neeps are mashed turnips, and tatties are mashed potatoes). It was delicious and I would like to have it again.
After four hours in the towns around the Forth Bridge, it was time to head back to Edinburgh. I boarded ScotRail back to the city and alighted at Edinburgh Gateway, a station to transfer to trams to the airport or city center. I took the tram to the city center and alighted at Princes Street, the main shopping street.
From Princes Street I walked to the Leith River and on to Leith and Newhaven. I walked around Leith to a bus route that would take me back to Waverley station.
Once at Waverley station I retrieved my left luggage and paid £15 (which is a convenience for not having to spend half an hour to return to the hotel up the hill to get it if I had left it for free and less secure at the hotel).
I bought some snacks at M&S Food and ate them in the station waiting room until I found out at which platform the Caledonian Sleeper would be waiting. (I used the National Rail website to find out because its late departure meant it would be a while before it showed up on the overhead departure screens.)
I boarded the train, found my room, and immediately started changing into pajamas and brushed my teeth. I was in bed by the time the train departed at 23:40. The sleeper train has a lounge car, but I don’t think the timing of this train allows it to be used conveniently.
[overnight train, waking up on Day 3] The train arrived at London’s Euston Station at 6:30 AM, about 37 minutes earlier than the Caledonian Sleeper’s “tips and tricks” webpage indicated. This is also when the attendant brought everyone in my carriage their coffee and breakfast snack.
Passengers must disembark by 7:30 AM, and that’s about when I did. I exited the station and walked two blocks to my hotel for the next three nights in London. Continue to day 3…
Forth Bridge photos
Forth Bridge seen from Maid of the ForthMaid of the Forth boatForth Bridge, seen from where I ate dinnerForth Bridge, seen from Maid of the Forth (far away)Forth Bridge, overlooking QueensferryScotland flag from the Maid of the Forth boat
Transportation so far
Heathrow Express (non-stop service from Heathrow Airport to London Paddington station)
Jubilee Line
Victoria Line
LNER Azuma service on the East Coast Main Line (top speed is said to be 125 MPH)
ScotRail (provides intercity and regional services but I took it only to towns 25 minutes away from Edinburgh)
Vatican City has a train station but you cannot see it. You can, however, see the large gates within the papal state’s wall that enclose the train station and separate it from the main railway network in Italy.
Beyond the gates is the Vatican City railway station
The Citta Vaticano railway station is on a branch on the Roma-Capranica-Viterbo mainline and nominally connected to the Roma San Pietro train station which serves Trenitalia regional trains, including the numbered Lazio region commuter lines.
There is one way to visit the train station and that’s to take a Vatican City-sponsored day trip from the station to the Pontifical Villages about 15 miles southeast of Rome. In 2022, the trips are offered on Saturdays through October 29 and cost about €43.
A proposal intended for visitors interested in taking part in a tour of the Vatican City and the Gardens of the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo.
Every Saturday, a modern and comfortable electric train connects the historic Vatican City railway station with the Pontifical Villas for a Full Day visit that, starting with the wonders of the Vatican Museums and continuing through the Vatican Gardens, will lead the visitor to discover the Gardens of the Pontifical Villas.
Pope Francis opened the villas and Castel Gandolfo in 2015. Watch an AFP video in English or in French about the news.
Watch this video from The Round the World Guys – skip to 5:58 – for a view of the station and their ride to the villas. (I thought The Tim Traveller also made a video about the Vatican City railway station but I cannot find it on his YouTube channel.)
When I was in Rome this month – part of a longer trip to Rome, Florence, Lyon, Strasbourg, the Netherlands, and Germany – I wanted to see what I could see, so I walked south and west around the wall towards the San Pietro station. A street follows the southern wall; walk along this and you’ll come to an entry to a railroad viaduct. At this point, it’s at ground level, but to the left (south) the ground quickly slopes down several stories. The viaduct holds the branch from the main line and you can walk across it to San Pietro station.
If that’s too difficult to follow, go to the San Pietro station, go up to binario (platform) 1, and walk towards the large St. Peter’s Basilica you see to the right.
