Yesterday’s post was about travelling by train in rural Ireland some fifty years ago. Yesterday I was actually travelling by train across Austria and into Slovenia.
It is hard to convey how much pleasure I take in train travel. I think it may be because I didn’t get much exposure to it as a child, although the Dublin – Belfast line passed close to Grangebellew (by Mrs Kelly’s excellent snipe bog, shooting by permission and always granted).
Yesterday I mentioned that drinks in the Czech Republic, specially out in the countryside, are not expensive if you live in London and have been in Norway. Where we are is the second least populated part of the country (thanks, Wiki) and beer is the drink of choice.
source This is a picture of miners in festive dress outside a graphite mine in Český Krumlov. I did not know that graphite is mined and I did think that it was used in pencils but only about 1% is.
Service in Prague is done with all the Gallic charm and urgency of a Parisian waiter in an empty bar. However, other aspects of life here are more appealing; food and transport are cheap and the country is beautiful.
The Nudge Unit has been around since the 1990s and is now grandly called The Behavioural Insights Team. It has subtly and cheaply influenced my behaviour this week.