The Writing, or at least the Drawing, is on the Wall

To London by Train for Banksy - Among Other Things

A few days in London looking after grandchildren in term time always seems like a good idea, with weekday daytimes to explore London and quiet nights with them asleep ready for school the next day. This particular trip coincided with the Banksy Limitless exhibition in South Kensington and we arranged to go there on our last day, a Monday, before we came home.

Things didn't start too well: I'd had surgery two days before on my right hand to try to put an end to the pain and difficulty caused by osteoarthritis at the base of my thumb, but for the time being it was more painful and disabling than the disease had been. I certainly would not - could not - have gone on my own on this mission, but my wife was able to do up my shoelaces and so together we could cope!

So I bought the train tickets just the day before travel, as soon as I was confident that I'd be able to go. I don't think I'll ever quite understand train ticket pricing and after a lot of trial and error finally came up with a pretty decent pair of super off-peak singles through from our local station, Stamford, at 09:56 to London Kings Cross, with a really good change of train at Peterborough. By this time First Class was out of the question (and not being a meal-time we did not need the included catering) and I really expected to have to travel on the slower Thameslink trains, but no: these tickets were for any train and the itinerary given included reserved Standard Class seats with LNER, which I was able to choose. A pair of airline-style seats was perfect: LNER's "Azuma" trains have plenty of legroom even in Standard. Alison was having to handle all the luggage, of course, which we managed to compress into one case for our short stay. We were in London before 11:40, a pretty good journey, smooth and relaxing on both stages, assisted by coffee from the Bike Barista at Peterborough station during the change of train.

Before going to our temporary home in Shepherds Bush, we popped into Fortnum & Mason's branch in St Pancras International station and bought some of the St Pancras Blend tea which we like so much and which is only available in that shop - just in case we did not have an opportunity late in the trip, then we made our way to the Underground, Hammersmith & City Line and settled in for lunch at our son and daughter-in-law's home. Just two days after surgery under general anaesthetic I needed a rest after all that travel and before my young charge arrived from school later in the afternoon!

Short trips that we might normally make on foot were often taken by bus or Underground on this trip and yet we still managed to walk a lot more than we normally do at home: one of the really great things about travelling car-free is that we get plenty of exercise. 

As it happened the children had a "sleepover" at their school on the Friday night (the teachers at that place are absolutely marvellous), and as it happened our friends from Egypt were at their London flat at the time and invited us round to dinner that evening, so having taken the children back to the school after their teatime, bearing sleeping bags and inflatable mattresses, and each with a wheeled suitcase, we were then free and took an Underground train just the two stops to Hammersmith from where we walked to our dinner date. The journey back that night was very similar except for not having to pick up the children! We were later than I'd like to have been but it's hard to tear yourself away from friends you don't often see.

Local Trips by Bus and Underground

When we collected the children at 09:00 the following morning it was straight into their full-on Saturday activities and it fell to me to take the younger one to football practice, normally within walking distance ... but not only was I still having to take things easy but also she had her suitcase (the school had very kindly let us leave the sleeping gear until Monday morning). I had twigged that there was a bus route that would get us quite near the football place and as we approached the stop there was a bus coming, so we boarded and sat near the luggage rack. It was one of those meandering urban routes that is not in a hurry to get to the end of the route but serves a lot of streets on the way and it dropped us right outside the place where we were going and we were ten minutes early and had to wait for the football coach to unlock the gate to the pitch. While my granddaughter enjoyed her football practice (after what had apparently not been a good night's sleep!) I popped home with her suitcase and bought a takeaway coffee on my way back to fetch her. 

I needed a new shaver, my wife some new boots and so we all went to Westfield shopping centre - an easy walk - in the afternoon. The children also looked at clothes there and after consulting their parents on holiday we ended up buying stuff for them, too. They did need things, apparently, but there had been little opportunity to go shopping ...

Sunday involved getting to church in Kensington by Underground train - a new children's group had been started for older children and the senior granddaughter was excited about going to that and not having her little sister with her! With all the  busyness of Saturday we had not yet bought the chicken for Sunday dinner and naively assumed that we'd be able to buy one after church in Kensington High Street ... no, no useful shop was open there before noon. So we went back to Shepherds Bush and bought our food at the Westfield shopping centre instead - and needing a snack lunch because dinner would be rather later, the children introduced to Mr Pretzels where we acquired our snacks, sweet for them (did I need to say that) and savoury for me. Excellent: I must remember this chain and look out for it when I need a light but sustaining meal.

We were early: more people did turn up before the service started!

I think I had seen enough of Westfield by now, and back we went for the children to catch up on homework and the adults to get dinner ready. And all of us to eat it.

The Art at Last!

And so to Monday morning and, for us, the Main Feature, Banksy Limitless! This was at a gallery in Sussex Mansions, just a couple of minutes from South Kensington Underground station. It was easy enough to find the building, which was basically a huge apartment block with shops and cafés on the ground floor, but it took us a few minutes to track down the entrance to the exhibition! (Just as well, as we were a touch early!) We had pre-booked tickets and so went straight in and were fascinated by all there was to see, learning a lot about what Banksy has been doing over the years and what good work he has done with the earnings from his art. I was not at all sure what to expect or how long we should be there, but I would recommend this exhibition to anyone at all interested in street art, in art as political protest, or just in art! Or politics. Or social history. All good stuff. There was a bit about his work in Palestine which is quite moving in the present time.

Travelling Home with the Commuters

And so to home. First of all back to Shepherds Bush to pick up our luggage and say hello and goodbye to our son and daughter-in-law who were now resuming responsibility for their children, and then Undergound to Farringdon where we had a little while to wait for our Thameslink train to Peterborough. This was now the peak travel-home time for commuters and we were taking a train from the heart of the City. It was all very busy and yet almost every train was on time. Very impressive. Trains to Peterborough are half-hourly and connections from there to Stamford are only hourly, so with care we were able to choose a time when a neat connection could be made at Peterborough - otherwise we would probably have taken a private-hire taxi at Peterborough at considerably more expense but worth it in the circumstances. As ever on Thameslink we travelled in "Fake First," the declassified First Class section at the rear of the train. Of course, at peak commuting time there were plenty of other people wise to this dodge but even so we had two seats together and as the stops went by, starting at St Pancras International, this section, like all the train, became less and less full. I must say that with a service entirely run with twelve-coach trains, Thameslink do seem to have overcome the overcrowding that this route used to suffer in the past. 

With wide gangways the train is effectively one huge carriage, allowing easy access to less-busy spaces. By Peterborough there were few enough passengers on board for us to walk forward a few coaches so that when the train stopped we were right opposite the lift, ready to make our way over to platform 7 where our connection would soon arrive for the last stage of the adventure ... well, I say the last stage but there was still one thing to come, dinner. We had nothing planned because we had not know what time we'd be home. A number of alternatives came to mind and we opted for Pizza da Mario, on the way home from the station, provided that they had an indoor table for two, which they did. Monday evening, not too hard! I could not actually eat a pizza with only one hand, but they do some exciting salads, too, and it was a great way to round off the trip, reminding us that although we love London, our home town of Stamford has a lot to offer, too!

The Best Laid Plans ...

Not quite the trip we planned - but still a great trip

We were to look after our grandchildren in London while their parents were off to Scotland for another relative's eightieth birthday celebration. Great, the first trip for a while and we would have the Friday while they were at school to do something in London. I booked to usual route there, local Cross Country train to Peterborough - cheaper than before now that Advance tickets are available on this short trip - and LNER to London; I also considered Thameslink but LNER's Advance First Class tickets were at a good price and as we would be travelling over lunchtime on the Thursday (in order to get things done before we left home), this would be a way of having lunch on the move in pleasant surroundings. We booked tickets to The Silk Road Exhibition at the British Museum for the Friday, which we both thought would be a god thing to see and had long had in mind to go next time we found ourselves in London. 

Booking the train ride home was not so straightforward: this would be on the Sunday and, as often happens at present, the main line between Kings Cross and Peterborough was to be closed for engineering work. Usually we take a train from St Pancras to Leicester when this happens, and change there for Stamford. But for some reason this option did not seem to be available either. LNER and Thameslink both offered various options involving a replacement bus between various stations on the Midland Main Line and the line to Peterborough but these did not look attractive for a cold, dark Sunday night with luggage, so I looked at travelling from London Liverpool Street to Cambridge and from there to Stamford. It was a long way round and slow, but straightforward with just one change. There would be no catering, either, so we'd have to cope, but having a good Sunday lunch before leaving should make that OK!

Although our train from Stamford to Peterborough was a few minutes late, it still easily made our connection to London without us having to rush, and we took our reserved "club duo" seats in the second coach and relaxed as the cold drinks trolley came along, followed by the food and hot drinks. As I have remarked before, we felt very much at home in the care of LNER's First Class hosts and enjoyed our cold buffet from their basic "Deli" menu which is always the option served on the Lincoln-London train. We like these five-coach trains because they are seldom crowded and with a small First Class section we never have to wait long to be served. I have also travelled Standard Class on them on my various trip to Lincoln and there is very little crowding there, too, and never a queue at the little buffet counter.

Arriving in London our first job was to pop over to St Pancras station to visit the Fortnum and Mason shop there and buy some St Pancras Blend tea, for we had run out of it and have never found a worthy substitute locally! Then we made our way to the Underground to go to our temporary home in Shepherds Bush. And this where a series of unfortunate events began (we seem to be having these recently!). Now the weather forecast was not good: a Red Warning was in place in the north of England, in all of Ireland and the south of Scotland. We were a long way from there but did not entirely escape the mischief of Storm Éowyn and when we left the Underground there was an enormously heavy shower well under way. We paused at the station to do up all our clothing and make ourselves ready to step out: the man on duty at the station even checked that we were OK as we were taking so long to leave! We had decided to take a bus two stops along the street to our destination rather than walk as usual, and we were fairly soaked just walking to the adjacent bus stop. People already in the shelter made room for us and we squeezed our way in - Londoners are so friendly, especially in this multi-cultural part of the city which we have grown to love since starting to visit. The bus dropped us a short walk from the house and by the time we let ourselves in we were pretty wet and although our storm-proof jackets had taken most of the rain we were wet from the knees down. The suitcases dripped onto the floor but certainly proved themselves as waterproof. No sooner had we arrived than the sun came out and it became a glorious afternoon, and even warm by recent standards. But too late for us.

We had more-or-less dried out when we went to meet the children from their out-of-school club and take them home to dinner. The following day was to be our "free" day in London, once we had taken them back to school after breakfast at home. It is an easy trip to the British Museum from Shepherds Bush, just a simple ride on the Central Line to Tottenham Court Road and a short walk. We were about half-way there when an email message arrived to say that they could not open and that we would not be able to visit the exhibition ... we went along anyway to see how much of the museum might be open and whether the problem might be fixed - we had all day, after all - but staff came along the substantial queue to explain that they could not open the museum yet and had no idea when they would be able to open but to "check the website in a couple of hours". So we immediately decided that a refund was the way forward for us, and indeed it later transpired that the temporary exhibitions have not opened yet as I type this on the following evening ... and may not even open before we're back in Stamford.

The actual Neal's Yard, where the remedies come from. It really is a yard!

I thought that maybe a visit to Seven Dials, just a short walk away, may be in order as I had not seen the place for about fifty years when I visited a run-down and largely derelict area on a field visit from my Town Planning degree course. First call was to a coffee shop, near to which we also discovered what looked like an excellent fish and chip restaurant, where we bagged a table for an hour or so later. Seven Dials is worth having a look for its interesting collection of shops, eating and drinking places (we fitted in half an hour in a pub between coffee and lunch!) and even a couple of theatres, all among historic streets including the original Neal's Yard. I wouldn't come to London just to see it, but a trip to London can include it if you like that kind of thing. The pub was surprisingly uncrowded: when we left we reduced the clientele by two thirds. So it was a peaceful pint, unusual in London, but I gather that Fridays have become quiet post-pandemic. 

The fish and chips were superb, and I think The Rock and Sole Plaice lived  up to its advertising as the best fish and chips in London - not that I have tried them all, but is hard to imagine anything better. 

After lunch we had a final walk around streets we had missed - there are seven radials plus a few streets linking them - and then made our way back to Tottenham Court Road Underground station to go home. That was when the wind struck, the only real trace of Storm Éowyn that we encountered that day, but we were soon sheltered inside the entrance to the Underground station and by the time we emerged at White City the wind had dropped and we could feel the warmth again, the warmest day for some time, and warmest we were expecting for some time to come.

That was our day out done, for we were on our way to collect the children from school and go home to dinner.

Saturday was spent doing family things with the children and then on Sunday they wanted to take us to their church, which is not their local one five minutes' walk away but St Mary Abbots in Kensington where their Dad is a churchwarden (an absent churchwarden that Sunday!), which involved another rail adventure by Underground. I usually walk when I do this on my own, but it's too far for children. We took the Central Line from White City station to Notting Hill Gate and walked from there, a pleasant enough walk along Kensington Church Street, and then on return we decided to do less walking and went a slightly longer way round from High Street Kensington to Edgware Road by Circle Line where we changed to the Hammersmith and City to return home from Shepherds Bush Market station - less walking at both ends!

Before the train filled up at Tottenham Hale

And so home - and this was the interesting bit. Such a shame it was during winter so that the view from the trains was just for the first few minutes. After lunch we took the Hammersmith and City Line through to Liverpool Street. Either route would have got us there, but this is a nicer ride than the Central Line, and either route would have allowed a change into the Elizabeth Line, but all the apps suggested that we did not change, so we didn't. We arrived at Liverpool Street just ten minutes before a Greater Anglia train to Cambridge. This was ten coaches, high density commuter stock with little luggage space and we easily found seats, although not as spacious as we're used to. The first stop was at Tottenham Hale where hundreds more people joined the train! This is the connection point with the Victoria Line Underground and my guess is that these were people en route from Kings Cross or St Pancras to Cambridge and beyond who could not ate their usual train for the same reason that we could not. I don't know if Great Anglia had added more coaches to this train to cope or not, but all the seats were soon taken and there were many standing in the aisles. It might have been prudent to increase the frequency of the service in the circumstances, but the fragmented railway simply does not work in this way - roll on Great British Railways and its "single guiding mind" ... I hope.

The crowds thinned out after Bishops Stortford and most people got off at Cambridge with us - the train was going on to Cambridge North. We walked along the platform to where our connecting train home would stop and were able to sit in a pair of seats near the luggage rack. There was a refreshment trolley from which we eagerly anticipated buying a cup of tea, but it did not start its rounds until just before we reached Stamford, which was a bit of a disappointment. As the refreshment vendor was standing in the vestibule right behind us I wish I had approached him and asked for tea, but I didn't and now it was too late; we had tea after we'd walked home. After a few hours on trains taking the long way round it was good to walk across the Meadows and through town home, much quieter on a Sunday evening than on the more usual Friday or Saturday!

It turned out that the alternative route home worked quite well, but it would have been better if it had been daylight. I also still wait to see the Midland Main Line route in daylight: we only ever seem to get these diversions in winter! 

And now, coming up soon we have a trip to Bath via Birmingham and Bristol, done before but not for a few years, and Studland Bay via London and Bournemouth, a new route for us because we have always gone via Birmingham before. Then, Zermatt, St Moritz and Venice via London and Paris. Suitcases are never away at the moment.

On the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express

Travelling home from Venice on a special train service

On our last morning in Venice our journey with Belmond began: the centrepiece, of course, was their luxury re-creation of the Orient Express train, but it began with a representative meeting us at our hotel and taking us and our suitcases to a private-hire water taxi for the trip to Venice Santa Lucia railway station to wait for our train. It did not properly end until we arrived in London St Pancras in Eurostar's Business Premier Class which was an integral part of the Belmond package.

Given the gastronomic experience we were expecting during the 24 hours on board the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express it might have been better for our health to have walked to the railway station, but the boat service was provided as part of the through journey, and it was in any case great to have one last trip up part of the grand canal. On arrival at the railway station waterbus terminal a team of porters was standing by to take our luggage which would be delivered to our allocated compartment. Those with more luggage than ours would have their larger cases stowed in a baggage car, just taking to their compartments what they would need overnight.

And so we arrived at Venezia Santa Lucia railway station and made our way to platform 2 where our escort went to the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express desk that had been set up there, ensuring that our arrival had been noted. The train was brought into the platform about half an hour before departure so that there was an unhurried boarding and loading of luggage. As a fan of Art Deco style and the inter-war "Dieselpunk" era, this journey was something I had wanted to do for a long time, and I was not disappointed in the slightest. The Art Deco feel of this train has been so well preserved, restored and enhanced, even though modern features like wi-fi and, discreetly hidden, electric charging points have been installed. 

Our steward Gloria took our passports in case they needed to be seen at a border in the night, put our luggage on the rack and introduced us to the features of our compartment - critically, how to lock the door! -  and a waiter came along and poured Champagne into the two flute glasses that stood waiting on the table. The Maitre D came along and asked our preference for the noon or two o'clock sitting for lunch, which, of course, was linked to the seven or nine o'clock sitting for dinner (we went for the earlier in both cases).

The train trundled away falteringly from Venice to begin with, with frequent stops and often moving slowly, but soon it was noon and we washed our hands in our little wash basin and made our way to the third restaurant car,  l'Oriental, for lunch, which was an unhurried affair with included Champagne and a wide variety of wine available, most of it included, but you could easily spend a few hundred pounds on special vintages if you wished to do so. The three-course lunch was delicious and relaxing: we accompanied it with a non-alcoholic rosé, given the amount of Champagne we had already had and that dinner with more alcohol would be coming along later. A meal on a train is always rather special, and in an Art Deco restaurant car in Italy especially special!

 

The train eventually arrived at Verona where the first locomotive change took place. Here we took an opportunity to have a stroll on the platform - just a little more exercise - and reboarded the train when the rain started. It was a fair while before we got going again, and the next service train from the same platform was indicated running 72 minutes late, which made us wonder what sort of disruption was holding us up and for how long. But once we got going we moved fairly swiftly, more like an express train, and were soon into Alpine mountain scenery. Before long Gloria came to our compartment offering afternoon tea, which include a variety of teas and some small pastries, both savoury and sweet. 

I wrote some postcards to the family (which I knew would arrive long after we were home, but they would be posted with the special Venice Simplon-Orient-Express postmark and would be nice for our family members to receive) and then we repaired to the bar car, which we had not yet seen, for a cocktail before dressing for dinner. I could not resist ordering the Vesper Martini, but I am unsure whether it was shaken or stirred. The bar car had a very relaxing lounge-like atmosphere and our drinks were served with a selection of nibbles - you do not go hungry on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express! And so back to our compartment to dress for dinner. Now, smart clothing is required throughout a journey on this train, and I did wear a jacket and tie for lunch, but for dinner, "formal" wear is required and so we did wash and change into formal evening wear. Two people changing their clothes in the confines of a railway compartment is quite a challenge but we did manage within the hour we had allocated to present ourselves smartly attired ready for dinner.

Dinner was in a different restaurant car from lunch, the idea being that we would get to experience everything the train had to offer in our twenty-four hours aboard. This time we were in the Côte d'Azur car, all decorated in blue. This was my favourite, and it was good to have the longest mealtime there. Most people played the game and turned up in formal clothes, some really spectacular, and no-one was in less than a jacket and tie. Once more this was a leisurely meal with all the water and wine you could wish, and started with Champagne. We were not far into the meal when darkness came and we were travelling through the night. The route took us through the Alps to Innsbruck in Austria where the train reversed and made its way eastwards through Liechtenstein towards France. No murders so far, although there was a party of some fifty Americans on board, so the Agatha Christie scenario was not impossible. No Russian assassin attempting to kill a British assassin, either. Time to get ready for bed, and if dressing for dinner in the daytime compartment was a challenge, undressing for bed in a compartment which had been transformed by our attendant into a bedroom with a ladder to the top bunk was even more so! At least the ladder meant that we could easily access our cases on the luggage rack if we needed to get something out or put something away, and actually the compartment was so well designed that we really did not get in each other's way very much. 

The bed - I had the lower bunk - was surprisingly comfortable and I had a decent night's sleep (better than our last night at the Venice hotel, in fact), until we stopped somewhere and our compartment was immediately next to the cooling fans of a locomotive on the next track. Neither it nor our train was going anywhere for some time, and noise came and went frequently as the locomotive's thermostat required it. This felt like it had been going on for a long time, but this can be deceiving, before at last the sound began to fade and I realised from the slight sounds from below that we were on the move again. By now it was two hours to our accustomed morning alarm, and I had the best part of that asleep.

It was still dark when we awoke and dressed, taking the opportunity to repack our suitcases as we went along, so that by the time we went for breakfast our compartment was reasonably tidy. It was daylight when we arrived at the restaurant car Étoile du Nord for breakfast. There was a small basket of pastries on the table which we ignored until after we had eaten a fruit salad and, in my case, the best-tasting poached eggs on toast that I have ever eaten. We stayed at our table for some time enjoying the views of countryside not unlike that at home, and drinking coffee and water, then we returned to our compartment which in our absence had been converted back into a sitting space. The train was by then through Dijon and making its way eastward on time towards Paris. The sun was shining, it was a lovely morning to be travelling.

When we arrived at Paris Gare d'Austerlitz it was still sunny and although the air temperature was quite cool, it did not feel particularly cold in the sunshine. The train crew had taken our luggage onto the platform and we collected it and wished them farewell, but our exciting and special journey was not yet over. Since the withdrawal of the through service to and from London Victoria using Belmond's British Pullman train, the Venice to London service now uses the Eurostar in Business Premier Class to complete the London stage of the journey, so we were now to experience Business Premier Class on Eurostar for the first - and quite possibly only - time. But plenty of time had been allowed before the Eurostar train departure from Paris Gare du Nord, so we decided to go for a little stroll along the Seine rather than just take the Metro straight there. As we walked we felt warmer and warmer in the sun. We went as far as the west front of Notre Dame cathedral and then took the Metro from Cité station direct to Gare du Nord, where the signage all seems to have changed since our last visit, with the Eurostar terminal now being designated "Hall 2", with the Union Flag appearing next to it. 

Even after our stroll we still had lots of time before the train to London, but that was fine, because a big part of the Eurostar Business Premier Class for Venice Simplon-Orient-Express passengers is the availability of the Business Premier Lounge while waiting. Another advantage would have been the fast-track queue at the ticket gates, but there were only two or three people in front of us anyway, so that didn't make any real difference! We did get nice smiles from the Eurostar staff, though, amusingly. The lack of crowds made the whole security process so much more relaxed, and I was pleased to note that the scanning of luggage etc at Gare du Nord seems to have improved since my last visit, and the electronic passport gates on the UK passport control had worked this time and let me straight through. There was no queue at all at the French passport control desk, either. Once through passport and security checks we took the lift up to the Business Premier Lounge, showed our tickets, sat down and relaxed. I could not get the phone-charging sockets to work, but that was not important this time, fortunately. We helped ourselves to coffee and snacks, then later a cold drink, while we awaited the boarding of our train, which was scheduled to leave three minutes earlier than when it had been booked, such is the way with Eurostar trains.

As soon as our train left Paris we were served drinks. We chose Champagne; after all, this was a part of our Orient-Express experience! The meal was soon served, but I missed a trick in not asking for wine to go with the meal when the drinks were brought, but we did have plenty of water. In Business Premier Class there is an option of a hot dish, and on our train it was trout and very good indeed. This was a light three-course meal with starter, main and dessert and although not quite Orient-Express standard was pretty good. The meal finished before we reached the Channel Tunnel and before long we were at St Pancras International station, with plenty of time to go before our booked train to Peterborough and connection home to Stamford - I dare not arrange it any tighter because of the multiple opportunities for schedule to slip before we got to London, but in fact nothing held us up at all and we had as long in the First Class Lounge at Kings Cross as we did in the Business Premier Lounge at Gare du Nord.

Our train left Kings Cross on time and we were served the usual refreshments, although we did not need a lot after the week, and the day, we had been enjoying. The train did encounter a few shorts delays which made the connection to Stamford rather tight, but we made it with a couple of minutes to spare and arrived at Stamford exactly on schedule - and without having to hang around on Peterborough station. Our kind next-door neighbour picked us up by car and drove us the last half-mile home: it's a lovely walk in the summer but we were glad of a lift this time.

When we left home six days before I said it was hard to believe that we were going on this adventure (and as I write this I have not yet published that part of the story!), and now we are back I find it hard to believe that we have done it! The legendary Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, ticked off the The List. 

Video presentation of the whole holiday in Venice and 

the journey on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express

Salisbury, To Visit Its Famous Cathedral

A  Day Trip By Train to Say Farewell

I had received a letter to tell me that an old friend whom I had not seen for some years but with whom I had been in touch by letter a couple of times per year had died. He was well over ninety, so I could not be too sad, but I did want to attend his funeral and just maybe see some of his family and perhaps some other acquaintances. The funeral was to be in a chapel in Salisbury Cathedral, for he was a retired priest who had lived near the Cathedral in his last years: I knew him as the person who had trained me in my first curacy in Grantham over forty years before.

It was a long way to go, but I had only ever been to Salisbury once before and it would make a good day out. It was a simple enough trip, although involving a trip across London between Kings Cross and Waterloo which I had never really mastered, until this time. Finally, at the age of seventy, I have it cracked! My wife and I are always saying that by the time we die we'll have excelled at living ... life-long learning is all very well, but some lessons you wish you'd learnt a while earlier.

Surprise Bargain First Class Tickets

Now, on a trip like this I usually break it into sections and order online tickets for each leg, using Standard Class for the local train to Peterborough and First Class Advance for the trunk sections, with my Oyster Card for getting across London,  but I start by looking up the through ticket partly to have a price to compare but mainly to see which trains I need to get in order to undertake the journey, noting the times and then buying the tickets the cheapest way I can find. To my surprise I could not get a better bargain than simply getting an Advance Single in each direction all the way between Stamford and Salisbury: it was even cheaper to book all the way than to hive off the Stamford-Peterborough bit and buy Standard Class for that, so it was First Class all the way both ways. Great. Further, these tickets were also valid on the Underground between Kings Cross and Waterloo, so there would be no charge on my Oyster Card for this trip. The little cross on the right-hand edge of the ticket shows validity on the Underground: I don't know if everyone knows that, as it does not seem to be widely advertised. 

I left Stamford on a fairly early Cross Country train, the 07:56,  and caught the 08:28 LNER train to London, on which the good old LNER bacon roll, coffee and orange juice made a decent breakfast. Everything was on time (or, at least, so close to it that I did not notice otherwise!) and the LNER booking engine had allowed plenty of time to cross London, so I set off to find a reasonable route to Waterloo, choosing the Piccadilly Line to Leicester Square and then the Northern Line to Waterloo. It worked, and was better than some other routes I had tried in the past, but even better was to come on the way back ... stay with me!

I was slightly nervous about putting my ticket in the ticket reader on the barrier at Kings Cross St Pancras Underground Station in case it did not come out again, but it did and the journey continued! I made sure I was within sight of a member of staff, just in case, and I did check with him that the ticket was valid, a belt-and-braces thing.

I had never travelled from London to Salisbury before and was looking forward to trying that train service, the only non-electrified railway route at London Waterloo. My one previous trip to Salisbury was from the other direction and was over thirty years ago, so it was a bit different. The train consisted of six coaches, two three-car Express Sprinter. I walked along to the middle of the train to a First Class section: there was another right at the start of the platform but I thought that might fill up rather more. I had plenty of space where I chose to sit and had a relaxing journey through the pleasant Surrey and Wiltshire countryside. Indeed, it was so relaxing that at one stop I looked out of the window to see where we had reached and saw that it was Salisbury! So I quickly gathered my stuff together and rushed off the train ... which then stood there for a further several minutes before continuing its journey to Exeter.

And so into the city. I had allowed plenty of time to have lunch before the funeral, judging that if something went very wrong I could be up to two hours late and still get to the service on time by squeezing in lunch earlier in the journey. Nothing did go wrong (although not getting off the train and having to get the next one back from the next stop would have qualified!) and so I had time for a stroll around as well as a pizza at Presto, near the Cathedral.

St Nicholas Hospital where my late friend lived his last days, possibly the inspiration for a Trollope novel!

Trinity Chapel, Salisbury Cathedral

I was early getting to the chapel for the funeral and had time to sit and think and pray, and to take in the splendour or this huge cathedral.

After the funeral and the wake, mingling with people I had never met before as well as members of the deceased's family I had not seen for nearly forty years and some I never knew well anyway, I made my way back to the railway station to await my train home. So far it had been a lovely sunny and reasonably warm day, ideal for travelling, and mercifully the weather waited until I was under cover at the station before the heavy shower came! By the time my train was in, the sun was shining again ...

There was some interesting shunting at Salisbury station as shorter trains came in from the West and were augmented at Salisbury to form longer trains for the rest of the journey towards London. Although three coaches of my train were standing at the platform when I arrived, passengers could not board until the incoming train from Exeter had coupled to it, then the doors were unlocked and boarding commenced. I went into the "new" part of the train, reckoning that there might be a greater choice of seats, as indeed there was, and with no luggage I really could sit anywhere. The ride to London was uneventful and soon I was strolling along the platform at Waterloo station towards the exit and the Underground.

So ... back to the issue of the quickest and easiest way between Waterloo and Kings Cross stations! According to Apple Maps, the best way is the Bakerloo Line from Waterloo station, changing at Oxford Circus for the Victoria Line to Kings Cross, so I thought I'd give that a go. For some reason I never consider the Bakerloo Line, I don't know why, but this turned out to be the best way because at Oxford Circus there is a cross-platform, step free, connection between the two lines. As it happened on this trip, I was also fortunate in having a train arrive at the platform just as I did both at Waterloo and at Oxford Circus, and neither was overcrowded, so it was a quick, simple and pleasant trip, quite unlike the other route in the other direction. Now I must update my page on changing station in London!

A few minutes wait in the First Class Lounge at Kings Cross and I was soon on my way home: LNER train to Peterborough and the Cross Country connection to Stamford. All on time, tea and crumpets (warm!) from the LNER menu on the train to Peterborough. And my lovely wife picked me up in the car from Stamford station to save me the uphill walk home. I look forward to improved health one day so that I can look forward to the walk home instead of asking for a lift, for I much prefer walking, and the walk at the beginning and ending of a trip is part of the advantage of using trains and buses: on days when I travel by car my exercise level drops alarmingly. It had been a good day: a lovely day for travel, a joyous farewell to an old friend who'd lived a long and fruitful life, a new train route, a great cathedral, and an epiphany about transfer between London railway stations!

Next up, Lincoln. And then .... Venice!

See you soon!

 

Train Trips Through, To and From London

Why is Retired Life so Complicated?

Chichester - well worth a visit if you've never been

The easy bit - through London

We recently visited our friends in Chichester. Timing was determined by a theatre visit (Oliver! at the Chichester Festival Theatre, excellent production), and a desire to attend church with them on the Sunday, where they have both joined the choir. The trip there was almost uneventful, except that our first train, from Stamford to Peterborough, was late enough for us to miss our booked Thameslink connection at Peterborough, setting us back half an hour as we awaited the next departure. This was fine: we simply informed our friends we'd be half an hour late, sat back and enjoyed the ride: by travelling in the declassified rearmost section of the Thameslink train we enjoyed First Class accommodation on our Standard Class tickets. Once out of Peterborough there is not a lot of scenery until the rolling hills (and tunnels) of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and the spectacular Digswell Viaduct overlooking Welwyn. The most interesting section of this ride for me is the slow trundle though central London: we go from being a 100mph main line express to an urban metro with frequent stops, automatic doors and big inflows and outflows of passengers. After the pause at Farringdon for the change from overhead to third rail electric pick-up, there is the crossing of the Thames at Blackfriars, where the station is actually over the river, and the curve round Southwark Cathedral into London Bridge station. So many landmarks are visible from this route and the train travels very slowly, so there is plenty of opportunity to look for them. After London Bridge we became an express train once more, not stopping again until East Croydon.

We changed trains at East Croydon, and with no delay to the Thameslink train we made the expected Southern connection to Chichester, half an hour behind the booked one - there was no complication with tickets since we were travelling on ordinary Super Off-peak tickets with no reservations. At Barnham, the last station before Chichester, some light rain began, and with slippery rails the train began to lose a little time as the driver struggled to accelerate. Arrival was therefore delayed by just a couple more minutes and thus we were over half an hour late and were able to claim worthwhile Delay Repay compensation, although to us it really did not matter much on this occasion.

To cut a long story, but almost certainly a boring story for readers of this blog, very short, we had a great few days with our friends (which did involve a certain amount of railway modelling ...) and then it was time to move on.

The last-minute add-on bit - to London

Our son in west London invited us to use his home as a base for a London break while he and his family were away visiting other relatives in Scotland. Their departure coincided with our commitment to visit our friends in Chichester, and their return with a commitment to our other son in Peterborough, so our opportunity for a few days in London was short, and we would not see the family there either before or after the stay, but we have a key to the house and we gratefully accepted the chance to visit London once again, even though for only three nights. Moving on, then, involved just turning up at Chichester railway station and buying two off-peak singles to London Victoria ... except that it was not that easy. The booking office at Chichester railway station was closed, and so I had to challenge the ticket machine to sell me the right ticket. Thank heaven I am an experienced train traveller with science A levels and a couple of university degrees, because I struggled to use the machine to get what I wanted and I felt sorry for anyone new to this sort of thing and who had not had the technical education I'd been blessed with! The machine suggested a lot of "popular" tickets, but none was for an off-peak single and it was not at all clear how one would go about telling the machine that one had a Senior Railcard and required the discount. Further, I never did discover how to buy two tickets at once and had to repeat the whole drawn-out process to buy a second ticket for my wife. By now we were looking at getting the next train... Which was fine. But I have learnt that in future I need to book online even if I do it on my way to the station. I would still have to confront the machine to deliver the actual tickets (Southern do not do digital tickets), but at least they'd have been chosen and paid-for.

The actual journey went well. Very well. The view of Arundel as the line curves round it is always a joy, and the green, leafy scenery of rural Sussex and Surrey is delightful, too. Soon we were in London and used the District Line to Hammersmith and then the Hammersmith & City Line to our son's home before letting ourselves in and settling in for our brief stay. 

Our agenda for London included a visit to Buckingham Palace state rooms on the first day, and lunch at Murano in Mayfair on the second, both booked in advance as soon as we had accepted the offer of the accommodation. The Buckingham Palace trip would be free of charge because the ticket we bought last year was still valid for another couple of weeks.

And so after a good night's sleep in our temporary home we travelled back the way we had come, via Hammersmith to Victoria, and then walked to the ticket office at Buckingham Palace to pick up the tickets we had booked in advance and await our turn to enter the State Rooms. This visit is very well done, as you would hope of the Royal family! There is a multi-media handset to allow a self-guided tour at ones own pace, and as we had done the tour the previous year our pace was quicker than most, although there is a lot to see, including some new things, such as the new portrait of the King, and a second visit is certainly well worth while. The art collection alone is worth seeing more than once. While there we saw advertising for the photographic exhibition at The Kings Gallery, with pictures by many photographers of members of the Royal family over many years, and decided to visit that after lunch on our second day, Murano being about an after-lunch stroll from Buckingham Palace ... 

So, emerging from tha Palace and after booking our tour of the King's Gallery the following day we went for a walk through Belgravia to Sloane Square, really not very far at all. The walk took us through Eaton Square and we popped into St Peter's Church, rebuilt after a disastrous fire just a few years ago, and there we discovered (or, rather, were reminded) that the new parish priest is the grandson of a now-deceased old lady I used to visit in one of my past parishes and who told me about her grandson being ordained - a small world indeed. Eaton Square is a mathematician's nightmare, being far from square, about six times as long as it is broad! But at least it is, more or less, a rectangle.

At Sloane Square we visited the Peter Jones store, probably the only remaining John Lewis branch to retain its original name. Tea and cake there rounded off our eating out and then we caught the District Line and Hammersmith and City Line back to our temporary home.

Our first engagement the following day was the lunch at Murano in Mayfair, so we were in no hurry when we went out and walked down to Goldhawk Road to catch a bus on Route 94 to Piccadilly Circus, from where we planned to walk to Fortnum and Mason, just for fun, really! The bus ride took us right along the north side of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, along Oxford Street and then down Regent's Street, a really great ride, for those with the time. From Shepherd's Bush as far as Oxford Circus it very much parallels the Central Line of the Underground, which is the obvious alternative if time matters more than the top-deck view (and the free ride if you've a Senior Citizen's bus pass!).

Fortnum & Mason is always good fun to look around, and although there were some tempting cheeses there was no way we could keep them to take home, so could not buy. But we did get a few small treats for the grandchildren by way of thanking the family for the loan of their house while they were away.

We were quickly on our way on foot to Mayfair for our lunch reservation at Murano. As ever, this was a great meal, served with suitable style and efficiency, with an imaginative, Italian-based menu. We went for the lunchtime table d'hôte menu but added a few bits. The meal always includes nibbles before and after, and water. You do not go hungry at Murano.

It was a short walk from Mayfair to Buckingham Palace, and then round the corner to The Kings Gallery to see the Royal Portraits exhibition,extracts from His Majesty's photo collection. This was interesting not only because off the subject matter but also because some (most) of these pictures were created by world-famous photographers and there was a lot of information about them as well as about their royal subject matter. It was a last-minute idea to come here but I was so glad I had. We returned "home" to Shepherds Bush by District Line train to High Street Kensington to do some shopping at Marks & Spencer and then took a bus to White City, from where we walked the rest of the way. A tiring day, but very rewarding: all we had really done was to visit one photographic exhibition!

The complicated bit - getting home, collecting children on the way

On our last morning we tidied the house after breakfast and left early. We had a busy day ahead, for we were only able to fit in this last-minute royal jolly if we picked up our Peterborough grandchildren on the way home, for we had promised to look after them for a few days at our home. So, a Hammersmith & City line train to Kings Cross to begin the day (via Fortnum & Mason's St Pancras branch to buy our favourite St Pancras Blend tea, only available there) then the 10:30 LNER train to Peterborough; once more we travelled Standard Class because it was not a meal time and there was little to be gained in First Class for such a short journey on what we think is a pretty comfortable train anyway. Our son handed over his children in the entrance hall at Peterborough station and we took them to the platform to await our Cross Country train home to Stamford. We had not been on the train more than two minutes, still in Peterborough, when the senior grandchild declared that she was bored. Encouragement to look out of the window fell on deaf ears, even though this is the child who travelled happily all the way to Bournemouth with us a couple of years previously ... I don't think I'll ever understand children even after two generations of trying to care for them! Maybe it's because for a long trip we brought things to do on the way, but that was hardly worthwhile, especially when we had been via Chichester and London, for a trip of less than fifteen minutes. Finally we walked home from Stamford station, which was far from boring with two children reluctant to carry or trail their "Trunky" luggage, but we got there. Straight into lunchtime, and the rest is beyond the scope of this weblog! Just a note to say that booking the tickets required a little thought: we needed adult, Senior Railcard, singles for ourselves, one child single and nothing for the younger child but the hope that we could get her a seat (we could). All these were bought in advance along with the outgoing fares and the the fare from London: the only tickets I didn't book in advance but very much wish I had, were the ones from Chichester to London. I have learnt my lesson, and the railway company (Southern in this case) has hammered one more nail into the coffin of the station booking office.

It is easy to think that for complex trips a car is necessary, but I think this is far from the case. Indeed, sometimes taking the car can be a hindrance when there is nowhere to park it or when you need to finish something in a different place from where you start, or if two of you need to separate. With some planning, this sort of trip worked well. It helped that all the trains that mattered were on time - and I have now received the compensation for the one that was late at the start of the adventure - and the smartphone apps that allow us to track one another made the meet-ups at both Chichester and Peterborough stations a breeze.

It would also have been easy to think that it was not worth the effort to squeeze in a few days in London, but to forego both free accommodation and a free visit to Buckingham Palace was just not on! We did not have the chance to see our London family that week, but they visited us just a few days later, so that was not too much of a loss.

A Lovely Day for a Train Ride

It was "one of those days,*" as they say

It was one of those mornings, anyway!  I had a meeting to attend in Southwark and had booked my train travel in advance, taking advantage of the cheaper tickets to travel First Class between Peterborough and London Kings Cross. A Standard Class Day Return would get me to and from Peterborough at the beginning and end go the day, and my Oyster, linked to my Senior Railcard, would do for the local travel in London.

There had been a lot of rainy and cold weather but it improved a few days before the trip, and although showers were forecast at home in Stamford, it was still warm and the weather in London was forecast to be sunny and dry. It looked like being a lovely day for travel and I dressed in T-shirt and a very light, unlined jacket, although I did pack a foldable-up umbrella in my shoulder bag! 

As I waited in very light drizzle at Stamford railway station for the 07:56 departure towards Stansted Airport the train was indicated to be on time, and my LNER app assured me that my connecting train at Peterborough was also on time. 

Everything was looking great. The train came in and along with a host of other people (many of them commuters to Peterborough or Cambridge at this time of the day) I boarded and took a seat for the short ride to Peterborough. As soon as everyone was aboard the Train Manager announced that a broken-down freight train ahead of us was blocking the line and that we would wait at the platform in Stamford until that train had been rescued ... several updates later the "Thunderbird" locomotive moved the stricken train onwards and we were free to go, some 50 minutes late. Needless to say, I had missed my connection to London, but I consulted the LNER app and found that there was an alternative connection a few minutes after our likely arrival at Peterborough. It says something about the general reliability of our trains, contrary to popular belief, that I had never before been in the position of missing a train for which I had a train-specific Advance ticket, so I put the system to the test on arriving at Peterborough. I went straight to the customer service desk by the ticket barriers and explained my position, and the helpful person at the desk wrote me a note, stamped with the LNER stamp showing the date and time, allowing me to use my ticket on the next train. Simple! And I would be only about 40 minutes late into London, which was within the "slack" time that I had allowed, so I could relax and enjoy the rest of the day ...

Railway-wise the rest of the day went pretty well. Although I had no seat reservation on the train I caught there was no shortage of available single First Class seats, and the train was a British Rail InterCity 225 set, one of my favourite trains, of which there are very few still operating. Sitting back in comfort I was offered breakfast, choosing the bacon roll to supplement the cereal I had had before leaving home. Orange juice and coffee accompanied this nicely. By now the drizzle had stopped and the sun was shining: it really was now a lovely day for a train ride. The journey was punctuated by a series of phone calls (themselves occasionally punctuated by passing through the tunnels north of London) from my wife about the breakdown of our washing machine. It was one of those mornings, after all. One thing led to another in respect of the washing machine and I don't want to bore myself typing it out, nor to bore you reading it! Suffice it to say that our conversations did not entirely solve the problem.

Last time I attended one of these meetings I walked from Kings Cross to the venue in Southwark, but my health condition this time meant that this was not such a good idea, and in any case the delay to the journey would have left insufficient time for that anyway. I popped over to St Pancras International station to buy my packed lunch from Marks & Spencer  and to buy a refill pack of St Pancras Blend tea from Fortnum & Mason - our favourite tea, which had run out. I was pleased to note that F&M were now using sustainable compostable bags instead of the heavy plastic ones they used to use.

Sub-tropical Southwark!

So, not wanting to walk so much this time I took the Underground Northern Line direct to the Borough station from Kings Cross St Pancras and walked the short distance from there to my meeting. In days gone by I'd have used an A to Z Atlas for this walk, but nowadays the Maps app on my iPhone does the job, and with the walk set up on that my Apple Watch prompts me at every turn. It really is brilliant. And the weather remained sunny and warm, a lovely day for a trip.

It is as well that I enjoyed the trip, because although the travel was now going well, we had not yet finished with "one of those mornings", for when I arrived it transpired that our convenor who was going to chair the meeting and had the agenda was unable to be present: she had injured herself in a fall and was not well enough to travel. Enough of us had enough information between us to have a worthwhile meeting, but not quite as worthwhile as we had been hoping. Our last meeting had been remote on Zoom, so it was in any case good to be together and we did accomplish enough to justify being there. I declined the coffee and biscuits, having had coffee and a bacon roll already. We had our packed lunches together as planned while continuing our discussion, but once this was over and our brief report agreed we felt that it was time to disperse, about an hour earlier than we had planned. I was glad to have the extra time because it had been going to be a bit tight to catch my train home and now I would be able to take it much easier.

I walked back to the Borough station; it is one of those few Underground stations to have lifts rather than escalators, and just as on my outward journey the lift was very quick and efficient: no hanging around waiting. There were some delays on the Northern Line but a train came soon enough, the delays showing more in crowded trains than in longer journeys, but after a couple of stops I found a seat. Sometimes the sunflower lanyard gets you a seat, sometimes it doesn't.

Back at Kings Cross St Pancras with time in hand, and tea already bought, I decided to take a little time taking photographs and video of St Pancras International station which I could file and use to illustrate my blog posts describing international train journeys when I quite often find myself not in a position to take good pictures. Then I made my way across to Kings Cross and ... at first I felt it was still "one of those days" when I saw the entrance from the concourse to the First Class lounge was barricaded, but I thought it might be worth trying the entrance off the bridge across to the platforms and yes, that was available. I presume the lift from the concourse must have been out of order, but there was no notice advising of the alternative entrance, or, at least, not one I noticed. Relaxing with a cold drink I waited for my train to be announced, the 15:30, the one through train per day to Glasgow, which was surprisingly uncrowded, in First Class at least. Now I was expecting a decent dinner at home later, so I was fairly abstemious with the on-board catering and just ordered the crumpets - these would have been great with tea but the hot drinks are not served until later (too late, indeed, for those leaving the train at Peterborough) so I took the offered cold drink, rosé wine on this lovely warm sunny day. It was all very good. Incidentally, when booking my seat for this train journey I chose a seat towards the rear (the London end) of the First Class section, for that is where the at-seat service begins on an Azuma and if my journey is short it does help to be among the first to be served so that I am not still eating when leaving the train! Avoid Seat 1, where it still exists, if you want a view; Seat 2 is great.

And so to the change of train at Peterborough. It was no longer a lovely day for travelling, for there it was raining steadily and quite hard at times. I sat in the platforms 6/7 waiting room and did a few online jobs that needed attention. The train to Stamford, like the one from London, was on time and I shared my location with my wife who kindly came to meet me at Stamford rail station to drive me home. By then the rain had stopped, but with my recent health issues I was glad to have a ride home.

In spite of all the issues it had a been a great day. I have not been out much lately, and to take a train ride on such a lovely day (south of Stevenage, anyway!) was good in itself. To have met my friends was also good in itself in spite of the absence of some, including our convenor. There are more short train trips to come soon, to Lincoln and to Nottingham, but then the next big one, to Interlaken! Hopefully they will happen on a lovely day for a train ride ...

* "when nothing seems to go right"