Tag Archives: travel

London from the Air

Digging back in to the archives today. Back in about 2005, I was heading back to the UK for work. Our flight arrived in to Heathrow early in the morning and the approach route took us across the center of the city. I was sitting on the right side of the aircraft so was able to get some good shots of the city. My favorite shot was as we turned over the top of Waterloo and looking down at the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament.

I also got some good views from other areas. A nice view across the city which shows just how close everything is within the cities of London and Westminster. We also came south of Kensington which gave a good view of the museum complex and Hyde Park – an area where I lived for three years as a student. The next shot is of Kew Gardens. The glass house and the pagoda are both visible. These have been sitting in the archive for a long time but finally make their way to the blog.

Heavy Lifter

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In a visit we made to Seattle in the mid 2000s, we took a boat tour around Elliott Bay. One of the more impressive ships in the harbor was one that is designed to lift heavy loads and carry them long distances. It will sink to allow the load to be floated on to the hull and then it will lift back up and leave the load on the deck. You can see the markings for sinking the hull on the superstructure.

The most impressive view of the ship was from the front as we passed ahead of it. The beam was something special to see. It had a very muscular look to it. These are the sort of ships that have been used to moved smaller ships when they have suffered damage. The Royal Navy had a destroyer that hit a reef in the South Pacific once that was moved this way. Quite an impressive capability.

Northrop Grumman Firebird

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Northrop Grumman brought the Firebird to Fairford for RIAT. RIAT is a big public show but it has developed a significant trade element to it and Firebird was clearly aimed at that audience. It is a Scaled Composites design (with Northrop Grumman having bought Scaled a while back) and, while it has a cockpit, apparently it has the option to be flown unmanned. I don’t know whether this is well tested or not. Nor do I know the state of production examples. I believe the one at RIAT was the prototype.

It was parked in the static park for a portion of the time I was there. I did see it getting towed across to the north side at one point, presumably so it could be parked in a hangar rather than left out. Supposedly, there is a US Government order for some of these and I imagine they will be fitted with some interesting systems. Whether I shall ever see one is a different story.

Trafalgar Anchor

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If you are used to a modern shape of an anchor, particularly one for a large ship, the old style of anchors in the days of the early 1800s will be rather strange looking. They look like a giant version of the sort of anchor you would see on a small boat. This example sits on the seafront in Southsea and comes from a ship that fought in the battle of Trafalgar. It seems in pretty good shape. I wonder whether that is a feature of the materials used or the result of lots of bits of it being replaced over the years.

Cruising Out Under Lion’s Gate Bridge

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Cruise ships are a regular feature of Vancouver Harbour. Pacific Place has a terminal where two ships can be berthed at any one time. One evening, as I was hanging out on Stanley Park, one of the ships set sail – presumably for a trip up to Alaska. I watched it pass close by where I was and took a look at what I could see happening on the decks facing the shore (including one chap in a bathrobe on a rear balcony who probably didn’t think he was visible. Then the ship headed out under the Lions Gate bridge as the sun was beginning to go down.

The Original Doctor Yellow

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The Tokaido Shinkansen service requires regular inspection of the track to ensure it is up to the high standards required of high speed service. JRC operates an inspection train called Doctor Yellow. It is a highly instrumented version of the current trains. I have seen the current Doctor Yellow when I was at one of JRC’s maintenance facilities. However, the original Doctor Yellow was based on the Series 0 trains. It is now preserved in the SC Maglev museum in Nagoya along with many of the other Shinkansen designs.

Nagoya Bridge

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When I headed south out of the center of Nagoya to go to the museum, my route took me down to the docks area. A highway along the water obviously needed to clear the route for the larger ships so a pretty impressive bridge had been constructed. It is called the Meiko-Chuo Bridge. I could only get a good view of it from the train but it was in the background when you were at the museum. I thought it looked pretty spectacular.

Crystal Palace II

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This one is for some of the Brits who read this blog. The pictures are a bit sketchy as they were taken from a moving car (I was not driving)! I was in Dallas for work and noticed this building from a distance. I figured I would try and get some pictures as we drove by. The building is apparently a modern construction but, to my mind, it appears to be a direct reproduction of the original Crystal Palace. Obviously not a reproduction after it burnt down but it does look just like it. Anyone from Texas – Gary, I am looking at you – that knows anything about this building?

Filming a Car Scene in Vancouver

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Walking through the streets of Vancouver one weekend, we came up to an intersection. There was a Porsche sitting on a trailer with two people in it. It quickly became apparent that they were doing some filming. The woman was an actor and the man was filming here. There was a vehicle pulling the trailer with some of the production staff sitting on it. Initially I was focused on what they were doing but then I started to look around.

The whole convoy was all related to the filming. There was a motorcycle escort supporting them and other vehicles from the production team. Everything on the street was controlled. You often feel when watching street scenes that they are filming in an open environment but a lot of the time it is totally controlled. Only us and the other pedestrians could be considered random variables in the whole process. The light stayed red for a while with the cameraman trying a variety of positions and then the lights changed and the whole ground headed off to the next block. We went on our way too.

Building an America’s Cup Challenger

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Ineos is a name I hadn’t heard until recently. They took over the Sky cycling team and that was the first time I became aware of them. I guess that sporting achievements are something that their management are quite focused on because, while waiting to catch the ferry at Portsmouth, I got a look at the building in these photos. It is their America’s Cup challenger facility. The building looks pretty impressive and I hope that the boat that they come up with is similarly so. It would be good to see the cup make its way to the UK after all this time.