Travelogue Xmas Special

Merry Christmas, Matt, Mrs Techmoan, and of course, Bees Knees! Thank you for the last 12 mths of entertaining and informative videos (which has influenced me to make quite a few purchases of my own)!🎅🐈‍⬛🧑‍🎄

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!

Great video! Thanks for taking us with you. Visited Utrecht for work this year and it’s a nice place

I liked this one a whole lot. Despite the possibility of delayed trains and missed connections and whatnot, travel is much more calm and pleasant when I avoid flying. It feels like my brain and my body arrive at the destination at the same time. Plus, the air industry never misses an opportunity to make you feel like you're being Processed, and the airlines' withering disapproval of anybody who isn't flying Double Sparkle Princess is downright retaliatory. The only part of the US where rail travel really works is here on the East Coast, served by Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, where a disproportionate number of towns and cities that flourished well before the invention of cars are. I'll take six hours on Amtrak to Washington, DC instead three hours on a plane any day. So I enjoyed watching the process of getting yourself from your house to the boat with all of the rail stations and killing time in between. Messy Krimble to you and the Missus!

I love those glasses. Post the name of the frames if you get time, those are killer

Okay, since no one else mentioned it, I instantly thought of your Densho 2 Go video with the train travel footage. Maybe that's just me.

That was fun... It was also fun to determine if Mrs Techmoan was there as well and good to see she was. I can understand her desire for anonymity... it must be hard being married to a Megastar. Nice to watch the trip and have the opportunity to enjoy the views rather than being bombarded by some YouTuber telling us what the toilet paper is like.

Just watched the video for the second time and was trying to pause on some of the stills and other video sections to get a better look. @techmoan would you consider posting some of the stills on Patreon? Some of the city scenery was quite interesting. I also found the food images intriguing...those Amsterdam tarts looked incredible.

Great content as usual. You opened my eyes for river cruises. Planning a late summer Budapest to Passau now. And yes, will arrive properly to Budapest early a day or two to explore the city and be ready for the cruise.

Agreed - Who Am I? is a great Jackie Chan movie :)

Great! It seems like you really enjoyed it. Top tip: take first class accommodations on the way HOME. In my experiences it greatly eases the pain.

I liked it, thanks for doing it! Nice shot of the ship the Rotterdam; I was on that as a 9-year-old in 1976!

Awesome! Thank you for taking us with you for a bit. I enjoy seeing youtubers and similar do things out of the norm. I quite enjoy watching ones that are mainly travelbloggers anyway. I.e. Jacob the Carpetbagger or Simon Wilson.

House back to myself, glass of wine... it's travel time! I go through St Pancras many times, to and from my mother's house in Sussex, but have never caught the Eurostar. The video makes it look fairly painless! I haven't been abroad (dis-counting Ireland) since 2017, which was a trip to Austria and Switzerland for my 40th birthday. Then "THE EVENT" occurred, and I've not been away to mainland Europe since. On our 2016 visit to Germany, my friend and I visited Cologne on a Sunday (tour itinerary, not our decision!) and what we didn't know was all the shops were closed on Sundays whilst the service in the cathedral was on!

Nice video! Like the format. Very Steve Marsh!

I like the new glasses

Nicely edited version. ̷A̷l̷t̷h̷o̷u̷g̷h̷ ̷I̷ ̷t̷h̷i̷n̷k̷ ̷t̷h̷e̷ ̷M̷r̷s̷ ̷w̷a̷s̷ ̷i̷n̷ ̷o̷n̷e̷ ̷b̷i̷t̷ ̷a̷n̷d̷ ̷I̷'̷l̷l̷ ̷n̷e̷v̷e̷r̷ ̷t̷e̷l̷l̷ ̷w̷h̷e̷r̷e̷.̷

Hello, When the church is being shown in Cologne. What is the name of the background music? Thanks.

A very enjoyable video, thank you! Put together beautifully, as of course it would be :-) I think I could enjoy a river cruise like that. I think a full on sea cruise ship would be too much but the smaller scale of the boat you were on looked nice, especially as it was quite a calm ride. Thanks for the inspiration - I like the idea of doing travelling without flying so nice to see what is possible. Oh and have a good December and January :-)

As someone of average intelligence i have been waiting for this weeks video. i thought this was video a Patreon exclusive and that the tech video was coming soon. I don't mind, in fact i'm laughing at myself for being a bit idiotic. Keep up the good work, i look forward to similar instances in future.

Hey Mat, thanks for the video and Merry Christmas to you as well. :-) I think that you've convinced me to join my mom on one of the European river cruises that she's fond of taking. It looked like a very pleasant experience. On another note, I've started my own content creation journey on YouTube. I feel like I've learned a ton about how to create great videos from watching you over the years that is coming in useful as I try to figure out how to present on camera. And I certainly have a greater appreciation for all the work that goes in behind the scenes to produce video content. :)

Nice video, you might think about the cruises along the Danube too, even there is a couple of nice train travels in Europe I've had in my list.... Since too long

As a German it's kind of embarassing that almost everyone in the world knows about the unreliable trains in Germany. A few years ago I was in Spain and someone from Russia (who didn't know where I was from) warned me about the trains in Germany... It wasn't that bad about 25 years ago. But in the time Angela Merkel was chancellor almost nothing was invested into the train infrastructure and now there are always some technical difficulties somewhere. And it will take a long time to catch up and have everything running more or less reliable again...

Thanks for the video, nice to hear you liked my Dutch cities! I've never been in the Markthal in Rotterdam, or the Euromast, but now I think I should go there. We're you travelling alone or with the mrs? I saw a reflection of a lady @50:08. Oh never mind me. I should watch the whole thing before writing stupid comments...

Thanks so much for bringing us along Mat! Just like the Liverpool trip - fun! (I was a bit surprised to learn that you don’t travel with a copy of Cuba Baion, punched on a deck of Jacquard cards. Dead handy that.)

That Star Wars! shout part really cracked me up. But overall, this feels more like a patreon thing and might crash overall as is. Maybe if it was trimmed to about half length it could work. Just to make it more fast paced with less walking shots. But that's just my feel. I liked it.

Thank you for this video, I really enjoyed it! I traveled to the Netherlands for the first time this year, and felt like I was reliving it through this video. Wishing you all the best.

That was a thoroughly enjoyable video. I’m glad you had a pleasant journey. Sorry to hear you had to deal with Deutsche Bahn. Even travelling between Dortmund and Düsseldorf (or vice versa) can be a challenge, despite this supposedly being a direct route.

Nice video, Mat. It's been ages since I've been abroad, so tell me: what's the language situation like in Europe nowadays? Can you get by in the traditional British way of speaking English slowly and loudly, or did you use a phone translator?

I went the same convoluted way into St. Pancras. Up, then down. There must be a better way to get in. I'm sure you went on the holiday with your wife, and I know she's not keen to be seen on screen, but it does look a little like "man goes on holiday on his own and never talks to anyone". Maybe mention you and the wife went on a break at the start?

In 2002 we went on the train to Munich via Cologne to avoid airports. The Eurostar trains are probably still the same ones. They were built by GEC Alstom before GEC decided to become a dot com company with disastrous results. Any delays at customs ? I flew into Stansted on Saturday and it was one hour from touching down to getting out of the door due to endless queues. I reckon it was the equivalent of two laps of Ikea just to get to the eGates.

I quite enjoyed that. You're very good at filming these "walkabout" videos. Great camerawork and clear narration when needed. I'll never make it to these places so it was great fun to see them through your steady hand. Have a wonderful Christmas!

This was like watching a Casey Neistat travel video but slower, older and a LOT more British.

This was a lovely video to unwind with at the end of a busy week. Full of ideas for trips too and, as a railway worker, it's always good to see what 'normals' think of different trains! Incidentally I had lunch at Searcy's at St Pancras (who also run the champagne bar) not long ago and the food was superb. Very glad to see you enjoyed your well-earned break and thanks for so many great videos this year.

Bravo on the early 1970s travelog(ue) music. I can remember seeing "filler" shows on early Sunday morning TV before sports had taken over everything (here in North America). Nice. About your ticket agent thing trying to change coming home ... isn't there a Python sketch about all the different ways you could get from one place to the other place?

Very interesting to see it from your point of view! I usually go on holiday by train, have also some experience with the Deutsche Bahn: lack of punctuality but fortunately very comfortable trains, the IC and ICE at least! We usually take a night train from Zürich to some city in northern Germany or the Netherlands (where I am originally from, I used to live in Utrecht actually!), and then at the end of the day, go to our final destination (which is somewhere out of the city, back into nature). It also gives us some buffer, and we never get in trouble if the trains have delays. I still want to take the Eurostar to England again (last time was in 1997!), and visit some people and places there, like This Museum Is Not Obsolete, Tim Hunkin's arcades, maybe Ben Maton (another YouTuber I'm a Patreon of). And which city did you like the most? 😉 I always tend to see Utrecht as a "secret gem", nice city but much less touristic than Amsterdam. Rotterdam is of course special because of the modern architecture. Wish you also Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Champagne bar in StPancras. :) Great trip looks something I do for sure. Have you done the Hull Rotterdam overnight ferry? easy connection via ferry and train to Rotterdam Central as well.

Be a couple of days before I can watch this, as I have a guest over. Looking forward to it, as I do love the trip to Liverpool video!

Wow! That was a very enjoyable trip--possibly more so because I could watch it from the comforts of home. So much to see--everything was interesting. Thanks Mat for sharing that experience with us. Merry Xmas to you and the (unseen) Missus!😀😍

What--no Cuba Baion at the Museum Speelklok?

Looks like you had a good trip. I get seasick at the slightest opportunity but looks like even I could cope with a river cruise. Be interested to know which cameras you used.

Thanks for the travellogue, and for all the cracking vids you’ve produced this year Mat. I’m now reconsidering a river cruise as a way to do multi mini city breaks. There looked to be more of a spread in ages on board than I was expecting ;-). How noisy/ quiet are the cabins overnight?

Like Arnold Schwarzenegger's head in Total Recall--would that be better than the dude in Scanners or does it even matter at that point?😬

I haven't seen it all yet. But I lived in Cologne for a year and did that same trip from London. German railways are de facto collapsed . Any resemblance to orderly operations is just that. Fortunately a few people made obscene amounts of money out of it, so it was worth it. Lots of memories! But also very happy you managed to get a trip. Well done you. If you make a bit further out next time and feel like, will take you for a ride on the i3😜.

Amsterdam, a few years since I visited, but the BICYCLE maniacs are still in present memory! :) Thanks for a very enjoyable "trip" and it really looked like you enjoyed it too.

That was a very enjoyable hr. Thanks for taking us along.

Love your "Norway" caps!

Great camera shop in Amsterdam! I love hearing the snatched conversations as people pass by. I like this kind of video very much. More of that kind of thing. Which country did you like the most? Merry Christmas to you "the Missus"

I notice you've lost weight, also i'll have to watch the Rotterdam section again as I didn't spot the building Jackie Chan went down in Who Am I, i will have to keeo an eye out for it.

Did Mrs Techmoan enjoy the trip?

Ripped the Philips cart BGM and spliced it together, eq'd it. Here's that for anyone interested. https://youtu.be/LJgbE0D0bwc

Oh wow, I may have been on that same Eurorail train. I was doing a massive trip from LA to Brussels, then took the train to Dusseldorf, Cologne and then Hamburg. Germany does the best Christmas markets!

This may sound weird, but as someone who, due to having a young child with difficulties, can't travel as much as I'd like, going on a trip vicariously through your video was a huge pleasure, especially via public transport (long drives are a bit dull). I'm amazed to read that your wife was with you as the way you edited it, I genuinely believed you went alone (which did make me wonder). I don't know if the "YouTube massive" will appreciate this video, but I know us patrons do!

That was fun, I’ve been to Cologne and Rotterdam, but that was for work, so nice to see a bit more. We were in Amsterdam in September, pretty around the canals but the commercial area just stunk of cannabis! Assume your ears were OK on the Channel Tunnel?

Did you go alone or was Mrs Techmoan lurking just out of shot throughout?

Those wonky cube houses in Rotterdam looked like something designed by M. C. Escher and the way you panned and rotated the camera enhanced the feeling of not knowing which way was up, very clever. I definitely think you should release this on YouTube.

Thanks for taking us on holiday with you! I recognized all the places in London St Pancras, Brussels, Amsterdam... I agree with the "one day buffer" technique, I always do that.

I love those fairground/automated organs, my grandfather used to be fascinated by them too. Hope you have a great Christmas Matt, thanks for another great year of brilliant and fascinating videos.

Travelodge is okay but I prefer Premier Inn! 🤣

It would be nice to know if the trip was a complete package or assembled from different tickets. Using "I" instead of "we" almost held up for the whole video, you did well to keep the mrs out of shot even from reflections in the train window, but some of the conversations heard in the audio gave the game away. I would have used "we" in the pieces to camera regardless that the other party doesn't actually appear in shot.

21 minutes for a 31.5 mile tunnel is an average of 90mph. Not bad going. That's just over top speed for LeShuttle and a little under top speed for Eurostar. Did you go on your own?

What you talking about man, everyone knows a Techmoan video… is a good video. Like, always! Shall watch this bad boy tomorrow morning with a cappuccino in hand!! Cheers Lee

Upload whatever you can to YouTube at this time of the year. Make the most of those higher ad revenues. Even a low for you view count should give you a decent return? Speaking for me and I suspect your core viewers, we’d watch anything you put out on the channel, you’re an interesting story teller

Before watching, I guessed your time off was for: 1. Medical (sinus op) 😟 2. Travel (to a pretty and nearby Christmassy locale) 3. Looking after relative To avoid being rude I didn't pry, and I'm very glad it was traveling. Compared to the alternatives.