@tml@urbanists.social avatar

tml

@tml@urbanists.social

Software engineer, retired. Loves trains. Anti-fascist. Atheist. Feminist. Disillusioned by the open source "community".

My toots are licensed as CC BY-ND https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ . In other words, feel free to index them. Magic words: searchable.

If you want to follow me you must have some sane information in your description. And some own toots that show you are real person. If you seem to be a bot, I will block you right away.

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tml, to random
@tml@urbanists.social avatar

Passports have had machine-readable text for ages. Still, whoever designed ’s over-the-counter ticket sales IT system didn’t think of including a suitable reader. (Don’t know about the self-service ticket machines.) Even if Renfe, like all long distance travel companies in Spain, requires the passport or ID card number of each passenger. (Which then is, I assume, extremely rarely checked, but hey, SECURITY!!!)

tml, to random
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Out for a few cocktails. Luckily had a look at what Google Maps lists, as there is a classy cocktail bar in the neighbouring block that we had passed multiple times but not noticed. Called 1862 Dry Bar. Don’t know the significance of 1862.

image/jpeg

tml,
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First cocktail was Sherry Wood (see menu in image), then a Grasshopper. Extremely refreshing. Like toothpaste. My new favourite cocktail. (Yes, I watched the first episode of Palm Royale on Apple TV+.)

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tml, to Madrid
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The free (as in beer) buses in , 001 and 002, are really useful. Sad that we learnt of them only on the second day here. Good for trips between Atocha and the area where our Airbnb is, for example.

tml, to random
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More rant: This display showing who is next in line to be served at the counter uses most of the area to display ad videos. Instead of for instance using a larger font for the numbers so that they could actually be seen by people standing far away. Oh, and some of the queue numbers use both capital O and digit zero. And there are benches to sit on in the corner, from which the display is not visible.

tml,
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A large number of the people who have taken a queueing ticket end up not using it at all, so the staff spend a lot of their time just waiting for a customer who has already left to turn up.

tml, to random
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What the actual duck? Buying train tickets Madrid–Cordoba from on the web, one gets put on a bloody waiting list (page) for five minutes, before one even sees what connections there are? (To check how full trains might be, and to potentially buy a normal ticket.) Spain seems to be really weird and backwards for train travel in many senses, not just . How can other as large train companies (DB etc) handle these things so much better?

Or did I click something wrong?

tml,
@tml@urbanists.social avatar

And when you think you have made a purchase (plain ticket for the wife, to save on travel days), did the things correctly with your bank identification app to approve the card purchase, return to the site, this useful message.

Oh well, at least they did not charge the card.

tml,
@tml@urbanists.social avatar

Some person on Tripadvisor wrote seven years ago (!): “The website is woefully underpowered because it does not have the capacity to handle the number of people who want to use it.” Oh well then, can’t expect things like that to be fixable in just a few years.

tml, to random
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Is it really so that the dish washing brush is an unknown thing in continental Europe? Based on Airbnb apartments in Austria, Romania, Spain.

tml, to Madrid
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Anybody need bus tickets – for today that apparently can be used in any Alsa bus? My name and my wife’s are on the tickets but if you look “suitable” the driver probably won’t check.

We overslept and missed the bus I had bought tickets for, and I bought new ones. (Not hugely expensive.) Only later I noticed that the actual tickets apparently are valid on any of the dozens of departures per day. (The site I bought them from claimed they were bound to the chosen departure.)

tml, to random
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Whenever some random person on the net uses the word enshittification, I feel like mumbling:

You, Sir/Madam, are no Cory Doctorow.

tml, to random
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Hot take: The best toilets (of the plain non-accessible ones) on European high-speed trains are in German ICEs. Rectangular and spacious, no acrobatics needed to take a backpack with precious things with you. No weird cramped triangular shape or tilted roof.

tml, to random
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In a AVE (built by Siemens) to Madrid. The train is nice, but the boarding procedure with its security theatre and queueing is such a joke.

tml,
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Acceptable speed.

tml,
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“Passengers not getting off at the next stop are kindly requested to remain on the train”

Shocking.

tml, to random
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Taking the morning AVE to Spain. Ideally to Madrid. Will see how far we get. The conductor said seats are available only till Girona, which would be better than nothing. From there we could get to Barcelona at least.

As well documented by Seat61 and others, it is impossible to purchase just a reservation for this train outside Spain. So booking accommodation for tonight is unclear until we know for sure where we will end up…

tml,
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The conductor said we can travel Girona–Barcelona in the bar car so that’s good. An afternoon and a night in Barcelona, what’s not to like?

tml,
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Seats issued by conductor were 15€, more or less as expected. There were six EUrail/Interrail passengers in this train this morning, surely must be many more in summer.

tml, to random
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Aah.

tml,
@tml@urbanists.social avatar

And (not) surprisingly, the actual order of carriages in the TGV to Marseille is the opposite of that displayed on the platform displays. Is there any point in ever trusting these and attempting to position oneself in advance, if very often one needs to walk to the other end of the train anyway if travelling in 1st class, as those carriages typically are at one end of the train (in ICE, TGV, Railjet, SJ X2 at least)?

tml,
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In Kürze erreichen wir Baden-Baden. We will shortly arrive in Bath Spa.

Je vais chercher mon manteau.

tml, to random
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Good Morning Altona. Fairly boring view from our hotel window. Harbour themed decorations behind the beds. Cheap but reasonable quality hotel, Meininger. Good sized room, excellent water pressure in shower. Maybe 400 m from Altona station.

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tml,
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TGV, connecting the urban centres of France.

tml,
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Culinary excellence offered by Le Bar in the DB-SNCF cooperation TGV: German Riesling and French crisps.

tml,
@tml@urbanists.social avatar

Ein letzter Blick kann nicht schaden.

Somehow this German announcement in this TGV, to remind people disembarking to not forget anything, sounds slightly lewd. “Do steal one more glance at that lovely girl/boy in the neighbouring row of seats”. Or maybe I am just getting bored by this long journey.

tml,
@tml@urbanists.social avatar

Finally some decent speed, after Lyon.

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