When the Channel Tunnel was first mooted I remember the experts telling us that we should be able to get on a train in Norwich or Birmingham or Bristol and get off in Bologna or Barcelona or Berlin and although I’ve made a trip on Eurostar to Brussels, the pleasures of long distance rail travel are not at the top of my list. Nevertheless I have done a bit of research and what comes across is the relative cheapness of continental rail travel. For example: London to Rome or Florence or Venice is £111 return as is London to Athens. You can get high-speed access to Zurich for £95 return or London to Nice or Marseille for £87 return. And these are fairly standard advanced booking charges. C-Red would approve I think.

The trouble is even if I add in my carbon offset charge I can still fly to Cyprus using Easyjet for about £150 return in July: and I wouldn’t have to think about changing stations in London and Paris or feeding myself en route.

Oh dear, Where are Easytrain or Ryanrail when you want them?

C-Red is at http://www.cred-uk.org/

Although January is supposed to be the most depressing month in the year what with dark evenings, drizzle, high levels of debt, relationship breakdown and TV programmes showing what we watched in the 1950s (how depressing can that be!), It does presage February. By this time the bank has been sorted (hopefully), your spouse is talking to you again and it could be snowing soon. I don’t know why but white fields and lanes look good, at least for a short time. Of course, if your lane or road hasn’t been gritted then it’s a different matter. Still things are usually on the up.

I know that if I’ve managed to set off to County Hall in good time I can stop at Caister Roman Fort and have a stroll along the ancient walls. The view across the valley can be magical and some of the different meander patterns give a lift to the spirit.

However, time for bed.