A Short Break at Short Notice

By train to Bath, with a special hotel deal

An email message arrived a little while ago from The Royal Hotel in Bath, whose loyalty scheme I joined about three visits before. I was offered, for about the usual price of two nights' bed-and-breakfast, two nights with bed, breakfast and dinner, with a bottle of wine at the dinner. A cream tea on one afternoon was also part of the deal. The dates were restricted: it was clearly an offer aimed at filling space during the relatively quiet time between the summer holiday period and the forthcoming Bath Christmas Market. I have received this offer a couple of times before and had always been unable to take them up on it, but now that I am retired it was possible to go for it at last! I asked if they could include tickets to Thermae Bath Spa and they said they could, but they could only sell full-price tickets and I could do it more cheaply by buying them at a discount price from the spa myself, so I took that advice. They had no standard rooms left at the advertised ("from ...") price but I was happy to take a better room for a little more money. We have stayed in several different room at this hotel and have never been unhappy yet, but it would be interesting to see what their superior rooms were like, at a bargain rate.

From the hotel phone call I moved onto the Cross Country Trains website where I sought decently-priced conveniently-times trains. As we were only having two nights away I went for relatively early trains there and late trains back, and was able to book Advance First Class for both legs of the journey as far as Bristol, and then just day single Standard Class for the short trip between Bristol and Bath. I paid the small fee to have paper tickets which I collected from the station when I was next there. I am not a fan of having tickets on my iPhone: when two are travelling together, electronic tickets are much more of a palaver to show when asked, and one of these days I'll drop my phone or something and the tickets will become invisible. I do have a lot of things stored on my phone, it's true, but I have physical copies of them elsewhere, too!

Changing trains at Birmingham:
the amazing architecture of New Street station

On a Tuesday morning we set off for Stamford station, a last-minute check on live departures on Cross Country's app revealing that there had been a signal failure at Cambridge and our train, the 10:05 to Birmingham, was cancelled. It did show that an additional train had been put on in its place but that, to, had been cancelled. We went anyway so that we could take anything that might be going but that we could go somewhere nearby for coffee if there was going to be a wait for the next train. The station staff could not tell us what might happen, although it was clear that there would be no 10:05. He was not confident that there would be a 11:05 either but I was much more optimistic: surely they would terminate eastbound trains early and send them back to Birmingham - or they would soon acquire a heap of trains at Peterborough or Ely! Sure enough, over our excellent cup of coffee at Gooch's Coffee Shop I checked Live Departures again to see that the 11:05 was on time, having started at Ely. After coffee we returned to the station and resumed our journey. We had Advance tickets, normally only valid on the booked train, bit, of course, we were allowed to use them on the next train in these circumstances; our seat reservations did not apply, but we were easily able to find seats together. In fact we had a very smooth and easy journey after that, just an hour late (which was not really important to us on this occasion). The Train Manager endorsed our tickets so that we could demonstrate to his colleague on the connecting train to Bristol that we had missed our booked connection because of a cancellation on this leg, although in the event he just took our word for it anyway.

Again, the journey was smooth and easy, and lunch was served on the way (no wine on these trains, but good sandwiches). At Bristol we took the next train to Bath Spa, which was a GWR InterCity Express Train bound for London, our first ride in one of their new trains. I have to say I found it very comfortable, although I have heard much criticism of the seats. They are, of course, just like the "Azuma" trains of LNER but with different décor.

Mushroom risotto with peas

At Bath we walked across the road to the hotel and checked in. Our room was excellent! We decided that when booking in future we would always ask for this room (although not in summer because it faces south and would easily overheat on a sunny day). It was on the third floor and overlooked the station ...

After unpacking we went for a walk into the city. I was keeping an eye on the shops for a new raincoat since my ancient M&S trench coat had worn out a couple of years ago, and we saw just the thing in a shop in Bath city centre. Trying it on it fitted wonderfully and was just what I needed - a deep breath was needed when paying for it because the shop turned out to be Gieves & Hawkes - although the cast will probably last me the rest of my life so is actually good value and an excellent investment when I stop to think about it.

We soon returned for the first of our included dinners! It is a sign of how popular the restaurant is that even though I booked the dinner times only the day after I booked the room the latest time I could get was 18:45. The restaurant is open to non-residents and is well-regarded. We had the run of the à la carte three-course menu with wine up to £23 (which was almost all the non-sparkling wine on the list), but any extra sides would be added to our room bill - but even these were only £2 a time and we decided to share some mixed vegetables. A walk up three flights of stairs is just what is needed after a three-course dinner with wine, and fortunately that was available to us! We only used the lift when we arrived with our luggage and when we left with our luggage on the last day, so we made sure that whatever else we did or didn't do, we were not short of at least some exercise! We had a fairly early night after all our travelling and the early dinner, looking forward to our visit to the spa which we had scheduled for the following morning.

Thermae Bath Spa

After an excellent night's sleep we had slightly less for breakfast than is often the case when staying at hotels: it really did not seem long since the three-course dinner ...  Then we went along to the Thermae Bath Spa prepared to join the usual queue. We had downloaded The Times to our iPhones using the hotel's excellent free WiFi so that we could do the Quick Cryptic crossword puzzle while queuing ... but there was no queue. We walked in through the door and waited for one person to finish paying and then it was our turn. Sure enough, 10% discount applied (I think that is a mid-week reduction but I am not sure), and we were handed our towels, robes and flip-flops for use in the spa, along with the wrist-bands that operate the lockers and are used for charging us for anything we may buy and any time we take over the allotted two hours (half an hour is added free to allow for changing into and out of swimwear, so it is two hours pool time. Further time is added if the café is used). So after about three hours altogether in various hot spring-water pools, steam rooms, ice room (did not spend much time there!) and the café - for the usual Prosecco - we left feeling very fit and well. It was a sunny day and the daylight on the rooftop pool was dazzling bright when facing the sun, but unlike last time we were there there was no visible vapour rising into the frosty air and we were not terrified of leaving the hot pool when we had had enough!

Why there are no photos inside the spa

We decided that we really needed no lunch between the hotel breakfast and the forthcoming dinner, and we also decided to take the included cream tea early in the afternoon on the last day, after checkout, in lieu of lunch. That would do nicely until the snack on the train heading back towards Birmingham. I had left the schedule empty on the last day so that we could decide what we wanted to do depending on the weather and what we saw advertised, and what we decided to do was to return for another spa session on the last day!



So, back to the hotel for dinner, then sleep and after packing we checked out and left our luggage, returned to Thermae Bath Spa at pretty much the same time as before, but with a coffee break instead of a Prosecco break (the Prosecco had been a mistake, really: caffeine a more appropriate drug at that time of day, although I always say that sparkling wine is the only alcoholic drink that can be taken before noon). After the spa session we returned to the hotel for our cream tea and then had one little task to do, to buy cheese from the amazing specialist cheese shop, before returning for our luggage and taking a convenient train to Bristol to begin the journey home.

Bath Spa station

We had a little while to wait at Bristol and went to Bonapartes bar on platform 3 to await our departure. Although it had a clutch of Cask Marque certificates and four or five real ale pumps, none of them had any ale under them and I was offered some gassy stuff or other, from a tap, which I declined and ordered two halves of Stella Artois: at least that is supposed to be fizzy and cold. It was reassuringly expensive (well, expensive anyway). Our train came, more-or-less on time, and we had a good journey as far as Birmingham. No First Class host on this train, but the Train Manager served us with hot drinks, sandwiches and biscuits and we did not go hungry.


At New Street our departure for home was waiting at the platform, without its engines running, and we boarded in plenty of time. A driver boarded and made several valiant attempts to start the engines, watched by ominous-looking people in overalls on the platform, before the train was declared failed and we were asked to get off. This is where it all unravelled and Cross Country Trains did not make a very good start at dealing with customers: there was no clear plan about how they were going to get us on our way, and for those of us going beyond Leicester (like us) this was the last train of the day. I asked platform staff and was advised to join the train to Leicester, due at another platform in half an hour, and then ask at Leicester - experience tells me they would have ordered taxis, or they may have had a bus put on by then, or even dug out another train and crew. However, after about fifteen minutes it was announced that our train would be departing from the extreme end of the platform we had just left! They had found another train that could be used and there was enough space for it at the platform. We were urged to join it quickly so that it could get away as soon as possible, but the announcer did not seem to realise that it had passengers aboard who had to get off first, so our very haste actually slowed things down as people at the back blocked the way off for those arriving.

The replacement train eventually left almost thirty minutes after our original train was supposed to have departed and the journey actually went quite well in the end, just rather later than planned. A few minutes were made up and we were not too late getting home. I was impressed by the way things were eventually worked out and the problem was solved, but not at all impressed by our unnecessary trip to platform 10 and back, and the worry about how long it would take to get us home from Leicester: while the managers were working out a plan we should have been advised to wait until they knew what would happen. In the event there had been nothing to worry about, but we had been given something to worry about anyway! It was very similar to the situation at Stamford on our departure: the staff on the ground seem to take a pessimistic view of what the railway management are able to achieve when things go wrong, bit my experience in all our travels has been that problems are usually tackled very well - if only the information could be given to passengers, even if it is only, "we're working on it and will let you know shortly," that would make a huge difference.

See my previous trips to Bath at

• 2017 Christmas Market
• 2016 on the way home from Cornwall
• 2015 via Bristol

Exciting Trip for Next Summer

Edinburgh

Scotland again, but by a very special train this time

I have just taken the plunge and booked a trip through the Scottish Highlands on Belmond's Royal Scotsman, a very special trip to celebrate a special wedding anniversary next summer. I have also booked a couple of night's at the Balmoral Hotel (formerly the North British) adjacent to Edinburgh Waverley from which the tour departs, and our actual anniversary will be spent there, leaving on the Royal Scotsman the day after.

The trip takes in the Kyle of Lochalsh line, the only line out of Inverness that we have yet to travel, so it all fits in nicely. I look forward tremendously to the experience, and to writing about it afterwards.

Meanwhile there will be other journeys and experiences, of course, beginning later this month with another visit to Bath for a session at the Thermae Bath Spa and just to take life easy at the Royal Hotel. We are taking up a special offer of inclusive dinner with wine at no more than the usual bed-and-breakfast rate - and in all our trips to Bath we have never actually had dinner at the hotel before, so that, too, will be a new experience and will make the trip more relaxing, although less adventurous. It is a measure of how popular the hotel restaurant is that I had trouble booking a table several weeks in advance! Also adding to the relaxing feel of the trip is that I have been able to book reasonably-priced First Class seats with Cross Country as far as Bristol. The whole three days will feel like pampering, but at a budget price! I'll write it up as soon as I get the chance.

In December I have the group outing to Canterbury, too, which should be a grand day out.

Nothing is sorted out for next spring yet, and no beach holiday for the summer, so there is some planning yet to do.

An Exciting Few Months

Planned and spontaneous trips by train

To come soon is our usual few days on the south coast of England, this year beginning with the west end of the Isle of Wight, and there are already two further firm dates in the diary for next couple of months. 

One is to the Engadin in Graubunden (Grisons) Canton in Switzerland to research for my proposed model railway based on the Rhatische Bahn in that area, including a visit to the Albula Railway Museum at Bergen. 

The other arose from a marketing email from the Royal Hotel in Bath, England. We have stayed there a few times and have joined their loyalty scheme and mailing list, and every now and then they write to me with a great special offer: I have never been in a position to take them up on any of these before, but now that we are both retired we are free enough to fit in a trip when the bargains are available. So in October we are off to Bath again and will take the opportunity to have a session at the Thermae Bath Spa: having telephoned the hotel within minutes of reading the email I then went to the Cross Country Trains website and booked Advance First Class tickets to Bath Spa via Birmingham and Bristol at a reasonable price. It should be a great break, with dinner with wine included in the hotel special offer - we have never dined there before in all the times we have stayed there.

That, then, takes us towards the end of the year. But first, Isle of Wight, Chichester and the English seaside holiday!

Looking forward to 2019

Rail Adventures Planned for the new year

2019 will be a new experience for me, whatever unexpected surprises may come along, for at the end of January I retire from the "day job" and, theoretically, will have more time for travel, and for writing. There may well be, then, a bit more activity on the blog, but as I've never lived this sort of life before I find it hard to predict how things will be. Whether the UK's impending departure from the European Union will make any difference I also find it hard to predict. Not only might this make travel into Europe more complicated and expensive, it may make everything more expensive and therefore reduce what we can do. We are looking forward both to visiting new places and to travelling on "interesting" trains or routes.

I already have some trips in the diary but hope to add a few more, notably to Cornwall at some point. Already planned is a weekend tour of the West Highlands of Scotland in April, a day out in May in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, and the best part of two weeks in summer with Great Rail Journeys in Switzerland. The Scottish and Swiss trips are booked and committed and the Birmingham one advertised as a "Come with me" trip so is virtually committed. We shall also have to arrange to be on the Sussex coast again in August to visit our friends on holiday at Bracklesham Bay.



For the first time since 1980 I shall be free for Holy Week and Easter and we are thinking of visiting a cathedral city and attending the principal worship at the cathedral with exploration and leisure in between the services. Looking at the English cathedrals' websites, York looks the most likely to provide what we are looking for, and would be the first time for ages that we have ventured north on the East Coast Main Line with LNER's excellent catering.

There will also, I hope, be several days out and short breaks once the pattern of life becomes
established, for we have little idea yet of how it will be to live in our new home, the first time in our 38-year marriage that we'll have a home of our own, private, chosen and fitted out by us. We are having as much done as possible before moving in so that I do not have to spend weeks of my life on DIY! But I do have the Swiss model railway to build when I'm not travelling! An annual trip to the Thermae Spa in Bath is one aspiration, and this can often be fitted into a trip to the south or west of England. We have been given for Christmas a voucher for an afternoon tea in London, so that is another trip to come!

Relaxing at the Spa

The Royal Hotel, Bath, seen at night from the rail station

1. I needed a rest: it had been a busy couple of months and I was very tired
2. Last time we came to Bath the Christmas Market was being set up and we thought it looked like it might be worth seeing
3. We had a loyalty card for the Royal Hotel because we thought last year that we might come to Bath fairly often
4. There was a certain amount of family history research that required a visit to the Bath record office
5. We needed something exciting to take our minds off the exciting trip to eastern Europe that we had already booked for 2018

So I booked a stay at the Royal Hotel, Bath; three nights of their Spa Break deal which not only included the room and breakfast at the hotel and tickets for Thermae Bath Spa, but also a Champagne cream tea at the hotel. I then booked train tickets with Cross Country Trains which would give us four days in Bath (three nights) without exhausting us travelling. As usual I booked First Class on the trunk haul between Birmingham and Bristol, with Standard Class from Stamford to Birmingham and for the short hop between Bristol and Bath. Tickets bought online, collected from the machine at Stamford station and carefully stored with our hotel booking confirmation, all I had to do was find a way of living with the anticipation!

Soon enough we were on our way to Birmingham on the 09:05 Cross Country train on a Tuesday morning, bright and sunny although cold - weather which lasted throughout our little trip. I had brought along a small bottle of sparkling rosé to get the trip off to a good start, with two plastic wine flutes rescued from an al fresco reception some time and packed with a small ice-pack. At New Street we simply looked around the shops at the station for half an hour between trains and caught our booked Cross Country train forward to Bristol. To my delight this turned out to be a HST (diesel high speed train) rather than the newer but less spacious Voyager more common on this route. It was a while before the refreshment trolley came round but when it did we were able to have our coffee and order a night lunch which the hostess brought along in due course, included in the cost of the First Class ticket (which, bizarrely, was less that the cost of the Standard Class tickets of the Stamford-Birmingham leg of the journey!).

Although I had reserved seats on the next reservable departure from Bristol to Bath as "insurance" in case the trains were crowded, there was a South Western Railway train for Waterloo at a nearby platform ready to go and with plenty of spare seats, so we boarded that and were in Bath earlier than I had planned. This was a stopping train but with only double track between Bristol and Bath I knew that nothing would be overtaking it so it would be the next arrival in Bath. The hotel is just across the road but our room was not yet ready (check-in was not yet officially under way but they'd have taken us if the room were ready), so they kept our luggage and we set off around the city centre and our first look at the Christmas Market. Novelty gifts purchased at Bath Abbey gift shop, and the Bath record office located at the Guildhall we were back at the hotel to check in and unpack and then we went to the hotel bar to enjoy our Champagne cream tea: thoroughly recommended.

Later we set off for an evening walk around the streets. For the first half of the week the Christmas Market closed at six o'clock so there was not much to see of that but there were the decorations to enjoy and we booked a table for the following evening at the Acorn Kitchen vegetarian restaurant where we had been once before and had wanted to revisit. We are not actually vegetarian, but always enjoy vegetarian food and this place is exquisite, the sort of restaurant worth dressing-up for.

After our cream tea we did not need an evening meal but bought a take-away fruit salad from Marks and Spencer to share back at our room. A bath and an early night were then all that were needed to complete the first day of rest. It is all too easy to try to cram a lot of activity into these breaks, but a large part of what had brought us here was the need to rest!

The Wednesday morning was bright and sunny as forecast and we enjoyed the usual standard of hotel breakfast in the restaurant dedicated to the memory of IK Brunel who apparently designed the hotel itself as well as being the engineer for the railway line across the road. after breakfast we did some leisurely clothes shopping and visited the legendary Fine Cheese Company where we investigated Swiss cheeses (not easy to obtain in England) for Christmas. (They also have a branch in Belgravia, London, if you want to visit without coming to the West Country.) With four weeks still to go we took away the brochure to order the cheese online later, but it was good to be able to sample them in the shop. Life could get expensive if we lived in Bath and could shop here every week! They also have a coffee shop & restaurant attached and we had our "morning" coffee there surrounded by people eating lunch ...

Lansdown Crescent

Sunset from Landsown

Back to the room with our shopping, and then I went to photograph architecture at Lansdown on the north side of the city while my wife visited the record office to seek details of her ancestors. From Lansdown there are great views (in autumn and winter when the leaves are away) over the city and while I was there I was fortunate to see a wonderful sunset before walking down among the evening peak traffic: if there is a city in the world where the private car is an efficient form of transport, Bath is not that city!

Parsnip & Hazelnet Soup: fantastic!

We dressed for the evening and made our way to the Acorn Kitchen restaurant and enjoyed another wonderful meal well up the the standard set last time, although this time we did not need a third course. On our way there we checked with Thermae Bath Spa when might a good time to visit on the following day - never having been there after dark we thought it might be good to do that this time, but with the Christmas Market on the spa was likely to be busy early evening. As our ticket allows two hours, which is extended if we take time out for a drink or snack in their cafeteria, we would need to be in and changed by 18:30 to get best value from our tickets - when to start queuing in order to achieve that is hard to determine, but we decided to have a look at the queue at about 17:00 and see how it is going.





On Thursday morning we had success in finding ancestral monuments both in old St Mary's churchyard (where we had looked before and failed!) and in Bath Abbey, and we photographed addresses where we had reason to believe family members had lived, and we visited a great café, Boston Tea Party, for which we'd been given a discount voucher by a marketer in the street the day before and where we seemed to be the only people without a baby ... the coffee and cakes were great though. We then made our way back through the maze of the Christmas Market - and finally bought something from one of the stalls - and returned to the hotel to rest and to warm up before our visit to the spa.

For the visit to Thermae Bath Spa we pared our belongings down to the minimum: hotel key, credit card, admission tickets, clothes. Bath robe, towel and flip-flops are provided, so swimwear was all that we needed to take. We had decided to visit in the evening to see the spa after dark, our previous visits having been in mornings, and we knew that the trade-off for this would be that we would have to queue to get in.  It was cold, but we fell into conversation with others in the queue and the hour soon went by, helped by an introductory video in the windows, and the feeling of warmth once we entered the building with about 20 minutes still to go. When the spa is busy, new guests are let in as those already inside leave so that overcrowding is prevented. Admission is by wristband which opens the turnstile, locks the lockers and clocks up the cost of food and drink bought in the cafeteria which we then pay for on the way out (hence taking the credit card!). Once the wristband is handed in at the end of a session, another person can be let in. It is as perfect a system as I can imagine for ensuring the everyone gets a changing cubicle, a locker and space in the pools.

New this year is the "Wellness Suite" which replaces the former four steam rooms. It includes two new steam rooms, one with a Roman theme and one with a Georgian theme, as well as an ice room (which we did not use!), a sauna and a dark room with twinkling "stars", a video art installation on a cosmic creation theme and half-a-dozen loungers on which to relax. The last of these did nothing for me, but the steam rooms were very good and my skin felt better for days afterwards. We did venture into the roof-top pool once, essential, really, when visiting after dark. The water is so hot (this being the UK's only hot-water spa), but we knew that the air temperature was not much above zero so it was quite an act of will to leave the pool - straight down to the steam room to warm up!

We had a light supper at the Springs restaurant within the spa - not cheap but very good - and a final visit to the steam rooms and the Minerva Pool; we did not feel the need to visit the roof-top pool again as the air temperature was forecast to have dropped another couple of degrees by then! And so it was time to leave and wend our way back to the Royal Hotel where we fell for the advertised Christmas cocktail menu ...

On our final morning we checked out and left our luggage at the hotel while we had a final walk around Bath city centre, visiting a few interesting shops and posting our international Christmas cards, then we retrieved the cases and went to the station neatly in time to catch the 13:58 train to Bristol, arriving on the platform just as the train approached. A slight setback then occurred as I was stunned by a blow to the head while walking towards the train ... my head had struck a metal box (apparently housing train starting push-buttons) projecting from a roof stanchion. I picked myself up and made my way to the train, surrounded by much fuss and care from other passengers and platform staff. I ensured that the staff were aware of what had happened and then settled onto the train. On arrival at Temple Meads I reported the matter because by then it was clear that some minor bleeding had occurred, and after first aid and very kind care and attention from GWR staff I went on my way. No concussion, no lasting damage, but that box does need to be removed or the space under it rendered impassable so that no-one else suffers a similar accident: if I'd been shorter I'd have walked under it, taller and I'd have seen it, but at my height the top of my head hit it.

And so we walked into Bristol city centre which is good in parts! We chose a less scenic route in and a more scenic one back - not really through choice but because we did not know the best way. Like many places, there has been a lot of redevelopment along waterfronts lately and especially near the station it is looking very promising with some lovely urban walks to be had - even when wheeling suitcases, and even after dark. We had a very pleasant light meal at the House of Fraser store's Zest Café. We saw in Bristol some very similar Christmas Market stalls to the ones we had seen in Bath, though rather fewer of them. Someone is making a fortune out of supplying the timber chalets for these events!

We had a very pleasant pint of Tribute in the station bar (Bonaparte's) before boarding the 18:30 to Birmingham, again a HST (possibly the same one we'd come on: it creaked just the same). A very hospitable First Class host immediately offered us hot drinks and cake which were very welcome. At Birmingham we bought a snack supper at a kiosk and soon found our way to the platform for our connection to Stamford where the train was already waiting and although for some reason the reservation labels had not been applied, we found two seats together quite easily and had a smooth and easy ride home. There is something special about travelling in the dark - I would not want to do it all the time but it is an interesting experience occasionally.

It was a really good few days rest with the usual great feeling after a visit to the hot spa. Straight back into the thick of Advent and Christmas preparations ...

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The West of England

The allotment plots at the Eden Project. Inspiration!

"Where shall we go this autumn?" I asked. "We need to visit the Eden Project in the autumn, having seen it in spring and summer," was the reply. And so was born the latest adventure ... Cornwall is so easy from our home in south Lincolnshire: train to Birmingham New Street and change there for a connection the rest of the way. What else to do to fill up the week? Bath, I thought. We loved the Thermae Bath Spa when we went there in the spring of last year, and Bath is always worth a visit. I like to make bit of a tour of these trips, going out one way and back another, so we could return from Bath via London at the end of the stay. Four nights away in two places with some nice long train rides between: so, to the internet with notepad in hand to see what I could plan!

First off, the Eden Project website to see if there were dates to avoid when it is closed or otherwise not suitable: this revealed no issues, so next to Booking.com to look for accommodation in St Austell, the nearest town with a rail station, and the terminal for the bus to the Eden Project. There seemed to be only one hotel and it was a small one and with good reviews, the White Hart. This needed to be booked pretty swiftly if we were to be able to make the trip, so I quickly looked up the train times on Cross Country Trains' website to ensure there were no expected problems there (unlikely midweek, but wise to check) and booked the hotel for a Tuesday and Wednesday night, to fit round a commitment on the relevant Monday evening, which fixed our Eden visit for the Wednesday.

The Royal Hotel in Bath, where we had stayed before, was offering an inclusive spa break with tickets to the Thermae Bath Spa and a cream tea with Champagne and two night's accommodation, and it was available (just!) for the two nights following our two in St Austell; a close thing: we could not have done it a day earlier or a day later, so early planning is essential. Having booked all that, I then booked train tickets with Cross Country Trains for the Tuesday, with Great Western Railway for the Thursday from St Austell to Bath and for the Saturday to London, and with Virgin Trains East Coast home from London on the Saturday. It all fitted in pretty neatly. I wanted First Class for the "trunk" sections: Birmingham to Cornwall, Cornwall to Bath and Bath to London and then Peterborough, with standard class on the local stretches to and from Stamford at the start and finish. To get good prices I had to compromise slightly, meaning an extra change of train at Plymouth (with standard class from there to St Austell) on the way out, but everything else fitted.

Lunch on the train from Birmingham to Plymouth. I did have
to pay for the beer. The wrap is vegan-friendly for those to
whom this matters. It was very good for anyone!

So off we set on a Tuesday morning mid-November to catch the 10:05 from Stamford, bound for Birmingham New Street. We had standard class Advance Single tickets bought with our Senior Railcards and these cost us very little and came with seat reservations. On the way we bought coffee from the on-board catering trolley, a perfectly decent cup of coffee: things have come a long way in on-board catering. At New Street we had time for a quick tour round the Grand Central shopping centre before going back down to the station for our train to Plymouth. This time our basic catering was included in the First Class Advance Single fare, but with our snack lunch we also bought beer and wine from the trolley, these not being included in Cross Country Trains' First Class complimentary offer. With free wireless internet and socket to charge my iPhone I tended to follow the route on Maps, which added much interest to the window-gazing which occupied most of my journey. My novel remained unread, but I did do a little sorting of photographs.

Between Exeter and Newton Abbott, of course, is the famous coastal stretch including the ride along the seawall at Dawlish and the piercing of many a headland. Fantastic ride:

The sea looked great and the cloudscape very dramatic that day.

At Plymouth we were directed across to the platform where our connection to St Austell was waiting. This was a GWR stopping train to Penzance and called at all the local stations in Plymouth and then crossed Brunel's famous Tamar Bridge into Cornwall, where the signs at Saltash station welcomed us to that special county, which I tend to think of as a country within the UK rather than a county in England, so different does it feel. Loads of schoolboys joined the train at one of the Plymouth stops and the last did not get off until Lostwithiel, an immense daily commute for such a young person, especially in winter when it was dark before we reached his stop.

We left the train at St Austell and it continued on its slow journey down to Penzance, by now, having left Plymouth packed with passengers, with very few on board. This was definitely a train for people leaving Plymouth rather than people going to Penzance! With a little help from Maps on my iPhone we found the way to our hotel, a five-minute walk, and checked in. As is the trend these day, our room had a name as well as a number, Tin Pit Meadow, very Cornish-sounding! We took our time unpacking and went for dinner from the bar menu. The hotel also had a very nice-looking restaurant but we were more than happy with the bar menu. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the White Hart in spite of a couple of hitches on the first evening and would wholeheartedly recommend it for anyone visiting Eden by public transport.

When one is used to prices in London, or even in Stamford, the value for money in Cornwall is staggering: the premium gin and tonic menu at £5 a time, for example. It is only prudence that stops one working ones way through the whole list ...

The following morning we sampled the breakfast menu in the main dining room. As is common with smaller hotels there was a buffet for the "continental" items with cooked dishes to order, all included in our room rate. And then off around the town for a quick look at the shops before catching our bus at 10:40 for the Eden Project. As with so many towns today, the centre of St Austell seems a little depressed: several closed shops, several charity shops and low-end retailers, but all the banks are there and the usual chains like Boots and WHSmith. There is hope, and a large newish shopping centre.

The bus station at St Austell is immediately in front of the rail station and there has been a clear effort made to integrate the transport systems there. The departure times of the bus service to the Eden Project even appear in the online departure list for the rail station, this service being considered an extension of the rail service. We boarded and bought our return tickets - showing these at the Eden Project admission desk would give us a worthwhile discount on our admission fee there, part of their effort to encourage people to use public transport. It was certainly low season: none of the outer car parks was in use, just the ones near the entrance to the project. There was no queue for tickets and we were straight in.

The first thing we noticed about being here in the autumn was that we could see things through the trees and shrubs that we could not see when more of them were in leaf. 2016 had a spectacularly colourful autumn, too, and everything looked gorgeous. We wandered around all of the outdoor areas first as rain was threatened, and started with the "allotments" so that we could get some idea of what we ought to be doing in our garden at this time of the year ... Then to the Mediterranean Biome where, once we had wandered through all the gardens, we had a salad lunch. This was, however, a mediterranean salad, and with one starter and one main between two of us we did not need a dessert!

Then off to the Rain Forest Biome which was the coolest we had ever known it, although we still took off our coats as we walked in ... and then as we moved up to higher levels the sheer humidity made us feel less and less comfortable: it is quite amazing how Eden has created this foreign climate in a claypit in Cornwall! We noted that a "cool room" has now been installed for those who cannot cope with the climate and need time out before continuing. A new high-level walkway was being installed in the Rain Forest Biome, the trees having grown so much taller than when the original one was built. There is a lot to learn in this huge greenhouse, but having been here twice before we moved through it fairly quickly this time. If you've never seen it, though, the trip to Cornwall is worthwhile for this biome alone.

Soon after we left the biomes the forecast rain began, although only a very light drizzle. We had seen everything we had come to see and so we caught the "land train" (a tractor hauling a train of - covered - passenger-carrying trailers) back up the hill to the visitor centre and spent a few minutes Christmas shopping in the gift shop before making our way back to the bus stop for the bus back to St Austell. The public bus service is roughly hourly, so it is necessary to plan the visit rather than just turn up at the stop and wait for the next bus, but it works well enough for us. I just had to keep in mind the times of the two most likely buses we'd catch back, together with the length of time it would take to walk back to the stop from the shop. In the event we were in very good time and sat in the shelter waiting for a few minutes.

Light meal in the bar again that evening, and after an excellent night's sleep, check out of the hotel and head to the station for the Cross Country train to Bristol Temple Meads, where we would change for Bath Spa. We travelled First Class again to Bristol, with a light lunch on the train, and our tickets from there to Bath were Anytime Standard Singles so we could spend time in Bristol en route if we so wished. We decided to go straight on to Bath and so on arrival at Bristol sought out the next train to Bath, a GWR High Speed Train which was arriving at one of the other platforms and where we found two seats together without too much difficulty for the few minutes' run to Bath.

One of the great things about the Royal Hotel, Bath, is that it is right opposite the station, so within five minutes of the train stopping at the platform we had made our way down in the lift, out through the ticket gates and across to the hotel and were standing at the reception counter. This is a very friendly and welcoming hotel and we soon felt at home in our little room with all the facilities we could require: even a cafetière and ground coffee in the room! We unpacked and went out to explore the shops: I had one last bit of Christmas shopping to do on this trip while within reach of an Apple shop ...

We also visited a few other shops and dodged a shower or two and then went back to our hotel and again found ourselves perfectly happy with dining in the bar before a relatively early night. I even began writing up this blog post!



Friday was to be the spa day, and we set off after the hotel breakfast to the Thermae spa, handing in our voucher and being given our robes and flip-flops. We have to take our own swimwear and I went with the swim shorts bought in the spa gift shop on the previous visit! Last time we have towelling sandals but this time flip-flops were provided and we were allowed to keep them if we wished, which we did, so I now have Thermae-branded footwear to match my swim shorts. The two hours which are included in our ticket is actual spa time: extra time is added to allow for changing etc, and by taking a break in the café another half-hour was added, so although this could never be called a cheap activity it is good value and you never feel you are paying too much for what you get. We had plenty of time in the hot spa baths and in the steam rooms: this time I avoided the eucalyptus scented steam room but I spent plenty of time in the other three, with a warm shower in between - there was plenty of chance to close the pores by walking up to the rooftop pool, before opening them again by getting into the water.

And so back to the hotel briefly. The champagne and cream tea which were part of the package would wait until later: first we walked out to the Royal Crescent to visit the restored Georgian home at 1 Royal Crescent, where we learnt a lot about Georgian high society and fashion as well as about the design and use of these fantastic houses. Anyone with the slightest interest in the way Bath has developed really must visit this place, and the associated Museum of Bath Architecture, for which a joint ticket may be purchased, which we did. After the Royal Crescent we returned at dusk to our champagne and cream tea, enjoyed at a quiet corner table in the bar area. Being a station hotel in the centre of a small city the bar and restaurant are always bustling (but not really packed; we always found a seat). Another brief turn around some of the shops, some time in our room (more blog-writing) and then time for a light supper in the bar (having had the cream scones earlier!) and to bed.

On our final day we were not due to leave bath until after noon, and the morning was spent visiting the Museum of Bath Architecture, with a leisurely walk there, partly along the riverbank, and back through some of the streets we had not yet seen. The hotel had kindly looked after our luggage which we then went to collect and caught our train to London. I had planned some time in London on the way back so we were in no hurry to get from Paddington to our train home at Kings Cross and we spent a little time at the British Museum - mostly buying a few more Christmas gifts at the gift shop. Warning: the cloakroom charges per bag and there is a maximum weight of bag: we had to decant some of our contents into boxes for which we were then also charged more. If you're used to free or cheap cloakrooms or lockers this can come as a bit of a shock, but we'd been before and knew we were taking a chance of being surcharged - it was not so much the cost as the faff of emptying a quarter of each of two cases to make up an imaginary third case, all of which had to be undone to repack when we left just before closing time.

Finally the good old number 10 bus to Kings Cross from right outside the museum (this bus gets us there from almost anywhere we need to be in London!), a short wait in the Virgin Trains East Coast First Class Lounge at the station, and the 18:30 fast train to Peterborough to wait for our little Cross Country train home. Brilliant holiday, with lots of new stuff as well as lots of familiar places. We'll be back in Bath, and have joined the hotel's loyalty scheme: it is so good and so well located, and there's a lot of Bath we still have not visited.

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Time for a Hot Bath ...

Cross Country Trains Turbostar on its way to Birmingham:
Birmingham New Street offers change of train to many parts
of the UK, especially Wales and the West of England

For various reasons we were not able to book a February holiday much in advance this year, and certainly couldn't take the 11-day holiday we had last year, but when the opportunity arose we decided to revisit Bristol, which we had not seen since we left Gloucestershire in 1991, and Bath, which we last visited ten years ago. Both cities had attractions which were in the construction stage when we last visited and were now complete and worth seeing, and the journey there is straightforward and quick. By leaving on a Sunday after lunch we could be in Bristol in good time for dinner with just one change of train, at Birmingham New Street: we would be in the care of Cross Country Trains all the way in both directions, apart from the short hop between Bristol and Bath with First Great Western.

As usual, Booking.com arranged the hotels in both places, and in Bristol we stayed in the same hotel, which had undergone many changes, not least of name, as we had visited in about 1986 with our two small sons. One thing that had not changed was the location of the dining room inside the base of a former glass kiln, although the furnishing of it had changed completely. The journey there was simple: we left Stamford on the 14:06 train to Birmingham New Street, taking the Sunday papers with us. As we arrived I noticed that the indicator on the next platform was advertising the 16:12 to Bristol Temple Meads. Because of the building work still taking place there, it took us a while to get to the platform and by then the train was already there and waiting, in plenty of time for its booked departure. It was a High Speed Train, older but far more comfortable than the Voyagers used on most of the services on that line. Because of the late booking (and therefore lack of cheap tickets) we were travelling Standard Class that afternoon, but it was comfortable enough and we were able to buy a cup of tea and a biscuit from the trolley service. Between New Street and Temple Meads the train stops only at Cheltenham Spa and Bristol Parkway and we soon arrived at Temple Meads. Like many other stations, this one is undergoing refurbishment work, but it is not as extensive as, say, New Street, Kings Cross or Edinburgh Waverley and it was not difficult to find our way round and we strolled out to find our hotel. 

Although we'd been before, that was a long time ago and much had changed, but the map on my iPhone told us the way and we soon found the front door. It was a sixties design assuming car access, even though it now trades on its proximity to the rail station, so pedestrian approach was not as easy as it might have been, but once inside it was very attractively furnished, now in the hands of the Hilton chain. We checked in and were handed a warm chocolate cookie each as a welcome(!) and shown the way

Dining Room at the Doubletree Hotel in Bristol City Centre

to our room, which was spacious and reasonably well-equipped, including free wireless internet access, which we are coming to regard as essential these days. I had booked dinner in the restaurant for 19:00 which gave us time to unpack and get ready. The dining room was remarkably sparsely occupied and service was excellent. Back in our room we planned the following day, for which wet weather was being forecast. One thing I wanted to do was to visit Brunel's SS Great Britain, the

SS Great Britain 1st class dining saloon

world's first iron-built, steam-powered, screw-driven ocean liner, forerunner to the ocean-going passenger vessels that were the mainstay of overseas travel before aviation took over a century later. Last time I had seen this ship she had just been returned from being used as a moored barge in the Falkland Islands and was a sorry sight: now restored the ship was well worth a visit and we spent all the morning there after the usual hotel breakfast, together with a pleasant waterside walk there and back. There is also an industrial museum but that is not open on Mondays, and a dockside railway which operates, taking passengers between the museum and the ship, on certain days. And it did not rain solidly, so we did dry out.

The hotel had kept our luggage for us, so we returned to collect it and made our way to the station to catch a train to Bath Spa. This line is served by several routes so there are trains every 20 - 30 minutes and we simply boarded the next one, a Cardiff-Portsmouth train operated by First Great Western - one day we must do the trip from Bristol to the south coast which apparently goes through some great scenery on the way: there are two routes, one to Weymouth and this one to Portsmouth. It is just a few minutes to Bath Spa; the station sits on a viaduct at the apex of a tight bend in the river, with a river bridge at each end of the platforms, and so the exit is via a subway onto the forecourt, and our hotel was directly opposite. Designed by Brunel, this was obviously the original railway hotel, the Royal Hotel. Not as smart, new or expensive as the hotel in Bristol, it was even more convenient and was more than good enough for our needs with a spacious bedroom and a great breakfast included. We were to stay here for two nights, but this was only mid-afternoon and we set off for a walk around the city centre. We know Bath reasonably well: it has a compact city centre with the rail station, and our hotel, on one edge but near to the shops and other attractions. We sought out Sally Lunn's restaurant and booked a table for that evening for dinner and visited the little museum in the cellar, making a mental note to return on the last morning to buy Sally Lunn buns to take back as gifts. We then made our way to the Thermae Bath Spa which was our agenda item for this city and had been under construction when we were there ten years before. The queue was along the street frontage and a member of staff was available to talk to those queuing: we took his advice on the best time to come and resolved to be there at 09:30 on the following morning and returned to our room to change for dinner.

Dinner at Sally Lunn's was amazing: traditional "trencher" meals are served on a bread bun base as a plate (although these days that is served on top of a modern plate!) and the gravy-soaked bread is eaten last. The building is supposedly Bath's oldest house, altered many times over the centuries, so you're surrounded by history as you dine. Lovely meal. On the way we noticed a rather attractive vegetarian restaurant two doors away ... the smartest veggie restaurant we'd ever seen. We thought about it and in the morning dropped in and booked our table for the next evening.

So, Tuesday morning found us early at breakfast at the hotel and then off to the Thermae Bath Spa where we booked in after a very brief wait. This spa uses the same natural hot spring that was known in Roman and even pre-Roman days, and is located off Hot Bath Street, one block from the Roman Baths. Towel, robe and slippers are provided and we were shown to the changing facilities which are very neatly arranged so that we go into our cubicles from the entrance, change into our swimwear and don the robe and slippers then pass out the other side of the cubicles to put our clothes etc and the towel into a locker. The wristband given to each guest on the way in acts as a receipt and activates the lock on the clothes locker: it is also used to pay for refreshments in the café with a bill presented on the way out, so we needed to carry no money and no key. Neat. A great feeling of freedom.

The postcard! Minerva pool bottom left, roof pool right,
steam rooms bottom centre. Top left is the Cross Pool
in another building which we did not visit this time.

We started at the Minerva pool on the lower ground floor, a warm bath like a small swimming pool but with no chlorine smell and with a flat bottom on the deep side of shallow (!) in which I could comfortably stand or, when there was sufficient space, swim. While there were various fountains, bubble pools and an artificial current which were switched on from time to time, the general feeling was one of relaxation and we spent about 40 minutes here enjoying the warmth and feeling of buoyancy. Photography and telephony were prohibited in order to promote the relaxed atmosphere so I have no photographs of our visit but did photograph the postcard we bought!

After our time in the Minerva Pool we went upstairs to the steam rooms: there are four cylindrical steam rooms around a central cold shower, each having a different scent. Each is very hot and cleans the skin from within, and the eucalyptus one would probably clean the sinuses pretty effectively, too. After a (warm) shower we visited the café for sparkling wine, and then the roof pool. This was really odd, on the top of a high building in February in swimwear and not cold: vapour was rising from the water and it was about the temperature of a hot bath. Lots of people were in the pool by now and the sun was shining strongly but very low in the winter sky. After final visit to the first pool we had coffee in the café and changed to go back out, feeling very invigorated. The toned-skin feeling lasted several days, as did the general feeling of well-being. I'd recommend it to anyone; although it isn't cheap you do get a lot for your money: two hours in the spa, plus a time-allowance for getting changed and an extra half-hour added for each visit to the café, which in our case took less than half an hour. We were there for about three hours altogether.

In the afternoon we strolled around the city and looked for ancestors' memorials in a closed churchyard (but drew a blank) and then changed for our dinner at The Acorn Vegetarian Kitchen. Unlike any other vegetarian restaurant we had visited it was the sort of place where dressing-up is appropriate.

The following morning was Ash Wednesday and I had to travel back for evening worship in Stamford, so after a quick excursion to Sally Lunn's for gifts to bring home, we were at Bath Spa station for a First Great Western train to Bristol Temple Meads and then our booked train to Birmingham New Street. Our train to Birmingham was a Cross Country Trains Voyager and this time we were travelling First Class. That part of the trip neatly encompassed lunch time and we were able to enjoy the hospitality of Cross Country. They do not include wine, but on Ash Wednesday that was probably just as well. There was a selection of hot meals to purchase, or cold snacks at no extra charge, but there were also some hot options still available from the breakfast menu which were quite acceptable, although not the standard we've grown used to on East Coast Trains. Paper plate and plastic cutlery, too. A bit of a contrast from the evening before, but then so is the price!

In Birmingham we had time for a short walk around the city centre and a visit to a shop or two: the tramway extension from Snow Hill to New Street is coming along nicely but it means that Corporation Street and Stephenson Street are a bit of a mess at present! Similarly, we look forward to the completion of the work to New Street station itself and will have to make a trip to see it, and the new Grand Central shopping centre, when it is done.

And so back to our little Turbostar train home. For some reason the seat reservation notices were not in place, but we found two satisfactory seats together anyway and the journey soon slipped by: home for tea as planned and then preparations for the evening.

We shall have to return to Bath. The spa visit was well worth doing and if you can save up the cost of the spa and the hotel and book cheap rail travel (our Two Together Railcard helped us), then it is well worth it. My photographs for the trip are available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/frmark/sets/72157650905272822/