Circle lines | Brussels

A few weeks ago, I was in Brussels so took a circular trip on the Brussels metro. I travelled on the 6 line on an almost entire loop (with a small walk between two stations). Here's what I saw:

- A woman wearing a denim shirt tapping her hand on the phone she was carrying

- Two girls wearing matching brown skirts and black t-shirts, with different backpacks - one pink, one with red polka dots

- A man scoffing down a panini

- A girl with a colourful giraffe on her sweater

- A man with the words 'got no fears' on his jacket 

- Flowers: a woman carrying a white flower on a wooden twig, two women carrying fuchsia

- Someone with a red backpack emblazoned with the letter M

- A lot of people wearing purple, supporting Anderlecht for a Croky Cup match  

- A man wheeling a TV on a trolley

Circle Lines | Berlin

One day, while in Berlin, I rode the S-Bahn that loops around the city. There are two lines: the S41 goes clockwise, the S42 goes counter-clockwise. As Berlin is a city filled with history, I went back in time on the S42. 

The most striking quality for me was the silence. The carriages were quiet, and not especially busy. The people that were there were not speaking - maybe the silence begets more silence.

During the ride, which lasted around an hour, here's who I saw.

- A woman carrying a bag with bright blue straps

- Three adults getting on with three children, saying auf auf auf

- A young Asian man intently reading one page of a book

- A woman holding a stack of small yellow and orange pieces of paper.

- A woman striding purposefully wearing a t-shirt with the slogan Rights and Wrongs

- A very chill ticket inspector wearing a hoodie

- A man wearing a beige woolly hat turning his face to the spring sunshine

- A woman wearing a mint green coat and large gold headphones

- A man dropping two €20 notes from a wodge of cash. Cash is king in Germany!

Circle Lines | London

London's Circle Line is one of the oldest in the world but these days Ye Olde Circle Line isn't even a circle - it's a loop with a bit hanging off the end going to Hammersmith. 

After 11 years living in London, I never actually sat on the Circle Line from end to end. So, on a trip there last week, I got on at Embankment and went anti-clockwise. 

Here's what I saw.

- Three tired and very glum-faced people, a mother and two daughters, all wrapped up in scarfs.

- A woman adjusting her socks and saying to the man beside her: "I've gotta pull my socks up, figuratively". "Literally", he corrects her.

- A woman with a lilac bob.

- A woman holding a handbag with an embroidered elephant.

- A young guy with bleach blonde hair and a bridge piercing looking intently at his phone, and clenching his jaw.

- People looking upto the tube maps above them as if seeking divine inspiration.

- "I do miss a little bit us walking around in the outside. That was awesome, that was top tier."

- "She was like 'don't worry I have a guy for you' and I was in shock."

- "I sat there with a wry smile on my face, sipping out of my pumpkin."

- A bearded man dressed all in black, sitting with his arms folded the whole time.

- A woman putting on her makeup from a bright orange compact.

- A boy excitedly telling a story about someone pointing out someone's red coat.

- Two boys passing a phone to one another without saying a word.

- A man singing the word Padd‐ing-ton and saying "smashed it!"

- A man getting stuck in the closing doors and saying sorry to everyone.

- People talking in French, Greek, Portuguese and Spanish.

Circle Lines | Vienna

Vienna Laengenfeldgasse, Herbert Ortner, Wikimedia Commons CC-BY-SA

Vienna does not have a circle line. But with some quick U‐Bahn changes, it's possible to do a loop. 

You could do a tiny, small, medium or large loop. I took the medium option, on the U4 and U6 lines. I started and ended at the central Karlsplatz station.

The whole trip took about 30 minutes, in grey carriages with bright red chairs and bright yellow poles and handles. 

Here's who I saw:

- Quite a few older people with scooters

- A lot - a lot! - of people wearing grey: a boy in a tracksuit, a man in grey denim jeans + jacket, a woman with slacks and jumper (and a wine t-shirt)

- A young boy dragging his younger brother onto the train, play slapping each other and laughing a lot

- Three young men with a tent folded into a dark green bag, repeatedly banging their hands on it

- A young woman speaking into her phone: 'Nei-ne-ne-nei-ne-nei entschuldigung, sorry!'

- A little dog in a check coat popping its head over its seat

- A blonde English woman shaking her head saying, 'It's so stupid, no one asked for that'.

- A man in a moss green coat, white baseball hat and circular glasses dozing off

- A woman with a disappointed look on her face, rubbing her forehead and eyes

- A man with a black sweatshirt holding a light blue coffee cup and cake box

- A young girl wearing pink, shouting and knocking the back of her legs against a vent in the train. Eventually, she became quiet by tapping her mother's head.

- A man in a long beige coat and beige trousers, as if to match the beige cardboard box he's carrying. Maybe to compensate, his friend has long, bright red hair.

Circle Lines | Madrid Metro Line 6

I was in Madrid earlier this year, and decided to resume a blog series idea - riding a circular metro line.

Madrid's circular line - Línea 6 Circular - goes through 28 stations. I started and ended at the cavernous Principe Pio.

Madrid metro trains have no internal doors, so you can see all along the carriages. At Laguna station, the doors of the train opened on both sides. Never seen that before!

And here's who I saw:

- A man sleeping, a woman sniffling

- A woman speaking on her phone about this and that, ending the call with a low aaaaahhhhh

- A man in a flat-cap dashing along the platform

- A woman carrying toilet rolls laughing heartily with her companion.

- A man on crutches, watching cartoons on his phone

- A woman singing a song into a karaoke microphone, and everyone ignoring her.

- A man selling lollipops from a small green plastic basket. His blue back-pack had the words 'Kings of Europe' written on it.

- A young man on his phone - I was standing up, so could see the screen: he looked at memes, then nail cosmetics tutorials and then started playing chess

- A very tall young man, dressed in monochrome, untangling his white earphones

Circle Lines | Glasgow Subway

Deep in the cold and damp of Saturday morning in January in Scotland, I took a trip on the Glasgow subway - a one-line railway which loops around the city.

But while Glasgow is a mainly grey city architecture-wise, its subway was a more colourful experience 

The train itself: three cute bright orange carriages - like an oversized Berocca tube - bolting, barrelling, zipping through the tunnels.

A woman (who looks like Hayley from Coronation Street) wearing bright turquoise coat, a man in a bright orange hi-vis vest, a station with pastel pink walls, a girl with a bright pink bobble hat, coat and shopping bag, a man with a bright red scarf, a lady's bright purple handbag, a bright green hat, and a cerise beret.

And then there was the colourful scenes all around me:

• Someone telling a long story to her mother about Amy and Lindsay and the job they both applied for.
  
• An old lady rolling her shopping trolley onto the carriage with a sigh.
  
• A woman entering and grimacing, "Something smells, doesn't it man? They should put air freshener."
  
• A woman asking her child, "Did you bring toilet roll? No? We'll need to get hankies."
  
• A police officer asking a little girl, "Have you been to the shops? Did you buy any knick knacks?"
  
• A teenage girl admonishing her little sister, "Stop acting so smart!"
  
• Someone saying," Every time the council's used it makes the case complex."
  
• A man loosing his footing, tripping on top of another man, says "Aye, we're close now!"

Circle Lines | On the Loop in Chicago

Chicago's L train doesn't actually have a circular line, but a group of lines which come together in a circle line effect in a part of the city called The Loop.

So with a few strategic station changes, it's the next best thing.

I rode around, amid lots of people on their phones, and saw and heard:

• A middle-aged woman speaking into a walkie-talkie: "OK, I'm on!"
• A young Woman pulling on a baseball cap like armour
• A woman pursing her lips and momentarily bopping in her seat twirling her hands around
• Two girls with bright pink coats, with white, blue and red beads braided into their hair.
• "It's going be alright. It is going be all right," says a woman into her phone.
• A boy in a purple hoodie looks derisively at a woman's bright pink phone holder.
• Young woman cheerfully declaring, "I noticed it! I noticed it!"
• A middle-aged lady with resplendent red accessories (shoes, spectacles, handbag and shoulder bag) intently reading the Bloomingdales' catalogue.
• A woman sketches a large drawing with dashed lines and arrows into her sketchbook.
• A doleful man slumped against the train wall while carrying a book of torts and laws.
• A woman wearing a bright peach and yellow blouse chewing and popping luminous green gum
• A cheeky young boy propping his feet up on a seat between two men, both of whom studiously ignore him and his feet.

Circle Lines | Yamanote Line, Tokyo

Sometimes when I'm travelling, I like to simply sit on a train and watch people near me, places passing by. And what better way to do this than on a circular, loop line.

I like to think that a circular line brings you a 360° view of a place (it's not always the case, but it's a nice idea).

This is the first in a semi-regular series of posts on circular travelling -so if there's a circular loop line where I am, I'll get on board!

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Years ago when I visited Tokyo, I spent a few hours travelling around on the Yamanote line.

It's a circular line travelling through most of the major stations in Tokyo, including Ginza, Shibuya and Shinjuku.

As I sat on the train, I took notes of sights I saw and sounds I heard and revelled in the people-watching.

I saw:

• Green stripes on platform to show where to stand
• A girl with purple and gold bag and gold shoes
• The five people opposite me lined up, all asleep
• A chorus of polyphonic music greeted us at every station
• Outside offices, and lots of them
• Huge concrete faceless skyscraper structures at Akihabara
• A MUJI warehouse
• A pyramid covered in sparkling lights at Yurakucho
• Passengers reading books with non-descriptmd plain covers: beige or plain white, some with very simple patterns.
• The station Mamamatsucho pronunced differently in English and Japanese
• The monorail to Haneda airport flying over the metro line 
• A tiny dog in a woman's handbag. She's been on the train for 6 stops ago, before I had noticed
• Nobody else seems to noticed the dog
• A grown man reading a comic, showing the words "Here's the world War 1 flying ace returning to the aerodrome"
• Lots of snorting and sniffing sounds
• At Ebisu station, the man next to me sleeps and slumps against me
• A guy whispering into his phone
• As the train continues around, the dog starts to bark lightly. The woman holds its mouth.
• The man next to me then notices the dog and pets it
• A poster in station declares: "Never stop the explaining!"
• At Osuka station, a man tucks his (dry) umbrella into his trousers. It's half genius, half weird.