2013

I began 2013 with a visit to Wales, as I have for several years, but on this trip I once again had a side trip to Bristol. This was for a vintage bike tour of the city. I know next to nothing about this bike, but it ran very well for something that would be considered primitive today, with for example only one gear.

This was one of the attractions that I liked the most, even if we couldn't go inside. It's a steam-powered pumphouse for the "sluice system" that Isambard Kingdom Brunel developed in 1832 to keep the Bristol Channel and other waterways free of silt. Supposedly, this pump house is occassionally opened to visitors, but not on the day we were there. One mistaken belief about it that gets passed around, though, is that Brunel designed it. That smokestack looks very much like something he would design, but in 1888 he had already been dead 29 years. Even this pumphouse was preceded by another one (now a pub) that only dated back to 1870, so Brunel must have had another means of powering his system. There's more information here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underfall_Yard#Underfall_sluices en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_engine_house,_Bristol_Harbour en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pump_House,_Bristol The tall ship in the foreground is a replica of the "Matthew," which was supposedly the first British ship to reach North America in 1497. It was under repair here because the pump house is right in the middle of the Underfall shipyard. www.matthewbristol.co.uk/home en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_%28ship%29

Here's another view of the smokestack.

Getting back to genuine Brunel artifacts, here's the Clifton Suspension Bridge again. The weather on this particular day was rainy and gloomy, but I chose to attempt this cameraphone shot anyway.

I first saw this beer in 1993, if I'm not mistaken, but I wasn't expecting to see it in Britain. American beers are generally rare in Europe, although in Britain they're maybe seen more than elsewhere in the EU. This is a craft beer, though, so it would be rare anywhere, nevermind in Britain. It does seem weird to sell an American pale ale in Britain, though, as pale ale is one of Britain's specialties, not America's.

This is a more traditional ale, made by a small brewer.

Marston is a reasonably common, genuine British, pale ale.

Spitfire doesn't date to World War II, but at this point it is at least established. I am getting sick of the "Keep Calm" ripoffs, though, aren't you? That certainly wasn't on the bottle when the Shepard's Neame started producing Spitfire in 1990. The company itself is older than most (surviving, continuously-run) breweries in the world, dating to 1698.

This light ship, while it looks ready to go, is actually retired. It's a restaurant now, if I'm not mistaken, but it was closed when we visited it.

Is this living satire, or just really bad public relations? :-D

One of Prague's many parks is Stromovka, where you can find ducks even in the wintertime.

This band were called "New Hate Rising," but they were actually anti-fascist, or at least had all the usual GNWP stickers and so on.

This was during a Cyklojizda bike ride, just as the group were waiting on Italska, next to Hlavni Nadrazi, for the police to clear the street ahead, which was Seifertova.

The Cyklojizda ride ended with an afterparty in, of all places, Nakladove Nadrazi Zizkov, one of the largest rail freight stations in Prague (Uhrineves is another big one). This was my first inside look at it, as it's normally closed to the public.

Like most modern freight stations, Zizkov handle most of their merchandise traffic in containers.

Here's another shot of the freight station.

Oddly, it looks to be a stub-end station.

This was the beginning of my next train trip, to Wien, or Vienna, in Austria. I had been to Austria three times already, but had never visited Vienna or any other major city, so this would be my first look at urban Austria. As is often the case on Eurocity Trains, our locomotive was a Class 371 electric.