Train Tea Mug

Everyone has a favourite mug. Tea or coffee mug, in my case it's a tea mug. And I sometimes used it to drink milk too, although never with tea. Tea is never, ever drunk with milk in it, it spoils the flavour and weakens it. So this is my favourite tea mug. I blogged about it before. I'm presenting its other side today. My wife bought it for me in the online shop of the National Railway Museum in York. It brings together two of my favourite things: tea and trains. And it states that I am no second class tea maker.

Eurostar Journeys

 I took this picture last year at the National Railway Museum in York. I am sharing it today as it suits the topic. My wife and I (well, her mostly) are planning our enxt holiday and we were considering Paris. I am not too keen on it, having been there so often in the past, but Wolfie would love to see the city. There is one thing however that I would be looking for, should we settle for Paris: traveling via the Eurostar. It's been long overdue. All train travels are exciting to me, but there is something about going under the sea like this, in the comfort of a train. The Eurostar is a holiday experience in itself.

Future Train Travel

I took this picture last year at the National Railway Museum in York and I am putting it here because it goes with today's topic. So the family is going on a train journey soon(ish) to celebrate one of my wife's cousin's birthday. I'm very happy about it, not only because it's always nice to celebrate, but because we will travel by train. I haven't been on a train since February, therefore it is long overdue. For me, every train journey is always a bit of an adventure and often a bit of holiday in itself. So I am really looking forward to it.

Taureau hispanique

Parfois, voyager quelque part nous permet aussi de s'imaginer ailleurs. Ainsi donc, j'ai pris cette photo aux Roman Baths de York. Apparemment, la neuvième légion (est-ce que ça ne devrait pas s'écrire IX, d'ailleurs?) a déjà été en Espagne, ou plutôt en Hispanie. Moi je n'y ai jamais mis les pieds. Je sais que ce n'est pas une affiche authentique, mais j'aime bien l'image quand même, ça fait un peu exotique, même si les chiffres romains ne sont pas exacts. De l'Hispanie jusqu'à York, c'est un long voyage, en tout cas ce l'était à l'époque de l'Empire romain. 

Goddess Fortuna

I took this picture at the Roman Baths in York. If you want to celebrate Easter in an English city, York might actually be the best one, because of its history with the Roman Empire. And let's face it, who does not associate Easter with Ancient Rome somehow? I know I do. The Romans are both the villains of the Biblical story (or at least often depicted as such) and the originators of many of the Pagan elements of Easter. Anyway, you can find in York's Roman Baths a shrine to Fortuna, the goddess of luck and fortune. You could make an offering of 30p, which we did. Hey, you never know! No but more seriously, seeing this shrine made me feel like in another time altogether, both familiar and exotic.

Fish & Chips for Good Friday

Can one wish a happy Good Friday? I love Good Friday, sometimes just as much as Easter. Because it's a bank holiday, at least in this country. And because every year I commemorate by "fasting". And by fasting, I mean I eat fish and chips.It has become a tradition since I live in England. We spent last year's Good Friday in York.It was our last night in the city. I bought these fish and chips in the nearest chippy. It tasted absolutely perfect, even though it stank up the place. I'm not sure where I will eat my next Fish and chips from.

Latest Train Travel

I took this picture last year at the National Railway Museum in York. As I mentioned in this post, they have a balcony where you can do trainspotting. It's great fun. But there is an activity even more fun: traveling by train. I did just that a few days ago: I had to go to a near(ish) city. Not a very long journey, about forty minutes by train. I hadn't traveled by train since September 2025, so a train journey was long overdue. On the way back, it was pouring down, sadly I did not take a picture, that's why I am sharing this one. It has no rain, but you can see the clouds. People may think heavy rains makes everything miserable, but in the comfort of a train, that's charming and atmospheric.

Everything Train for Christmas

You may remember that last year I blogged about the Christmas presents you could buy at the shop of the the National Railway Museum in York. My wife spoiled me last Christmas with, well, lots of train related gifts, among them a Christmas train jumper (which you can see on this picture) and scarf. I think most of the presents she bought me were from the NRM, actually. You know how much I associate Christmas with trains. It is even more so now.

Dracula and the Spook

For today's countdown to Halloween post, more on Count Dracula. As Dracula is my favourite horror novel, heck, one of my favourite novels, period, I think he deserves some exposure on this here blog. During our visit at the York Castle Museum last April, I saw this mechanical puppet booth (I think that's the term): you put a coin in it, a mechanism puts in motion a little dramatic scene with characters and sounds. I have seen then before, in other places, they usually display a scene with monsters or ghosts, or some kind of supernatural story. This one's title/name caught my attention.

I will try to add a video to it, because of course I videoed it. It was quite pleasantly spooky. There's just something about these old pieces of technology, they just work for scary stories. of course, Dracula looks like the lounge lizard he has been depicted in movies and nothing like in the novel, but it makes sense that I found Dracula and the Spook in York. The Count, after all, entered England in Yorkshire. Anyway, I hope you like the pictures.

Ghosts on the Train

I blogged before (and a few times) about The Signal-Man, one of the ghost stories written by Charles Dickens. But I saw it on display in the National Railway Museum in York, and this inspired me this post. This book looked gorgeous, but as I already have it in various anthologies, I did not buy it. Anyway, I recommend it this time of year, especially when you are on a train journey. The mix of supernatural and horror with a modern way of transport like trains always brings a special type of atmosphere. Especially since the train has something that is kind of old-fashioned and and elegant that also mixes so well with horror.

Railway Mysteries

Oh the treasures one can find at the National Railway Museum in York! When it comes to books in general and crime fiction specifically, their souvenir shop is just as good as many bookshops. So yeah, I found there The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White, which was adapted into the movie The Lady Vanishes by Alfred Hitchcock. The source material might be a tad too cosy and soft for me, but it's set on a train and I enjoyed the Hitchcock film, so I should like it enough in a few months, after I am done with my spooky reading list, which I have started. Anyway, I could have spent hours in the souvenirs shop and really misbehave, there were so many crime books that caught my attention. Railway and crime just make the best cocktail.

The Flying Scotsman's Bookmark

As you may know, I collect bookmarks. I buy them, I get them as freebies, I am always on the lookout for new bookmarks. It's a hobby like any other, but it's a practical one: it means there is always a bookmark available when I open a new book. Well always... Let's say most of the time. You can never have enough bookmarks, because too often you can end up short of bookmarks. They may be plain, they may be elegant, bookmarks are always useful. And of course, I have my favourite bookmarks. My all-time favourite, as you may remember, I bought it at the National Railway Museum in York. So when I got back there this year, I made sure to see if they had new ones in their souvenir shop. I found this one, another piece to celebrate the Flying Scotsman. I love it. So yeah,long story short, I have a new bookmark and I regret nothing.

The Flying Scotsman

I took this pic at the NRM in York. It is of course the one and only Flying Scotsman, the legendary train which is one of the museum's many, many attractions. I have been wanting to see it again and share picture of it again. So here it is. Also, we will be doing more train travels in the near(ish) future, so I thought this was as good excuse as any to post more train pictures on the blog.

Shinkansen (Bullet Train)

I took this picture on our last visit at the National Railway Museum in York. It is a Shinkansen, also known as Bullet Train. An old version of it of course, the new ones look much leaner. When you enter this one, you can see a video about it and you can have a Shinkansen experience, as if you were traveling there in the 60s. I love old fashhion European luxury trainsand old steamies, but I have also developed inr ecent a fascination for this marvel of Japanese technology. It's just really gorgeous and impressive. If we ever visit Japan, I want to use the Shinkansen.

Signal Box (musing)

I took this picture at the National Railway Museum in York. One of the many objects that caught my attention. I think it is a signal box. I love signal boxes, I love what role they played in the old days of railway travel. Being a signalman was a lonely and demanding job, you had to be skilled, but someone who liked solitude, it might not have been so bad. And from what I understand, they had lots of free time. In a quaint little box like this, bright yellow, it beats office work.

York vu de haut

 Photo prise à York, du haut de la Clifford's Tower. On peut voir York Minster au loin. Je n'ai pas assez partagé des photos de notre dernier voyage à York, l'une de mes grandes villes préférées dans celles que j'ai visitées. J'ai tendance à souffrir parfois d'un léger vertige, surtout lorsque je suis en hauteur à l'extérieur, sur un balcon ou une plateforme quelconque. Paradoxalement, j'aime vraiment voir une ville de haut. Et le médiéviste de formation que je suis aime bien entendu visiter les constructions médiévales, alors j'étais servi.

Give a Ghost a Home

Is it too early to think of Halloween? No, it is not. Most definitely not. So anyway, I found a new bookshop in York that also sells... Ghosts for adoption. It is the Little Apple Bookshop, if you want to know. It's a quaint little place, really lovely. Of course, when I saw these little ones, I had to buy one. I wanted to buy more ghosts, but my wife wouldn't let me, which baffled me. I mean, it was only £5. We could have adopted more. York is reputedly very haunted, so the city has plenty to spare. So anyway, I guess we are now the happy owners of a haunted house.

Trains (a Ladybird Book)

It's not because I'm a sucker for all things train and that I spend like a drunken sailor during our time in the gift shop at the National Railway Museum in York that I was selfish. I also bought things for Wolfie, including some very educational book. So anyway, the first item I bought was this book. Yes, Ladybird still publishes new title (this one dates from 2021) and you learn a lot from them, even as an adult (I know I did), from the early age of railway travel to our time. Wolfie and I loved it. So it is one of our latest happy discoveries.

Crimes on the Railway

During our last visit at the National Railway Museum in York, I was like a kid in a candy store, even worse than Wolfie would be. So I bought a lot of stuff in the souvenirs shops. The museum has two: one more aimed for children, one for adults. They have a a lot of books on sales, a lot of educational ones and a rather impressive section of train themed crime fiction novels (a sub-genre in itself). The usual suspects/classics, but also modern ones. One of them, The Train from Platform 2, caught Wolfie's eyes for some reason and he suggested that I buy it. Not sure why this book in partivular, I think because it's set in the London Underground, something that fascinates him. My hands were already full of books, mugs and trinkets, so I thought I had enough for now (especially since books are heavy to carry), but I took this picture as a reminder. I will either buy it, or put it on my Christmas or birthday list. Two things to take from this anecdote: 1)the NRM is really, really, really, my favourite museum in the world, and 2)my son knows me so very well.

National Train Day

I learned on the Facebook page of the National Railway Museum in York that today is National Train Day. I know I had to mention it on the blog and mark it with a picture taken at the museum itself during our last visit in April. National Train Day is on the Saturday closest to the 10th of May and it is to celebrate the history and heritate of railways. I honestly think this is the greatest mean of transport mankind has ever created. And trains are so very cool, so I had to mention it here.