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A quick post today about two high speed Swiss trains away from home, on EuroCity-Express duty. ECE is a term mainly used in Germany to designate high-speed EuroCity services, in the same way the ICE are high-speed InterCity trains. EuroCity itself was the two-class successor to the Trans Europe Express.
Tonnage des chemins de fer français en 1897. Freight carried on the French rail network in 1897.
Album de Statistique Graphique de 1900. 1906.
Interesting how most of the thickest lines on this map, with the exception of the Northern border, would become the high-speed passenger rail network over 100 years later.
The massive line of red along the border is the coal-mining and steel-manufacturing region, now largely out of service.
The circle going Paris (Montparnasse)-Bordeaux-Toulouse-Narbonne-Nîmes-Lyon-Paris (Gare de Lyon) seems to be what the high-speed network is shaping up to be. Bordeaux-Toulouse-Narbonne is not yet built, with Bordeaux-Toulouse planned.
Paris-Le Havre and Paris-Caen have large tonnage on this map, but with no plans for a high-speed line. The slimmest line with high speed today is Belfort-Dijon, and is by far the most under-used of the HSLs.
Note that Alsace & Moselle were under German rule at the time. It would be worth comparing with a map from 1925-ish.
Even in 1900, no-one gave a toss about Bordeaux-Lyon.
I was back in the region of my formative years to visit friends and family, and had roughly a half-hour connection in Rennes to picture what was there, particularly the regional trains that I don't see that often. Well, I say that, but the railcar on the right is very familiar.
The area of Brittany I grew up in hosts a remarkable prehistoric site. Menhirs, dolmens, tumuli... within a gorgeous landscape of bushes, leading to a more forested area, and a cliff above a small river. My last visit there was nine years ago.
The last few days, a wildfire has swept through the site.
Back from my week AFK (which was nice, not thinking about what to publish for a bit), featuring not one but two great nights out with the stars! First, the annual stargazing festival Nuit des Étoiles at the Voyager 3 astronomy club observatory in Sévérac: sunset, Venus, constellations and star clusters visible through all kinds of telescopes. The custom-built observatory wasn't active, but open for visits.
With colleagues, we took advantage of a not-so-hot day to enjoy a hike in the hills above Scherwiller. Like at Oberkirch a couple of weeks ago, the grapes seem to be coming along nicely, though, as we'll see later, other trees are not faring well in the current drought.
The news has been pretty grim lately in Europe and Japan. Both have been suffering through heat waves, which for most of Europe means drought and forest fires, while South-Western Japan was just hit by a large earthquake. Before going any further, spare a thought for the people whose lives and livelihoods are on the line here, and for the firefighters and rescuers on the scenes of these desperate situations.
The only way to get to Miyajima is by boat, and several companies compete on the obviously lucrative crossing to the island. One of these is JR West. Yes, that JR, Japan Railways. It says so just below the bridge. Below the cut is a shot of the same Nanaura Maru arriving at the mainland dock, the logo is more obvious.
whenever you get frustrated with Japanese bc it has way too many freaking homophones, just remember, you are exactly right
So a total of 45²=2025 potential meanings for the word こうこう! Granted, not all will make sense, in fact my Anthy input only suggests 26 kanji combinations for こうこう.
かんかん yields 16 out of a possible 38²=1444 pairings, plus the フレンチ・カンカン!
Two years ago, I was blown away by the views of the hills and the sight of in-season fruit in the trees. I returned yesterday, with a French-Japanese exchange group. We were fortunate because the heat had just abated, the views are still great and the fruit was there, but there's no denying the vegetation's taken a beating since May. You just need to follow the links above to see what it was like on the same date in 2024.
It's the big day, and the big - very, very big - floats make their way along Shijô-dôri, salute Yasaka-jinja from a distance, then turn onto Kawaramachi-dôri and finish on Oike-dôri. A flat 2 km course, not too difficult normally, but when you're hauling a 12-ton, 25-metre hoko complete with rare tapestries, people standing on top and a whole brass band, all that in the heat and humidity of July in Japan... Yeah, it's not so easy.
Boats have obviously been very important for the Bodensee, and they still are, but to a different extent. Road and rail can manage most of the logistics, so the majority of boats on the lake are tour boats, which do also ferry passengers along their route (as I did in June between Gaienhofen and Berlingen), but there are still some purely utilitarian vessels left.
Lindau, Germany. German company BSB's tour boat München makes a proud entrance to the harbour between the lion and lighthouse.
Long post coming up! I'm just going to describe the photos with a few remarks, before some notes on how the Bodensee S-Bahn operates. Until I get a masterpost up, if you've missed the Bodensee round trip, here's the final post and there are links to work backwards from there.
Allensbach, Germany. SBB Seehas RABe 521 FLIRT on a S6 local service between Engen and Konstanz.
