The Slow, Scenic Train, The Boat Train, The Little Trains, and Several Other Trains, part 1

Ticking Off Several Items from "The List"

I have long wanted to visit the Isle of Man, partly to see its vintage railways and partly just to experience life in a Crown Dependency, a British Isle that is not the UK nor Ireland. My parents considered it when I was still with them in my early teens but it did not come off then and the opportunity never seemed to arise again ... I have also wanted to experience the trans-pennine rail routes, to stay in the Midland Hotel, that great deco moderne masterpiece in Morecambe, and to visit Leeds again, the last time being many years ago. It all fell into place when I was thumbing through a newly-delivered Great Rail Journeys British Isles Catalogue: their Vintage Railways of the Isle of Man escorted tour ticks all of the boxes for the Isle of Man itself and begins and ends at Heysham ferry terminal, a short hop from Morecambe. Furthermore, if it suited our friends who live in Warrington we could stay with them for a few days on the way, and my wife could visit a former colleague now living in Leeds on the way back, both trips involving new routes for us. The various friends were contacted and arrangements made around the most suitable Isle of Man dates for our diary and the Midland Hotel booked. There were so many exciting things about this trip where almost everything except our friends was new to us, and we even fitted in a couple of unexpected things while travelling.

Armed with a picnic including a couple of individual bottles of Prosecco and some plastic wine glasses we set out to Peterborough on the 10:57 Cross Country train on a Friday. It was a touch late but we still had time to buy takeaway coffee at Peterborough before boarding our next train, the 11:23 East Midlands Railway train to Liverpool which would take us all the way through to Warrington Central. It was a beautiful day and it was great gazing from the windowat countryside which, to begin with, was very familiar but we had usually seen at twice the speed on East Coast Route expresses. This was an express (limited stop) service, but with a much lower maximum speed. At Grantham the train left the main line and headed off to Nottingham and along here we enjoyed our lunch. Just as we finished the train's refreshment trolley came through and we bought coffee to round off the meal. From Nottingham we headed north through Chesterfield to Sheffield and then across the Pennines to Manchester. Through Manchester was the slowest part of the journey and we lost time on the congested track between Piccadilly and Deansgate, being picked up by our friends about five minutes late. It had been a super ride through lovely countryside (OK, yes and Sheffield and Manchester as well!) in comfortable seats and with a great picnic. It was not the quickest way to Warrington, but that was not the point: it was slow and scenic and we had a lovely lunch on the way.

Our friends met us and drove us to their home where we stayed the next three nights, having a day out on Saturday and a day in after church on Sunday ... with a couple of pub visits thrown in.

On Monday they took us to the other station in Warrington, Bank Quay, where we took an Avanti West Coast train (another first: I've never travelled with them before, except rammed into a vestibule between Birmingham New Street and Birmingham International). It was a comfortable, although late, journey, and we had plenty of space, perhaps an advantage of travelling mid-afternoon. We left Avanti at Lancaster and, being late, had a tight connection into our train to Morecambe. Now this was a bit of an adventure. We had just enough time to get over the bridge to the train we could see waiting on the other side of the track (platform 4 for those who know Lancaster station, which I didn't until then), so we went to the lift because I really cannot climb stairs with luggage. The lift was not quick, and when we got to the bridge we soon realised that we could not access the stairs down to where the train was waiting as the seconds ticked by. We had to use the lift down as well, and again it took ages to comes and ages to go down by which train the train should have left, but this being Northern it was still there. Indeed it was still there ten minutes later. I do not think we ever saw a train, of any operator, on time at Lancaster over the course of this holiday, and as you'll see, we were there quite a lot. The timekeeping on the routes that converge there is appalling. Still the train got us to Morecambe: it is only a few minutes, much closer than our home in Stamford is to the main junction station at Peterborough. Although it was the same type of unit (Class 158) as the one we had enjoyed travelling on all the way from Peterborough to Warrington it was somehow less appealing - possibly because of the noisy schoolchildren who got off at the one intermediate stop at Bare Lane, but probably also because these sets were never intended for short distance stopping services but for the long distance express service like the Norwich-Liverpool route that we had use to travel to Warrington.

The walk to the Midland Hotel is longer than it used to be. The railway line has been cut short and, to be fair, is probably better located to serve the actual town and also connects well with local buses and a new retail park (this is a travel blog, not a town planning critique, so I won't go on about how that has killed the town centre), but it is not directly opposite the hotel which was built by the LMS Railway to serve the high-class resort at Morecambe. We saw the Midland shortly after its refurbishment (it had lain derelict for some years and was really at risk) and it is no longer quite the class of establishment that the then owners intended. The external finish could do with renewing and some of the interior could do with a little bit of a spruce-up. The meals, although good in themselves, are served in a pub-like manner, ordered at the bar, and there are no tablecloths. Very good, but not the high standard it used to be. It remains staggeringly good in its context, though, for Morecambe is not a thriving town.

Our room, however, was quite amazing. It was spacious and with a sea view and had some design features I have never seen anywhere else, possibly original. You need to see my YouTube video to get the full effect, but suffice it to say that if you go into the ensuite bathroom you may think there is no door. And then you realise there is no WC either, but when you pull at a hand-hold in the wall boarding a whole section of the wall swings round to close off the bathroom from the bedroom and reveals a WC with toilet paper and all the kit. Tea and coffee facilities and the TV and waste bin are behind another panel, and the wardrobe behind another. There were two deco moderne armchairs and a drinks table. We were very happy there for our two nights, and I would easily and confidently recommend this hotel as a stopover on the way to or from the Isle of Man, handy as it is for the Heysham ferry terminal, as I shall go on, eventually, to describe.

We went for a walk along the seafront which was uplifting and saddening in equal measure. It was a clear evening and the view across Morecambe Bay to the Lake District hills was breathtaking. The local authorities had obviously spent a great deal to improve the public realm of the seafront and local people were out walking, running, skating and cycling along it. All the shops were shut, but then it was evening and many were simply closed for the night, but many also were closed for good. Several small hotels were also clearly closed for good. We were looking for somewhere to eat and were just thinking that we'd have to return to the hotel when we spotted the Bay Café a small fish and chip shop on a street corner. It was open, and it had a few tables inside. There was a couple eating there; we asked how it was and on their advice asked for the small portion of fish and chips. It was delicious, it was filling and it was very inexpensive. Very little else was open in Morecambe that evening but we hit on what was probably the best traditional fish & chips I have ever had. We returned happy to the Midland where we enjoyed cocktails in the bar before bath and bed.

On the Tuesday morning we decided to take the 10:00 bus into Lancaster. After a quick look around the town centre, coffee and gelato we gave further thought to the day and, realising how close we were decided to take a train to Carnforth, for two reasons: one was that a craftsman in Carnforth, as it happens, was assessing a vintage flute that once belonged to a long-deceased relative and we thought it would be good to meet him in person, and the other was that I had long wanted to visit Carnforth station where a lot of location-shooting was done for the film Brief Encounter. A phone call checked that the instrument-maker was available and we made our way to his home where his front room was his workshop. A lovely person, we made arrangements for the flute to be sold and restored so that it would be playable again rather than end up on a rubbish tip. When we were at Lancaster station awaiting our train to Carnforth we saw a steam locomotive there and identified it as Blue Peter, the very locomotive which had taken us to and from the Lake District last autumn. I had to pop over and say "hello" ... well, not literally, I'm not that mad.

After our brief encounter with the antique flute we made our back to the station and enjoyed a good salad lunch at the refreshment room made famous in Brief Encounter, explored the heritage centre and then went across to the opposite platform to await a train to Grange-Over-Sands. This was only a few minutes' scenic ride away and, having stayed there many years ago, we knew it as a pretty town. we were not disappointed: the train ride, the town, and the garden we walked through on our way back to the station were all lovely. We only stayed there about an hour but the rail fares here are so reasonable that it seemed a worthwhile thing to do. We took the next train through to Lancaster and then back to Morecambe (remembering to buy a ticket because we had come by bus in the morning so we did not have a return half!). We enjoyed a cocktail in the hotel bar-restaurant again ...) and then dinner, which was excellent. The next day we were to leave England for Man and we started our packing before a good night's sleep.

Wednesday was to be the start of our Great Rail Journeys escorted tour to the historic railways of the Isle of Man, but our ferry was not due to leave until 15:30, although one has to board well before then, and we also had to meet our tour manager at the ferry terminal. There is a boat train once a day from Lancaster to Heysham Harbour (or Heysham Port; the name varies from sign to sign!) which calls at Morecambe, so we were to take that when the time came. Meanwhile, after checking out we had the hotel store our luggage and went off for a short walk along the seafront and then visited the new shops opposite the rail station. Now I could see why B&M no longer occupied the lovely art deco building on the sea front near the hotel: they had a new shop in the new shopping area. After looking around a bit we went to a supermarket there to pick up a few things for a picnic lunch which we would have while waiting to board the ship, the Manxman. Meanwhile, we took coffee back at the hotel bar and then recovered our luggage and went to get the boat train, actually buying our tickets at the station. The train was just an ordinary two-coach Sprinter of Northern Trains which normally ply between Lancaster (or sometimes Leeds) and Morecambe but for this one service per day reverse at Morecambe and take the single-track branch line to Heysham Port, the driver getting out and changing the point to access the branch. The picture shows it arrived at Heysham with the driver walking to the other end to take passengers off the ferry to Lancaster.

The station at Heysham Port exists solely to connect with the ships to Douglas and it was simple enough to walk across to the departures entrance where we met Alan, our tour manager, who briefed us on the procedure for checking-in our luggage, boarding the ferry and finding he best place to sit (the Njarbil Lounge on Deck 8, which has superb views at the front of the ship). We just had time to eat our lunch, with drinks bought from the cafeteria on site, before we were called to board. The next adventure had begun.

The Manxman took an interesting route, curving well south before making west across the Irish Sea. But when you think about it, the enormous offshore wind farm we saw over to starboard is presumably located in shallow water. There were also a handful of oil platforms, quite a lot of activity out here at sea, as wells a few other ships and even fewer smaller vessels. The shipping lane is not as wide as you might think! Soon enough we saw the outline of the Isle of Man standing above low-level mist and watched it draw nearer and then waited for the ship to berth and disembarkation to be announced.

By the time we had crossed the enormous elevated walkway across the docks to the arrival area and collected our luggage from the carousel it was past our usual bedtime when we arrived at the Claremont Hotel. We had been given our room keys by hotel staff who met the group at the arrivals hall, so we did not have to check in and we made our way straight into the dining room to have dinner, which was excellent. The Great Rail Journeys group had a sort of table d'hôte menu with a choice of about three starters, three mains and three desserts, so we had enough choice to cope with faddy eaters (which we most definitely are not!) and everything we had at each dinner was superb. Unusually for a GRJ tour, dinner was included every evening, as well as breakfast every morning. Meals were not generally at fixed times but between certain times so we had much fllecxibility.

Also included in the pack which contained our room keys and meal times were a pass each for transport through the island and a pass for all the heritage sites. These would be used on all the included activities but were also available in our free time to do anything else we wanted with no further cost.

Our room was at the back of the hotel with no new at all - indeed the lower window was obscure glass to avoid us seeing the insalubrious back yard outside. However, the interior of the room was super, with flexible lighting and enough electrical points for all our electronic kit. On trips like this we do not spend a lot of time in our room, though, always out and about exploring. For now, shower and bed.

The Thursday was the first group activity of the tour and the one which mattered most to me from my reading of an article in Railway Modeller when I was eleven years old, about a model railway layout based on the Isle of Man Railway. This once extensive network is now reduced to one line, between Douglas and Port Erin but is still operated by the original steam locomotives and wooden carriages. It is a charming railway well worth visiting even if you never read that article back in 1965. We all walked to Douglas station and after some photographs joined our carriages on the train. The weather was cool and damp and there was plenty of visible steam as the locomotive was prepared and backed onto the train. When we arrived at Port Erin we had a sort guided tour of the small railway museum there and then we taken by road coach to The Sound where there are seals to be spotted in the sea and The Calf of Man island just off the shore. With better weather apparently you can also see Ireland beyond, but we could barely see the Calf of Man on the day we were there. We did spot a couple of seals on the rocks, and most importantly had a mug of hot chocolate at the café!

The coach then took us on to Castletown where we had time for lunch and then gathered at the appointed time to visit together The Old House of Keys, erstwhile home of the oldest parliament in the world. We learnt a lot in a series of mock debates based on important decisions in the past, mainly that although this may be the world's oldest parliament it is most certainly not the oldest democracy but had quite a lot of catching up to do. We took part in debates to elect Members to the House of Keys, to allow women to vote and to move the capital from Castletown to Douglas (largely because the building had become beyond economic repair to continue in use).

The afternoon had no included activities but most of the group, ourselves included, visited Castle Rushen, just across the street, probably the best-preserved medieval castle in the British Isles. This was included in our attractions passes, too, and cost us nothing. Great views, apparently, were to be had from to top of the keep, but at the time I was not fit enough to climb up there. The castle is, of course, intimately linked to the history of the island, ad there was a lot to learn about how it has been ruled and governed over the centuries.

Many of the party were returned to Douglas and direct to the hotel by the coach, but several of us opted to return on the Isle of Man Steam Railway from Castletown station a cost-free option as it was covered by our travel passes. Back at the hotel we had time to change before dinner and then have a lazy evening after a busy day before a good night's sleep ready to the next action-packed day.

The story will be continued in a future post with more Little Trains and a few more Other Trains!

Here's a video taster:

Interrailing for Seniors!

Visiting the oldest city and the biggest city in Switzerland

I have been following Byway Travel on Instagram for a while; their advocacy of slow travel and of the journey being an important component of the travel experience matches my own view very well. As a company they not only promote this philosophy but help people explore it for themselves by selling curated or tailored trips by surface transport, notably rail. If you like the look of some of my adventures and would like help to do this sort of thing yourself, then Byway Travel might be worth a look (no, they are not paying me). My most recent trip to Switzerland could easily have been arranged booking travel from London to Zurich with Eurostar and then using a Swiss travel pass while there and booking my hotels with Booking.com, but we thought it would be interesting to give Byway a try. This adventure is how it worked out (and some of the new experiences began while we were still at home)!

On the Byway website we input the elements we wanted to include, First Class rail travel, three nights in Chur, two in Zürich and one in Paris, and a night in London before departure. They came back with a suggested itinerary which we adjusted slightly and then accepted. This was an interesting experience because by the time we had filled in our details on the booking form one or other part of the itinerary had become unavailable and we were invited to try again. Each time we were offered a different selection of hotels. Now I could not believe that they were all filling up that fast, so after several of these attempts I just went an ahead and booked anyway. It all seemed to work and eventually we received confirmation of our booking and information about tickets and timing. 

This was the next adventure! We were to travel using Interrail passes, and while we had used these before on a Great Rail Journeys escorted tour they were paper passes then and we had a tour manager looking after seat reservations etc.. Now the passes were digital and we were responsible for everything ourselves. I am, as you might guess from the amount I publish on line, quite comfortable with digital media on the whole and I often use digital tickets, held on my iPhone. But the combination of the digital pass and the journeys having been planned by an agency meant that there was plenty of room for error in getting the right journeys on the pass on the right days! Byway even provide a weekly seminar on using the Interrail app alongside their Journey Guide which contains all the information we need for our trip. Those journeys needing reservations, that is the Eurostar journeys from and to London and the TGV Lyria each way between Paris and Zürich, had pdf tickets supplied by Byway which we both printed and filed in iCloud for access on our devices: it was these printed reservations which opened the ticket barriers at St Pancras and Gare de Lyon. We attended the seminar and all was ready for departure. As we were travelling to London one day before our first international train, we had to buy tickets for that part of the trip, but we were to return home from Paris in one day which ment that our Interrail passes would cover the UK journey as well: that’s the way Interrail works!

And so we were off! It had been a while since our last international adventure and it was great to be setting out again. A normal Friday morning in Stamford, although no need to buy anything from the market, which was just as well because the Mid-Lent Fair made it a pretty minimal market. We did join the ecumenical Lent Lunch and then wheeled our cases down to the station to take a train to Peterborough for a simple connection to London, First Class on LNER. We did not need the rather delicious-looking meal on offer as we had dinner to come, but we had a drink and a biscuit, keeping the crisps for later.

Byway had booked us a stay at a Point A hotel in Grays Inn Road. We had never stayed in a Point A before, always tending to go for Premier Inn, and we were very impressed. Next time we need a stay in London I’ll see how the cost compares and will definitely consider it. We had been invited to our son and his family for dinner and set off there after checking in, then returned for a good night’s sleep and a good continental breakfast before walking down to St Pancras International station to check in for Eurostar. With dire warnings about queues and delays we had allowed far too long for the formalities which were over as quickly as ever, and we did not even need breakfast to pass the time! We did eventually have coffee (we don’t rate the coffee served on Eurostar trains, not as good as LNER!) and then, still with thirty minutes to go, boarding began. '

As we have discovered before, the light meal served on Eurostar trains from mid-morning is lunch, so, soon after breakfast we were eating our light lunch with the Eurostar signature refrigerated cutlery! (The meals are made up in advance on trays complete with napkin, cutlery, glass and cup and the whole trolley is kept chilled so everything is cold. I put the wrapped butter pat in my pocket to warm up …) The journey to Paris was uneventful - at least it was for those of us who have been this way so often: if you’re new to it the transit under the sea is probably quite an event! We were in coach 2 and the corollary of having a short walk in London to join the train was a long walk in Paris to leave the train. I had an electronic Metro ticket on my iPhone to use in Paris but my wife had none and try as we might we were unable to add one (even though at one stage the app did take some money), so at Gare du Nord we enquired about it and could not understand the explanation. She was sold a Navigo card (€2) and a single ticket loaded onto it (the normal €2.55 fare) I bought the same, ready for the journey home; I had thought that when we installed the Île-de-France de France app last year we were set up for easy purchase of Metro tickets, but the Paris Metro remains a mystery!

We do not like the experience of using the RER to Gare de Lyon even though it is quick and convenient, but we had time in hand (I think Byway are set up to help people migrate from flying to rail and go out of their way to make it stress-free!), so we went by normal Metro through to Gare d’Austerlitz, just across the river, and walked from there. We had coffee at the station and bought water to take with us and then boarded the TGV Lyria bound for Zürich where we were to change trains for Chur. We had First Class tickets on our Interrail apps and printed reservations for upper-deck seats. This was a great journey: no catering included but an excellent buffet from which we enjoyed a good salad dinner.

At Zürich we had about half an hour before our connecting train to Chur: this was a station we’d get to know in a few days’ time. By now it was dark, so the hour’s ride to Chur was not its usual scenic self, but the train was swift and comfortable and we were soon walking up Bahnhofstrasse towards the Hotel Stern where we had first stayed twelve year earlier on our first Great Rail Journeys escorted tour.

We checked in and went straight to bed, well after our usual bed-time, both excited and tired.

Our first day in Chur was Sunday, and although we had thought of attending church, circumstances were such that we changed our minds, not only because were we still recovering from the late night, but the choice of church was a bit problematic. St Martin's, the same dedication as our church at home, might have been good, but it is protestant, and Swiss protestantism is a bit extreme and I was not at all sure we'd have a clue what was going on. There is also the Roma Catholic cathedral and although we'd recognise the service (for it would be similar to our Church of England liturgy) the sermon in German would be opaque to me and technically we would not be welcome at holy communion. So a short lie-in and a slow start to the day prevailed.

At the hotel reception we picked up our tourist passes for the city, complimentary to hotel guests and covering free museum admissions and local buses. We had printed a city map before we left home and had a good idea of what we would do, starting with the Museum  where we learnt a lot about the history of the city and the canton. Chur qualifies as the oldest city in Switzerland because it was the first town to have a bishop appointed to it, and therefore the earliest to have a cathedral. There was a great view over the city from the top floor of the museum, and a decent cup of coffee to be had from the reception.

We had a stroll around the city, punctuated by a stop for beer outside a bar in the old part of the city centre - typically Swiss with outside tables supplied with blankets, but in the sunshine it was quite warm enough not to need these.

From the old city we strolled out along the riverside and then back towards the rail station area where we planned some of the following day's activities and then visited the city's natural history museum.

After a brief history of every beast known in Graubünden we went for a walk around the city centre following a published trail and found the "Chur Foot," a standard measure set into the wall of the town hall. The Foot is a familiar measure to us as British citizens but will be less familiar to locals these days!

We gradually made our way back to our hotel where we had dinner in the informal setting of a lounge bar trying some of the local Graubündner dishes on offer.

On Monday morning our plan was to complete our travel over every part of the RhätischeBahn by travelling up to Arosa on the line from Chur. I did not really know what to expect: the line began as a separate tramway, much like the Bernina Line further south, and was acquired by the RhB and absorbed into its network, and the destination was completely unknown to us (except that it was uphill!). These days the services are operated by Allegra electric multiple units towing a handful of older passenger cars and a driving trailer to enable them to work in either direction without shunting after each turn.

Our journey to Arosa began at 10:08 at the dedicated Arosa platforms at the front of Chur station, outside the main SBB/RhB building, with day return tickets bought from the station ticket office; our Interrail Passes were not set up for enough travel days to cover that day. The journey begins very much like a tram ride through the streets of Chur: once off the station forecourt we followed very much the route we had walked along the riverside the previous day. It begins as double track and we're riding on the same side of the road as the other vehicles, then after it singles out we are on the right-hand side which feels OK going this way, still with the traffic, but this is no tram: it is a train of six or seven full-length coaches! It is the same feeling you get in Tirano where the Bernina Express goes through the streets for a short distance. Eventually, well outside the town, and after an intermediate station in the street, the road and the railway do part company and we climb steeply into the mountains. 

Gradually we saw more and more snow on the ground and in the trees and by the time the train arrived in Arosa there was thick snow on the ground and a frozen lake covered with snow. As we walked around the town a few snowflakes began to fall. We called at a small café for coffee and nusstorte and then went for a walk around the lake, by which time there was a light, steady snow shower. It was quite magical. Arosa is a popular place for skiing, which is not something I had realised until I got there. We took the next train back at far as an intermediate stop at Langweis where I took a few photographs and made some notes for the intermediate station on my model railway. 

From Langweis there is a great view of the Langweis viaduct and a small display in the station about its construction. For me, though, much of the interest was in the way the station is used: the nearest track to the building is a siding and you have to walk over the siding (on a proper crossing) to the hard standing which passes for a platform (as at many minor Rhâtischebahn stations), but when our train arrived there we had to pass a late-running train on its way to Arosa, and when we descended it was all the way down onto the gravel ballast: there was no platform at all there! My model station Mitteldorf will definitely be built this way, complete with level crossing right through the station!

We took the next train down to Chur and Alison spent the rest of the afternoon shopping, having seen some things while exploring the preceding day. Dinner was again in the lounge bar at Hotel Stern.

On Tuesday morning we validated our tickets on the Interrail app and left Chur for Zürich, Switzerland's largest city (although very modest by British standards), and we were able to enjoy the scenery we had missed on our way there by night on Saturday. We arrived in Zürich mid-morning and decided to go straight on to Luzern for the day, leaving our exploration of Zürich for the following day. Our hotel was some distance from the station here, so we kept our luggage with us. We each had just one  modest-sized wheeled suitcase and these were no burden. From the station in Luzern we walked along the river and crossed one of the famous wooden bridges - not the shortest way across but it's what you have to do as a tourist! I am not ashamed to be a tourist: this trip was definitely a tour. As this was a day when we were travelling on our Interrail passes, we were able to include the trains to and from Luzern on our passes by searching for the trains and adding the tickets to the pass - so we were travelling First Class on a short journey which we'd never do if we were buying tickets. We had our lunch in Luzern at Wirtshaus Taube, a restaurant we had identified from Trip Advisor and made this our main meal of the day, the usual filling Swiss delicious-but-not-slimming meal that keeps you going for the whole day.

We returned to Zürich in peak travel time and avoided a crowded four-coach train in favour of the less-crowded eight-coach one that left a few minutes later. The we walked to the hotel - this was interesting, along a river much of the way, but involved quite a climb and in retrospect was a mistake. The trams were cheap and frequent so for the rest of our short stay we used these in both directions, having discovered that three tram routes stop right outside the hotel and one route just one block away in the next street. We checked in and had a good night's sleep ready for the next day's adventures.

Wednesday was our full day in Zürich and we explored the streets in the morning, roughly following a city trail we had found and incorporating a visit to the Globus department store where we bought a souvenir glass to replace one we had bought in Interlaken a couple of years before and had been dropped and broken at home. Our trail took us to streets of interesting old buildings and streetscapes, as well as through the world-famous financial district, home of the "Gnomes of Zürich".

After a morning's exploration we made our way to the Landesmuseum for lunch and afternoon's study of Swiss history.

We had earlier identified the restaurant at the Hotel Adler for dinner and booked a table, so we returned there at the end of the day and then took a tram back to our hotel. The weather had varied throughout the day, but the increasingly frequent rain showers in the afternoon had given way to a dry evening and nothing spoilt our enjoyment of this great city. After a good night's sleep and a decent breakfast we were ready for another country in the morning.

We left for Paris late morning on Thursday and had our coffee at Zürich main station while waiting for our train to be announced. There is a myth in Britain that Swiss railways always run to time and are never cancelled, but this just isn't true. On our many visits ti Switzerland we have found the railways to be, yes, a bit better than ours, but not perfect. Breakdowns and trespassers can happen anywhere and Switzerland is not immune. International trains to and through Switzerland are also affected, of course, and contrary to popular belief at home, snow in Switzerland does affect the running of trains and the condition of the roads. This morning the departure board showed several trains delayed and one cancelled, but not our 11:34 departure for Paris, the usual TGV Lyria, operated jointly by the Swiss and French national railways.

Arriving at Gare de Lyon, we made our way to our hotel, the Sleeping Belle, and then set out for a walk through the city, following the River Seine and passing across the Île de la Cité and on the the now-open Cathedral of Notre Dame (although we did not visit on this occasion). We then made our way back towards our hotel looking for somewhere to have dinner, settling on a steak at an art deco themed restaurant near to the Gare de Lyon.

Breakfast on Friday morning was at our hotel and then we made our way to Gare du Nord for the train back to London and thence home. We had all morning and although we had Metro passes on our iPhones we decided to walk. This whole trip had been about "slow travel" and this would be a way to enjoy Paris while on our way home. With wheeled suitcases this really is not a hard thing to do and the walk was very pleasant.

At Gare du Nord check-in for our train to London was just beginning and when the attendant controlling the queue for check-in saw my Sunflower lanyard she beckoned us across the priority queue normally reserved for Premier Class travellers and made sure that we sped through check-in: this was very welcome as although I can walk any distance, more or less, I do find standing and shuffling a bit hard and this was largely avoided. I had my usual difficulty with the passport machines and had to have mine checked manually at the French passport control. The we had a short wait with a cup of tea before boarding the train and speeding across to London. We were on our way home with a short wait at Kings Cross, our travel from London to Stamford covered this time by our Interrail passes as it was an international travel day on them. We arrived home late afternoon and had plenty of time to unpack and read our mail.

Full video of the whole trip is now here, and on my YouTube Channel, @Marks_Rail_Adventures

It had been a great break, and now my attention turned to the final preparations for exhibiting my model railway at the forthcoming Stamford Model Railway Show. No shortage of things to do in retirement!

Lincoln by LNER

I have been waiting all my life for this level of service

(Still not perfect, but very useable and very pleasant)

I had another trip to make to Lincoln, and as I had some say in the time of the meeting I was able to ensure that it would be both convenient for rail travel and that the day could proceed at a reasonably leisurely pace as befits my status as a retired person! Better still, I could choose my travel times in the hope that I’d be using LNER’s “Azuma” inter-city trains in both directions between Peterborough and Lincoln, with reasonable connections from and to my home in Stamford at both ends of the day. It worked like a dream …

I took the 09:03 from Stamford on a lovely sunny morning, really looking forward to a good trip. By way of a bonus, the train was one of Cross Country’s recently refurbished Turbostar units (this one in Pride livery), of which I think they only have two so far. Even more comfortable! It was on time and although busy was not too busy and it was easy to find a seat. At Peterborough the northbound main line trains leave from platforms 4 or 5 where there is a handy café and I bought coffee there, but the weather being so splendid I drank it outside on the platform while I waited for my train to Lincoln which was again on time, a few minutes later. On board in standard class I plugged in my computer and did the final preparation for my meeting. LNER trains to and from Lincoln are normally five-coach sets and for some reason always stop at the forward end of the platform, the north end going north. Five coaches is plenty for this service and I had a large table to myself for my work. 

Things started to feel wrong as the train slowed down at Tallington and didn’t really get going again. Eventually the train stopped and the Train Manager announced that a train ahead of us had broken down at Grantham and that we were fifth in a queue behind it - the line is only double track there and overtaking is not really an option. The upside of being fifth, though, is that the broken-down train was well on the way to being moved by the time my train actually stopped, so quite soon after that we drew into Grantham station about twenty minutes down. Once away from Grantham we were back to normal, although we never made up more than a minute or two of the lost time. At Newark Northgate the pantograph was lowered and the diesel engines under the floor were started in order to take the train on to Lincoln on the unelectrified line, which is also considerably slower than the East Coast Main Line, although there were no more stops. The Cathedral appears on the right hand side of the train on approach to the city and then swings around to the left as the train turns to make the approach into Lincoln station.

Even though the train was delayed, I had plenty of time in hand and made my way over to Lincoln Bus Station to take a bus up the hill - if I am very short of time I take a taxi, but at my age buses are free of charge in England so I use them when I can (they're cheaper than taxis for anyone travelling alone or in pairs anyway). I had plenty of time to prepare for my meeting, which went very well and very swiftly so it was clear that I would indeed be able to get my planned LNER train back to Peterborough for a decent connection home to Stamford.

I walked back down the hill to the station, always good to do. A lovely afternoon with my scarf packed away. It felt very much like Spring, considering that we were still in February. At Lincoln station I bought some lunch from the Costa Coffee Shop: I had been going to eat this at a table in the café but my train was already at the platform with its doors unlocked, so I made my over to the platform, found a table and ate the lunch in comfort there while I waited for departure. 

The journey back was without incident and after writing up the notes of the meeting and sending them out to the others I was on time at Peterborough, where there was a short wait, sitting outside in the warm sunshine, before taking the on-time train to Stamford.

It had been, as I had hoped, a lovely day for travel. I had got some work done, I did some gazing out at the passing scenery and I had enough exercise walking through Stamford and down through Lincoln even though I needed to ride up the hill in Lincoln. Anyone who thinks Lincolnshire is flat has never been to Lincoln (or Grantham, or Stamford, come to that)! And if you've never been to Lincoln you are missing a lot: a castle, one of the world's best cathedrals, some good shopping and some great bars and restaurants. And, as you see, it's easier than ever now to get there by train. East Midlands Railway runs hourly services from Nottingham and through the county of Lincolnshire from Peterborough, and LNER run five or six times a day from London on the route I used for this trip.