with apologies

Sabbatical Diary: Week 30

· 3 min read · May 01, 2026 · #academic #cambridge #sabbatical #travel

Quite a travelling week in the end.

I returned from the UK Systems Challenges workshop and have posted all those slide decks that I’ve been sent (most of them at time of writing).

I went to and returned from the EDGELESS project review in Garching, Munich, Germany. The review itself seemed to go very well—the reviewers all seemed very positive about the project outcomes.1 Munich was, as ever, quite a pleasant place to visit—and gave me another chance to take the overnight ÖBB NightJet train from Amsterdam which remains very convenient and in this case exceptionally good value.2

The particular reason for needing to take it this time was that track and signalling works affecting trains between Cambridge and King’s Cross meant that leg would’ve taken over 3.5 hours rather than the usual 52 minutes, leaving me with no other feasible route that I could find to get there in time for the rehearsal on Monday morning.

As always, The Man in Seat 61 remained the best source of information for how to arrange train travel in Europe. Given the possibility of UK trains affecting onward travel, I even went to the hassle of booking a CIV ticket. Some of the conversations had at the review, along the lines of “so you’re still doing that travel by train thing” reminded me that it might be useful to make a note of the various European journies taken by train. The summary of which would be, all in my opinion of course: it’s far more pleasant, often nearly as fast, more productive, and although it’s more financially expensive3 it is estimated to have about 1/13 the carbon footprint which seems a worthwhile ratio in the circumstances.4

More details to follow I expect.

  1. Which was in many ways a very pleasant surprise given the feedback received at the end of the first review! Though as a colleague said, far better to have them grumpy at the start and happy at the end than the other way round. ↩

  2. €55 one-way in a private mini-cabin including a simple breakfast (two bread rolls, margarine and jam, coffee). ↩

  3. Although when I’ve managed to book a month or two in advance, not so much more expensive as you might think. ↩

  4. I recognise not everyone can afford this differential of course, which seems a structural inequity that is at best unfortunate, but in my case, funding resources available mean I can, so it seems worthwhile. ↩