An excellent collection of train travel related information on Seat61 web site (thanks to Nick Burch for the link). Virtually all countries and rail companies are described. Timetables, fares, best routes and a lot of travel tips are available.

Just thinking about air travel, tightened security, requests to come to the airport at least 3 hours in advance, and inter-terminal transfer hell in Heathrow or JFK makes me wonder - why don’t all companies update their travel policies to include trains & ferries - London to Helsinki would be a perfect example how an updated policies can be used
It all reminded me of the deluxe tours on a private train from Moscow to Vladivostok organized by GW Travel/The Trans-Siberian Express Company. Takes 2 weeks and can cost up to 10.000€, but what an experience!

16:03 03 December 2006 View from Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

15:49 03 December 2006 Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

Photos from the last trip to Tokyo. Absolutely fascinating city with no limits. It is a city of contrasts. There’s plenty of everything.

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11:17 21 October 2006 Natural History Museum in London

07:30 22 October 2006 View from Hilton Metrotown hotel window

Flight there was a bit spoiled by Finnair strike. I had to spend almost a day in Heathrow, waiting for a connecting flight. The delay turned out to be not as bad as I thought - I met with my friends in London and we visited Natural History museum.

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Finally I had time to go through a pile of our holiday photos.
Ten brightest memories of the holiday trip:

• Bridge between Sweden and Denmark
• Nyhavn in Copenhagen
• Bavarian beer
• Frauenkirche in Munich
• Modern Art Museum in Munich
• Austrian Alps
• Reichstag
• New Berlin Hauptbahnhof
• Gendarmen-markt
• Drinking beer under Berlin TV tower
• Berliner Dom

08:50 09 August 2006 Silja Line in the sea

14:09 09 August 2006 Brahehus

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I’ve been invited to speak about Nokia Lifeblog on a conference in Olsztyn University, Poland and used this opportunity to visit also the capital city - Warsaw.

10:27 09 July, 2006 Skyscrapers of Warsaw

17:00 09 July, 2006 Skyscrapers of Warsaw

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15:56 22 June 2006 Office in Southwod

17:15 22 June 2006 Delayed flight

- So, where do you go today?
- London…
- Oh, that’s nice - Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Covent Garden, Pall Mall…
- Ummm, well… Not quite…

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12:24 12 June 2006 Tastes like fresh milk

13:08 12 June 2006 Kuusamo airport

A great team trip to Kuusamo-Ruka. Finnair started serving with coffee something that "Tastes like fresh milk".

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It’s been almost six years since I’ve last been in Petersburg. Even
though it is my home city, it happened so that I haven’t been there
since I moved to Finland in 2000.

12:22 03 June 2006 After the border - Castle of Vyborg (Viipuri)

14:03 03 June 2006 Approaching Petersburg by train

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I just returned from a trip to Budapest. Haven’t been there for four
years. The city is even more beautiful than before. A lot of changes
happened in these years. Budapest is very clean, practically no traces
of the spring flood (the worst for many years), you can see a lot of
property development all around, new restaurants, shopping malls,
office buildings. More people started speaking English on the streets.

It is really good to see all these positive developments in Hungary.

Hotel bridge

Excellent food

Green trees

Big new shopping centers

Old churches

Of course, Unicum