London Paddington

I will take you today on a little walk in London. If you expect to see Big Ben or the London Eye, you might be a bit disappointed. Because we will walk around the Paddington area within the City of Westminster, in central London. We will start, not surprisingly, at the Paddington railway station, where you can arrive directly from Heathrow on the Heathrow Express (expensive but really fast).

The Paddington area does not have a central point of its own. Instead it is composed of residential buildings, hotels and small parks. One of the most noticeable public buildings is the St. Mary's hospital.

If you do not want to visit it from the inside, remember one critical instruction: the cars in England move on the left side of the road. So when you cross the street ....

The St. Mary's Hospital stands next to a little canal. It is the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal.

To keep the canal clear of algae and to aerate it, a special "bubbly barrier" was created.

At the very end of the canal comes the Merchant's square. It used to be a kid of market place in the past but today it is a residential and leisure area.

On sunny days, children most probably play by (or in...) the fountain.

Supervised by sir Simon Milton, a former leader of the Westminster City council.

Close to the St. Mary's hospital stand the St. Mary's church in the parish of Little Venice.

Behind it you will find a small park, called St. Mary's churchyard. Very pragmatic.

But before you start running and having fun here, maybe you should take a closer look at the fence. Or at the stones standing by the fence. And yes, this are tombstones.

The churchyard is a former graveyard. Still some bigger graves remain in the middle of the lawn.

To be honest, I find the idea quite spooky. But apparently other people not, since there are residential buildings surrounding the yard.

Not forgetting the City of Westminster College.

In the St. Mary's churchyard you will find graves of some famous people, like Sarah Siddons, the best Lady Macbeth of her times.

Luckily, the Paddington area has also other parks to offer, like the Norfolk square.

Inside, you will find cosy lanes and an abundance of plants.

Let's take a walk inside.

I would expect that flats in the buildings facing the Norfolk Square are more expensive that I can even imagine.

I propose that we take a break and order a pint in one of the pubs. This one looks really welcoming. Maybe they have some good Sherlock Holmes stories to share.

Where is Wallis?

Today we will begin a journey that will lead us to the Swiss canton called Wallis or Valais. But before we discover the beauty of the highest parts of the Swiss Alps I want to show you some of the amazing landscapes of canton Uri.

Canton Uri was one of the three founding cantons of Switzerland. It has all that the country is proud of - high mountains with snowy peaks, beautiful lakes and a sun that shines brightly.

On top of the hills you will spot small villages that seem to be embedded in the rocky soil.

Next to them the land climbs up quickly. The colour of the water makes me think more of the Caribbean  than of the middle of Europe.

The mountains literally dive into the lake so the road crosses numerous tunnels.

The canton of Uri is divided from the canton Wallis by high mountains. To pass them, you need to take the Furka Pass. As the road begins to climb, the landscape changes.

Those concrete structures are semi-tunnels for cars, protected from snow. On top of the hills you may see the grid bringing electricity.

The Furka Pass is accessible by car only during summertime. In winter the snowfalls make it too dangerous. If you want to take your car to Wallis, you need to use a train. But first you need to queue.

On a weekend, there will be enough cars in front of you and behind you to make you admire the landscapes for around two hours.

Not much else to be done in this remote part of the world.

Finally, we arrive to the train station.

Here comes the train.

But wait, we are still inside a car! Do not worry, this train does not have seats for passengers. You need to bring your own ones.

Off we go!

Finally we are on the train. In a car. Inside a train.

The train starts moving and we are coming close to the Furka Base Tunnel.

Inside it is really dark.

But when we leave the tunnel it feels as if we were out of a sudden teleported to Antarctica.

Ladies and gentleman, welcome to Wallis!

Transport Museum in Lucerne

I know, I know, many of you think probably that museums are boring. But today I will take you to a truly amazing museum, I am sure you will like it. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Transport Museum in Lucerne.

The main entrance is guarded by a snow groomer. He is called Peter.

The museum is divided in several sections. The first one is dedicated to railroad vehicles. You can see there various trains.

It is even possible to look inside a locomotive.

And go below to see the chassis.

I enjoyed in particular the possibility to discover how steam locomotives worked.

A fascinating adventure of pistons and pipes.

Railroad is of course not only about trains but also trams.

You can even sit inside and pretend to be a tram driver.

Did you know that first trams were actually horse-powered?

That was a tough job. So travellers were encouraged to weigh themselves before they jumped on.

The next section of the museum is devoted to road transport. Next to the entrance you can see a special bus. In the old days, when few people had cars,  inhabitants of remote Swiss villages had difficulties to shop for fresh groceries. The local retailer Migros has launched special shop-buses.

Inside you can see old cars ...

... and futuristic racing cars.

And some motorbikes on top!

On the central square you can test yourself what it feels like to expand the network of roads.

You can sit in a road roller ...

... or in a tipper truck.

The third section of the museum is devoted to sea transport. Inside you can see all types of vessels. Starting with fisherman boats.

Next to it comes an exploration vessel, called bathyscaphe.

It can go deep inside oceans. The pressure there is huge so to go out you would need a special scaphander.

Obviously ships are very large so the easiest to admire many types is by looking at models.

You can also get close to vital parts of ships, like a motor ...

... or a steering wheel. Captain Rick is on board - full speed ahead!

The last building is devoted, you surely guessed it, to travels made in the air.

Starting with paragliders ...

... and first airplanes.

Then come dirigibles (or airships).

It is possible to look inside an old-fashion passenger plane.

And compare some of the more modern models.

The flight attendants invite ...

... welcome and enjoy the business class experience.

I must say this interactive museum proved to be even better than I thought. Travelling is a great experience, no matter the means of transport.