Quick! While There's No-one There!

Our first train trip to London since February

Normally, visiting Westminster Abbey is a nightmare, with queues and little opportunity to appreciate the spiritual qualities of the place. I had only been there for services, choosing to avoid visiting it for the history and architecture, both of which are worth a look. But for the moment, in 2020, hardly anyone goes there and in any case the Abbey cannot manage many but desperately needs the income from visitors. So we decided to go while it was quiet, to see the place properly and to do our bit for its upkeep by buying tickets to visit, all pre-booked like virtually everything else in Britain at present. This was to be our first visit to London since all the cancellations in February and we decided to stay one night, have tea at Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly (they were offering two for the price of one, so it was only expensive rather than extremely expensive) and just enjoy the West End without the crowds.

As a member of Hilton's loyalty scheme I booked a room at the Doubletree Westminster, a few minutes' walk from the Abbey, and First Class tickets with LNER to and from London Kings Cross to connect conveniently with the reduced-frequency trains between Stamford and Peterborough.All was set. Both Cross Country Trains and LNER insist on reservations for travel: with LNER we are given specific seats which we have to use; on Cross Country we can choose any empty seat far enough from other passengers but they will not sell tickets for a train which already has as many as it can take with social distancing. All our train tickets were electronic, held on my iPhone. I am beginning to get the hang of finding them quickly for operating barriers at stations.

The weather forecast was not wonderful: warm enough but wet at times. We took minimal luggage for just one night, one small case between us and walked together to Stamford station. Our train to Peterborough was just a couple of minutes late and our connection to London was easily made, although the temporary "one way" system at Peterborough station really does not work well for connecting passengers. Once the London train was under way I sent to collect our coffee and biscuits from the First Class host, probably not very different from what we would normally have had on such a short trip.

Arriving in London we walked to our hotel in Westminster. A long walk punctuated by a lunch break in a small park, and not quite the shortest route but a more scenic one which took us by the Savoy and along the Embankment. The hotel was having building work done and the main entrance was not in use, so it took us a while to find the way in: it turned out that it only reopened that day after the Covid-19 closure and that we were only the second group of guests to arrive. The restaurants were not open so we would have to have a packed breakfast either in our room or as a take-away; as we had nowhere to take it to we opted to have it in our room and specified a time. We went to our room, unpacked our few things and got ready to go out to tea. The room was looking really tidy and clean: Hilton had been to some effort to combat the virus by extensive cleaning of all rooms. It was looking a bit dated, though, with no device charging points by the bed, unlike our hotel in Edinburgh a few days which had double sockets with double USB points each side of the bed. We wondered if the refurbishment would address this sort of thing.

We set off through the drizzle, which came and went a bit, for the long walk to Piccadilly. By now, tea time, there was very heavy traffic in our street and here-and-there elsewhere, but our route was largely through quiet streets and pedestrian ways, and across St James's Park, all very pleasant. We arrived in plenty of time before our tea booking, and we walked through both Piccadilly and Burlington Arcades and then had a few minutes browsing the goods on offer at Fortnum & Mason before proceeding to the lounge for tea, which compared quite well with the afternoon tea we had enjoyed in Edinburgh less than a week before! As then we had two hours, which was more than enough, and as then we did not need any supper afterwards but rather a long walk ... we even declined the slice of cake which was an option to finish off the meal!

We took the long walk back to our hotel, through the occasional light shower, via Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square - it felt like the Monopoly board - then along Whitehall and across Westminster Bridge and back over Lambeth Bridge to our hotel off Horseferry Road.

In the morning our packed breakfast arrived and although it was not quite the standard we have come to expect of Doubletree hotels it was all good, and the coffee was excellent. we checked out and left our case at reception to walk the short distance to Westminster Abbey, clutching our printed-out on-line tickets and vouchers for the multimedia guided tour. The queue was minimal and after a quick security check and hand-sanitise we were in and in possession of the devices which would provide us with the guided tour. Photography was not allowed in the Abbey, so this part of the blog will have to go without illustration, but it suffices to say that this building is one of Europe's finest, so do see it if you can. Similarly the history here is amazing: a thousand years of the story of England and her church and monarchy, intertwined, is told here and is better described by others than by me. I recommend the electronic multimedia tour: each talk is short and to the point, it is easy to operate and copes with several languages and is good at reminding us throughout that this is still a working place of worship with a regular round of prayer and praise - although somewhat curtailed at present like all places of worship.

We visited the gift shop and then returned to collect our case from the hotel, bidding a farewell to the receptionist, who was the only other person we met there! She is from Italy which is where we had been going to go this autumn and have rebooked on a date next year.

We then revisited Fortnum & Mason, having noticed the day before that they were offering their knickerbocker glories at two for the price of one ... then we walked that off by going on foot through London to Kings Cross, up Regent Street and Great Portland Street then along Euston Road and taking the signposted walk from Euston to Kings Cross through the middle of St Pancras station. We had a few minutes in the reopened First Class lounge (no refreshments yet, but expected soon) before boarding our LNER train to Peterborough where we changed for Stamford as usual. By then the rain had started but was all right for walking home where hot chocolate made a fitting end to such a day. We had only left the day before but we had enjoyed tea and ice-cream and walked 17 km as well as our object of seeing Westminster Abbey without the crowds. Wonderful!

Is It a Bus? Is It a Tram?

The Cambridge Guided Busway

I have been unfortunate enough to need and fortunate enough to receive treatment at the Royal Papworth Hospital over the last couple of years, and this month I attended an outpatients clinic at which I was discharged fit and well. The hospital used to be in the village of Papworth Everard, difficult (although not impossible) to reach by public transport, and mostly I had been taken by car for my treatments and consultations, but it has recently moved to wonderful new premises in Cambridge on the Biomedical Campus where Addenbrookes Hospital has been for many years. This is now a cinch by public transport from my home in Stamford: a train ride and a quick bus connection, but we decided to make a short break of the trip and arranged to stay with friends in the village of Over, a few miles outside Cambridge, after my clinic appointment. We used to live in Over which then had an infrequent and lengthy bu route to and from Cambridge, and although there is still an infrequent service which goes through the village, there is a stop a short walk away on the Cambridge Guided Busway which has fast and frequent buses much like a tram service, and rather than take our car we thought we'd give this a go.

This time my clinic was not until 3 o'clock in the afternoon, but we set off for Cambridge in the morning with the idea of spending some time together, including lunch, in the city and then my wife could shop while I went off to the hospital. We would then reconvene for our visit to our friends, letting them have our ETA when we boarded our guided bus.

For once we did not book our train tickets in advance, for this is a local service to us and there was little to be gained by early booking. We bought Anytime Returns between Stamford, where we live, and Cambridge, giving us complete flexibility over our timing and allowing break of journey if we decided (which we didn't!) to visit, say, Ely, on our way home, and for my wife a PlusBus ticket for the two days - I am now old enough to have free bus travel anyway. We bought coffee and biscuits from the trolley on the train when it came through our carriage just after Peterborough.

We spent the journey completing some of puzzles in The Times and gazing out of the window: the amount of water in the Fens was quite astonishing after the very wet winter we have had, but no flooding except in the wash lands that are intended to flood when rainfall is high. Soon Ely Cathedral was in view, and then the gorgeous view of Ely over the marina as we approached the station. Soon after that we were leaving the train at Cambridge and making our way to the array of bus stops to find the next bus into the city centre. There was one within five minutes and although it crawled a bit through the traffic it was not long before we were dropped right in the heart of the city. We had our lunch at the Michaelhouse café which we have visited before and then walked together to where I would take my bus to the Royal Papworth Hospital.

In the city centre the guided buses look just like any other bus on the streets, with route letters rather than numbers, but the stopping points are few with the intention of making them a little bit faster, I suppose. I waited at the stop and my bus came along, next stop Cambridge Railway Station, back the way we had come, and after the stop there I was surprised to see that the very next stop on the information display was Royal Papworth Hospital, and when it left the rail station the bus was on the guided busway and accelerated up to somewhere over 50 mph, feeling much like a tram. It stopped right outside an entrance clearly provided for the convenience of bus users: I was too early to check in for my appointment! No problem: the waiting area not only had comfortable armchairs but also a workspace with table equipped with electric sockets, and a coffee bar, so I bought coffee, plugged in my MacBook and wrote up my previous blog post! After coffee I took my appointment letter to the check-in terminal and scanned its barcode, answered the ridiculous questions about my racial origin etc (who needs to know that?) and went back to continue by writing, but within a few moments I was called for my ECG and that was the end of blogging for today.

My shadow photographing the bus on which I arrived in the
centre of Cambridge after my hospital visit! 

Once I had seen the consultant I went out to the bus stops and tried to ascertain when and where my bus back to the city would be departing. Information posted was just timetables; a map or a simple, "Buses to the city centre and St Ives from this stop," would have been good. Not everyone who comes here lives and Cambridge and knows what is where ... anyway, I was soon aboard a fast bus for the city centre, shared my location with my wife on WhatsApp and was soon reunited with her. We walked to the bus station at Drummer Street and looked for the next guided bus that would take us to visit our friends. The Bus Checker app on our iPhones is very handy for this sort of thing. When using buses in strange places I would not want to be without it. Even so, the stops here had very good live information and I am sure we'd have been OK. Once through the streets and out of town we joined the busway and zipped through the countryside like a train - not surprising, this is a former railway line, just like many a tramway.

Guided bus from Cambridge bus station arrives at
Swavesey bus stop

We were met by car at the bus stop (or is it a station?) at Sawavesey and driven the short distance to our friends home, handed over our gifts from Lincolnshire and enjoyed their hospitality, and the following morning, after a filling breakfast with them we made our way through the village on foot, streets once familiar when we lived there but now fading in our memory, and then walked to the station bus stop and awaited the next bus through to the rail station in Cambridge for our train home. Not all buses go to the rail station; some, like the one on which we had arrived, terminate at Drummer Street bus station, so we needed one that would go through. Route diagrams and information at the stop made this simple, and we showed our respective passes and boarded. We soon worked out as we approached that rail station that if we hurried we would catch a train home that was scheduled to depart within five minutes of our bus arriving - easy: no need to run, just keep going purposefully!

The train was not crowded and we had good seats together and resumed our Times puzzles as we sped home. The refreshment trolley came to us just as the train left Cambridge: great! We realised that it was four o'clock and we had had no lunch, so filling had our breakfast been, but it was fading now and we were able to enjoy sandwiches and drinks from the trolley at a very reasonable price. We thanked the host for being so timely, although it was, of course, simply good fortune that he was there just at that moment! And so to home: after all that we had done we treated ourselves to a taxi home from the station this time, and it was good to be back and with the prospect of no more appointments at this wonderful hospital, having been made well by their world-class expertise.

An Unexpected Adventure!

LNER Azuma train in the evening mist at Peterborough

I was a guest at a little art exhibition in a suburban chip shop in Peterborough on Sunday afternoon (it is a long story: perhaps I shall tell it one day, but that day is not now), when I received a plaintive WhatsApp message from my daughter in Orpington: she and her little boy both had stomach upsets and she would struggle to look after him when her husband went to work on Monday - could I possibly come and help?

I went home and packed and my wife drove me to Peterborough station on her way to collect another grandchild who was already due to come and stay at our home. The drive to Peterborough went very well and I was expecting to catch a LNER Azuma and be well on my way in a short time. It was tight and I had a ticket to buy, but just enough time, until we joined the queue of cars for the drop-off area at the station! I had no choice, really, but to grab my luggage from the boot and walk to the station; no time to be driven the last few metres! To my great relief the travel centre was still open and I was able to ask for the ticket I needed from a real human being; I find LNER's machines long-winded to use and was afraid of missing the train. I bought a Standard Class off-peak single for Kings Cross with the intention of buying a Weekend First upgrade on board which ever train I caught. Mercifully the one I had intended to catch was just a couple of minutes late, so I did not have to run to catch it. I found a single seat at one end and settled down, on edge, hoping I had packed all that I needed and could do all that would be asked of me in Orpington. I was expecting to stay just the one night but could just manage a second day if necessary. Those who follow this blog may remember that there is no guest accommodation at my daughter's home, but the usual fix of staying at the Premier Inn would not really work for this visit as I needed to be on site, so I had an inflatable mattress among my luggage, a brilliant pice of kit in its own backpack and with its own pump for inflating and deflating it. So easy to carry but one more thing to keep track of.

Weekend evening snack

As the train left Peterborough the First Class hosts came round offering the food and drink: I had a bacon, lettuce and tomato roll, which I do not recall having before on a LNER train, and apple juice, there being no included beer at weekends. Soon the ticket examination began and I paid £25 for the upgrade - an expensive BLT sandwich but a very smooth and comfortable ride with space to unwind, just what I needed to help me calm down after the hectic preparation and departure. Well worth it.

And so in London to the Northern Line Underground to London Bridge (yes, I remembered to bring my Oyster Card with me!) and then the next train to Orpington, a fast one in just a few minutes. I splashed out on a taxi to complete the journey as buses are thin on a Sunday evening and I wanted to get there as quickly as possible. This was probably the fastest door-to-door trip I have ever done between the two houses, and also probably the most expensive, being at short notice.

Wine already served, work on blog continues

When I came to book the return trip, once I was sure the emergency was over and it was safe to come home, by choosing a late train back and booking in advance, even on the day, I was able to secure a First Class ticket for only £15.50, much less than the cheapest possible fare on the way out  even without the upgrade! The downside was that I had to take a specific train and as it happened I could have gone half-an-hour earlier if I had known how easily I could get away and how smoothly my journey into London would go. (So much time did I have in hand that I wrote most this blog post as I awaited the train back to Peterborough.) I took a bus from my daughter's him to Orpington station where a fast train left for London Bridge just a few moments later. From there a Thameslink train took me quickly to St Pancras whence I waited in the First Class Lounge at Kings Cross until my train was ready to board. There I typed most of this blog post: much of the rest was done on the train until my meal arrived.

Monday evening's meal, with wine

I decided to try out the new electronic ticketing system and did not have to pick up a paper ticket at the station: it is held in the Apple Wallet on my iPhone. I also downloaded the optional PDF file as well so that I could show it on my iPad in case I had a problem with the phone. I still needed the Standard Class single between Peterborough and Stamford and bought this using the Cross Country Train Tickets app, again placing the ticket in my Apple Wallet. I still needed to keep my Senior Railcard to hand as I do not (yet?) have a digital version of that, although I gather they are now available.

The LNER ticket worked fine when inspected and although the Cross Country one was safely own the Apple Wallet that ticket was never inspected so it was not put to the test, although I have no reason to think it would have been otherwise. What I have not yet done is use one at a ticket barrier, and I can see that being a particular problem when travelling together with both tickets on one iPhone: there would be a delay while swapping tickets.

The Azuma arrived in Peterborough on time, allowing me plenty of time to cross to platform 7 for the connection home, also on time. Two perfect journeys giving me the opportunity to relax after my unexpected trip and to prepare for a good night's sleep before what were already expected to be a couple of busy days.

Tired of London? Not I: I’m Not Tired of Life!

A Week in London by Train

Regular readers will know that I have been to London a lot in the last couple of years. Indeed, apart from actual holidays I have not really been anywhere else much, which may make the blog a little boring, but that is life as a grandparent. This trip, though, has been different. The combination of family away on holiday and my retirement has meant that we could take up their offer of living in their house for a week while they are away, both helping with their security and providing us with a decent break in London.

We are now members of both English Heritage and the National Trust, so having fitted in a week between commitments I browsed the two handbooks for local places of interest and their opening times. If we got on with it we could visit them all, and a couple of other places not in the custody of either organisation, but we probably would not want to do all that. I did a scheme incorporating everything which we could then vary according to the weather and what else we felt like doing. There were two "musts": the Garden Museum at Lambeth (which is in a former parish church where an ancestor of my wife was buried) and Kew Gardens. We also had a gift voucher for afternoon tea at Marco Pierre White's new York Italian (sound interesting!) in Southwark so I got that booked - just one slot on our last day was all that was available - and I contacted a friend to say that I would be in London and he kindly invited us to supper one evening. Trains were booked, bags packed and off we went armed with Oyster cards, Senior Railcards, English Heritage and National Trust membership cards - and a camera.

We travelled as usual with Advance First Class tickets on LNER from Peterborough, which we reached by he short hop from Stamford on Cross Country, standard class. We deliberately had some time in Peterborough because I had a haircut booked there and by careful choice of trains I did not have to alter the appointment! My wife waited in the coffee bar at the Great Northern Hotel, which passes as LNER's First Class Lounge at Peterborough, and we met in time to get a mid-afternoon train to London. LNER had just introduced a new First Class menu and although we did not get to try the new sandwiches on this short ride we did prefer the new cake and we also had fruit, wine and tea. We travelled straight to our temporary home when we arrived at Kings Cross and found that our family had kindly left us a bottle of Prosecco as a welcome: we did not drink all of it but it was a great start to a week which was to be both relaxing and interesting.

We looked at the weather forecast and adjusted our first few days' schedule to ensure that we at least started with some of the things we definitely needed to do. It looked like I was not going to need the short-sleeved summer shirts I had brought, but the jeans and sweater and waterproof jacket would come in handy! There was not a lot of rain to come, fortunately, but it was going to be cold most days.

Garden Museum

So, on our first morning we caught a District Line train to Westminster and crossed Westminster Bridge to visit the museum of gardening in the former St Mary's Church, just outside Lambeth Palace. The site was chosen for the museum because it is the burial place of John Tradescant (1570 - 1638) and his son who were notable gardeners and established the first public museum in the UK. We had coffee and cake in the museum's café but substantial (and expensive) lunches are also available here.

London Fire Brigade, Vauxhall

Our next visit, continuing the London history theme, was to writer Thomas Carlyle's house, National Trust, in Chelsea. Here we learned a lot not only about the "sage of Chelsea" and his wife Jane but about the rise of Victorian left-wing politics and concern for the poor. Carlyle established a lending library in London and had a huge influence on other writers of his day, including Charles Dickens, who is now much better known. We looked at buses and Underground but decided in the end to walk from Lambeth to Chelsea, a long walk but an interesting one along the River Thames with views of the MI5 HQ and London Fire Brigade HQ at Vauxhall, Battersea Power Station (now being redeveloped), and many other fine buildings less well-known. We witnessed some of the preparations for the forthcoming Chelsea Flower Show, too.

We were well into the afternoon now and the nutritional effect of the coffee-time cake was beginning to fade, so we walked the short distance to the Kings Road, Chelsea and dodging the showers found a craft bakery with a few tables and enjoyed a spicy vegetable concoction with a cup of tea before continuing to Sloane Square for a visit to Peter Jones (John Lewis and Partners) department store in a continuing quest for a red belt for a wedding outfit ... eventually obtained elsewhere later in the week. And so to the Underground and home.

We had decided that the second day would be for Hampstead. There were three places on our list there but we thought that two per day would be all we could expect to do and we chose Fenton House and Ernö Goldfinger's house at 2 Willow Road, within reasonable reach of Underground and Overground stations respectively. A walk across Hampstead Heath to Kenwood, English Heritage, would have to wait until later in the week, or another trip.

Erno Goldfinger's home: the middle of three houses he
designed himself

We caught the Overground to Hampstead Heath and used our iPhone maps to navigate our way first to 2 Willow Road, National Trust, the middle of a row of three modernist houses and the home of the Hungarian born architect Ernö Goldfinger. It was his first building and provided two homes to rent with his own in the centre. It was intended to showcase his style in order to attract clients, but the Second World War intervened and it was a long time before he could do any more work. For a thirties building it was a very new concept, and looking at it now you would take it for fifties or sixties, so popular did the style become in later decades. Photography was not allowed, so I cannot show the interior to you and you will have to make your own way there: it is a small house so pre-booking is recommended.

Art deco flats in Finchley Road

We walked from there to the main street in Hampstead and had lunch at anther yummy café then made or way on towards Fenton House, National Trust. The main interest here for us is the garden, and for many it would be the porcelain (including much Meissen) and a collection of ancient keyboard instruments. We walked from there down through Frognal to the Finchley Road and caught a Jubilee Line tube train to Neasden ... Neasden? Yes, it is the nearest station to Ikea, and we had a couple of small things we wanted to get from there - and by the time we got there it was tea and cake time, too, and hot drinks are free to those with Ikea Family cards! Shopping done, and with no time constraints we treated ourselves to a bus ride back into London, an interesting trip down roads we have driven so often but not had time to see properly. We finished up at the "wrong" end of Paddington station and it had started to rain - but actually had I known Paddington a little better it would have been OK, for a new entrance had been just around a different corner from the one we took: anyway, the Hammersmith and City got us home and the rain had stopped!

What an adventurous day it had been - a lot of walks and transport routes we had never done before, finding our way with the help of mapping apps on our iPhones and making great use of the Citymapper and Bus Checker apps. A little supper and a lot of sleep followed!

The next day was a Saturday and I went out on my own for a walk with my camera. The first thing I did was to go to Paddington to see if there was a better route than the one we used in the rain the previous evening: I left the train at Paddington Underground station and within seconds was standing outside in the bright sunshine on a canal bank, with yesterday's bus stop a few yards to my left - duh! The canal was full of narrowboats and there were stalls and displays all along the bank: I had stumbled upon the Caraway Cavalcade, a canal festival for the bank holiday weekend. It was a pity it was so cold: the Pimms and the ice-cream were not selling at all well! I did buy a Sussex Sausage for lunch, though ...

After spending a little time photographing the gorgeous Little Venice with its canal basin full of colourful boats and surrounded by trees with cream-coloured stuccoed buildings peeping through, I then set off for a walk along the Regent's Canal with no particular destination in mind but with perhaps the notion that I might get to The Regent's Park. There was an occasional shower of rain but by the time I reached the entrance to the park, adjacent to the zoo entrance, there was bright sunshine and it was so warm that I took off and carried my waterproof jacket.

I walked across the park and took some photographs of Art Deco buildings around Baker Street and the historic Baker Street station itself before taking the train back "home". A cup of tea and then out together to shop at Westfield (we needed groceries but I somehow ended up with a new pair of shoes as well ...)





On Sunday we attended a local church in the morning and then set off by District Line Underground train to Kew Gardens. There was a bit of a queue (I know, I know) to get in which we could have avoided by advance booking but we had not done so because of the uncertain weather. We had lunch at Kew Gardens (where we happened to meet some friends we had not seen for a while, uttering what a small world it is) and explored some parts we had not seen before. Neither of us had been for many years anyway, and there was much to see. We especially enjoyed the Rhododendron Dell, most of the rhododendrons being in full flower at the time of our visit. When we had walked enough we left about an hour before closing time and made our way back to the station: the platform was packed but a District Line train soaks up a lot of people and we all got seats. Kew itself is worth seeing as well as the Royal Botanic Gardens, and picturesque place with a rather attractive little station and some interesting local shops.

The original ticket windows at Wembley Park
Metropolitan Railway Station, now giving a little of the
Underground's history

On Monday I set off on a photographic trip around north London to capture a few more Art Deco buildings, notably the Underground stations at Rayners Lane and Harrow on the Hill, together the former cinema at Rayners Lane and the original Metropolitan Railway station at Wembley Park. Once back at Baker StreetI went for a stroll through Marylebone. There are some amazing shops in Marylebone High Street but the street is remarkably quiet: round the corner in Oxford Street there are throngs of tourists and yet they do not venture into the side streets. Weird.

On Tuesday I went for a fairly lengthy walk around Holland Park, within a very short distance of Shepherds Bush Green and yet very different in atmosphere. I walked along the side of the park itself to Kensington High Street, different again, and then used my senior citizen's Concessionary Travel Pass to take a bus back to where we were staying. In the afternoon we set out on some errands and then in the evening had dinner with some old friends in Marylebone. We were amazed how quickly time passed and it was midnight when we arrived on the platform at Baker Street station to go home, and a train was waiting, with only about half-a-dozen other passengers on board! We were home just a few minutes later and, midnight having passed, were already on our last day.

The only activity on our last day was a booked Afternoon Tea at Marco's New York Italian restaurant in Southwark, a Christmas gift from our nephew. Very good it was, too, an interesting New York Italian take on an English tradition which worked amazingly well and was thoroughly enjoyed. We can recommend it, but also need to warn that advance booking is essential because it is very popular - this afternoon was the only time in the week that we could fit it in with the restaurant.

And so home: after our tea we had a little wander around Borough Market and bought some Swiss cheese (getting in the mood for a forthcoming holiday in Switzerland!) and caught our Jubilee Line tube train from London Bridge, collected our luggage and set off home via Kings Cross and Peterborough as usual, enjoying the new LNER "garden wrap" with a glass of wine on the way out of London. We really must go north some time and enjoy the new hot food menu ... and our friends in Marylebone are moving to Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Sent to Coventry

Why drive when you can get the train?

A member of my household recently had to travel to Coventry for a weekend to sing at the cathedral. For various reasons she had missed the opportunity to participate in the car-sharing arrangements that other members of the choir had made, and had also not booked a hotel place. The hotel was simple: most of the others were staying at the Premier Inn and there were still rooms available there so one was booked online and the reservation printed. We had never used a Premier Inn before and this would be useful experience: they are inexpensive and widespread, so would be useful in future adventures if this proved a good place to stay.

Speeding off to the West Midlands

We started discussing the best way to drive there, where to park etc and then it occurred to us, "Can it be done by train?" Coventry is actually pretty easy from our home in Stamford: one simple change at Nuneaton is all that's required, giving a near-enough hourly service most of the time. I happened to know (from Twitter!), however, that there were major weekend engineering closures affecting Coventry at that time, but when I looked at the rail ticket booking websites and discussed the matter with the West Midlands Trains Twitter team I discovered that for our purposes things were fine: critically the line between Nuneaton and Coventry was operating normally for arrival on the Saturday morning and nearly-enough normally for departure on the Sunday: there might have been the need for a bus replacement and a change at Rugby if departure from the Cathedral were delayed a bit, but the journey would definitely work.

Again, a journey where the car is not needed and yet it is all to easy to think of driving as the default. Even though it is too short a trip for Advance ticket savings, it is not an expensive route anyway and with a Senior Railcard the fare was actually cheap. On the way there the connection at Nuneaton was just a few minutes, comfortably long enough to find the way to the right platform and board the train; coming back was not quite so neat but Nuneaton has decent waiting facilities and as always, the trick is to take something to do - which is the big thing about rail travel: you can actually do things!

And the hotel was fine! Premier Inns are excellent for budget hotels with all that you need (well, most) but without the things you never use on a short stay. We'll certainly consider them in future, and indeed have already just stayed in another ...

It's a time-of-life thing

Crossing London by train

We seem to go to a lot of celebrations these days. We are well past the friends' weddings and baptism of their children, and fairly well past the weddings of our own children, but still going to baptisms of theirs ... but we're mostly going to significant birthdays and to celebrations of other "milestones". Recently we went to an old friend's 60th birthday celebration in Croydon, taking a weekend away to stay overnight at the Croydon Park Hotel after the party. It happened to be the day of the World Cup quarter final and we checked into our hotel just in time to sit in our room and watch the match before taking the tram to the party!

Although there are now through Thameslink trains to East Croydon from our local East Coast Main Line station at Peterborough, this was in the early days when cancellations were rife and the service very unreliable; further, it is still quicker to get a LNER train to London Kings Cross then cross the road to St Pancras International and take the next train to East Croydon - and a far more comfortable ride, too. When we arrived at St Pancras there was only one train per hour going through to East Croydon, and it had not come from Peterborough! I think they are running properly now but it is probably still quicker to take a fast train and change.

We have Oyster cards so we never have to book beyond London now, using our Oysters for onward travel to Croydon or elsewhere. Transport for London now accepts contacts credit or debit card payments on its trains, trams and buses and if you use the same card all day the daily cap will be applied just as if you are using an Oyster, so on the face of it a visitor is just as well off using an ordinary credit card as going to the trouble of acquiring an Oyster, but for us as Senior Railcard holders, the big advantage is that we can link our railcards to our Oyster cards and receive the railcard discount (one third) off our London travel.

We travelled from our hotel to the party and back using the excellent Croydon tram service, and again for church and lunch with our friends on the Sunday, then travelled back into central London to get our train to Peterborough and home to Stamford.

After several recent trips on which something has not been quite right with our trains on the East Coast Main Line, everything was fine this weekend: trains on time, fully staffed with all the advertised First Class refreshments, clean and fully-functioning toilets. This should not be a remarkable situation, but it had deteriorated so much under Virgin Trains (despite their "awesome" advertising) that is remarkable when things are as they should be.

My, How You've Changed!

Local craft ale. My drink at dinner in
Nottingham city centre

We had an invitation to a celebration of an old university friend's 40th anniversary of his licensing as a Reader (a lay preacher and assistant minister) in the Church of England recently. It was in Nottingham where he and my wife were good friends at that time, and neither of us had been back there since her graduation other than to the university itself, but that is not in the city centre.

The celebration, a church service followed by a buffet lunch, was on a Saturday, starting at 11:00 and we decided to make a two-day "adventure" of it by travelling there on the Friday and staying overnight, exploring a bit and possibly doing something on the Friday evening if we found the right sort of thing.

For just one night we did not need much luggage and I did not bother with a wheeled suitcase, simply putting everything into my small overnight bag (that's probably why it's called that!) including my MacBook so that I could catch up with some photographic filing on the way. Nottingham is not far from our home in Stamford and there was not much to be gained from either First Class travel or Advance Tickets, so we booked off-peak Standard Class returns via a change of train at Leicester each way and I booked a city centre Mercure hotel (for which I collect Club Accor loyalty points towards future free hotel stays). Again this was a cheap room because for one night we really did not need much space.

George's Great British Fish and Chips

So off we went about midday on the Friday, having done several mundane market-day jobs at home before we left. Our shopping included a takeaway salad lunch to eat during the journey - the change of trains at Leicester provided an ideal opportunity to eat, followed by coffee bought from the Pumpkin café next to the waiting room.

Arriving in Nottingham we recalled that not long ago there had been a major fire which marred the recently refurbished station. A good tidy-up job had been done and if we had not known about the fire we'd never have been able to tell from looking at the station. Nottingham station is interesting in having the city's main tram line passing right over it and providing an excellent interchange with the railway below, but although I had chosen a hotel on the tram route we were in no hurry and decided to walk to out hotel.

"Just an ice-cream" for pudding ...

Our walk took us through the Broad Marsh Shopping Centre, which from my memory was never very special but now frankly is a dump. To be fair it is undergoing substantial rebuilding, but that looks long overdue. Having go into the place, through a building site and along half-closed roads, we then struggled to find the way out that we needed: such a pity because once we did find the outside world we were in charming city-centre streets which were really very attractive. A further short walk brought us to the pleasant street corner where our hotel was located and we checked in.

Mercure had given us a room upgrade, which was very nice, but unfortunately our air-conditioning was not working. That was one of several things that went wrong, actually, and the handyman was not able to fix it but lent us a very effective fan which did a reasonable job. We were given a free drink at the bar by way of compensation and when we checked out the next day we were given a discount on the room rate as well, the best they could do, really, so I will still be able to leave a good Trip Advisor review!

Having unpacked we set off for a walk around the city and decided that the only activity we needed that night was a good dinner, so we went back and changed, enjoyed our free drink in the bar and set off to a restaurant we had picked out on our walk, George's Great British Kitchen, one of the few independent restaurants we had seen. Apparently it began life as a fish and chip restaurant and still trades on that history but has a much wider, British, menu now. We both had haddock and chips but with different craft beers, and the most amazing ice-cream that came complete with a huge candy-floss! The photographs illustrating this article are all of this meal. The whole city seems to have weathered the recession better than most towns, and the tram system and city centre in general all feel very much better than I remember from visiting decades ago. When my wife and our friends were students here it was all very different: like most places the streets were full of traffic but now are very quiet and pleasant spaces.

Off to bed, and a decent night's sleep in spite of the choice between "hot" and "noisy" (we chose mostly hot with a touch of noisy), and in the morning we walked off to All Saints' church for our friend's celebration. Again, the tram route goes that way but we chose to walk. We had checked out and so had our luggage, but it was not much luggage for a one-night stay in warm weather. We met other friends as we approached the church and had a good time, especially those who had been at university together but also those of us on the fringe who just happened to be married to one of them, and after lunch five of us travelled back together, catching the tram straight back to the station for the next southbound train. We sorted out how to buy tram tickets and had just bought our five when a tram turned up. The ride through to the railway station was very smooth and pleasant: trams are such a civilised way to move through a city. We then followed the signs to the railway platforms and found seats on the London train that was already there, well ahead of its departure time: time enough to buy a round of coffee at Pumpkin (enough to earn a free one on my loyalty card next time I travelled!). The other three were all going on to London to their homes in Surrey but we changed at Leicester again for the train home to Stamford. Not such a long wait this time and we were soon on our way. Two of our friends from Surrey had travelled to Nottingham that morning and must have spent more of the day travelling than anything else, but at least when travelling by train it is possible to relax and enjoy the trip, and they had company on the way back.

I did take my camera with me intending to take photographs of Nottingham trams, but somehow the opportunity never seemed to arise, so perhaps I shall return one day.

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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Mediterranean Sunshine, part 4: Le pont d'Avignon

LGV platform at Avignon TGV station

Avignon is one of those towns where the station for high-speed trains is outside the town with a local train service linking it to the central station. Being a brand-new station SNCF had taken the opportunity to indulge in some spectacular architecture and produced a stunning main building for the high-speed line. A curious design, it has just one platform to serve the TGVs in both directions, and there is no canopy over the platform but numerous doors into the long, curved air-conditioned building that houses all the station's facilities, with a subway under the main line to reach the platforms for the ordinary trains that take passengers to and from Avignon and beyond.

As we arrived in the blazing sun and the highest temperature so far, our local train was waiting for us and we were soon on our way into town. Our hotel, Le Cloitre St Louis, was a short walk from the station and was in a building which has had a complex history but began as a Jesuit seminary and had a real monastic feel to it. Modernised sensitively it still felt like a monastery. Our room was huge, and again it was a shame we were not staying longer. We unpacked and went to find the rooftop swimming pool, small, but uncrowded and very welcome with temperatures in the mid-thirty degrees. After shower and change of clothes we made our way into the town for dinner and a stroll to find the famous Bridge of Avignon where people were reputed to have danced and which ends midstream in the Rhône. We picked our way through the narrow streets around the Papal Palace and out onto the riverbank where we saw the bridge floodlit, and then returned to the huge area of outdoor restaurants in the main square and settled on one of them for supper. We walked back to our hotel a long way round: by now it was a little cooler and we need not hurry.

In the morning we had breakfast looking out into the quadrangle in the middle of the main building of the hotel. We checked out but were not leaving until mid-afternoon and were able not only to leave our luggage but to use the swimming pool, too, which we did after our exploration of Avignon. It was even hotter than the day before; not having visited anywhere tropical, this was the hottest weather we had ever experienced, so we opted to do just one thing that day before swimming and catching the train home, and that one thing was to go onto Le Pont d'Avignon.


We strolled there through the streets which now looked so different from the night before, with the shops open and the outdoor restaurants mostly closed, and we made our way to the free ferry to the opposite bank of the river. It was loading as we arrived and the queue was short enough for everyone to board. The crossing gave a great view of the bridge, and on the opposite bank we walked along with many a good view. A café at the end gave us a chance to take a rest and consume yet another iced tea, the signature drink of this holiday! Then we walked over the modern bridge which took us (all the way!) back to the town side of the river and to the entrance to the old bridge which has a fascinating history tied up in legend and the story of the Church in Avignon: I'm not going to relate it here but encourage readers to go and see it for yourselves - it's an easy ride from London!

Last-minute rooftop swim!

We walked out along the bridge which is narrow and not at all suitable for dancing. Apparently the people never did dance on the bridge but at one time did dance under it, "sous le pont," not "sur le pont;" an easy mistake to make! And so back for our swim, change into out travelling clothes and off to the central station for the local train to Avignon TGV where the Eurostar train was to whisk us back to London en route for home. It was a little late, delayed by a late-running Paris TGV in front of it: do not let anyone fool you into thinking that only British trains have that problem; we have travelled a lot in the UK and in Europe and in our experience our railways are no worse or better than anyone else's, including the much-celebrated Swiss railways.

Avignon TGV station

Boarding the train is fuss-free on the way back, but I have to say that the air-conditioning simply meant that the temperature was tolerable in the shorts and summer shirts we were wearing! On the way back, a light tea is served soon after Lyons, and then dinner later, again a very decent hot meal, and then at Lille Europ the train stops for the security checks that were made at St Pancras on the way out. Everyone leaves the train with luggage and goes through passport control and the usual searches. While we were off the train it was searched by the security guards and then we all re-boarded just as if we were travelling from Lille. The train was on the move again in about an hour. This stop is a bit of an annoyance, but we took the opportunity to change our clothes because we were fairly sure that in London the temperature at night was going to be considerably lower than in Avignon in the afternoon! It was not cold when we left the train at St Pancras, but I was glad to have put on slightly more substantial clothing - this was a matter of thinking ahead and having our London outfits easily to hand at the top of our cases when we packed them before leaving the hotel.

We stayed overnight in London at a hotel near Euston, a bit busy but OK. We had open tickets for the return and could leave at any time, and we had arranged to meet some of our family in west London for a celebration lunch at the amazing Hedone restaurant at Turnham Green, for which you really must read my Trip Advisor review! And then home a little earlier than the usual train, First Class all the way, thanks to the deals made for us by Great Rail Journeys Independent. As we so often say, we shall have to return, and indeed go further, into Monaco and Italy, perhaps. One day ...