Tagged With "Battersea Power Station"
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Re: England’s Thames Path: Kew Gardens
My wife Diane and I spent almost an entire day at Kew Gardens. So much natural beauty to see. We arrived from central London at the Kew Station in mid-morning and didn't leave until almost dusk. At one time our son had a possibility of being transferred to London and I recommended getting a place in the Kew Garden area for the beauty and quiet. One of my photos from Kew.
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Re: Trains in Cuba
Great question...and possibly not an easy clear answer. Cuba's trains have generally been in poor shape in recent years as older equipment has run down and spares not available. However, according to Mark Smith (The Man in Seat 61), that's changing with the arrival of a fleet of new Chinese-built locomotives. On his site ( Seat61.com ) he has an extensive update of recent changes in schedules, routes and locations (that's important because Havana's main station is closed for a 3-year...
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Re: Norwegian bank is out of cash, on purpose
Although I don't use cash every day, I sure want it when I need it. After living through Hurricane Katrina and the LONG power outage of the aftermath, I recognize when cash is crucial. And yes, DrFumblefinger poses a good question about the lack of cash during cyber warfare, which goes on regularly even if we choose to ignore it. Maybe we should go back to bartering for everything. But most of us have lost the art.
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Re: Carrick-a-Rede and the Rope Bridge
It's good that if you want to get the the best places you have to use your own motive power, and a little bit of nerve, too !
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo (#288)
Leave the station and you might run into this scarecrow.
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Re: Belfast: An Uneasy City
I think I have to disagree on comparing human societies to plate tectonics; over the latter we have no control, but I would hate to ever think we've exhausted the possibility of dealing with the former. Examining mass religious conflicts generally reveals other issues beneath. That's certainly true of the long and tortured history between the two islands and the two Irelands. While James was a Catholic and William a Protestant, the real issues behind the conflict that set Ireland's future...
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Re: Gallery: Transport, Rural South China
What an amazing variety! I like to look around in Europe for "oddballs" like small pedal-powered trucks and other small delivery vehicles, but these take the cake. I'm especially fascinated by the front-wheel drive truck that appears to be friction-driven (power applied to the surface of the tire, rather than to the axle).
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #11
And what possible good is a puzzle without a bit of chicanery - by definition, I should think. I haven't seen the arena at Arles, though it's already on my list for the next visit to France. I have walked past the arena in Verona as it was between the train station and the garden I'd come to photograph. Likely why it came to mind just after the Colosseum.
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #11
PortMoresby put the finger on what made this one hard. It was the ancient-days equivalent of being asked to identify a free-standing Barnes and Noble store, or an Exxon station. Easy to know what it is, not so easy to know where . What's been fun in these is watching people dig out bits and pieces that then fuel other folks' guesses. WorkerBee has done that a number of times; in this case, even though T&N doesn't play as a guesser, the geological analysis of the stones was a stunning...
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Re: Suggestions wanted: Andalusia
Will you have a car? I ask, because if you will, you might consider stopping at one or more of the White Towns between Seville & Granada. I stayed a week in a house just outside Iznajar, a lovely little place, and visited a bigger town, Antequera, worth a stop. For a brief stop I'd recommend the smaller town, one of a number in the area, millions of olive trees everywhere. There is no train there although Antequera has a station, but outside the town. Below the town of Iznajar, beside...
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Re: Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit, Kennedy Space Center
Thanks for an orbit of memory lane! I think for me the most amazing aspect of the whole space program is how we have moved from each launch being a major news event before, during and after to seeing space in the papers only when something goes wrong--and these days, it seems to be mostly plumbing issues on the International Space Station. Looking at the pictures...it's amazing how big some aspects are, and how small the actual shuttle is!
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Re: Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit, Kennedy Space Center
I enjoyed watching todays launch from Virginia. A Ton of supplies to get aboard the Spacestation ! And 10,000 ants ! The folks on the station have to reach out and grab it as it floats around. Just as well its weightless !
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Re: Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit, Kennedy Space Center
Last launch I watched was from the East Coast of Florida - maybe near Cocoa Beach. The Sky was complete darkness, just a few stars and the moon. We were listening to the launch radio station from about T minus 15 minutes - as NASA described the last minute checks. A few seconds before launch time you could see the ground at Cape Canaveral illuminated like a bright white flare. The steam from the launch pad turned into a white cloud and on "Zero" the rocket was moving slowly into the air. For...
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Re: Staying In Touch on the Road: Part 1
It's a nightmare! A fair chunk of my packing now includes various chargers, connection cables and mains power adaptors for phones, iPads, Kindles. cameras.... Oh, plus a universal backup power supply battery (RAVPOWER - good value) in case I cannot get to a mains socket - just to keep in touch! I have to say that the Euro proposal to have ONE single charger for all devices has some merit!! PS - watch out that chargers that are sold as suitable for iPhones are often not powerful enough to...
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Re: Staying In Touch on the Road: Part 1
The RAVPOWER unit that I went for is shown on the following link (a real mouthful): http://www.ravpower.com/ravpow...hite-us-version.html This model has enough power to fully recharge an iPad! Currently available from Amazon for USD 36.00 They also do more powerful packs. (Hope this doesn't cut across any "No Advertising" policies
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Re: Staying In Touch on the Road: Part 1
In the Duel of the Devices, I'm going to declare the RAVPower unit the winner. Both of these devices are essentially external batteries, something that's becoming more popular as more phones come with non-removable batteries. There are two critical differences, however: capacity and output. The PowerStick has a capacity of 750mAh (about half the power held by an average cellphone battery) and a maximum output current of 700mA (phone chargers usually supply 1000mA). The RAVpower device has a...
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Dec. 17, 2013: Olympic Stadium, Montreal, Quebec
Yes Montreal is great. Wish I could go back more often. The fun thing about these attractions is while they are all near one another, there is also a metro station nearby. Cheaper than the taxi and an experience in itself. This is only the tip of the iceberg...so much more to see and experience.
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Re: The Worst Train in the World
Fascinating read! If I do take this train trip, and it's currently included in the plan, for our hoped for trip to Mynamar later this year, I can't say I wasn't warned. Coming from a country that shakes, rattles, and rolls pretty much every day there were two things about the earthquake that worried me. First, it was big enough to produce screams!! Second, it seems that no-one bothered to check the tracks before the train left the station. And so as I was reading I expected a derailment -...
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Re: Share Your Budget Tablet and Laptop Picks
I have a high power PC for my hardcore work, but for getting around I like the Google Nexus 7. Nice tablet, slick, fast, less than $200 bucks. Great for using when you fly.
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Re: Share Your Budget Tablet and Laptop Picks
If you want something a little larger and with a keyboard and good computing power, there's a new bunch of chromebooks coming out for the holiday season. PC World recently featured one in the $200 price range, weighing on 1.25 kg. Here's that link.
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Re: Capital of Culture Series: Liverpool
No offense taken...your remark just started me on a train of thought that stopped at a new station!
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Re: Do you Like these Hotel Tipping Tips ?
Garry, I have to disagree with you there...having worked in situations like that. It's certainly true that there are often too many tables to serve (if the owner can get by with three waiters instead of four or five, that's money in his pocket). And it's true that too many tables means poor service, even when you want to do better: You just can't, and that often means lower tips as well. Remember: if the party coming in the door is not on your station, you're not serving them. And if they...
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Re: Charging your mobile devices on the go
That article has good advice...but should have noted one thing more: Not all USB ports on planes and trains carry power for devices (including chargers). Some are data links only; if you don't know about a particular plane or airline, check or don't count on it!
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Mar. 30, 2014: Jean Cocteau on Wine
Well, borders change and Jerez is no longer "on the edge" of anything. Aside from the sherry houses, it seemed a pleasant mid-size city with nice parks and squares, a gorgeous tiled rail station and an Alcazar with an interesting history. The last two are featured in a blog here on TravelGumbo. See https://www.travelgumbo.com/blo...-window-into-history
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Re: Italy: Giant tour bus, tiny street
Yay ! One up for bus drivers ! I drove a 10m DAF bus 20 times from Oslo to North Cape and back. One place in the Lofotens required me to reverse down a winding dirt track with rock on one side and sea on the other with about 2ft of clearance on either side. Thank the lord for power steering and BIG mirrors. Bus drivers deserve all the tips they get !
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Re: Passport Woes
Almost disaster. We once purchased a new Volvo back in 1991 and a trip to the factory in Goteborg Sweden to pick up the car was included. We picked up our new car and crossed via ferry into Denmark without a hitch. But at the German customs and passport control station, I was denied entry including our vehicle. I had shaved off my beard a few months prior, but my passport photo still showed the beard. The German officials kept saying that it wasn't my passport and to produce my real...
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #37
Looking closer...no sign of a bell, so not a church steeple. When you look closer, too many people (tourists?) for a firewatch station. Long walkway...must connect to some building? Otherwise, why so high off the ground. Can't be a pedestrian bridge; no way down from the walkway level. I'm stumped!
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo (#38)
Well, I suspect it is England, given the overflowing litter bin and no parking yellow lines (oh joy!). It looks probably to be a minor town station from the Victorian era. And now I'm clutching at straws!!
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo (#38)
Perhaps clutching at straws would not be a bad idea...since proverbially you can't make a brick (station) without straw! No, you're definitely on the track, and so is the station...but which one?
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo (#38)
Here's a view of the other side of the station...economizers once wanted to remove these beautiful fixtures, but after protests, they were restored instead. When the railroad first opened in this town, half the population were on "poor relief;" the railroad enabled its goods to sell over a wider area and made the town prosperous.
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo (#38)
Well, folks...if you look closely at Garry's second picture, you can see the station sign for Kettering (Northamptonshire)...and that's the answer! Full details tomorrow, and a new puzzle on Wednesday morning...be sure to get in on it! And congrats to Garry! (Care to share with the readers how you did it?)
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Re: Kettering, Northamptonshire: Where Gumbo Was (#38)
Thanks! Been fun for me, too...I enjoy when people keep poking at it, and it was learning for me, too! All I knew before was that I liked the station, and had passed through it on the way to Corby...
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Re: Kettering, Northamptonshire: Where Gumbo Was (#38)
When I was researching the history of the land my house is built on I opened up so much information. During WW1 the land was used for a temporary Army Camp. Many new soldiers were from Wales - 20 miles away - who spoke no English ! But on the 8th June 1917 Capt. (later General) Patton arrived in the Port of Liverpool England on his way to France. He took a train to Litherland Railway Station and stayed here in my garden until he left to catch a Train from Liverpool to London. I often find...
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo? (#71)
Jonathan L's e-mail to suggestions@travelgumbo.com yesterday correctly identified the scene as being along the Petite Ceinture, a former commuter and freight rail line circling Paris. Last chance for added glory: Can anyone identify the specific station?
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo? (#71)
There are a lot of similarities between this station and Atlanta's Brookwood Amtrak Station at 1688 Peachtree St NW, as viewed from the south, including tracks too close together, narrow platforms, long steep stairs, iron fence, the pitch of the roof (which at one time was red spanish clay tile), the brackets supporting the roof, the windows overlooking the track, the weeds, the general condition, the congested neighborhood, and of course the lack of parking.
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo (#59)
It kind of reminds me a train station....Maybe one of the Paris stations.
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo (#59)
I knew I'd seen this so went through all my photos. at first I also thought train station in Europe but your most recent clues helped. It's the Harold Washington Library in Chicago?
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Re: Finding Reiner #7: Shrapnel & Bones
Originally Posted by Carlin Scherer: Beautiful image - grabbing on to the spider web and flying into a peaceful land/world. Reiner wrote beautifully!!! Reiner was a great writer, and I'm sure in the original German it's even more elegantly phrased than in this fine translation! PHeymont -- agree with the sentiment. Believe we'll always have evil, power grabbing tyrants in our midst and our challenge is not to keep them from seizing power. Not an easy task. I've been reading Eric Metaxas...
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Aug. 27, 2014: No Kidding!
Too bad you were there too early to walk to that hilltop. It's actually a Cosmic Ray monitoring station, long since closed, now a National Historic site in Canada. Here's a link that tells you a little more about it. The views from up there are much better than from the Gondola terminus, good as those are.
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo (#72)
Have the guessers given up? Perish forbid. Here's a hint to get the juices going... This station, in a city that has two rail mass transit systems, is near a well-known center of design and crafts.
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo (#72)
Paris has the Metro & the RER and I've been in at least one above-ground Metro station, but I'd be hard pressed to remember which. I think the RER is entirely above ground outside the city, and the occasional one in town, at least one along the river.
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo (#72)
The station shares a name and some history with a nearby center that houses numbers of design and craft spots, and whose design exemplifies some. But the station is not the center!
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo (#72)
From your clues PHeymont - I'd guess the Rambuteau rail station. Close to the Pompidou Centre in Paris.
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Re: More WiFi in NYC Subway...soon...maybe.
Transit Wireless is a company formed for this project; it's owned by the phone and data carriers, which have paid part of the costs. The other revenue stream is the potential for advertising, and also sponsorships ("WiFi at this station is sponsored by...") Everything here seems to be a big to-do; we've been on lots of European systems that have had full service, including tunnels, for quite a while. We're also way behind on "train will arrive" signs, because the NYCTA way is to design from...
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo (#72)
Looks like an ornate Railway Station - but where ? Probably over 100 years old. European and well maintained.
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Re: Charleston's Grand Mansions: Middleton Place
I was interested to note (aside from the alligators!) the fact that the house at Middleton was never restored after the Civil War. I noted that at Magnolia plantation, not far away, a small cottage was moved in to replace the original house...and it left me wondering. While the planter class certainly reclaimed power after Reconstruction, they must have taken quite a while to overcome the economic damage they brought on themselves.
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Re: London- multiple questions
Thank you for all of the information. I am finally ready to finalize some things since we leave at the end of this month! We have decided not to do Liverpool...seems like we should come back and do that someday. I am thinking the Megabus option may be the way to go to Salisbury and catch the shuttle to Stonehenge from there. That way we can see the cathedral while we are there. Do you know if it is a short walk to the cathedral or will we need to take a taxi from the Megabus stop? Do you...
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Re: Gallery: Bicycles, Lucca, Italy
These small views, with their varied backgrounds and very personal bikes, give me a sense of knowing Lucca, even though I haven't been there yet. It seems a quieter energy than what comes from bicycles in huge masses...consider this shot from Copenhagen's Osterport rail station:
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Re: London- multiple questions
I can only help with one of the questions...but GarryRF, one of the TG Gurus, lives in Liverpool and can certainly help with that part. For Stonehenge without a car, there are really two main options. There are a number of tour operators who run coach tours from London to the site; or you can take a train from London to Salisbury and take a bus from the station to the Stonehenge visitor center. The visitor center is new since I was there; it's about 10 minutes by shuttle from the stones...