Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Sleepy Scandic

Monday, May 22nd, 2006

Back in Denmark again this week although staying out in Lyngby this time as it saves driving through the centre of Copenhagen every morning to reach the customer. Arrived late last night and then proceeded to spend 20 minutes driving round a deserted town centre attempting to find the entrance to the Scandic Eremitage. I knew where the hotel was (you can hardly miss it built on top of the shopping centre) but it was only on the third lap of the block that I spotted the ramp in the middle of the high street down to the underground parking!

After last week’s lift noise my room was beautifully quiet. That is until 7 o’clock the following morning at which point the sound of the jack-hammers remodelling the concrete in the car park drifted all too readily up the lift shaft to the ninth floor.

Freetown running

Thursday, May 18th, 2006

Went for a run from the hotel this evening and planned to do a lap of the nearby waterway shown on the map. This proved to be quite a good session with the numerous steps up and down the steep banks surrounding the water a passable substitute for hill reps. It was only when I got back that I discovered that the various ramshackle buildings on the route form Christiania, a semi-legal independent community. Perhaps not the most salubrious part of town and not somewhere I’d return to after dark.

Sleepless in Scandanavia

Tuesday, May 16th, 2006

Spoke too soon about the weather in Denmark – back in Copenhagen again this week and it has been raining fairly incessantly. I’m staying in the Radisson SAS Scandinavia this time and should have remembered from a previous occasion to ask for a room away from the lifts. They make a hell of racket during the night and I’m a pretty light sleeper. Unfortunately the hotel’s full so no chance of moving.

Denmark shines

Saturday, May 13th, 2006

84Just back from my week (well, four days really as Friday turned out to be a public holiday) in Copenhagen. Unlike my last visit in the middle of winter the city was bathed in sunshine late in to the evenings for the entire week. This, combined with the local habit of finishing work around four o’clock, meant that I had some very pleasant evenings running around the streets, taking photos as I went. Things were spoilt only slightly by the seeming propensity for Danish men to urinate in public!

London City Airport

Sunday, May 7th, 2006

Had to fly out to Denmark at short notice and selected a SAS flight from London City Airport thinking that it should be easy to get to without having to find a last minute taxi. Indeed, it ought to be: an hour on the train to Waterloo followed by the Jubilee Line and DLR. Unfortunately Network Rail had other ideas and aren’t running any trains between Basingstoke and Farnborough every weekend in May. This would have meant getting a bus from Winchester to Alton and then changing again at Woking. Ended up getting a taxi after all which, at 2.5 hours and £100, still wasn’t much better. The airport itself was great though with all the advantages of a small regional airport – think I’ll leave it to the good citizens of London in future though.

Vegas birthday conference

Saturday, May 6th, 2006

Spent the past week in Las Vegas for the IBM WebSphere Services Technical Conference. Had a direct flight from Gatwick with Virgin Atlantic which was infinitely preferable to having to spend an extra couple of hours in some random US airport. We were based in the Rio for the week both for accommodation and the conference itself. Much more pleasant being off the Strip (in fact, I only made it to the Strip once and that was for an early morning run) although it did mean it was possible to spend the entire day inside a dry air-conditioned box. Sadly, by the time the presentations were over for each day the sun had dropped behind the buildings meaning that the hotel’s pool and beach weren’t as enticing as they might have been.

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Peugeot embarrasment

Thursday, April 27th, 2006

79Work took me to Wolfsburg this week, home of the German car giant Volkswagen. In a town full of VWs and Audis, Hertz therefore seemed to think that it would be amusing to give me a Peugeot. But not just any Peugeot – a Peugeot 107. This car is unbelievably small. It’s hard to see how they’ve managed to fit two doors down each side and lifting the fifth (actually just the rear windshield) revealed a hole that wasn’t even large enough to fit my carry-on suitcase! To make matters worse, as is the German fashion, it was a diesel and consequently roared like a tank whenever I attempted to accelerate. Perhaps the only benefit of its minute size is that, as I was getting blown about on the autobahn, there was still plenty of space on either side of the lane!

Welsh charm

Sunday, April 23rd, 2006

67Spent a very nice weekend at the University of Wales’ Gregynog conference centre relaxing whilst Christine participated in a statistics conference. Not a part of Wales I’ve been to before but the green rolling pastures are very aesthetic. Just a shame that the rights of way on the map don’t seem to have any corresponding presence on the ground!