For those of you travelling together on the HSS catamaran to NL from Harwich, consider asking for a tour of the Bridge while you are on board. Small parties can, on request, visit the bridge of the boat where you will be able to see the incredibly modern, joystick-steered ship in action - plus there's an unbeatable view of the channel and channel traffic (also by radar). From there you can also see the four P&W jumbo jet engines pumping 10,000 litres of water per minute out of the back of the ship through the steerable jet nozzles - incredible!

Ask at the Information booth at the back of the ship: parties of 6-10 are acceptable. Have fun!

For those who weren't on the boat or at the meet:

- We asked. The answer was: Sorry, not this time. Too busy on the bridge that day.

- Yea, the nozzles at the stern of the ship are damn impressive. Everything about that ship is impressive. I've got some MPEG clips of those nozzles at work. Perhaps that will make it into a gallery somewhere on the web at some point.

- Oh, and the Blackjack tables were just "Natural 21" tables, not true Blackjack. Didn't play.

- The shake machine at the McDonald's was still broken.

- We asked. The answer was: Sorry, not this time. Too busy on the bridge that day.

We asked on the return trip (somewhat late) and the answer was the same. FWIW, there was a fair amount of local traffic, though, so I can understand. *Verrrrry* impressive craft, anygate. Total Star Wars.

So, Tony, how was/is your trip? Make your connections?

(sitting in Dublin waiting for the Big Affair in AM...)

So, Tony, how was/is your trip? Make your connections?

Yup, every single one. Some of them *barely*, but we saw and did everything we wanted to do. We had a very detailed itinerary written up, and I'm amazed that we were actually able to stick to it the whole time.

We had 6 minutes and 9 minutes to spare, respectively, for our train transfers in Utrecht and Frankfurt. The Utrecht one came off without a hitch (in fact, so well, that I don't even remember clearly if we even had to switch platforms), but the Frankfurt switch was interesting. We were in reserved compartments for those trains, and when we arrived at the compartment in Utrecht, there were some people in the compartment who weren't supposed to be there. I asked the conductor about it, and he came over and discovered the guys were (a) freeloading without tickets, and (b) were trying to bring pot over from Amsterdam. The train ran 12 minutes late because of the hassle of getting them off the train and handed over to the police.

During the ride to Frankfurt, they kept announcing at each stop "your connecting train will not wait. Alternate is..." So when we arrived in Frankfurt, 12 minutes late, we were sure we were screwed because our connecting train was supposed to have left three minutes earlier. But not only was that train right there on the same platform, it turns out that it was running 20 minutes late itself. How's that for luck?

Those trains were freaking impressive, too. FAST mofos, high tech and clean, lots of wood grain paneling and glass. Stylistically, very Star Trek Next Gen.

Dude, how could you narc on someone? Thass not coo'!

Dude, how could you narc on someone? Thass not coo'!

Funny thing is, I had no idea I was narcing on someone. There were some weird guys in our compartment and I simply asked the conductor if we had the right one.

As the conductor was working it all out, another couple arrived to share our compartment (they HAD proper tickets of course) and the stoners were begging them for money to buy the necessary tickets so that the conductor wouldn't kick them off the train. They started to give them some money, but the conductor told them not to do it.