Albury 2023, December 31

I woke in the morning with a sore right foot, like most days a new minor problem.

I drove in to Wodonga to park near the beginning on the High Country rail trail. It was a good quiet track heading towards Talangatta again, I didn't want to run too long so only did about 16 kilometres in total.

I got some lunch before heading back to the hotel to watch BBC Match Of The Day from overnight.

Back to Albury again in the afternoon, a quick visit to the Murray Art Museum Albury. It was alright but there wasn't that much too see, and no magnets for sale in the shop.

I walked around the rest of city I hadn't been to the day before, dealing with some very tired legs and still a bit of foot soreness, and ended up back at the hotel by late afternoon.

I tried to find out online if there was any new years eve celebrations or fireworks, but all I came up with was that it was cancelled in Wodonga this year due to costs, and nothing about Albury. Even staying in Kerang last year they had fireworks, and that was a much smaller town.

At midnight I could heard some fireworks going for a few minutes, but couldn't see anything from the hotel window.

Albury 2023, December 29-30

Drove to Albury on Friday afternoon from 1pm to 5pm with a quick stop at about 4pm.

The Hume Freeway was good with the 110 km/h speed limit almost all the way, except so many cars just stay forever in the overtaking lane, many times I would get blocked in the slow lane because someone is driving about one kilometre faster in the other lane.

Went straight to the hotel to check-in, had an incredibly slow lift that only goes up two floors, was faster to take the stairs.

One of the benefits to a smaller town is it's so much easier to drive around without heaps of traffic, I was able to do a quick lap to Coles and Mad Mex for dinner in just a few minutes.

Watched some TV episodes and BBL cricket while planning for the early morning drive.

Had to get up at 6:30am to drive to Talangatta Station for the morning parkrun. I could have just done two events in the nearby Albury-Wodonga area but I thought I'd drive to one a bit further away - in case I might ever manage to visit every parkrun in Victoria.

It was about 40 minutes to Talangatta, empty roads but lots of hills and turns so usually couldn't go at the 100km/h speed limit.

I went for a five kilometre warm up on the rail trail in the opposite direction to parkrun for some variety, no idea how long the trail runs in total but definitely over fifty kilometres since it starts back in Wodonga. The surface was alright, loose stones on top of a fairly flat bitumen layer.

At the briefing there was about 40 people turn up, a bit more than the usual 20 to 30. I started a bit slow in third but realised the others weren't going any faster than 3:50/km so went ahead. I didn't want to run at max effort with another parkrun on Monday and all of the extra leg fatigue from driving and walking around during the weekend.

I finished around 18:30 which was good enough, the next finisher was close to four minutes behind. I had another short run afterwards to finish, then drove back to hotel.

I walked a bit over a kilometre each way to the farmers market, but it was very small and didn't find anything to buy. I drove a short distance into the city centre instead to reduce the amount of walking for the day.

Spent a bit of time exploring a couple of the main city streets then ended up at the Myer centre to buy some lunch. I completed a lap and got back to the hotel to have lunch and rest my legs for a while.

After feeling a bit more refreshed I drive over to Monument Hill, a small war memorial with a view of city. The monument looks better upwards from the city, as much of the view is blocked by trees.

It was very hot and dry outside, which seems to be common for regional towns in summer. I got back in the car to go a bit further west to Yindyamarra scultpure walk. There was a few good pieces along the path but it was just too far in between each, over five kilometres for the complete loop, I didn't go all the way around the last lake so it was closer to four kilometres.

I had some tired legs by the end of that visit, the car was extremely hot from being parked in the sun so I had another stop on the way back at the small city botanical gardens.

I decided to visit Wodonga instead for some more food and dinner, since it's only about five kilometres to the companion city centre.

November Review

 A very delayed review this month.

Straight into running, had a slow month of parkruns while training for a half marathon in early December. I'm still crossing off new event numbers from the list - 115, 125, 128, and 165 slowly filling in the rest of the gaps under 200.

The shares aren't doing much lately, and are probably one track for a small gain for this year, but still way below the peak from two years ago. After the end of year reporting many companies decided to do capital raising which causes the share price to plummet - one raised at a 30% discount so the existing share price sank almost as much. Since it was a small company only raising a few million dollars or less, surely they'd be better off taking out a loan if they're going to be cash flow positive any time soon. On that topic, I don't know how these companies can be on the exchange for over 10 years and still not make a profit.

Nothing much happening in professional sports but I have been to a few weeks of local gridiron at Ashwood and Croydon, both have good grounds and are a similar distance away.

A bit more on the to do list:

• New computer
• Ordered a new system during the Cyber Monday weekend
• Probably just need to add another internal drive
• Going to take a while to transfer all apps and files from the old computer
• Parkrun special events
• Have a short list of locations for the new year weekend, just have to book one

A slow end to work for the year although keeping busy with the December advent of code challenges again.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None
• Music
• None
• TV
• Harlan Coben's Shelter
• Too many twists and no ending at all
• 5 out of 10
• Video Games
• Nintendo Switch
• Super Mario RPG
• Expected a good RPG so was really disappointed
• Linear gameplay and very short
• 2 out of 10
• Xbox 360
• Mass Effect 3
• Another good game to finish the series
• Had to spend too much time walking around and going through dialogue
• 7 out of 10

October Review

The October review a little delayed by trip reports.

For the miscellaneous section we had The Voice vote come and go, now it's seems almost forgotten about already. Such a long build up and then the results were clear after about 15 minutes of counting in the eastern states. The divide between metropolitan and regional areas was quite interesting.

A quiet month of running with nothing new to report. Ordered a pair of Puma Deviate Nitro 2 that arrived in three business days, much faster than the usual online orders. Just been doing standard parkrun and improving slightly each time, but now have to start preparing for a hot half marathon at the start of December.

Had one more small sharemarket crash to add to the all the others, due to the concerns with the Israel war. We still haven't recovered from any of the other issues of recent years, so it was no surprise to see new 12 month lows being recorded.

A bit of a different sports month, went to my first Gridiron Victoria match in a while at Ashwood. The first game of the day started a little one-sided but was close afterwards, unfortunately I didn't stay for the better second match. Also got a couple of rare live streams of local running events, the Melbourne Marathon and Burnie Ten. The coverage was generally good but some of the races weren't very close.

A few small items for the to do list:

• Europe 2023 holiday report is finally done
• New computer have got a short list but might wait a few more weeks to see Cyber Monday
• Parkrun special events are on Monday this year
• Christmas might go somewhere closer
• New Year probably book somewhere for Saturday to Monday

Nothing new to report for work as we head towards the end of year break.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• Saw X
• Better than other recent ones
• 7 out of 10
• Music
• Bright Eyes
• Good music but the lead singer seemed "tired"
• 6 out of 10
• TV
• Jury Duty
• Better than expected, somehow worked without messing up
• 7 out of 10
• Mission To Burnley
• Another good documentary but it's hard to support rich owners
• 6 out of 10
• Video Games
• Nintendo Switch
• Super Mario Bros Wonder
• A fun game but felt a bit short and too easy
• Finished everything except the ridiculous final level
• 8 out of 10

September Review

 The September review, back to the usual.

Got back into a normal running schedule and some training sessions, then registered for the 2XU Wellness Run half marathon in December and Rosebud 10km on Australia Day (if you can still call it that) in January. That momentum was short lived when I tripped on some tree roots and smashed up both my knees. Besides the cuts and bleeding I've also been dealing with weeks of soreness to the joints in that area and can still hardly bend either leg, however it didn't impact running too much after the first few days.

Had just recovered in time to run the Run Prix 10km around Albert Park, but really had to work hard for a low 36 minute result, although over 30 seconds slower than Launceston. Also went to one new parkrun at Dixon Field in Gisborne and did well to finish under 18 minutes.

The shares keep going backwards, now negative for the year and up a whole 12% for the last five years. Since it's possible to get about 5% bank interest paid monthly the benefit of the Australian sharemarket is really questionable right now. I sold a few more of my big losers to consolidate into better performers, but haven't withdrawn any money yet.

I went to my first AFL game of the year for the semi final between Carlton and Melbourne. A good game that somehow Carlton won, but it was pretty obvious they'd lose the next week in Brisbane - even with an amazing first quarter. I missed out on the grand final ballot again this year, but could have lined up if I really wanted to go - turned out to be a close game, but the second half was very slow compared to the first. Now we've got NFL and Premier League highlights for the next few months, and I suppose AFLW.

Got a bit of activity on the to do list:

• Holiday 2023
• Perhaps a couple of small local trips once the parkrun schedules are released
• Holiday 2024
• Hard to plan so far ahead with so much work unpredictability coming up
• Either another attempt at South East Asia during winter or USA a bit later (NFL and maybe NBA)
• Holiday report
• Have written about two-thirds but haven't published any yet
• New monitor
• Finally unpacked the new monitor
• Only one inch bigger than the previous one but a little brighter and better
• New phone
• Still haven't upgraded
• New SSD
• Decided to try out an SSD for portable backup storage
• Small and light and impressive speeds
• Tax return
• Have to pay back another $4000 plus this year

Had far too many work emails to get through on my first week back, but didn't miss out on too much. Seems like the tasks are starting to dry up a bit at the moment. Have only two weeks (seven working days) of enforced leave over Christmas this year, instead of three weeks previously.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• Creep (2014)
• A bit of an usual variation to the found footage category
• A little uneventful but alright
• 6 out of 10
• Retribution
• Entertaining enough but a strange and disappointing choice of ending
• 5 out of 10
• Music
• None
• TV
• Hard Knocks - New York Jets
• Another good season except for too much Aaron Rodgers
• 7 out of 10
• Tom Clancy Jack Ryan - season 4
• Also another good season, only six episodes
• Michael Pena was a good addition
• 8 out of 10
• We Are Newcastle United
• The coverage was good but hard to get excited for the success of billionaire owners
• 4 out of 10
• Video Games
• Nintendo Switch
• None - but some new Mario games coming up in the next two months
• Xbox One
• Forza Motorsport 5
• Back working through a few achievements before the next Mario

August Review

 This will be a short review as most of the time was on holiday.

Got one running event in just before leaving, a second time at the XCR Ballarat 15km, this time just over 54 minutes and about a minute better than last year. Somehow I managed to run every day on holiday, although besides parkrun was limited to jogging around 10 or 11 kilometres.

Haven't been following shares while on holiday, but did manage to see several crash individually due to a bad annual report. Somehow came out ahead for the month though.

Getting some more sports happening now, back to weekly Premier League highlights and even got to attend a couple of matches.

The to do list was occupied by all of the last minute holiday planning, never been able to finish early. Might have to start the next holiday planning now.

Wasn't a very relaxing last week of work, was busy right up until the last afternoon.

That's it for this month. Some holiday reports will be along later.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• Talk To Me
• 6 out of 10
• Music
• None
• TV
• None - just the usual
• Video Games
• Nintendo Switch
• Luigi's Mansion 3
• Just started for a couple of hours
• Zelda Tears of the Kingdom
• Finished some missed main missions except the final mission

Europe 2023

August 9 - 10

August 11

August 12

August 13

August 14

August 15

August 16

August 17

August 18

August 19

August 20

August 21

August 22

August 23

August 24

August 25

August 26

August 27

August 28

August 29

August 30

August 31

September 1

September 2

September 3

Europe 2023, September 03

Had one last run at Hyde Park in the morning, then did my final packing and got a train at 11am to Heathrow. It only took 10 minutes more on the standard Elizabeth Line than the Heathrow Express, and much cheaper.

I dropped off my bags and had lunch while waiting for the gate announcement. I still had the front row of premium economy which was good. I'm not sure if the extra leg room is any better though because there's a solid wall in front, whereas you can extend your legs a fair way under the seat in front by comparison - maybe not so much in regular economy.

My preference for vegan meals didn't seem to make it across to the return flights, all the remaining edible items on both meat meal options weren't very good. Otherwise the first flight wasn't too bad, from about 2:30pm departure to 9:30pm arrival, or 12:30am local time in UAE.

Only had a two hour connection so pretty quickly was through to the final departure gate. That was followed by:

• A 15 minute delay announced shortly before boarding
• An additional delay with no time estimate now
• A final "small" delay of 7.5 hours

All we were told then was to go up to the gate to get a meal voucher. People were very confused and dispersed in various directions - waiting around in the middle of the night when you need to sleep is very different to during the day.

I walked around to see if there was any good sleeping options but every area was identical. The reclined seats were the best option but I couldn't find a relaxing position, also there was too much noise and too many people around. I got up and went walking again, ended up doing a whole lap and got back to the original abandoned departure gate. It was about 30 minutes later by this point and some customers and staff were still standing around.

By luck I turned up just as one manager finally took charge and walked all of the remaining people up to the business lounge. Once I got inside it appeared that lots of other people had been there for some time already and set up camp in the best spots, no idea why they didn't tell everyone immediately to go straight there - this cannot be the first time it's ever happened.

I found a couple of good spots to join two leather lounge chairs together, but there was lots of noise coming from some machine I couldn't locate. So I ended up walking all the way to the other end which was quieter but more occupied. I tried to combine two more chairs but they were a bit smaller, so couldn't stretch out fully. So just went down on the carpet instead since it was soft enough, with a jumper for a pillow. Unfortunately it was freezing cold in the terminal - while it was still 35 degrees outside at midnight. I got a small amount of sleep but mostly interrupted by being so cold.

Regular business customers starting coming in around 6am and probably wondered what was going on, plus there was hardly any seats left for them. I also think I saw most the Japanese men's soccer team hanging around, makes sense since international qualifiers were about to start. I finally gave up on more sleep and checked the buffet areas, they were similar to those in the hotels.

We got to board the plane roughly on time but took forever to get everyone in and seated, so many people with the biggest possible carry-on suitcases. I still have no idea what those people possibly need to pack with them on the plane, they never even open them during the flight.

This was the one flight that got downgraded to regular economy, but was comfortable enough once the seat back was reclined. At best I got a couple of 45 minute sleep windows, but usually just resting and trying not to get too tired from watching movies and keeping my eyes open. So I didn't end up watch anything on the entertainment system again.

Had lots of screaming babies this time, and also older kids like 4-5 years doing the same in the front section of economy which was quite annoying. The 13 hours feels like it took forever but eventually got there.

Before landing we still had to fill out the stupid arrival card with way too much information. When you're totally exhausted the last thing you want to be dealing with is pen and paper work. Even worse, on the way through arrivals the entire e-security system broke down just as we landed and had to be rebooted. By they time this was discovered it had already swallowed my card in the second stage of the process, so I had to go back and line up again for another ticket.

The baggage carousel took forever as usual, then another long line waiting for people to hand in their declaration forms with nothing to declare. Somehow while collecting my bag I found my repaired wheel was completely smashed apart again, no idea how this could happen when the other wheel was still fine. The broken off parts of the wheel were stopping it from rolling so just carried it a short distance to the bus and train instead.

And that was it for the longest travel day ever, probably about 36 hours with at best a few one hour sleep sessions. To make things worse I started to develop a bit of a cold and fever towards the end of the final flight, no idea where I picked that up from.

London

• 9 out of 10

Good

• Free museums
• Frequent trains for the underground and many overlapping lines

Bad

• Didn't find any good comedy or music shows, but maybe don't know all the websites to search
• Loud train noise reverberating while travelling on the underground between stations
• Some long walks for connecting lines in the underground
• Train strikes

TV

• Celebrity Catch Phrase
• Pointless Celebrities
• Strike It Lucky - weird old show
• The Chase
• The Finish Line

Missed Out

• Churchill War Rooms
• Escape rooms - needs multiple people
• London Transport Museum
• Natural History Museum
• Saw escape experience - needs multiple people
• Shows
• Muse in October
• Ricky Gervais in September
• The Chemical Brothers in November

Europe

• 8 out of 10

Good

• Travel between countries - quick and easy

Bad

• The initial travel distance

Missed Out

• Austria - Vienna
• Czech Republic - Prague
• England - Portsmouth and Southampton
• Germany - Dresden and Leipzig
• Iceland
• Spain - Valencia

Europe 2023, September 02

Had to deal with more advertised train strikes over the weekend of course. The Elizabeth line trains to Slough weren't running until 7am which luckily just fit in with my plans, otherwise I had a backup to a closer event at Gladstone parkrun.

When I got to Paddington station there was severe delays on the Elizabeth line due to train issues further down the line. The GWR over ground line had some strikes too, but were still running every half hour direct train from Paddington to Slough, which was perfect for me. It was fairly easy to find the parkrun course from the station, about two kilometres away but just needed to take a few main roads.

I did a usual warmup to check out the course, the grass was a little bit long and damp in a few places but otherwise looked in good condition. Once again I had my usual slow start, and also started running in slightly the wrong direction to the marked cones which were actually meant for coming around on the second lap. I quickly corrected as everyone else was running at a totally different angle, so was about 20 spots from the lead.

I worked up into the top four towards the end of the first lap and finally got into the lead soon after. Like usual it took a long time to take the lead but then I finished over 30 seconds ahead by the end as other people slowed down. Overall it was a good course and I managed to get the U letter parkrun, now just need an I letter parkrun - since there are no X locations so far.

I brushed against some thorny bushes on the way back to the train and got several small cuts, but it was still stinging hours later too.

Back at the hotel I made a booking for The National Gallery after lunch. Again it turned out be pointless to have a booking, there was two divided lines at the entrance but no queue in either one so you could just walk straight in.

I went to the gift shop first which is conveniently near the entrance, bought a couple of small items and avoided anything fragile. Then moved on to viewing the paintings, a mixture of portraits and other stuff, although I still prefer the more modern stuff. They had quite an impressive collection, some of the better ones were:

• Monet - The Water Lily Pond and other similar ones
• Picasso - Fruit Dish, Bottle and Violin
• Rousseau - Surprised
• Van Gogh - Sunflowers

Then I did a bit of shopping in the afternoon, went to the Forbidden Planet megastore but was definitely out of my depth. I though I might find some interesting stuff in either the horror, movie, TV, or video game categories but basically didn't recognise anything. I also had a look at another CEX used video game store but they had hardly any retro consoles and games.

So that was it already for a quick final couple of days in London.

Europe 2023, September 01

Into September so officially out of summer in the northern hemisphere. Had to get up even earlier to run and have breakfast to get to the airport by 8:30. There wasn't many options for flights except some British Airways ones that were about four times the price, so I picked the next best option that was Easy Jet.

The overnight rain has cleared so I was able to do a short run along the river, but it wasn't much fun running on stone and uneven bricks. Had a rushed breakfast and got to the airport in about 30 minutes with two trains again, really easy. A benefit of buying a daily train ticket yesterday was it lasts for an actual 24 hours from time of purchase, so it was still valid the next morning.

I checked the flight status on the boards and it was delayed by 20 minutes already. Often one delay is just the start of more bad news, but it only got extended out by an additional 5 minutes before leaving.

We landed at Gatwick not too far behind schedule then had to get the shuttle across from the north to south terminal for the London trains. Of course there was London train strikes so only one train every 30 minutes was going direct to London Victoria with no other stops. I might have arrived shortly after the previous train had left so I was close to the front of the queue at least.

The best connecting train on arrival was the Circle line, so of course that was down too - due to not enough staff apparently. Instead I had to get two other short connections, but the great thing about London train is there's so many alternative routes (the opposite of Melbourne).

I got the hotel about an hour early but was able to check-in right away, except I had a crappy room in the lower ground / basement level. I was hearing this really loud rumbling sound every half hour or so, but had no idea if it was a pipes, a bus, or something else. I didn't think the underground trains could possibly be close enough to cause that much noise.

I was quite tired from the travel and didn't have much planned for the afternoon so just went up to Camden Markets. This was much better than Portobello Road markets since it's got dedicated stores away from the main street. There was lots of food stalls, vintage clothing, and other stuff like that.

I got an early dinner and went back to the hotel to make some quick plans for the last day. Soon I came to the conclusion the rumbling sound was in fact coming from the underground train as there's a close station to both the east and west of the hotel on the same line. The vibration was ridiculously loud and regular, but seemed to stop a bit later in the evening, or I was too tired to realise any longer.

The good news was this train line only seems to run on week days, so I didn't have to deal with it again.

Europe 2023, August 31

Another run at Amager Faelled, again with a slightly different and longer circuit, then back to breakfast before a day of rain was forecast to begin.

I got a daily ticket again and took the train out for the longest journey to start, to the Nike Factory at Herlev. There was only light rain when I arrived but no undercover areas outside the stores. I picked up four items to get the 40% discount, lucky I had the Nike app ready to go on my phone as it was needed for the offer. It only cost about $130 in total which was quite good for two shirts and two shorts.

In the time it took to do that the rain had turned into a storm. I stopped at a couple of supermarkets on the way back to the train about a kilometre away, just to get a break from the rain. Finally made it to the station and back into the city centre to go to the Round Tower.

I was deciding between Church Of Our Saviour and Round Tower as they both have a stair climb and rooftop view. Because of the rain and the church having an outdoor stair climb at the top I thought it might be closed due to the conditions.

The Round Tower still had an interesting walk to the top, the whole way up is a curved slope, except for a narrow set of one-way stairs at the very top. There was a good view of Copenhagen from the top, basically a bunch of castles and some quite dense multi-story buildings for the rest.

One the way back down I got some very expensive magnets from the gift shop, but they were good quality ones and only cost a bit more than the crappy souvenir store ones. I also had a quick look inside Trinitatis church which is next to the tower, which had some nice designs.

I went to have lunch over at Superkilen Park next which is described as an urban park. It sounded interesting but there wasn't really anything there, just more bike paths, and it started raining again so all the seating areas were wet. I think it just looks interesting from an aerial shot since it has many different different coloured paths and patterns on the ground.

I happened to be passing close to Frederiksberg Gardens next on the train back to the hotel so got out there and had a look too. There was another big castle at one end of the park and the city zoo was just a bit further but wasn't in my plans.

I was considering going to watch Talk To Me at the unique looking Palads cinema as a backup plan if the rain had persisted all day. The rain was only light for most of the day after the first hour as it turned out, but I still had a little spare time in the evening so went to the movie anyway. It was alright for a first movie from these Australian brothers, but a little predictable and also confusing towards the end, about a 6 out of 10. As a bonus the audio was in English with subtitles.

That was it for Copenhagen, one last repacking of the suitcase and several more layers of duct tape on the suitcase wheel as a precaution.

Copenhagen

• 8 out of 10

Good

• Lots of castles and other options
• Great public transport

Bad

• Expensive

Missed Out

• Bakken amusement park - closed most of the year
• Church Of Our Saviour - similar to Round House but a more dramatic outdoor stair climb
• Copenhagen Zoo - has some mixed reviews
• Den Bla Planet aquarium - was a backup plan for bad weather or running out of ideas
• Jaegersborg deer park
• Louisiana museum of modern art
• Other castles - there's about six major ones

Malmo

• 7 out of 10

Good

• Close to Copenhagen
• Two museums at a good price

Bad

• Another currency, but only needed to use credit card
• Best suited for a day trip, or further exploring Sweden

Missed Out

• Triangeln district - the other main train stop on the intercity line, underneath the shopping centre

Europe 2023, August 30

A second run at Amager Faelled park with a slightly different route. It's amazing in the early morning when you enter the park and the temperature immediately drops like five degrees.

I walked up to the central station after breakfast to buy a ticket for Malmo - trains leave about every 20 minutes. It actually works out much better buying at the station instead of online, since you don't have to pick a train just the date and the destination station. It cost about $40 for a return ticket to Malmo, about 45 minutes each way via the airport.

I arrived at central station not far from the city centre, containing:

• Stortorget - main square with town hall building
• Lilla Torget - smaller square with some nice old fashioned buildings
• Sodergatan - main shopping street, very empty on a Wednesday morning at 11am
• Gustav Adolfs torg - another square next to Sodergatan
• Gamla Kyrkogarden - the old cemetery
• Kungsparken - the park along the river
• Castle Gardens windmill - the gardens surrounding the castle and moat

Crossing over the moat was Malmo Castle, which contains Malmo Museum. I expected the castle itself would be the best bit, but after finally getting to those rooms at the end of the visit it was quite uninteresting.

The museum started with a few art exhibitions, I thought the modern stuff was very good, all the old portraits of people from like the 1600s was boring. There was also an impressive concert hall room on the same level. Down at the bottom strangely there was also a small aquarium as an unexpected bonus, and a bit of a natural history section with replica animals.

There was much more than I expected in total, only to realise the combo ticket also gives you access to the technology and maritime museum across the road. It looked like most people didn't even know about this place as it was very quiet.

The technology / transport half was much better than the maritime, which was just about old ships. The transport section included a small submarine you could walk through. I could barely make it through the small round hatches - not helped by weeks of walking, I could barely bend my back and legs enough to squeeze through. There was also various other cars and light planes, and a section with Swedish inventions - excluding Ikea.

On the top level there was a sort of interactive games room, but I was the only person on the whole level for the whole time I was there. It has some fun interactive science kind of demonstrations, as well as some skill challenges, a shame nobody was making use of it. Most of the puzzle games felt like they had been taken straight out of seasons of Survivor or The Challenge.

With the two museums combined I spent much longer that expected, so it was already 2pm before I even had a chance for lunch and to rest my legs.

After lunch I searched around for a magnet, I thought Sweden (yet another currency) might be a bit cheaper than Denmark but not according to the souvenirs. As per usual my left foot was the most sore so I had to compromise and only walked half way to the Turning Torso building, the final item on my checklist. As a bonus though I got to see a couple of lighthouses on the way.

That it was for the quick visit to Sweden and it was back on the train into Copenhagen to finish the day.

Europe 2023, August 29

Ran across the river and into Amager Faelled park instead before breakfast this time. It's a huge park but has so many different twisty paths surrounded by trees so you can't tell exactly where you are. I managed to do a loop without getting lost, helped only slightly by the route map screen on my watch because it's zoomed in too far to show the whole journey.

Was still working out a plan for the day after finishing breakfast, I purchased a daily travel ticket so planned to make use of it with a few longer trips. Was going to start at Christiansborg Palace but realised some parts don't open until late morning or even the afternoon.

Instead travelled over to Amager Strandpark. There was a small fort on the other side of the road to the park (Kastrup Fort) but mostly it was just an abandoned area. Decided to walk up Amager Standpark along the beach, but the walk felt like it too forever. Was a nice area next to the sound (Oresund) water way, with lots of wind turbines but not much else to see.

Got the train across to the other side of the city to a shopping area for lunch. Came across a Lidl which finally has a good bakery compared to all the other supermarkets - it's almost identical to an Aldi in all other regards. Also had a Nike store and amazingly the only place where prices weren't outrageous - but only after the advertised discounts like buy 3 get 30% off. Didn't buy anything but might go back on the last day if I change my mind.

It was getting towards mid afternoon now so headed back to the city centre for Christiansborg Palace. There's a free tower at the entrance you can walk up to overlook the city, but it was closed...

I was somewhat pessimistic about the ticket price being over $30 for the four areas you get to visit, but took a gamble since I had no alternative plans. First was the royal stables, some white horses hanging out and a collection of expensive looking carriages, as well as a room with various artifacts - pretty average.

Next was the royal reception rooms and tapestries, an English guided tour was about to begin so I waited for that. You have to wear those plastic coverings over your shoes to not damage the wood floors for the whole visit - like being in a hospital. The tour guide was great, spoke English well and gave a much better explanation of Denmark and the palace than just walking around by yourself.

A room of tapestries sounds pretty boring, but they were these huge multi-year artworks packed which hundreds of small Denmark and world history events for different time periods. This quarter of the ticket alone made the visit worthwhile.

Next was the underground ruins which I expected to be good but was a little repetitive. It's interesting though to see how the basements still contains many different layers of walls of old iterations of the castles.

Last was the royal kitchens which was the low point of the visit, it's just a recreation of a few kitchen rooms with no interactivity at all. If you didn't buy the combo ticket for all four places you could have paid nearly $15 just to see a kitchen as a single ticket.

It was already after 5pm so I headed back to the hotel and grabbed dinner on the way, since I still had to plan out the Malmo 'international' trip for the following day.

Europe 2023, August 28

Went running at Copenhagen Lakes on the west side of the city centre before breakfast. It's about four different lakes divided by roads, but most require crossing the street which is not great. It was an ok route except for those road crossings, with a mixture of road and dirt surfaces, but could have been a bit longer also.

I got back in time for the booked breakfast slot, it was still quite busy but just enough seating. The food was spread out all around the room so it was a bit hard to find everything, and some of it was strange unknown local Denmark products. Found a waffle machine at the end, put in the batter, closed the lid, and it starts makes this loud beeping sound. Apparently you have to flip the machine upside down after closing the lid, but it wasn't written on the instructions. Makes no sense to me why it's needs to be turned upside down to start cooking anyway. The rest of the breakfast was ok, got the usual apple juice, muesli, and yoghurt.

I decided to go to the nearby laundry before leaving for the day, so I wouldn't have to worry about that again for the rest of the trip. It turned out to be a pretty good laundry since you could pay by credit card and it automatically dispenses the washing liquid into the machine too. The instructions for the settings weren't that clear but I think I ended up with the default setting of normal temperature and 40 minutes.

Dropped off the clothes to dry, then off to the station to travel a few stops to Osterport. The problem entering the destination station into the machine is you need to know if the O is regular, has a diagonal line through it, or two dots above it. If you get the wrong one it just doesn't show up in the search results at all. Got out at Osterport (the O with a diagonal line through it) and walked over to Kastellet.

Kastellet is an old fort shaped in a star that also has a windmill in the middle. There was some serious looking guards with rifles at the entrance checking cars driving in, but at the same time the public can just walk in.

Also nearby was the famous Little Mermaid statue, which is as small as described, and sitting just off land in the water. There wasn't a massive amount of people there given the number of parked tourist buses nearby, maybe 100 people. The only annoying thing is the idiots who want to get right up close for their photo, so nobody else can get a photo without them in it.

Walked down towards the city via the Amalienborg palace district, it's where some of the royals live but I didn't know at the time. There was a Denmark version of the British palace guards standing around out front with a big crowd, but otherwise nothing was happening.

Continued walking past some theatre, saw the opera house (not as good as Sydney) across the other side of the river, then got to Nyhavn. It's a small inlet of water with lots of boats docked, and all the 3-4 story houses along each side are painted different colours - lots of restaurants and people around.

Got to Stroget next which is the main shopping strip, so started to have a look for some lunch after lots of walking. The supermarkets have all been quite disappointing as they have very limited bread and pastry options in their bakery. On the other hand they have heaps of different energy drinks but I have no idea which are good and what the flavours are. So far I've had one good and one very bad. One of them had "mega" versions of energy drinks which were like a whopping 650ml instead of the usual 500ml cans.

Walked to the nearby botanical gardens to sit and eat lunch. Half of the gardens were closed for renovations and only one entrance was open, lucky it was the corner I turned up at.

After lunch went to see if the Torvehallerne food market had anything good to buy for later but didn't find anything. Started heading back towards the hotel via another park and city hall square.

Lots of souvenir shops were nearby so picked up an expensive magnet, but they accepted euros so was good to get rid of some old currency at least. Continued on via the Hans Christian Andersen statue and the boundary of Tivoli Gardens to continue back to the hotel.

My watch was getting up to 30,000 steps for the day which is rather high, and my foot (left always) was starting to get sore as a result. Took some time to rest at the hotel before heading out to find dinner nearby.

Europe 2023, August 27

Last run in Eindhoven back at the canals, the roads and bike lanes were finally clear on Sunday morning and the rain just finished in time. That was followed by the usual waste of buffer time and actual travel time taking an intercity train to the airport and then a short international flight.

I thought there might be some delays with the F1 on the same weekend but it was an easy trip through to the airport, and only a small number of Red Bull fans were out so early. Got through bag drop and security pretty quick, then only had about an hour for the plane to leave. I was stuck sitting next to a woman who kept coughing every few minutes, thought people might have started wearing masks when they're sick now just in case.

I waited forever at the luggage carousel until thankfully my suitcase showed up right at the very end. The duct tape on the wheel has been holding together, but might need another patch up before leaving again. It was very easy to get into the city on the metro, changed platforms for an additional three stops then was at the hotel a short walk away.

By the time I was ready to leave the hotel again it was nearly 4pm so just went to explore the surroundings for a while. I got up towards the city centre and Tivoli Gardens amusement park before turning back. Found some supermarkets along the way, they also have 7-elevens here, and a close laundromat, although the instructions might be a little confusing.

Got a bit of emergency Danish money from the ATM since they don't use euros for some reason, the ATM exchange rate seemed really poor. I also immediately realised everything is crazy expensive here, somehow even another level beyond paying in pounds and euros so far.

The area close the hotel seemed a little strange, seems like a gentrified conversion of an old industrial area. Later I realised on the map it's referred to as the meat packing district, which makes more sense.

Got dinner and checked out the TV channels, sadly only like 10 channels and nothing in English like BBC. No fridge either but they have an interesting approach to the breakfast buffet, you have to book a time slot and you get 40 minutes.

I was going to go back out and walk around a second time but it started raining and I didn't pack an umbrella. The rain forecast for the coming days looks quite patchy too, which is a bit of a worry. I did bring a rain jacket designed for running in wet conditions, but it's not fully waterproof.

Made a bit of a plan for the morning that won't make me go bankrupt and tried to find a way to watch the last day of world athletics via VPN. Not looking forward to the evenings so much for the next week with no more athletics on at night and no English channels either.

Europe 2023, August 26

Got to have a late start by usual standards, leaving after 8am to get across to parkrun for the standard European 9am start. Lucky I had checked the facebook page the night before and saw they had a change of venue due to another event in the park at the usual location.

Instead of a minor adjustment they had confined the course to a really small 1.2 kilometre loop done four and a bit times. I ran around the whole lake during my warmup and they easily could have done a single 2.5 kilometre out and back instead, while still avoiding the inaccessible area.

Anyway, I started off slow as the parkrun began due to fatigue from holiday walking and settled into third place. I wasn't making much ground on the first two for the first lap and didn't think I'd catch them. I gradually got a bit quicker and overtook them on the second and third laps to win by about 15 seconds.

Afterwards I jogged back to the hotel through the university and had breakfast, my legs were feeling quite sore from the faster running. I wasn't in a big hurry as the Philips museum didn't open until 11am, and got there soon after it opened.

This was more of a proper museum than some of the previous ones, with a proper audio guide and lots of other text descriptions to read on the wall. The first half was all about the early days of their company and their light bulb production. Later on it got a bit more into some of their other research and development, but not as much detail.

The secondary focus was probably their radios and some health equipment, while televisions didn't get much attention. On the upper floor there was a gallery of many of the old products they have created, and a section of old advertising material. The final room was some future technology interactive thing that claimed I was 1.87 metres tall.

Afterwards there was an extra section for their sports involvement, in particular with the PSV football team, but it wasn't as good as I would have expected. Overall a good museum for a couple of hours to look through everything. I found a couple of magnets in the gift shop on the way out, although unfortunately none of them included the city name.

I had a break for lunch then decided I would try one more museum that got a good rating, the DAF museum. It was a little bit further from the city centre, but still within walking distance.

This museum was dedicated to all the vehicles the DAF company has produced. It looked small from the entrance but was actually quite a large warehouse with a few levels, although it was a bit of a maze to see everything. It seems DAF have built a bit of everything, from cars to trucks to emergency vehicles to garbage trucks to small tanks.

One section had a lot of on-loan cars that weren't even DAF related which was a bit strange, like BMW and Mercedes. They also had some racing cars like an old Williams Renault and some other rally and lower class formula divisions. Overall a decent museum but a little expensive and not as good as Philips.

I was a bit tired so decided to finish for the day and head back to the hotel, picking up an Eindhoven magnet on the way. I had originally planned to go to the PSV soccer match in the late afternoon also, but as they were still involved in additional matches during the week for Champions League qualifying it had been postposed.

In addition to all of the the unadvertised facilities the hotel website also claimed they had a 24 hour business centre with printing. When I asked at the reception they seemed very confused by the question, all they could suggest was to email them a document and they'd print it.

I checked the status of my Emirates flights home and found a front row premium economy had opened up for the 2pm-9pm from London to Dubai. Since I wouldn't be trying to sleep I thought the extra legroom was worth a risk versus the downside of the toilet traffic, bright lights, and crying babies. I might keep checking and see if the front row window seat becomes clickable later, for now I could only get the aisle set.

Eindhoven

• 7 out of 10

Good

• Lots of bicycle and walking lanes
• Safe and walkable city

Bad

• Credit card avoidance
• Hotel not meeting specifications
• No trams
• PSV museum not available without tour
• PSV soccer match was postponed

Missed Out

• Berenkuil street art
• PSV stadium tour and museum
• Strijp-S neighbourhood
• Van Abbe museum

The Hague

• 5 out of 10

Good

• Compact city with good tram network
• Limited activities

Bad

• Museum locations a bit too spread out

Missed Out

• Kunstmuseum
• Louwman museum