Across the Mersey

Ferry Across the Mersey, approaching "The Three Graces" of
the instantly-recognisable Liverpool waterfront

Under the River by Train

Liverpool, one of Britain's greatest cities and at one time second only to London, has always been on my list of destinations for an adventure. I have been there a handful of times but never explored it properly, and recently I found myself there once again for a brief visit (by car, for several reasons, so not recorded in this blog) and while there started compiling a list of things which will have to be on the itinerary when we go there properly. And I did manage to get in one very short little adventure by train by myself, and the story of that can be told here!

I first visited Liverpool as part of a field course when I was studying Town Planning in the mid 1970s. At that time there had been several dock closures and the city was fairly depressed but still reasonably vibrant. We did tour the dock and saw much activity still going on, and in some free time I visited the historic waterfront and there were crowds boarding the Mersey ferries to cross to Birkenhead, the ferries then still playing a major rôle in the conurbation's public transport. Like the riversides of London and Newcastle, Liverpool's has changed much and yet in some ways has changed little. The "Three Graces", its distictive, instantly-recognisable waterfront office buildings, are still there, opposite the passenger ferry quay, and the ferries still operate, although now more for fun than necessity because, under construction when I visited in the seventies, the underground railway system now takes most of the cross-river passenger traffic, much quicker and more efficient but less exciting.

For my little adventure, I went across to Birkenhead by train, largely to visit the waterfront on the Wirral side; I had only ever been on the Liverpool side so far. I was aware from reading notices on my seventies visit that the improvements to the local railway system were basically a loop around the city centre and a link across it, joining up some suburban routes directly with connections to others, and that there was a selection of city centre stations at which I could board a train which would take me under the Mersey to Birkenhead. I had also heard that Birkenhead Hamilton Square station was interesting architecturally, and on the map it seemed to be the one that is served by every train across the river, so that made it my destination station for the adventure.

Birkenhead Hamilton Square station, with
ventilation tower for the tunnel

The underground line that crosses the Mersey loops around Liverpool city centre, calling at James Street in both directions and going one way via Moorfields, Lime Street and Central, each of which connects to other lines. I left my wife (only for a couple of hours!) at a museum near Lime Street and caught my train from there. The underground platform has a very similar ambience to London’s Underground stations and the trains are about as frequent, although much shorter, and I was soon on my way. Making my way to the surface by lift at Hamilton Square I emerged just a few moments later into quite a different world, much quieter.

I ambled down to the riverbank towards the Birkenhead Woodside ferry terminal (I have no idea why it is called Woodside: there is no trace of a wood, but plenty of water) and there happened to be a ferry about to depart, so I took a few photographs (one of which heads this blog post) as it cast off and crossed to the Liverpool side. Then I ordered coffee and cake and sat in the café at the Woodside terminal leafing through tourist brochures I had picked up there and decided that when we do the full Merseyside adventure it is going to have to be several days long in order to pack everything in, including the Manchester Ship Canal cruise and a heritage tram ride to the Wirral Transport Museum, whose vintage tram service has a terminal right by the Woodside ferry terminal, and that, too, must be on a future itinerary. Before catching the train back to Liverpool I took a short stroll in the direction of the museum and found it well within walking distance of Hamilton Square. A last look across the Mersey to the Liverpool skyline and it was time to head back to the city as my free time drew to an end. Every train in the Liverpool direction calls at all the stations on the city centre loop, and this time I travelled as far as Liverpool Central, handiest for the rendezvous with my wife. We enthused together about a future trip and agreed that we should indeed need several days to enjoy all that there would be to do.

Exploring Cambridge

Day out by train with friends

Our friends who stay at New Year most years were able to stay a little longer than usual this time, and we were glad to have the extra time together. What to do with the extra day? I thought a day out on New Year's Eve, home in time to get ready to see in 2020 would be the best way forward and suggested a day in Cambridge: it is just over an hour away by through train so it is well-suited to a short day out and while we have not been there for a while (other than hospital appointments, but that is hardly the sort of adventure we like to plan!), our friends do not know it well at all. The suggestion was eagerly accepted and off we went mid-morning on 31st December.

We all had Senior Railcards so I had to gather us all together at the ticket office to buy the tickets. The others all needed PlusBus tickets, too, since a bus ride is almost essential in Cambridge to get from the station to most of the places we'd need to go - I have a Senior Citizen's concessionary pass and do not need to pay for my bus travel. Our outlay was reduced a bit by a rail travel voucher I had been sent in compensation for a delayed train earlier in the year, which was nice.

Our train to Cambridge turned up just about on time but was only two coaches. We did not all manage to sit together for the whole journey but we were able to sit as couples, and once passengers thinned out a bit at an intermediate stop we were able to sit around a table together - had we planned the trip a day in advance we could have reserved our seats, but even then it is a matter of whether four together would still have been available.

Arriving at Cambridge we made our way to the bus stops where a fast (i.e. non-stop; they're still subject to Cambridge's traffic queues!) service was about to leave, and we were soon at Emmanuel Street in the heart of the city. By now it was certainly time for coffee, possibly time for lunch, and we began by making our way through the Grand Arcade shopping centre towards the Michaelhouse café where we have enjoyed refreshments before. At this time of the year it was not especially busy and we did decide to have lunch in the interesting surrounds of an ancient church which is now 90% restaurant with just a small area set aside for prayer. As always the food was excellent and the prices reasonable.

We then set off to visit places which would interest our friends, mostly colleges and churches. There were, not surprisingly given the day of the year, some disappointments with places that were closed, but there was quiet a lot we did see, too, and we took a walk behind Trinity College and along The Backs. After visiting Little St Mary's church we made our way to The Eagle public house (once, like a pub we have visited in Oxford, called The Eagle and Child; interesting ...) famous for being the watering hole of those who discovered the structure of DNA.

Cambridge is one of those towns, Like Bath, Stamford, York and (of course) London, where it is a joy simply to be there and walk around the streets. And so we did! And eventually it was time to take a bus back to the station to await our train home Being New Year's Eve the service ended early, but that was fine by us; we wanted to be home to get ready to see in the new year, and in any case it is tiring visiting a city in this way. We caught a train which on most working days would have been packed but was not so bad on such a day and we all managed to sit together around a table for the whole of the trip home. It had been a great day out and the Champagne, kindly provided by our friends, was waiting in the fridge ready to toast 2020 while we watched the London fireworks on TV.

What might 2020 bring in terms of our travels? Well, we have a trip to Italy booked with Great Rail Journeys, and a tour of Scotland with Belmond Royal Scotsman (a bit extravagant, that, celebrating our fortieth wedding anniversary; we all not be spending that amount on a short break again), and so far our south coast summer holiday consists of a hotel booking in Chichester and nothing else! There is much more to plan yet, but proposed alterations to our house will keep us grounded for a few weeks. You'll just have to subscribe to this blog to follow where we go next!

Happy new year!

Sunny Fenland!

A small group visit to the Isle of Ely by train

A recent group trip to Ely, suggested by one of the travellers on the Jewellery Quarter visit a few months ago, only took a small number of participants, a universally available date being hard to find at this time of year, but those who went had a really good day. No rain this time, and quite a lot of sunshine. We began a little later than we usually do, taking the 10:00 train direct from Stamford to Ely, a journey of well under an hour but to a completely different world. The train was on time and the ride smooth; although we did not have reserved seats we were able to find seats together easily enough, and once the train left Peterborough we enjoyed the view across the fens, looking out for Ely Cathedral in the distance. Soon we enjoyed the classic experience of curving around the city and watching the changing shape of the cathedral above the trees, with a final view across the marina as well prepared to leave the train.

We walked down to the riverside from the station and found mooring for the excursion boat. The service times were not posted but there was a note inviting a telephone call for information, so I rang and was told the next departure would be in about ten minutes. We went off for coffee, thinking the following departure might be better - for everyone wanted coffee! Boats operate every half-hour. I have taken the river trip before so after coffee and cake I left the others to enjoy their cruise and set off to do some things of my own, starting with a cycle, toy and model shop where I bought a couple of things for my next railway modelling project, a Swiss Alpine layout which would be quite different from anything I've ever built before. I then went to the Ely Museum in the former gaol building, well worth a visit, but it is to close for a while this autumn for improvement works, so bear this in mind if you want to copy this trip! I met one of the others for "lunch", which following the cake of the morning consisted of just a couple of pints of ale ... and then I had some work to do for my religious order while they went off and visited some of the other attractions that the city of Ely has to offer. If you want somewhere to go on a summer day, I can thoroughly recommend this little city with its history, charming streets, grand cathedral (with its unique lantern roof) and river. It is so easy to reach from anywhere by train, too.

The Riverside Inn:
More of a restaurant than a pub

Two of us met again by chance and went for afternoon tea at the cathedral tea shop - tea and cream scones are a very reasonable price here, and excellent quality. All of us then attended Choral Evensong at the cathedral: during the summer the cathedral's own choir is on holiday but the services that week were sung by a visiting choir from Tucson, Arizona and this was beautifully done. We then set off for dinner together by the riverside. Normally I have pre-booked the evening meal for group outings, but with such a small group I thought it was safe to chance finding a table as the fancy took us, and we decided to go for fish and chips at The Riverside Inn, with a bottle of house white wine between us. The others had ice-cream, too, but after a cream tea I did not feel the need to join them!

And so to the train home, and during this otherwise uneventful trip back it transpired that the postponed trip to Canterbury might happen this autumn - see the Come with me! page for rudimentary information. We happened for some reason to start talking about aircraft and fell into conversation with a young Portuguese resident of Peterborough sitting near us who is modeller of vintage aeroplanes. A great thing about train travel is the people you meet - and even on a short journey entirely in ones own country it is possible to meet some very diverse and interesting people. Travel broadens the horizons if not the mind, and nowhere more so than in the fens.

If you live near Stamford, Oakham or Peterborough and are interested in joining me on some of these day trips, please see the "Come with me!" Page.

So we meet again, Mr Bond

Another train trip to London, with a secret mission!

As I have mentioned before, we do seem to go to London rather a lot at present, but it has come to a peak this summer when we managed to have just one complete day at home between visits to the capital. Fortunately the weather was sunny and warm and we managed to wash and dry our clothes before setting off again.

This trip was a while in the planning (unlike the hastily-arranged one from which we'd just returned) and began with a message before Christmas from one of my London-based offspring to the effect that they'd like to give us a present which would require us to be in London for a night and needed to consult our diary. Meanwhile another sent me a link to Secret Cinema asking if it was the sort of thing that might interest me as a present .... putting the clues together I wondered if they were both thinking of the same thing so I suggested that they speak to each other. The result was two VIP tickets on an available evening in July to a Secret Cinema immersive screening of the James Bond film Casino Royale. I cannot say anything about the location of the event for fear of spoiling it for others who attend, but I shall describe something of the experience. However, there was another (welcome) complication first!

Our son who had first suggested the Secret Cinema event found himself and his family invited to a baptism abroad and offered us the use of his house in London for a week, although unfortunately it did not quite cover the night needed for the screening so we had to add a night in a hotel, but it did make another London break which would give us a chance to visit some more of the less well-known places we had begun to see on our visit a couple of months earlier. Once the dates had been decided, fitted in between the Windsor steam train booking and the Secret Cinema booking, with the day at home and a haircut (!), I was still able to book cheap Advance First Class tickets on LNER to London  and off we set.

The luggage was interesting: the weather forecast was warm and dry, starting with some hot, sunny days, but as well as the summer shirts, shorts and other lightweight things I also needed evening wear for the immersive Casino Royale evening, and my wife needed a suitable dress for it. I had never travelled with evening wear before, but it might be good practice for some of the tours we are planning for the next couple of years.

The day we arrived was very hot and we were fairly tired after our travel, perhaps not assisted by the generous amount of wine we had as our complimentary refreshment on the LNER Azuma up to London! We had left Peterborough at 14:10 after having lunch at Sundays, the restaurant at Peterborough Cathedral, which we can thoroughly recommend - if you're hungry: generous roast dinner for two with drinks for under £25.

On Friday we visited the National Trust property at Osterley Park, walking to Hammersmith for the Piccadilly Line to Osterley, a gorgeous little 1934 station on the Great West Road, then walking round to Osterley Park. One really great thing about walking to these places is the "accidental" things we find on the way, and in this case we stumbled upon a disused station on the Piccadilly Line near the shops at Osterley - now I had always thought the line was built in the 1930s and that the present station was the only one that had ever been here, but apparently not: it was once part of the District Railway. To me it remains a mystery why they moved the station out of the town centre in 1934! Maybe they wanted a higher profile on the new Great West Road?

Osterley House

Osterley House was a "party house," as one of the guides described it. meant to impress guests rather than to dwell in, and it certainly impresses, especially from the front. It was the property of the Child banking family, given to the nation early in the twentieth century and later handed by the Ministry of Works to the National Trust for posterity. It is set in great parkland with some lovely gardens and although some of the house is only available for visit by guided tour much of it can be seen "free-flow" and the parkland is available without charge. We had a great lunch at the restaurant in the stables before our tour of the house and gardens and then made our way back to the station, calling on the way at a little farm shop on the Trust land for some very high quality vegetables and salad - a bit heavy to carry home but worth the effort for the next few days' meals.

Walking back from Hammersmith station we called at a little ice-cream parlour which we'd visited a few years before, just to round off the day. We did not need much supper ...

Isle of Dogs seen from Greenwich. The once-dominant 1
Canada Square (with pyramid roof) now just one of many
tall buildings

On Saturday I had most of the day to myself and set off by Underground and Docklands Light Railway to Greenwich. It had been a long time since I had been that way and I was bowled over by how much development had taken place on the Isle of Dogs: the three towers which once dominated the skyline at Canary Wharf were now surrounded by other towers of similar height, and others were under construction. New flats were taking over much of the land to the south towards Island Gardens. Soon my light railway train plunged into the tunnel under the Thames and I emerged from the underground DLR station at maritime Greenwich. After looking back over the river to see the skyline through which my train had just snaked, I set off to explore the area of the former naval college and other buildings which make up the famous symmetrical layout of the Greenwich townscape. The grounds of the former College, much of it now Greenwich University, were being prepared for a concert that evening, part of a series sponsored by Viking Cruises, and a huge cruise liner was anchored in the river off Greenwich. A varied and impressive line-up of performers was advertised but all I saw was workmen, technicians and caterers setting up for the evening. Many parts of the buildings were open to the public and I made a note to return some time when we were together; for today I would just enjoy the walk through the famous spaces and among the buildings.

I did eventually venture into the National Maritime Museum just to see whether it might be of interest (it was!), for admission is free so a long visit to see everything is not necessary - and there was a great café there and by now I needed some coffee! I looked at one gallery on the East India Company, a subject that has always interested me, how a trading company can find itself governing  nation, and left all the others for a future visit. At least a whole day is going to be necessary at Greenwich, and that's without queuing for the Cutty Sark (which I visited about 53 years ago when more of it was original, before the disastrous fires).

We reconvened late in the afternoon and visited the other branch of the same ice-cream shop as the day before, and then went home to cook our dinner ... another great day was ending.

An Exploration

On Sunday we worshipped at the local parish church and then took the District Line down to the end of the line at Richmond, from where we caught a bus to Ham to visit the National Trust property Ham House and Gardens. Ham House is full of paintings and other artwork and much original décor and was inhabited until the mid-twentieth century and witnesses to the history of the family who lived there.

Incidentally, the CityMapper smartphone app is great for planning public transport routes in areas you do not know: we do know this area to some extent so we did not follow everything it suggested, but it did give us the bus routes to use, in conjunction with information from the National Trust website. On our way to Ham House from the bus stop we passed a signpost pointing not just to Ham House but also to "Foot Ferry to Twickenham", just slightly further away, so after looking all around the available rooms of the house and as much of the garden as we wanted to see (fitting in a decent lunch and yet another ice-cream!), we sought out the ferry landing stage in order to go back a different way.

I do like these unplanned "adventures", especially on warm, sunny, Sunday afternoons. The ferry was small and took twelve passengers but the queue was short and we were taken on the first sailing following our arrival there. It operates on demand and at the time we were there there was a constant demand and it performed a shuttle service at just £1 per passenger.

Awaiting the ferry across the Thames

Marble Hill House

One side advantage to this unexpected detour was that it included a walk through the grounds of Marble Hill House, an English Heritage property on our list of places to visit but which we had not anticipated being able to fit into this trip! We still could not go into it for the time was so late by now, but it is undergoing a bit of work at present and so is best left for another occasion. I knew Marble Hill House was almost opposite Ham House across the Thames but had not known that there was a ferry allowing both to be visited in one outing. from Marble Hill we took a bus back to Richmond and then the District Line home to Hammersmith. I hardly dare mention that I succumbed to uxorial urging to visit the local ice-cream shop one more time! We did not eat much that evening.

Back to Kew, without the queue

The weather forecast for the Monday was not so good, but then it had not been so good for Sunday either, and that turned out OK, so we took a chance on the Monday being similar and decided we should go to Kew Gardens that day, a visit we wanted to make during this stay in London and the price of which had been given as one of my wife's birthday presents. So we booked online before we set off, both receiving a discount and avoiding the queue which we had suffered on the last visit (although we did not expect it to be so bad this time, a weekday in term time). Kew Gardens is so easy by train, with three gates within easy reach of a station; for us the District Line Underground serving Kew Gardens station was the easiest, and for some it would be Richmond or Kew Bridge (South Western Railway) or the Overground to Kew Gardens. We first visited the Palm House and after coffee walked though the newly-planted area which formed part of an enormous project to categorise plants using data now available from their DNA, and then visited the Princess of Wales Conservatory, which had been closed when we last visited and which had some amazing water-lilies among many other fascinating plant exhibits and a few fish and aquatic animals.

Restored dragon at the pagoda

Lunch was at the newly-opened Pavilion restaurant, enjoyable once we got the hang of how and where to order, great quality food and pleasant outdoor dining area, but not cheap. Then came the Temperate House and a visit to the famous Pagoda, newly opened to the public and with its dragons restored after many decades. A sight to behold, and apparently a brilliant view from the top but I dared not risk my health on such a climb and had to leave that to others. I'll get there one day, I hope.

After a cup of tea and a visit to the art galleries and gift shop it was time to return, via M&S for some smoked salmon to make a light supper, and then rest after a lot of walking. Come to that, we had done a lot of walking every day of this holiday, and although tired each evening we feel a lot better for it.

A walk over Hampstead Heath

Tuesday was the last complete day of of our break before we moved on to our pretend MI6 secret mission to the reopening of the Casino Royale at Montenegro. The weather was just right for our planned trip to Kenwood, which involved a train ride on the London Overground to Hampstead Heath station and then a walk of over a mile across the glorious heath to Kenwood. It was a wonderful walk: I have long wanted to see Hampstead Heath and this walk was such an important aspect of the trip to Kenwood that I had not really given a lot of thought to what we would find when we got there! 

Rembrandt's portrait of the artist

I knew it was a large and impressive house overlooking the Heath (and had overlooked London before the trees grew so high!) but I had not taken in just how significant its art collection is. This is not so much a house as an art gallery with a very important collection of painting by well-known artists such as Rembrandt, Reynolds, Gainsborough and Turner. We were bowled over by many of these magnificent paintings, and what's more were allowed to photograph them. The reason is that the house and its artworks were bequeathed to the nation by its last owner, Edward Cecil Guiness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, and it is stipulated that access should be free of charge - so it is a constant drain on English Heritage's funds but a constant joy to lovers of art and architecture. The Earl, heir to the Guinness fortune, bought it to display some of his art collection and wanted that too continue after his death; his purchase of the house prevented it being demolished for redevelopment when the Murray family who had owned it for some generations, disposed of it on their return to Scotland. Upstairs is another art collection from the Earls of Suffolk, mostly of Jacobean subjects. And housing all this is a house remodelled by Adam! This is a place really not to be missed, and is free to enter as well. If you do not fancy the walk across the Heath, buses do get nearer than trains but I have not experienced these so I cannot comment on them.

We had both coffee and a light lunch (although "heavier" meals are available) at Kenwood and after seeing all we wanted we made our way back over the Heath by a different route to the station and back to our temporary home for dinner. And so began the preparations for moving on the next day, hoping it would not be too hot for comfort in my Black Tie outfit for Casino Royale!

And so the following morning we packed our bags, tidied the house and wrote our thank-you card then set off for our hotel for the next night: Hammersmith & City Line to Whitechapel station then walk round the corner to The Whitechapel Hotel. I had never really been to Whitechapel before and as a one-time town planner was interested to see it in the midst of a transformation from one of the cheapest properties on the Monopoly board to a thriving urban centre. The station is currently a bit of a mess: already an interchange between Underground and Overground it has an Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) connection going in as well - if they ever get it finished - and this is probably part of the reason for the place's attractiveness

Our hotel was a new, boutique, hotel in New Road and we had one of their fourth-floor "executive king rooms", small but reasonably well-appointed. We showered (second shower of the day, for it was hot) and changed into our evening wear ready to meet M, Q and all the rest at a mystery venue in east London. Over the weeks approaching the event we had been sent several email messages couched in suitably secret agent type language hyping up the "importance" of our "mission" and advising us to dress in black, white and our "departmental" colour. We had answered an online questionnaire which purported to be sorting out which department we would be in, and therefore which colour we should wear, but I think everyone with a VIP ticket got Control Department and gold; our gift was a pair of VIP tickets and so we dressed with gold accessories. I had always wanted a gold-coloured pocket-handkerchief so this was my chance to acquire one, along with other bits and pieces in the "mission kit" from the Secret Cinema's online shop.

We also had to choose a time to start and we went for 18:15, a bit after the 18:00 opening but, we hoped, early enough to see and do all that was available, and we had to adopt an alias, a person we were pretending to pretend to be (!), and we went as Jacob Bolt and Jenna Buckingham (all the available names began with J & B). We were given a meeting point at a station in east London, which is how we chose Whitechapel as a place to stay, and so when the evening finally arrived and we were all dressed in evening wear fit for a casino, with gold accessories, we set off by train for the rendezvous station which, being top secret, I cannot tell you even now. As the journey wore on and passengers came and went we saw a smartly-dressed couple, he in a purple bow tie and she in purple gown so we had an inkling that they were going the saw way ... and then I saw a couple with matching green accessories, then red, then another green ... no more gold, though. When we got off the train the platforms awash with people in evening wear with coloured bits and pieces and as we made our way to the street there was no way this was a secret gathering as scores of us joined a long line of people being led through unlikely streets to a secret cinema. There are no photographs for we were not allowed the use of cameras or telephones during the evening, our smartphones sealed into pouches for the duration of the event!

At the ticket check we were ushered into a small entrance labelled "Gold Club Members Only" and were given a pack of things including our vouchers for a meal and for two drinks, then we were shown inside. I cannot give you all the details of what we experience, but I can say that the team put on a very good show of pretending that we were on a mission. We could participate as much or as little as we liked, and there was a "world" to explore as this vast space contained all sorts of scenarios with appropriate food and drink available in each one. We had, of course, martinis in the VIP Club bar (where we met M and Q) overlooking the airport, but we had our meal in Madagascar ... As the grand "reopening of the Casino Royale" was interrupted by an event I cannot tell you about the "mission" was "suspended" and we moved into our seats for the showing of the film. Our two-person VIP seats had goody bags on them and bottles of water, and drinks were served at our seats to order - I had to pay for these as we had used our vouchers by this stage - and as the film was shown, various parts of the action were also acted out in the auditorium. At the end of the film we could have stayed on for further drinks had we wished, but we took the train back to our hotel, late enough as it was. At the station the platform was heaving with people from the Secret Cinema: we had arrived in a phased manner but most left at the same time. An almost empty train came in and it left jam packed! People boarding at intermediate stops were amazed that there was standing room only on a train after 11pm. Back to our room, third shower of the day and bed. What an amazing evening it had been!

Waiting for the food! Fortum & Mason

And so home. The following morning we dressed and packed in a leisurely manner and made our way by Underground back to Kings Cross St Pancras and had our breakfast at Fortnum & Mason at St Pancras. this was not the cheap option, at about four times the price of breakfast at our hotel, but it was a very special treat at the end of a great week, and it was handy for the train home.

Workspace in the First Class Lounge at
London Kings Cross

We went over to Kings Cross and tried out the newly-refurbished First Class Lounge which was a huge improvement on the cheap, flimsy and, frankly, silly makeover which Virgin Trains East Coast had done a few years before. There were many comfortable places to sit and the space looked much more efficiently used, so I expect that they also fitted in rather more waiting passengers than before, as well as accommodating in more comfort. We went for a cosy little space for two, but there were larger spaces for larger groups, tables and chairs for those who wanted them, and partly-screened carrels for those who wanted to work or study, with plenty of power outlets and USB charging sockets.

When our train, the 12:30 to Newcastle, was called it turned out to be a diesel High Speed Train instead of the expected electric train so all the seat reservations were in unexpected places but the train staff had done their best and we were directed to our seats efficiently and caringly. A sandwich and wine were served before we changed trains at Peterborough and made our way home. As we went to bed after an evening unpacking and tidying away it was hard to believe that previous night we had been at the Casino Royale with James Bond ... we had, hadn't we? Or had we?

The Royal Windsor Steam Express

LNER 4-6-0 "Mayflower" with The Royal Windsor Steam
Express at Windsor & Eton Riverside

Pullman-style service and steam haulage from London Waterloo

Our daughter and her husband both had significant birthdays this summer and their combined birthday treat was to be a day in Windsor, travelling there by Steam Dreams' new-for-2019 express from Waterloo, Pullman dining class. We combined it with a couple of days visiting them (and our baby grandson), all by train (with a hint of bus!). The weather was extremely kind to us and all five of us had a great time.

So we set off after church on a Sunday, the 14:00 train from Stamford (which is only the second departure towards Peterborough on a Sunday, the first being just an hour earlier - obviously a Puritan timetable that assumes we all go to church!). Soon we were in London after a quick and simple change of train at Peterborough, another experience of LNER's new class 700 "Azuma" train: having got to grips with adjusting the seat we found this rather more comfortable than our first ride a couple of weeks earlier. We had a couple of little shopping jobs to do at St Pancras (handy, there being such good shops there) before going to the basement platforms for our Thameslink service across London to London Bridge - again all quick and simple - where we took the next departure for Orpington. All trains on time, all with space for us and our luggage and all clean and tidy. We travelled First Class on the trunk haul from Peterborough to London and were served coffee on this part of the trip. Through London to Orpington we used our Oyster cards and then to our daughter's home for dinner I had free bus travel from my Lincolnshire County Council senior citizens' bus pass!

A word about luggage. We normally use wheeled suitcases, as described on my page about luggage, but as this was only two nights and hot, dry weather was expected we each took a small backpack instead, which worked remarkably well. I travelled in the lightweight summer suit I had decided to use for the Pullman trip to Windsor, so all I had were shorts, two clean shirts and underwear, and sandals, together with shaver, toothbrush etc..

After dinner we walked back into town and checked in at the Premier Inn in Orpington, the town's only hotel, which opened just a short while ago and saved us a lot of difficulty when visiting family in this area. There was the usual Premier Inn standard of room: spacious and pleasant without being luxurious, and we had a great couple of nights there. The middle day was spent doing odd jobs at the family home and having lunch in town (The Orpington restaurant and record shop - yes, really - is to be recommended for quality and service, and no, I am not paid to say that!). Then came The Big Day.

The Royal Windsor Steam Express runs three times a week, all on Tuesdays: morning, late morning and afternoon. We were booked on the late morning departure from Waterloo at 11:15. We could not afford to miss it, of course, so we travelled into London in good time and although there was some problem somewhere that made some of the trains from Orpington to London rather late it did not really affect us because we simply got on a late one running at about the time of the one we were intending to catch. The trains go on from London Bridge and we alighted at Waterloo East, which has a short bridge connection to the main Waterloo station. We were in good time and enjoyed drinks at a café on the concourse before queuing for the platform; all these Steam Dreams specials go from platform 19.

Platform-end photographers await
the steam express at Waterloo

We were in plenty of time and I went to the end of the platform intending to photograph the train arriving. That's when the only problem of the day arose: after our train was supposed to be there, a service train came and occupied the platform, and then left again and then we were informed that because it was late we would all have to board as quickly as possible so that it could depart with no further delay - although frankly the best photos would be had at Windsor anyway, but the delay was a bit annoying with a young baby in the party.

We took our seats at tables dressed with linen cloths and fine cutlery, and as soon as we boarded the train was off, chuffing lightly out through the London suburbs among the local electrics, and the light meal was served: orange juice, Champagne, a very nice little granola yogurt and a cooked main course of mushrooms with sauce on toasted muffins, followed by coffee. Once clear of junctions and frequent stations the train sped up and the exhaust beat was more audible with less background noise. The staff were great and looked after us well. All to soon we were at Windsor & Eton Riverside station and that part of the trip can to an end. But the visit to Windsor was just beginning!

We had a great day but it loses a lot in the telling, so I shall not bore you with the detail, but we had a stroll over the river and around Eton, and then back into Windsor through the shopping streets with a brief peek at the Castle, and our grandson had his first go on a swing in a public park. The strange timing of meals was capped by ice-cream sundaes ...

And so to South Western Railway's service train back to Waterloo. We were quite impressed by the standard of accommodation on this train which is very much a local service: comfortable seats, charging points for our smartphones, free wifi on board. And the train was clean and on time. To round off a great day we arrived into the former international platforms at Waterloo, recently converted for local use, a bright, airy end to the day out.

But our travels were not yet over and after bidding the family farewell we made our way back to Kings Cross for the journey home, having had our luggage with us all day - that was why we wanted backpacks rather than cases this time! Waterloo to Kings Cross is awkward, and my younger days I used to walk much of the time, but it is a long way after a heavy day. We took the Northern Line tube to Euston and then walked from there to Kings Cross. The First Class lounge at Kings Cross was closed for refurbishment so we were given access to a room at The Parcel Yard pub, but it was not ever so relaxing there and refreshments were minimal. Still, the train was soon ready and we took our seats on another "Azuma", connected to Stamford and walked home at the end of another exciting adventure by rail.

Onward, Upward and Homeward

Approaching a lock. This one has hinged gates at the
downstream end

The River Danube is navigable for such a great distance because much effort has been expended over the ages on making it so. On our cruise we passed several tugs with lighters of various freight as well as many passengers ships (all of them, like ours, leisure cruising vessels). A major part of making the river navigable is the provision of locks, like a canal, which provides sufficient depth and allows sizeable vessels to climb up the river from the Black Sea. Unlike the familiar narrow canals on England, though, these locks are huge: each one will hold four ships like the Amadeus Brilliant, two side-by-side pairs of 110-metre ships, and the locks are in

The duty captain steers skilfully into the lock. No other ship
was using it at this time.

pairs so that ships can pass in both directions at the same time. So far, our transits through locks had taken place overnight when most of us were asleep, but we were spending a day aboard the ship today, travelling upstream, and would be able to see the working of these magnificent feats of engineering. I had been at the front of the ship late one evening and seen a lock in use, and I had woken in the night and looked out of the window to find a concrete wall slipping by our cabin about 40cm from my nose, but most passengers had not seen them and I had not seen them in broad daylight.

Looking astern, the gates close behind us and the lock is
filled with water.

With the lock full of water the upper gate is lowered into
the river bed and we sail on.

There was an early morning stop at Linz, Austria, for those going on the optional city walk of Linz and on to Aschach where the ship stopped again to pick them up. There was also an excursion by coach from Linz to Salzburg which took all day. The ship went on to Passau and there all the groups reconvened for the Captain's Gala Dinner evening while the ship carried on up the river to Regensburg. We did not take part in either of the excursions and so were on the ship all the way to Passau which we then explored on our own for about an hour. Passau's cathedral, St Stephens', apparently has the largest cathedral organ in the world and it started playing some short pieces just as we walked in - an amazing sound.

The port talk this evening had to be postponed and the Gala Dinner started a little late because the day excursion to Salzburg had been delayed in traffic. We had a chance to applaud the crew to thank them for all they had done to make this cruise such a great holiday.

During the afternoon there had been a short lecture about the building, design and use of the ship (and the river locks) and what each member of the crew did. I was amazed to find that the main propellors as well as the bow thruster can swivel though a complete circle, so either end of the ship can be steered in any direction: she can go astern as easily as ahead, and can even move sideways quite simply, handy when mooring alongside other ships.

The last complete day of the cruise section of the tour took us to Regensburg for the day. We explored the city on our own, seeing the places which had been pointed out to us including the cathedral (Dom St Peter), which was a gothic cathedral and I felt very much at home there after all the baroque churches we had seen so far on this trip. The stone bridge in the city centre is apparently the oldest bridge in Germany still in use, and it was having some serious restoration work done although still open with some temporary pieces here and there. After lunch we did some more exploration and visited the city's shops while an optional excursion went to Weltenburg Monastery. We bought gifts for the grandchildren and drank the local beer at a rooftop cafeteria at one of the department stores, with a fantastic view of the rooftops of the city.

Regensburg is said to be the best example of traditional Bavarian townscape in Germany: with that and the excellent modern facilities it is well worth a visit. It is also as far as the cruise ships are able go up the Danube, and indeed Amadeus Brilliant demonstrated her versatility by leaving astern, the river being too narrow to turn in the town. We travelled a few kilometres back down river before turning and heading back to Passau where our cruise would end the following morning.


Back aboard the ship before leaving Regensbourg we were entertained with a "Bavarian Evening," one of those entertainments where avoiding the front row is wise because a certain amount of embarrassing audience participation is expected ... then dinner while the ship moved off after the entertainers had left, and the ship's own music duo Katy and Dody played and sang for those who wanted to dance away their last night on board while most of us went to bed.


The following morning our packed cases were left outside our cabin and after breakfast we were taken by coach from the mooring at Passau to the railway station to begin the rail-born part of our homeward journey. we were soon aboard the first of three DB ICE trains which would get us to Brussels for the Eurostar to London. There is catering on board the ICEs but not included in the fare, so we had a light lunch, knowing that dinner was to come later. The first leg was to Frankfurt where a simple change of train took us onward to Cologne where we had dinner and spent the night at the Maritim Hotel. There was also some time for an exploration of Cologne before dinner, including a short stroll along the river front where Rhine cruise ships were moored, and after breakfast on the final morning we caught the third ICE for Brussels. We were right in the nose of the streamlined train, behind the driver, this time and could see forward as the train made its way towards Brussels and home.
One novelty on ICE trains currently is the distribution at intervals on the journey of little packets of jelly sweets shaped like ICE end cars. We consumed some ourselves and brought some home for the grandchildren. At Brussels we went through the now-familiar security and passport checks and waited for our train to London which again was one of the new E320 Eurostar trains, very comfortable and stylish, and a light meal was served as we were whisked back to the UK. This was our chance to thank our tour manager who had ensured we all made all our connections, and to exchange contact deals with the other "Pirates of the Danube" before we all went our separate ways at St Pancras, in our case taking the next fast train from Kings Cross that stopped at Peterborough and there connecting for our home in Stamford. Like us, Stamford had had a sunny week, but unlike us had suffered a very heavy shower indeed the previous evening and was still very wet as we walked home. Yesterday Passau, today Stamford, and not an airport in sight!

So we have added river cruising to our holiday experiences, and very enjoyable it was. Of course, not only do we wish to revisit some of the cities of which we had only a short glimpse this time, but we also now hanker after pushing further east along the Danube to the Black Sea ... maybe one day. But there is also a lot of Britain yet to visit, and much more, too. I think the mental "list" is going to have to take physical shape very soon now so that real plans can be made for all of this!

Afloat at Last

Amadeus Brilliant moored at Budapest beside sister ship
Amadeus Silver II on a separate cruise

We had never done a cruise holiday before, although it has long been on our agenda as something we might like to do. Brochure pictures of river cruise ships making their way along scenic rivers such at the Rhine and the Danube look very attractive, and brochure descriptions of the delicious meals and "free flowing wine" are pretty attractive, too ... but these are designed to sell these expensive holidays, so we cannot be sure they would live up to the advertising. By booking this holiday with Great Rail Journeys we were confident from our experience that they might well deliver what they promise and now, at the riverside at Budapest, we were about to find out. Arriving late after a train delay and then heavy traffic was not a good start, but there beside the coach was the crew of the Amadeus Brilliant to take our luggage and show us to the ship: a new part of our adventure had begun.

We were to sleep seven nights aboard the Amadeus Brilliant and so would be able at last to unpack all our clothes, most of which had remained in our suitcase since we packed them many days ago in Stamford. We unpacked quickly because we were soon due in the ship's bar for a welcome drink and to hear the ship's Tour Director give us details about our time aboard. Our cabin, the bar and everything we had seen so far were almost perfect, well up to what we had seen in the advertising. After the talk came dinner which finished in time for us to wrap up against the night air and make our way onto the sundeck (or is it moon deck at night?) for a short cruise through Budapest whose riverside public buildings are all floodlit and make a magnificent spectacle. If we had not been on a cruise holiday but staying in a hotel, we should definitely have had to take one of the many night-time short pleasure cruises offered on the waterfront, but for us it was included in our package holiday without even having to leave our floating hotel.

After the night cruise through Budapest it was already very late and we went straight to bed, although it would have been possible to stay up and see all the buildings again from the other direction. Our cabin had a really good air-conditioning system, a safe for our valuables (such as the MacBook on which I was attempting to keep up with blogging the trip!) and a huge window which we could open and sit looking out by day or night - unless we were docked next to another ship and only had a view of another cabin!

It had been an intensive few days by now, and we opted not to take part in the guided tour of Budapest but to set off at a more civilised time - an hour later - and make our own tour of discovery, which included walking up the Gellert Hill to the Soviet liberty statue, which commemorates the liberation of the city from the Nazis by the Red Army at the end of the Second World War. The views over the city from there were stunning, and we were reminded of the enormous price paid in human lives by the Soviet Union for the liberation of Europe from Nazi domination. Lower down the hillside is the statue of St Gellert after whom the hill, and the adjacent spa, are named, and we passed this on the way down towards the castle. Various members of our family had suggested the Soviet Monument Park but this was some distance out of the city centre and we only had the morning to spare because our ship was due to depart after lunch and begin the long journey north to Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. Broadly speaking we had decided to go on all the included tours and none of the optional ones, because unlike most of those on the trip I am not retired and needed this to be a restful holiday. The tour of Budapest was included but we made an exception for this after being up so late for the floodlight cruise, and although walking to the top of a steep hill was still pretty active, at least it did not start until we were ready! We did not go into the castle but did pop into the tourist information office there and bought postcards to send home.

Lunch and dinner were served on the ship each day, along with breakfast and afternoon tea: this is not a holiday on which maintaining a waistline is easy! We opted for the light buffet lunch in the bar rather than the three-course affair in the restaurant, soon after which the ship was cast off and we began to move along the legendary Danube. It was too windy to spend very long on the sundeck but there is plenty of space under cover: the bar area can take all of the ship's passengers at the same time if necessary. I busied myself writing up the first few days' blog posts and filing my photographs, and soon tea time had passed and dinner was served. It was magical watching the sun go down as we cruised along the river during dinner, and to bed while the ship forged on all night. It was still moving when we awoke in the morning, and had docked at Bratislava by breakfast time.

Opposite the Slovakian parliament, a memorial to
Alexander Dubcek who earlier had tried to bring more
freedom to Czechoslovakia 

Our docking point was right in the city centre at Bratislava, a much smaller city than Prague or Budapest and with an interesting history. A guided tour of Bratislava was included in our holiday package, going by coach to the castle, opposite which Slovakia's new parliament building has been built, and then down into the city centre with the rest of the tour completed on foot. This is another beautiful city, well-kept and ready for tourists. After the guided tour we were free to explore for a while before returning to the ship (which we did in time for lunch). We had to dodge (simulated) gunfire from a celebration of the liberation of the city from Napoleonic forces - although in the town squares a fusillade is as noisy as artillery fire in open space. Stories of Napoleon were nearly as common as stories of the Nazis and Communists everywhere we travelled in mid-Europe, but only here did we get the shock of loud gunfire outside while we were peacefully looking at information in the Tourist Information Office.

After lunch we explored the city on foot again, looking at what had been the Jewish quarter with its small artisan houses, and walking on the short length which remains of the city wall, then strolling along the bank of the Danube and seeing briefly the new shopping centre there which contrasts with the old city centre. I found it interesting that various embassies are mixed in among other city-centre land-uses such as shops and offices because this is a very small city to be a capital, and so the nations are placing their embassies wherever they are able to obtain space, some of them in upper storeys over shops or restaurants, for example. There are still plenty of shops in the main streets, in spite of the new shopping centre on the edge of the central area and the pressure from the diplomatic services for space for embassies.

We returned to the ship for tea and to rest and write up a bit more of this blog before dinner. The "Port Talk" had to cover announcements for the next two days because the following evening would be too busy to fit in a Port Talk then! An early night sounded essential, although having decided not to undertake optional tours we would be less busy than we otherwise might have been.

St Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna

The following morning was Sunday and our ship had left behind the former communist states and had arrived in Vienna, capital of Austria. It was Pentecost Sunday, a principal Christian feast day, and most shops etc were closed but the streets were still crowded with tourists and with people going to church. After breakfast our tour of the city started early and was punctuated by church bells calling people to Mass. To me as a priest it felt very odd not to be joining them, but there was not time in our programme. During the 50 minutes or so that we had free we did have a brief look in the cathedral but although Mass was about to start it was a sung Eucharist with the Cardinal Archbishop presiding so I did not imagine that it would have been over within the time we could spare! Perhaps I should have thought to bring a stole and some service books and offer to hold a service on board the ship for those who wanted to attend ... but I didn't.

Memorial to the Victims of War and Fascism

Our mooring at Vienna was well outside the city centre and we were taken there by coach and given a brief tour on wheels, then a walking tour and some free time before continuing by coach and being taken back to the ship in time for lunch. A very large city, well cared-for and with a fabulous cultural history. Austria is high up among the nations that have produced world-famous classical composers and musicians, and opera is a large part of the city's leisure provision to this day, as are several other art forms. Vienna still smarts, though, as a place where Hitler managed to stir up a crowd and build his Nazi movement, and right in the centre of the city is a moving Memorial to the Victims of War and Fascism. Those decent people who were persuaded to the Nationalist cause and lost their lives fighting for it are, of course, among the victims. In all of the cities we had visited so far, Hitler and the Nazis, or their policies, had a significant impact on life in the city which has continued to this day, even those that had been through a Communist era since then.

We returned to our coach for more of the tour of the city and to be taken back to our ship for lunch. There was another, optional, tour in the afternoon but we opted not to take this and had a short stroll along the riverside and spent some time relaxing on the sundeck. Dinner was earlier to allow for an optional visit to a concert of Viennese music, which again we opted not to take: I am sure it would have been wonderful, but the idea of this holiday was to rest, not to pack in as much as possible! For those who lives are leisurely a holiday full of activities and tours is great, but those of us who are busy there needs to be more empty time! Great Rail Journeys have the balance about right for me: enough included activity (which we can omit if we like, although we've paid for it) and plenty of optional activity if we wanted to do more - which we'd have to pay for.

Once the concert-goers were back aboard, the ship moved off again to travel overnight to our next destination, the village of Durnstein in the small wine-growing valley of Wachau. We woke to find that we were moored against two other ships: three further ships were at an adjacent mooring just in front of us on the edge of the village. Considering the village has a population of 85, it does well to cater for visitors from six ships at a time! We were given a short tour of this small Austrian village, where Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned and held for an enormous ransom, whose main products are white wine and various apricot products, and then along with several other groups of visitors attended a wine-tasting at a family winery. This village was amazingly efficient at getting large numbers of tourists through the variety of attractions they had to offer. Anyone can buy tickets to the wine-tasting, but ours were provided for us as part of the included tour and our local guide worked his talk around the timing that had been booked. The winery operated a gift shop but we thought bottles of wine a bit too large for our luggage and brought back jars of apricot jam as gifts instead. I was amazed that American guests there were trying to buy from this small family business in US Dollars: Austria uses the Euro, which you'd think anyone touring Europe would be able to spend even they had come without Hungarian Forints or Czech Koruna. Back to the ship and we set off again on a lovely sunny afternoon with much time spent on the sundeck.

Melk Abbey, seen from Emmersdorf

At about 15:00 the ship docked at another small village, Emmersdorf, where an optional excursion left by coach for Melk Abbey. We walked into the village to explore on foot: it was set on a fairly steep valley side and single-track railway line crossed a side valley in the centre of the village on a stone viaduct reminiscent of northern England. From the upper level of the village we could look across to Melk Abbey where some of our travelling companions were enjoying a guided tour of a small part of this extensive monastic campus.

St Nikolaus's Church

It was a hot, sunny day and we continued to climb to a church overlooking the whole scene. We were mystified by notices explaining that the building was protected by the Convention of the Hague dated 14 May 1954 in the event of armed conflict: why this church of all the churches in Europe? Would ISIS respect this; would the Nazis have respected it? We went inside and it was astounding in its baroque decor and sheer size for a small community, but that applies to many a parish church all over the Christian world (and to many a Mosque, Temple or other place of worship).

Back at the ship it was tea time and then time to prepare for the evening: tonight's dinner was pirate-themed and the crew dressed in "pirate" costume and left the dining table in a state of disarray as it attacked by pirates (but enough cutlery, glasses etc for everyone!), and some of us managed to cobble together something like pirate dress - I happened to have a suitable t-shirt available and a handkerchief that could just be worn as a headscarf. Our little group of eight who had done so well in a quiz two nights earlier reconvened as pirates and never really quite got over it ... Pirates of the Danube for the rest of the trip ... The ship set sail during dinner and tomorrow was to be a busy day, but that can wait for the next instalment.

My photographs are gradually being uploaded to my Flickr album at https://www.flickr.com/photos/frmark/albums/72157697193126255.