A Lovely Day for a Train Ride

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sub-tropical Southwark!

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

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

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

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

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

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

* "when nothing seems to go right"

Leicester Feels a Bit Closer Than It Did

A train trip we now do rather more often

The train operating companies, and indeed the Government, talk about "changed travel patterns" since the pandemic as a reason an excuse to adjust cut train services, but for me there are two reasons why my travel patterns have changed since the pandemic: one is that train services have been cut and I cannot travel on trains that don't run (!) so I have to travel at other times or even, if I cannot change my timing, drive my car (which makes them think I am not travelling and reinforces the cut). The other is that some shops did not reopen after the lockdowns, among them our nearest department store, John Lewis in Peterborough. There are now very few shops in Peterborough that are any use to me at all and for major comparison shopping I now have to look to Leicester, so my "changed travel pattern" now includes getting a train to Leicester and back for shopping rather than to Peterborough and back - a much longer journey at a higher fare, so the Cross Country train operating company does rather better from me than it did ... Fortunately the withdrawn train services do not affect a day trip to Leicester.

The starter!

Most recently my wife and I took the train to Leicester to visit John Lewis in order to research induction hobs in preparation for a kitchen refurbishment at home. We caught the 11:07 Cross Country train from Stamford to Leicester and walked straight through the city centre to the department store where we had some excellent advice from a young salesman and made some notes (basically photographing the information labels on the devices that interested us!). On previous shopping trips by train to Leicester we have had coffee and/or lunch at the Merchant of Venice restaurant opposite the station, but this time we discovered that they had opened another branch at the other side of the city centre, near to where we were shopping, so we tried that instead for our lunch. It had the same quirky atmosphere, an Italian restaurant and coffee shop with a Shakespeare theme, even down to having a table with swinging seats in the front window - which we just had to try after using them at the original branch.

Main courses

The walk back to the railway station was essential to walk off the lunch, the starter for which was as big as some main course: it was as well that we were sharing the starter.

And so to the train home. The train rides each way were unremarkable, which for a trip such as this is all we require, really. Cross Country have acquired more centre cars for the Turbostar trains they use on this route, so there is now usually plenty of space, and although the trains are beginning to show signs of wear after a busy life the seats are still comfortable, the heating and air conditioning still works well and the refreshment trolley service is still operating. Timekeeping could be a bit better but the trains are often on time and seldom more than a couple of minutes late, so it could not be a lot better.

And now today the kitchen refurbishment begins. We have not actually chosen the induction hob yet because we need to take advice from the kitchen fitter once he has the worktop removed and can see how much clearance he has above the built-in oven below where the hob is to be installed. But at least we know what the range is and where to order it once the decision is made. The gas fitter arrives this afternoon (pity: it should be on a Monday morning that the gas man comes to call ...) to disconnect the gas hob. Then as soon as we approach the end of our energy contract we can have the gas supply removed and stop paying the standing charge. This will be the first time in my life that I have been without a gas connection.

You Walked?!!!

By Train and on Foot in London

I wrote some time ago about travelling by train to a meeting in Cambridge, but although that venue for a meeting was very handy for me, for most people attending it involved a lengthy car journey, so to make it easier for most, the venue was moved for the most recent meeting to London, which everyone could more or less easily reach by train. For me it was less convenient, but for most it was much more convenient, so I could hardly complain. It was in Southwark where there was a handy Franciscan house at which we could meet, and we were advised that Southwark was the nearest Underground station.

A trip to London with a little time to spare was handy for me because I had just renewed my Senior Railcard and needed to take a few moments at an Underground station to have it linked to my Oyster card to give me cheaper travel on TfL services in London - this is something only staff can do, and so I chose an early enough train to give me time to get this done.

Changing at Peterborough - that's the train from Stamford behind me!

I left Stamford on the 07:57 Cross Country train to Peterborough and then caught the 08:29 LNER train to London: this was from Lincoln and was just a five-coach "Azuma" train, making a very neat connection with the train from Stamford. It arrived on time at Kings Cross at 09:23, just 90 minutes I had left Stamford and less than two hours after leaving my house, which is not at all bad. While only claiming Standard Class fares from the Order (Third Order, Society of St Francis), I booked Advance First Class tickets both ways and so enjoyed the bacon roll and coffee as a second breakfast on the way to London.

At Kings Cross St Pancras Underground station I easily found a member of station staff by the ticket machines where he was on hand to help intending passengers, and he took my Railcard and Oyster and poked the necessary numbers into the machine along with his staff ID card and behold, the Oyster computer system should now charge me about one-third less for my travel in London!

I then had plenty of time to get to Southwark and consulted the map on my iPhone: it was almost a straight line! I could easily do this on foot and in fact I had at various times in the past walked most of the route for various reasons, and it would be interesting to see it again. I needed to acquire a packed lunch on the way and knew that I would be passing several shops where I'd be able to buy something for this. So off I went, across the road outside the station and along the right-hand (west) side of Grays Inn Road towards the Inns of Court at Holborn. I noticed, as I never had before, that there is an amazing number of dentists in Grays Inn Road! I bought my lunch from a small Co-operative "corner shop" somewhere along the road, a very decent meal deal.

When I reached Holborn I crossed the road and turned left to head towards Blackfriars, passing the end of the famous Hatton Garden jewellery quarter (as visited by James Bond in Diamonds are Forever!) and then heading southwards towards the river. There was a glimpse of St Paul's Cathedral as I crossed Fleet Street, and then of the Tate Modern gallery as I walked over Blackfriars Bridge. Along Blackfriars Road I glanced at the frontage of Southwark station just to see if anyone I knew was coming that way, but no-one was. I noticed for the first time that it really is just a very short walk from there to Waterloo station: indeed, Waterloo East is connected by a walkway to Southwark Underground Station.

Soon I was approaching the venue of my meeting and coming the other way were two of my colleagues who had come by train from Kettering to St Pancras and had continued to Southwark by taxi ... they were amazed that I had walked all that way but I am younger and fitter than they, and intend to keep the fitness for as long as I can, which does require the exercise. We were among the first to arrive and as everyone gathered it transpired that some had walked from Waterloo, just a nice walking distance, but the others who had come into Liverpool Street, Kings Cross, St Pancras or Marylebone had all taken buses or the Underground - and my friends who had taken a taxi. 

I had thoroughly enjoyed my walk but at the end of the day I did use the Underground to go back to Kings Cross. By then it was becoming dark and cooler and, of course, I was no longer in need of quite so much exercise! From Southwark I travelled just one stop to Waterloo and then changed to the Northern Line to Warren Street where I left the Underground and walked the rest of the way to St Pancras station. Having allowed time in the morning for my little task with the Railcard I had also allowed plenty of time in the evening for odd jobs, and one odd job that really needed to be done was to buy a supply of St Pancras Blend tea from Fortnum and Mason, only available from their shop at St Pancras. Once that was done I browsed around a little more and then made my way across the road to Kings Cross to await my LNER train to Peterborough where I made the change once more for Stamford; home by early evening after a very satisfying day. The waiting room at Peterborough was busy: from platforms 6 and 7 there were trains for Norwich, Ipswich and (mine) Birmingham within the next half-hour, and all were clearly going to be fairly busy. My train came in more-or-less on time and left on time, reasonably full but not overcrowded. People are travelling, and we need to get our railways up and running properly, with full timetables and without random cancellations caused by staff shortages (which in truth are usually overtime unpopularity!). It surely cannot be long now before we have a decent railway again?

Bordeaux and Its Wine

Boarding the Cyrano de Bergerac

The train to Bordeaux from Biarritz on Thursday afternoon was a regional train which stopped at several places en route to Bordeaux. Given the length of time that it would take all the party with their suitcases to leave the train it was great to know that the train terminated at Bordeaux so that we could take our time getting off. We were met by a coach at the station and driven to the riverside quay where our cruise ship awaited, the MS Cyrano de Bergerac. Already aboard were the members of the other group from Biarritz who had been travelling Second Class and had gone on an earlier train, and three other groups: a Second Class and a First Class rail travelling group and a group that had arrived by air, all of them arranged by Great Rail Journeys. Andrew our Tour Manager handed over to Judy the Cruise Manager and said farewell; we would meet him again in a few days' time for our journey back to London. The ship was operated by CroisiEurope with whom we had never travelled before, and from now on nearly all of our meals were provided on the ship, with wine included at dinner. We were taken to our cabin and unpacked, then there was a welcome cocktail in the bar, an introduction to the crew and a briefing on the following day's activities by our Cruise Manager. The cabin was not quite as well-appointed as on the Amadeus ships we'd used on the Danube and the Rhine but it was comfortable and had effective air-conditioning and a great shower.

After the briefing came the first of our three-course dinners with wine. Delicious and sustaining. For now at least the "Biarritz" group members seemed to remain with people they'd met in Biarritz although we were outnumbered by people who had not met anyone else until they joined the ship that day. The ship stayed in Bordeaux all that night and we had a reasonable night's sleep undisturbed by movement.

Cadillac and the first wine tastings

The next morning, Saturday, at breakfast we "sailed" (that's the word they use, even though we were quite clearly motoring on the river) for Cadillac, a very small town on the river Garonne. The town was built in the days when this region, Aquitaine, was ruled by England and was a "bastide'" a planned new town of its day, built on a grid street pattern with a market place at its centre and surrounded by a defensive wall. We were taken on a guided tour of the town and introduced to its local sweet Sauternes wine which we were able to sample at the Office de Tourisme at the end of the tour. After the guided tour we had a short additional tour of our own around the few other streets and then returned to the ship with everyone else for lunch. 

After lunch as the ship sailed away back down the Garonne we listened to a lecture on the wines of Bordeaux and tasted three different Bordelais wines, by which time it was time to shower and change for dinner. I learnt a great deal about wines from this lecture but it was but the first of many lessons (and tastings) of Bordelais wines which I would experience on this holiday. 

The MS Cyrano de Bergerac eventually docked at Cussac, not even a hamlet, on the left bank of the Gironde estuary into which the Garonne flows. Again it remained moored overnight. Although there was a quiz in the longe bar that evening, it was time for bed after a busy day, especially as there was a relatively early start the next morning.

Vineyard Tours

Sunday's excursion was a real eye-opener for me as someone who enjoys wine but has never before visited such a major wine-producing area. I have to say that since this whole cruise the wine bottle labels will mean so much more to me, in terms of both information and emotion. At 08:30 we set off by coach to tour the Médoc area, between the Gironde estuary and the Atlantic Ocean. It was almost all vineyards. Very, very little else is grown in the region, only grapes. There are villages but the farms are all "châteaux". Actually, a wine château is very seldom a real castle, the strict meaning of "château": any winery which includes living accommodation is called a château in France. On our coach tour we were taught by a local guide Alexandre who told us about the different grape varieties, what is grown on which sort of soil and what style of wine it would produce, who owned the vineyards and how the wines were classified and priced. We ended the coach tour by visiting a small, family-owned organic winery and saw how the wines were made, sampling two vintages of their output. It was good to see the reality on the ground of what we had heard at the previous day's talk on board the ship, and to have our knowledge of grape varieties reinforced by hearing the information again from a different person in different circumstances. All meals were taken on the ship, and we sailed back along the Gironde, taking the eastern branch into the river Dordogne to dock at Libourne, another town founded by the English (originally known as "Leyburn," apparently, after the nobleman who was in charge of its development). We had a little time to explore the town after our arrival but it was so hot that we did not stay out for long.

On Monday morning we were picked up by coach and taken to explore the small town of St Emilion and the surrounding wine-growing region, culminating with a visit to another small independent chateau where the owner (whose grandparents founded the business) described the way he grew the grapes and made the wine, a St Emilion Grand Cru whose price varies from vintage to vintage but is always in tens of Euros per bottle - the better one we tasted was €69, so I don't think I'll be buying many cases ... The town of St Emilion, supposedly founded by the hermit of that name, was fascination and included a monolithic church; that is, a church carved out of one of the limestone hills on which the town is built. It seems to have had a difficult history and has not been used as a church for a very long time now. The contrast between the cold and dark inside the monolithic church and the bright, hot sunshine of the vineyards was especially striking!

Three days, four wine tastings and several lessons about French wine and while not an expert I was beginning to feel that I did know a worthwhile amount now and would be able to envisage the landscape and even have some idea about the people when I read wine labels in future. I am also beginning to feel as if Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine are old friends of mine ....

It's not all about the wine!

Ready for the gala dinner

On Monday evening, while we enjoyed a gala dinner on board, the MS Cyrano do Bergerac left Libourne and sailed during the evening to Royan, on the right bank of the Gironde estuary where the river is indistinguishable from the Atlantic Ocean. The gala dinner was preceded by an aperitif and most of us made some attempt to dress for it, although ti was two days earlier than originally planned.

Arrival at Royan was well after midnight and I woke at one stage to find a landing stage outside the cabin window - we had left the curtains open to enable us to fall asleep with a view of the gibbous moon over the ocean, but I thought that they should be closed now that land was just a few metres away.

Tuesday's excursion was very different from the last three. We were out all day and visited two towns and no vineyards! Lunch was in a hotel restaurant rather than back on the ship and wine was only mentioned in general and in passing by the guides. Eleanor of Aquitaine still figured in the history, though, along with Henry II of England. The first visit was to Rochefort and specifically to the historic dockyard where the French navy's ships used to be built. This included a demonstration of rope-making in the Corderie Royal. If you've seen the ropewalk at Chatham Dockyard in Kent you'll be familiar with the process. Unlike Chatham and Portsmouth, though, there are no historic ships to see at Rochefort. We boarded the coaches once more and took an early lunch (noon) at a hotel in Rochefort: rather rushed but of a very decent standard and with wine included as well as water - back on the ship wine was only included with dinner, not lunch. So ... although we had no wine-tasting this day we had wine with lunch instead. You have to like wine to get the most out of this trip!

From Rochefort the coaches took us to La Rochelle ("The Little Rock"). Our visit there began with a guided tour of the most historic sites and then some free time to explore before taking the coach back to Royan to rejoin the ship. The history of the town is strongly bound up with trade with England, and like a lot of seafaring towns in France and in England it now struggles with a history involving the trading of slaves between Africa and the Caribbean. The Town Hall in La Rochelle bears witness to the past wealth and power of the town. In the free time to took a stroll past the historic harbour to the beach and back along a stretch of the town wall.

Our coach driver took us back to the ship by way of a little tour of Royan which nicely rounded off a full day of sightseeing, but after dinner we also went for a walk around the town on our own to see things a little closer and simply to be close to the sea (technically an estuary, rather like, say, Southend-on-Sea). 

Overnight the Ship made its way back up the Gironde estuary to Bordeaux. I woke at one stage in the night to feel considerable movement from the waves - this river cruiser does not have stabilisers you'd have on an ocean-going ship and yet here it was effectively at sea ... but this did not last long and the next time I woke we had arrived back in Bordeaux and I was looking across the river to the familiar sight of the right bank.

Wednesday was spent entirely in Bordeaux. There was an optional coach tour of the city followed by an optional walking tour: we opted for the coach tour which took us to places we should not otherwise see and our guide told us not only about the history of the city but also of current plans for its development, which are considerable. Much substantial building work is taking place, mostly on "brownfield" sites with the city and its population and economy are expanding. 

We said farewell to the guide after the coach tour and explored the central area on our own, returning to the ship for lunch and then setting off again for a further walk, including the buying of a few gifts to take home. There is so much to see in Bordeaux but for us just soaking up the atmosphere of a beautiful town is enough. Parks, monuments, churches, cathedrals, squares and streets, and coffee on a little street corner in the sunshine just made a super day out. After dinner we set off for one last walk along the riverside and drank a pina colada on the sun deck (moon deck?).

The Train Journey Home

On Thursday morning we were ready to go home. The small group that was flying home left us at 04:00 (or so it was planned: I did not see them off!) for their flight; we left at 08:00 for the station and were soon on our TGV for Paris Montparnasse. The trip, about two hours, passed off smoothly and at Gare Montparnasse we all went to the coach which was waiting to take us to Gare du Nord. This was held up by parked vehicles and unloading vans here and there and the ventilation system was not working properly (but the driver eventually opened the roof lights which helped enormously). At Gare du Nord we all scanned our tickets and scanned our passports (twice) and had the passports stamped and then divested ourselves of everything metal before having our luggage scanned and then we were IN, ready to wait for the boarding of our Eurostar train to London. Neither the escalator up to the Eurostar terminal nor the escalator down to our platform seemed to be working, but I am fit enough to carry luggage up and down stairs and so was not too inconvenienced by this. The train was away on time and I swapped my Euro wallet for my UK wallet in preparation for arrival in London.

As usual in Standard Premier Class a light meal was served soon after leaving Paris and it was very enjoyable, with a glass of chilled rosé wine. We fell into conversation with a couple sitting opposite who were on their way home from a holiday in Croatia, which made our journey look short. It is easy to cover much of Europe by train and arriving somewhere this way gives you a real sense of having travelled. You see the scenery, you meet the people, and when you arrive you know how far you've come. If there's some hassle checking in for the cross-channel trains there is comfort in knowing that is it almost certainly better than the hassle at airports, and definitely shorter - the reason our airborne companions had to leave so early was not only that the airport was further away than the rail station, but also that they had to check in two hours before scheduled departure which, on a budget airline, was early. How ever we travel, the journey will be certain to begin and end with a train, so it seems to me that travelling by train all the way makes a lot of sense. Some say it's cheaper to fly, and it may be, but I reckon that by the time you have added the cost of getting to and from airports at both ends and parking your car if that's how you do it, then it ay not be all that much cheaper. There is also the question of whether that saving in cost is really worth getting up at 03:30 to catch the flight ... It depends on priorities. For me the experience of travelling, along with the proven environmental benefits, outweighs everything else.

We arrived on time at St Pancras and made our way over to Kings Cross - this took a while as we were in the last coach of the Eurostar train - and found that a Leeds train, calling at Peterborough, was already boarding, so we took that. Seat reservations did not seem to be working but the train was not too busy and we easily found somewhere suitable to sit. Another light meal (all we needed was the cheese course) and we were at Peterborough. The train, a British Rail InterCity 225 set, was in good time at Peterborough and we were able to get the Stamford train that left only four minutes later. That may well have been our fastest ever journey from Paris to Stamford. At Gare du Nord we had seen the news on our smartphones that our royal family was hurrying to Balmoral because of concerns about the Queen's health, and the significance of that was emphasised when we took a taxi home from Stamford station, and hearing that we had been abroad our driver told us that the Queen was very ill. When we arrived home the BBC announced that she had died. A sad end to a wonderful holiday. Long live the King.

Travelling with Confidence? Not So Simple!

Train travel in a time of uncertainty

Our trains are clean and air-conditioned, and face-coverings are legally mandatory, so as far as health and safety are concerned we can travel with confidence on almost any train in the UK. But making a journey by rail is not the same thing as riding on a train, and with constantly-shifting laws and government advice together with a very high infection rate leading to multiple staff shortages in all services including railways and bus services, it is not easy to plan a journey with confidence. Each railway company does its best: LNER, for example, has reduced its timetable on its Leeds and Lincoln routes in the hope that enough staff will generally be available to operate all other trains so that people can travel with LNER with confidence. The problem is that in reality people need the whole system to work together. I do not live on LNER's route and in order to travel to London or the north I have to go to Peterborough by Cross Country's Birmingham-Stansted service, so I depend on the two companies connecting smoothly. Such is the odd way Britain's rail fares work that a First Class Advance ticket for the whole journey would be ridiculously expensive, but it works well to by such a ticket for the LNER leg while buying Day Anytime Standard Class tickets for the short Cross Country leg. Last year when reservations were required for travel it was hard to be sure that seats would be available on all the required trains and we ended up occasionally using taxis to and from Peterborough, and although it is no longer as bad as that, there is now the fear that one company or the other may find itself short of a driver or guard during the pandemic and the journey fails. Fortunately, Advance tickets can be used on the next train if a planned connection does fail, so although we may be an hour late at least we would not be out-of-pocket.

As it happens we had bought tickets to visit family in London for three days after Christmas: we booked relatively late so the Advance First tickets were rather more expensive than we normally buy, but we felt that with the amount of luggage we might have and the headlines about busy trains Standard Class may not be able to offer the amount of space we would need. The First Class accommodation was pretty well fully booked, hence the fare, and our reserved seats were one behind the other, not side-by side or opposite. By the time Christmas came the panic over the "omicron" variant of the Covid-19 virus was beginning to make the trip look doubtful and we began making contingency plans for a one-day trip by car just to exchange presents and return home. Additional restrictions did not affect the trip, however, and we set out by train as planned, having done our "lateral flow" Covid tests and having heard that our hosts had also done their, with all four being negative. In the event our train form Stamford to Peterborough was on time (well, two minutes late) and the LNER connection was also running on time. There were several reserved seats which were unoccupied and so we forsook ours and sat opposite each other at a large table instead of in tandem. Refreshments were "thin" with this being the first day back at work and the train having already travelled from Edinburgh, but we were not going far and a mug of hot chocolate did nicely - we had our morning coffee between trains at the coffee lounge at the Great Northern Hotel, Peterborough, which serves as the LNER first class lounge there.

Although our train was only a couple of minutes late leaving Peterborough it was delayed in the tunnels on the approach to Kings Cross and was about ten minutes down by the time we arrived. Not a big deal, but annoying since all the work done to Kings Cross station throat a year or two ago supposed to make the station approach easier. We had two large suitcases because we were bearing gifts from other family members as well as our own for the family we were visiting, so we used the lifts at Kings Cross for step-free access to the Hammersmith & City Line platforms and set off for Shepherds Bush. Mercifully we were to bring back a lot less than we took, so my back pack which was carrying some of my personal luggage went inside one of the cases on our return.

On the one full day of our stay I went with my son and his wife and two children to The Design Museum in Kensington. The family did not stay long, having been there before, and went off to play in Holland Park, behind the museum, but I stayed and had a good look at the museum, started by the late Sir Terence Conran, an extraordinary designer whom I have long admired for bringing good design to anyone who wants it. We travelled there by bus and the museum and park visit were preceded by lunch at Wagamama in Kensington High Street. Wagamama is not a chain I have visited much before but I thoroughly enjoyed the meal there.

Apple (above) and Sinclair (right) computers

After meeting again in the park we all travelled home together by taxi, hailed using an iPhone app: Uber seems to have lost its dominance now, with a shortage of drivers apparently making it unreliable if the company increases pay to attract more drivers it will lose the price edge. I tend not to use either myself, but when the family is together a taxi can be competitive with multiple transport fares.

The following day we returned home in the afternoon, ready to greet friends who were coming to stay with us in Stamford for the next few days. Our Underground train to Kings Cross was fine, as was the train from there to Peterborough, but it was clear that the pandemic was creating staff shortages on the Cross Country route that should take us home to Stamford from Peterborough. There was no connection at Peterborough as planned, and the following train, an hour later, was not running either. There was a replacement bus but it was not due to leave until over half an hour after the train after our booked one. While the next train was running, that was the one our friends were expecting to be on, and it would get there just a few minutes after the replacement bus. We decided that to be good hosts we really needed to forsake the railway and take a taxi. This was expensive and there was no guarantee we could successfully claim any compensation from Cross Country, although I shall try.

Our friends' journey was fine, only booked on the day after all four of us had taken our lateral-flow Covid-19 tests to ensure that it was safe to meet, and when the time came for them to return home a few days later, their trains for that journey were fine, too. But there are big gaps in the timetable on our line which are not well-plugged by the replacement buses. The sooner this need for isolation ends the sooner we can start travelling again with real confidence: vaccinated and fit I am not afraid of the disease, but I am afraid of being stranded and a trip being ruined! Having said that, I am making bookings for the summer and beyond, it is just the next couple of months which are hard to book.