Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2019 March 11

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March 11

Visiting as many countries in a day as possible, by train

I'd like to know how many different countries it's possible to visit in one day, using only scheduled train services. I assume this will be in Europe, given the number of different countries close to each other, but if not, another continent is fine. Assume you have a continent-wide rail pass and that you have freedom of movement across the entire continent. The rules are: 1) that you have to start your journey at 00:01 or later on a given day and finish your journey at 23:59 or earlier on the same day; and 2) that you're not allowed to just step off a train at a station onto that country's soil and quickly get back on the same train to continue your journey. You have to disembark from that train and wait for the next scheduled service to arrive at that station. --Viennese Waltz 08:47, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

Adam Leyton, 39, set a record “Most countries visited in 24 hours” using unspecified public transportation. He started on May 25th from Perl, Germany and traveled through Luxembourg, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary and ended at Austria. [1]. DroneB (talk) 11:40, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

Cool, thanks. --Viennese Waltz 12:25, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

His YouTube video shows him using buses and an airliner as well as trains. Alansplodge (talk) 18:33, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

Could be a sequel: "If It's Two O'Clock, This Must Be Belgium" ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:06, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

I'll make the observation that overnight trains have been almost eliminated in western Europe in recent years, so unless you can find one that still operates and forms a useful part of the route, you'll be stuck in one place from about 00:00–01:00 until about 05:00–06:00. I don't know myself which ones still operate.

Querying the German timetable server for the arbitarily chosen date of May 8, 2019, I found that I could go Venlo (NL) — Düsseldorf (DE) — Liège (BE) — Luxembourg (LU) — Metz (FR) in about 7½ hours from 05:05 to 12:29, but then there seemed to be a long wait (3 hours) for a connection onward to Switzerland, so I stopped rather than thinking about whether to go next to Liechtenstein or Italy. Presumably there are better starting points. --76.69.46.228 (talk) 10:40, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

Yellow flag in car

I saw a small pennant hanging from the rear view mirror of the car in front today. It was bright yellow, with red lettering on it. I have little expertise in these things, but it looked like some kind of 'eastern' lettering. Not convinced it was Arabic. Pretty sure it wasn't a national flag... any ideas how I can work out what it was? --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 16:50, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

It might help if you told us whereabouts in the World this was. Since you support the Canaries, England seems likely, but by no means certain. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.123.27.125 (talk) 18:11, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

True. It was in England. I assumed it wasn't an English thing, but it could be. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 19:13, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

Did it look like Hebrew? משיח -- if so, it might be a Car Moshiash Flag, referencing Psalm 20:6 "We will rejoice in your deliverance, and raise our banners in the name of our God; may the Lord fulfill all your wishes". —2606:A000:1126:28D:5037:449F:59D8:1A33 (talk) 22:17, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

Nope. I read Hebrew pretty well. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 22:21, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

Ah. I think it might have been Om. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 09:56, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

What, like the the tortoise? Regards SoWhy 11:07, 12 March 2019 (UTC)