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.

It's Been a Busy Few Days

 Booking trips for 2026

As you'll have seen if following this blog, I did have some things booked for this year, but now I have quite a bit more! I have just booked with Great Rail Journeys for a few days on the Isle of Man, for example. Never been there before and the trip includes most of what I want to do - with enough free time to fit in the rest. On the way I can stay at the wonderful Midland Hotel in Morecambe for a couple of nights, another thing I've been wanting to do since seeing it restored a few years ago.

I have also booked my first trip with Byway Travel, to Chur and Zurich in Switzerland, who put together an itinerary fitting (more or less) my own spec. I await the tickets, which are all electronic and mostly done using an Interrail Pass, I understand. It all looks a bit complicated and although I have read the Byway and the Interrail websites it is hard to grasp how it works until the final confirmation from Byway arrives with all the details.

I have also been making any outstanding hotel and train bookings for trips already booked, as far as I can: some of the train tickets are not on sale yet. All this can be quite complex, ensuring there are no gaps requiring us to buy expensive tickets en route or end up with nowhere to stay one night. Meanwhile travel insurance has been renewed, and with all my medical conditions that took a while as well!

Theatre tickets have just arrived for this summer's visit to Chichester to see our friends, after which we'll visit Hastings which I have only ever seen briefly from a car before, so that will be interesting.

Meanwhile, I think we're all set for Scandinavia, Cornwall and Edinburgh (not all in one trip!) during the year. 

Defeating Storm Goretti, with help from GWR and LNER

A Winter Rail Adventure to Bath ... and Back (Just)

We like to have a few days away in January when the grandchildren are back at school and life a church has gone back to normal, and it is a quiet time at hotels so there are bargain offers to consider. As we did last year, we took up the offer from The Royal Hotel in Bath for a couple nights' dinner, bed and breakfast and I duly booked tickets both ways with Cross Country Trains via Birmingham and Bristol. This is further round and slower than via Peterborough and London but cuts out the need to transfer by Underground between stations in London.

The former railway station Bath Green Park >

Before we left we knew that a named storm was approaching the British Isles but it looked like we'd be safe enough. It did not quite work out as planned and the return journey was more of an adventure than I had anticipated. 

Our journey out to Bath was really great. We took a regional Cross Country train from Stamford to Birmingham New Street mid-morning on a Wednesday, intending to have lunch in Birmingham before taking an inter-city Cross Country train on to Bristol Temple Meads. In the event we bought a take-away salad lunch to eat on the second train. This left us with a bit of time in hand, even more than expected because our train to Bristol was ten minutes late coming in - the only train indicated behind time on the departure board at Birmingham New Street. A pity, for it was quite cold that day. We were travelling First Class on this leg of the journey - Standard Class on Cross Country's Voyager trains is best avoided if ticket price allows - and were very comfortable as we watched the sunny landscapes go by. We had tea to go with our picnic lunch and also accepted some snacks, most of which were stored away for later use.

At Bristol Temple Meads we made our way to the next train to Bath, a GWR express for London which was about to leave from another platform, and sat comfortably in Standard Class for this brief, eleven-minute final leg.

After checking in and unpacking, with a cup of tea made in our room (The Royal's in-room tray is pretty good) we set off for a walk across the river and up through Dolemeads towards Bathwick. We were initially disappointed not to be able to go into St Mary's Church where some of Alison's ancestors will have worshipped, but while we were there the parish priest turned up by chance and let us in. It turned out that we had several mutual acquaintances, so it was good to have met him. We returned to the city centre by way of Great Pulteney Street, a dramatic street of large terraced houses whose wonderful townscape is spoiled somewhat by the presence of so many cars. With two wide footways and a carriageway still wide enough for several lanes of vehicles it would be very hard to justify banning parking, though.

Dinner at the hotel was included in our loyalty package and was extremely good. Wine and coffee were not included, but we had them added to our room bill.

Starter and main course

The following morning began our only completely free day. This was a very short break. I had heard about the architectural gem that had been Bath's other railway station, Green Park, closed along with the rest of the Somerset and Dorset line in the 1960s, but I had never seen it. I understood it had become a market place with some shops and catering and community uses, so we strolled along there after breakfast and had a look. It was certainly a grand building and still felt like a railway terminus although there was market space and car parking where the tracks should have been. Not much was happening on a cold, damp Thursday morning in January, but we were glad to have seen Bath Green Park station at last.

We walked back then towards the Roman Baths via some of the shopping streets we knew. It was both surprising and a delight to discover that Jolly's department store, closed since before our last visit, was being refitted and is due to reopen soon under new ownership and management. I have to say that I think it is very brave to buy a department store in 2025 with a view to running it as a department store from 2026. So many other companies are withdrawing from department stores altogether. I look forward to hearing all about how well it does after the investment, and to visiting in due course.

We then moved on to the well-known Pump Room for our morning coffee. The Pump Room is best known for afternoon teas but this was mid-morning and we had had a hotel breakfast; coffee was perfectly sufficient. A piano was played, there were paintings to admire, the coffee was good.

The rain began and the wind grew a little as the signs of Storm Goretti began to creep in. The Isles of Scilly were already being battered and Cornwall was bracing itself, but here it was not too bad. The really bad news from our point of view was the expected heavy snow in Birmingham and the West Midlands, for we were to travel that way the following afternoon. There were weather warnings (including Red in Cornwall) and a complexity of travel warnings. I could not be sure about the problems we might face until the morning when the Live Departures would be published on operators' websites. I was already determined that if it were possible I'd like to leave earlier than planned so as to have time in hand in case of difficulty, but when I contacted Cross Country they never quite answered my question and all they wanted to do was ask me not to travel, tickets will be valid until Monday, they said. This was annoying because I was quite confident that travel via London would be perfectly possible, if a little disrupted by some trains from the West being stuck in Cornwall, and Cross Country just advised me not to travel. I ignored them and thought at least I'd try to get home but earlier than planned; there was not a lot to do in Bath in such weather as Friday morning's anyway.

Getting up on Friday, the first thing I did was to check trains home to Stamford from Birmingham to see which ones might be running ... nothing between Birmingham and Stamford. I contacted Cross Country via X and was told that there was no ticket acceptance in place and their advice was still not to travel. That was quite absurd: travel via Birmingham that morning was clearly not likely to be available, but the south-east was completely unaffected and travel via London would not be difficult. I was also fairly sure that by the afternoon, when we had been planning to travel, they could have run if they'd wanted to: they did have a couple of trains to Leicester, but not beyond ... 

After breakfast we checked out and crossed the road to Bath Spa station, several hours ahead of our booked travel time. A GWR express for London was already at the platform, due to depart in two minutes: we had tickets from Bath to Bristol which would suffice to open the barriers and went straight up to the platform and approached the Train Manager standing by the door trying to get the train under way: he urged us to board and we could discuss things on the move! Once we explained our position he just advised us where to sit, did not even asked to see such tickets as we had. He even said advised us to move into the front section of the train when it stopped at Chippenham because a First Class host was available only in the front unit (apparently this service is usually a single nine-coach set and is crewed by one host, but today was two five-coach sets which would need two). We did that and had our morning coffee on our way to London. It was a lovely ride through good weather and not a snowflake in sight. Arriving on time at London Paddington we made our way to the Underground and paid our way to Kings Cross St Pancras. So far, so good. We did have to use a manned ticket gate at Paddington because we did not have a ticket which would open a gate there, but again the person on the gate was very helpful and simply let us through.

A silver lining to this detour was the opportunity to pop into Fortnum & Mason at St Pancras and stock up on their St Pancras Blend tea! Another, quite frankly, was that in the wet and cold weather in Bath and Bristol, it was no bad thing to have left early and be on our way east. At Kings Cross we went straight to the Travel Centre and explained our situation to a kind ticket clerk who asked to see our tickets: I showed him the First Class Advance tickets from Bristol to Birmingham on my smartphone and he informed us that the net train to Peterborough - which was as near to Stamford as we could get by rail - was at 11:47, less than ten minutes' time, and there were seats available in First Class. He printed us a reservation slip and wrote a note on the back explaining that we were rerouted via London and that was that. We walked swiftly to the platform and boarded the York-bound train. Our allocated seats were already taken by a family so we did not disturb them and sat in the next seating bay where two seats were available. It was not yet noon and we were already speeding north! The catering on this service was from the lunch menu and the wine came just on noon, so I cannot be accused of drinking in the morning ... We had comfortably finished our coffee when the train arrived at Peterborough. One final explanation at a barrier and we were out of the station and on our way via the rather lengthy step-free route to Queensgate Bus Station where we boarded the 13:00 Delaine bus to Stamford, free of charge with our Senior Citizens' Concessionary Passes. We were home at 14:00, 2pm. It was actually a quicker journey than the originally-planned route, with better catering and smoother, quieter trains, but we usually avoid going that way because there are more changes of train and the Underground is a bit of a palaver with luggage, but it certainly worked for us on this occasion - when we had only a little luggage, of course. We may reconsider our policy next time we head to Bath or Bristol!

Well, that was quite an adventure! Getting back from trips seems to have been a bit of a trial just recently (see last month's post!), but we have successfully risen to the challenge and in the process have met some really nice, helpful railway staff who could not have done more to help us on our way. It has been very impressive and I hope that when the railways are all united as Great British Railways this will only get better, when "ticket acceptance" will no longer be an issue and the sort of assistance we received at GWR and LNER will be universal across the system. I am sure that for most railway staff getting passengers to their destinations is their instinctive way of working and for some time they have had to do it in spite of the obstructions placed in their way by the splintering of the system at franchising. Onward and upward: we have several journeys already in the planning, some of them charter trains, some escorted tours on regular trains, some of our own devising, some a blend of these - we have to get to the start of the organised tours, after all - and there are more to book as soon as dates are cleared. 

Do please subscribe to the blog if you are not subscribed already, and take a look at my YouTube channel @Marks_Rail_Adventures, too if you have not seen it yet.

Inter-City Between Lincoln and York ...

 A visit by train to the York Christmas Market

This was one of those trips that took shape as circumstances brought things together and presented an opportunity for a bit of an adventure! In the event it turned out to be more of an adventure than we anticipated - but all the more fun for that.

My wife had meetings in Lincoln on one evening and the morning of the day after the day after that, i.e. with one day in between. We decided to make it into a little break with me accompanying her in a hotel near the meetings and taking a day out together on the day between the meetings. It happened that the York Christmas Market, to which we had never been, was taking place and so I booked train tickets not just to Lincoln and back on the first and last day but from there to York and back on the middle day.

Lincoln

A good Lincolnshire lunch - at Lincoln Cathedral

The adventure began on a Tuesday morning at the beginning of December with a walk down to Stamford railway station from where we took the 09:56 train, on time, to Peterborough. There we changed trains, buying coffee from the Bike Barista on the way, taking the 10:28 East Midlands Railway train from Peterborough to Lincoln. Across to the bus station we just neatly caught a bus up to the cathedral and walked round to the White Hart Hotel, our home for the next two nights. We were too early to check in but were able to leave our luggage with the duty manager and went off to the cathedral café to have lunch which was to be our main meal that day. We can recommend this place: the service is good and the food excellent.

Once checked in to our "cosy" room (i.e. small, but that was fine and was what we booked), it was time for Alison to go off to her first meeting, which would include a light evening meal. I went to the hotel's bar for my own meal. Again, very good.

York

The Wednesday was all ours and was allocated for a day in York. We had Standard Class Off-peak Singles in each direction so we could choose any train after the morning peak and set off down to the station after our hotel breakfast for a local train to Newark Northgate where we would change for York. At Newark we had to cross via the footbridge for the brief wait for our connecting train - the train on which we were booked and had seats reserved for us was running late, though, but as we held open tickets we boarded the one that happened to pull in as we walked onto the platform. There were plenty of seats available in Standard Class and we sat and enjoyed the ride with some coffee from the buffet counter.

In York we walked into the city centre and in spite of the very cold weather enjoyed some time around the shops and the market that we had come to see. There was in particular one Christmas shop that was so popular that there was an organised queue to enter and customers were let in as space allowed. We joined the short queue and spent some time there looking at decorations etc.. We do not need a great deal more in that line - we are mostly selling and giving away things rather than acquiring them - but it is good to have a little update now and again. No, we did not buy this glass nativity - a bit big for us.

In the cold weather there was no shortage of ways to warm up - apart from going into shops, that is - and we called at a stall selling an excellent hot chocolate, alongside their usual mulled wine etc.. One of the excellent things about it was the Bailey's that was used in place of the usual cream ... and the optional cream topping (which we opted for) was at no extra cost. 

We walked back to the station when we were ready and took the next train home and this was where the adventure took an unexpected adventurous turn.  Our next train back to Newark Northgate was expected just a few minutes late, but there had been an incident on the line further south near Stevenage and trains from London were severely disrupted, meaning that there would be no connection to Lincoln until very much later. I consulted the timetables on my iPhone and decided that it would still be best to get the next train south from York but that it would be better to change at Doncaster, the next stop, where an unaffected train would get us back to Lincoln before anything from Newark. It would mean a wait of over an hour at Doncaster, but Doncaster station is in the town centre and we might be able to get dinner there rather than waiting until arriving in Lincoln, meaning that overall we would not be losing any time at all.

Meanwhile we still had a little while to wait until our departure from York, and I noticed that among the listed departures was a charter train on one of the far platforms and I thought it might be interesting to see what it might be. Either the coaches or the locomotive might just be worth seeing ... and it was. We had time to see GWR Castle Class steam locomotive 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe depart with The Christmas White Rose charter train before we returned to the southbound main platform for our LNER Azuma to Doncaster. 

Doncaster

The 16:34 train we were to catch was the one on which we had reserved seats, but because of the disruption passengers expecting to board another train would also be travelling on ours, so we made sure we were ready to board and take our seats - after a day on our feet we did not want to have to stand, and I did have my walking stick with me  which always helps in these circumstances. People recognise a walking stick but not everyone is familiar with the sunflower lanyard. Talking to other passengers on the way to Doncaster revealed that Doncaster would be a good place to change trains with an hour to spare because in the Frenchgate Shopping Centre adjacent to the railway station there was a pub that did meals, ideal for eating (and keeping warm) while awaiting our connecting train to Lincoln. (There is also a pub on the platform, where I have had a pint once before, but it does not offer food, unfortunately.) I'm afraid I cannot recommend the food at the pub in the Frenchgate Centre, although the beer was good, but it did fulfil the need at the time.

Lincoln

We returned to Doncaster station and found our train, the 18:47 to Peterborough via Lincoln. I had hoped to ride this route some time but not in these circumstances, particularly not in the dark which meant that we could have been on almost any route in the country and it would have looked much the same! We crossed the River Trent and called at Gainsborough Lea Road then headed south to Lincoln, stopping just once more at Saxilby. The train was a warm and comfortable East Midlands Railway local unit, the sort we are now seeing all over Lincolnshire and a huge improvement over the aged single-car units we used to have. At Lincoln we took the next bus up the hill and walked back to our hotel. The walk along Bailgate was a great end to the day's adventures with the Christmas decorations and general Advent busyness. This city has a great feel to it these days.

Well, we thought that was an end to the day's adventures, but more was to come in the middle of the night ...

Our room at the White Hart was great. The shower en-suite was good, too, but it let us down when the door jammed with my wife inside at some time in the early hours of the morning. Fortunately I was woken by her attempts to open the door, which was not locked but refused to respond to the turning of the door handle. After a trip to reception in my nightwear and two visits by the night porter the door finally opened as it should have done without any really effective input from either me or him - just as he was at the point of thinking he'd have to resort to breaking the door down. We did not close it fully after that! So there was a bit of a sleep shortage that night and we were duly compensated most satisfactorily when we checked out after breakfast the next day.

After the business meeting on the Thursday morning which was the initial reason for staying in Lincoln, we made our way down the hill with our luggage to the railway station and had our lunch at the Costa Coffee café at the station while we awaited our train, the 13:24 LNER departure for London which took us to Peterborough. We had initially thought we might leave later than this, so we did not have seats reserved on this departure, but there is never any difficulty finding seats at this time on trains from Lincoln. At Peterborough as usual we changed trains for Stamford and home. Another great trip. We could have done without the disruption on the railway but for us on this occasion it was OK: we coped well and still enjoyed the trip; for others with business to do or families to get home to it could have been dreadful. We could certainly have done without the disobedient shower room door ... but it gives us something to talk about! We shall not be put off using the same hotel on future trips.