July 2025, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France.

I travelled from Edinburgh to Lyon by train, a journey of 1400km requiring only 3 trains, and no tube in London or metro in Paris! A pleasant 9.30am train from Edinburgh to King's Cross, then a short walk to St Pancras and efficient Eurostar check-in. We took the train to Lille Europe, from where we caught our connection to Lyon Part Dieu, arriving about 10pm. (Our train between Lille and Lyon was cancelled - may have been related to the 35 degree Celsius heatwave - but Eurostar staff at Lille stamped our reservation so we could hop on the next one.)

After Lyon, I travelled on to visit a collaorator in Padova. More details of the journey soon...

September 2024, Newcastle University, UK.

I travelled to the meeting by train from Edinburgh. This northern section of the East Coast Main Line has great views, have a look here.

Big thanks to the conference organisers for the great dinner at Khai Khai. Also, it was fun to be back in Newcastle, which is near where I grew up - I hadn't been there in ages.

September 2024, King's College London, UK.

I travelled to the conference by train from Edinburgh, plus of course the Tube.

(If you have a UK railcard, applying it to an Oyster card makes the Tube even better value.)

August 2024, Aarhus University, Denmark.

I travelled from Edinburgh to Aarhus by train. This was (so far) my longest solo train trip, a round trip total of 3645km.

Day 1: I left Edinburgh after lunch and took the train from Waverley direct to King's Cross. I had plenty of time to check in and board the last Eurostar of the day. I arrived in Brussels around 10pm local time, and walked across the street from Bruxelles-Midi to my hotel (a quite affordable Ibis which is handy for this kind of journey).

Day 2: The longer but more interesting of the two days. After breakfast I got a train to Cologne, where I had long enough to walk around a bit and look at the cathedral, which is right outside the train station. (On the return journey, I had enough time in Cologne to eat a traditional meal of blood sausage & mash in a German beer hall, delicious.) Next, a somewhat delayed train to Hamburg, on which I tried and enjoyed a curry from the Deutsche Bahn Bordrestaurant. From Hamburg, two more trains (via Kolding) took me over the border and into Denmark. The scenery is beautifully pastoral along much of the Danish line. I arrived in Aarhus around 9pm.

Map and statistics

August-September 2023, ICMS (University of Edinburgh), UK.

I travelled from Oxford to Edinburgh by train. The northern section (in particular) of the East Coast Main Line from London to Edinburgh has great views, have a look here.

July-August 2023, University of Wuppertal, Germany.

I travelled by train from Oxford. In my second trip to western Germany of 2023, the only hitch was continuing engineering work at Oxford station, meaning we travelled to sunny Didcot Parkway by Rail Replacement Bus. We then caught our train on to London, followed by a Eurostar to Brussels and Deutsche Bahn intercity train to Cologne. Wuppertal is only a short hop from Cologne, by local or intercity train.

We used 4-day-in-1-month Interrail passes to pay for the trip, with total travel cost around £240 each. I travelled with Zachary Feng, Arun Soor, and James Taylor.

Bonus journey: Wuppertal, famously it seems, has a monorail. Whilst it wasn't useful for travelling to the university from our hotel, it was a pleasant way to see the city on a free afternoon. (And the journeys were included with our Interrail passes!)

Map and statistics

July 2023, University of Birmingham, UK.

I travelled by train from Oxford to Birmingham. The University station is particularly convenient for, well, the university.

July 2023, University of Kent, UK.

Invited talk: Canonical dimension and Iwasawa algebras.

I travelled by train from Oxford to Canterbury West. The journey includes the tube between London Paddington and London St Pancras, then a blast along the UK's only high-speed line, between St Pancras and (ultimately) France.

February 2023, University of Münster, Germany.

I travelled by train from Oxford, UK. It is quite easy to reach cities in western Germany from Oxford. After taking the train to London and an onward Eurostar to Brussels, two connecting Deutsche Bahn trains took us to Cologne and then Münster. We enjoyed using the 6-seater compartments when they were occasionally available. We returned via the same route, with average journey time around 10 hours.

We used 4-day-in-1-month Interrail passes to pay for the trip, with total travel cost around £220 each. I travelled with Ken Lee, Arun Soor, James Taylor and Finn Wiersig.

Map and statistics

July 2022, University of Oxford, UK.

Invited talk: The augmented Iwasawa algebra.

I travelled to this workshop by walking!

Weather: During the conference the UK experienced record temperatures over 40⁰C, made 10 times more likely by climate change. Rapid action on climate can prevent these events becoming commonplace.

July 2022, City University London & King's College London & Imperial College London, UK.

Contributed talk: Measuring representations of p-adic groups.

I travelled to this workshop by train from Oxford, plus of course the Tube.

(If you have a UK railcard, applying it to an Oyster card makes the Tube even better value.)

June 2022, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Italy.

Contributed talk: Krull dimension of Iwasawa algebras.

I travelled to Milan by train directly from Stockholm (see below entry), as follows.

Day 1: Swedish trains from Stockholm to Gothenburg through beautiful Swedish forests, then Gothenburg to Copenhagen, finishing by crossing the Øresund bridge. Having left after lunch, we arrived in the centre of Copenhagen eight hours later and got some sleep at our hostel.

NB: Ordinarily there are direct trains Stockholm-Copenhagen, but engineering works that weekend meant we took a longer route, via Gothenburg.

Day 2: After an early breakfast, Danish train from Copenhagen to Hamburg. After lunch and departing from my companions, I took a direct train from Hamburg to Zurich. Ordinarily this train would take eight hours, although in my case the train suffered a major delay (these things happen). I therefore arrived into Zurich HB around midnight.

Day 3: After a short walk from my hotel back to Zurich train station, I caught the 7.30am train from Zurich direct to Milan. The lake and mountain scenery along this route was the best of the trip. The route also passes through the longest rail tunnel in all of Europe, during which, I had a nap. I arrived into Milano Centrale shortly before 11am.

Return to UK: I travelled back to the UK on a Frecciarossa high speed train to Paris, followed by Eurostar to London and connection to Oxford. This journey is a quick way between Italy and the UK, departing in the early morning and arriving in the early evening.

Map and statistics for the whole trip

June 2022, Stockholm University, Sweden.

I travelled by train from Oxford to Stockholm via an overnight stay in Hamburg. (More about this journey at James Taylor's page.)

Day 1: We set off from Oxford at 8.30am, arriving into London and taking the tube to St Pancras International. From there, an 11.00 Eurostar to Brussels, then a fast Deutsche Bahn ICE train from Brussels to Cologne Hbf, arriving late afternoon. In Cologne we had a two-hour change, so ventured out to find some dinner in a cafe. After this, a 4-hour train from Cologne to Hamburg, arriving 10pm and heading to the hostel.

Day 2: Three trains with some lovely scenery on all of them. We set off from Hamburg at 9am, travelling through most of Denmark and arriving in Copenhagen by lunchtime. The Great Belt bridge in Denmark actually covers a wider stretch of sea than the famous Oresund, which we crossed next on our train to Malmo (a fabulous way to enter Sweden). From Malmo to Stockholm we took an SJ 2000 tilting train, which is a great experience in itself. It was still light when we arrived at Stockholm Central, and we walked to our rooms.

After Stockholm I travelled to Milan, see above...

Map and statistics for the whole trip

July-August 2019, Trinity College Dublin, Republic of Ireland.

I travelled to Dublin from Durham by train and ferry - remarkably, this can be bought as a single ticket. The ferry leaves from Holyhead in north Wales. If you're lucky (like me) the train might stop at Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch on the way.

July 2019, University of Birmingham, UK.

I travelled to Birmingham from Durham by train. The University station is particularly convenient for, well, the university.