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

To London by Train for Banksy - Among Other Things

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

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

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

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

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

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

Local Trips by Bus and Underground

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

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

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

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

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

The Art at Last!

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

Travelling Home with the Commuters

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

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

Steam Train to the English Lakes

A Very Special Rail Tour

Several years ago we took our daughter and her husband and their new baby son for a day out to Windsor on the Royal Windsor Steam Express for their (the parents) joint birthday treat. This was a one-way Pullman-style service with a decent brunch and was operated by Steam Dreams, and ever since then I have been on their mailing list to see what else they had to offer. Meanwhile we had been considering a short break in the English Lakes for the autumn, so when Steam Dreams advertised The Lakes Express this looked like just the deal. Consulting my wife we opted for the Pullman Dining class, and of course we also needed a hotel in London the night before departure (for it was from London that the train was to leave), and ideally another night there on return, just in case of late running; although as it happened I had a meeting in London the following day, so staying was not a bad idea anyway. It was clear that this was not going to be a bargain break, but it would be a relaxing, if short, holiday. It was booked and paid-for many months in advance but we had plenty of other exciting trips taking place earlier in the year, and indeed in the summer, so we were not too edgy waiting for the date to come around. In the event it came as a very welcome break after some frenetic activity with which shall not bore you here.

To London by train

The day did dawn on a Monday in September, although essential business did delay our departure to London until late afternoon, but it was a lovely warm, sunny afternoon when we set off with our wheeled suitcases to our local railway station to take the first train of a real adventure. The little Cross Country train to Peterborough was almost on time and easily made our on-time connection, an LNER train to London Kungs Cross. The LNER journey was in First Class (affordable on an Advance ticket) and we had our customary glass of white wine as we began relaxing after our stressful time: the sandwiches and fruit we kept as supper later that evening.

We were aware before leaving home that much of the Underground's workforce was on strike for most of the week and knew that transferring to our hotel in Pimlico was going to be a struggle. Having considered bus and taxi we decided simply to walk: wheeled luggage makes this sort of thing quite feasible, if time-consuming. Walking through London is always a pleasure, although given that so many others were also walking, and that by now the travel-home peak had begun, this was tempered on this occasion by rather crowded pavements in places (although by no means everywhere). We stopped for coffee on the way and in due course arrived at the Best Western Buckingham Palace Road hotel - which is not actually in Buckingham Palace Road at all, but a block away, nearer Eccleston Square. Having done all that walking we did nothing else that evening but eat our supper from the train, shower and have an early night. Annoying as the strike was (and frankly, for once, I had little sympathy with the cause this time - and do let me know in the comments if there's something I am missing here), the experience did add to the sense of adventure which was to mark this holiday. I cannot pretend it was a good night's sleep, although it was all right; the corollary of being handy for Victoria station for the morning was that we heard, and felt, passing trains through much of the night!

To Oxenholme Lake District by The Lakes Express

And so we woke and, with breakfast to come on the train, made our way down to Victoria station and joined the little queue to hand in our luggage. Our train would be taking a circuitous route to the The Lakes, and our main luggage was to be conveyed by road van direct to our hotel while we enjoyed the ride unencumbered by suitcases. Then we waited for the train to arrive, a long rake of crimson-and-cream livered British Railways Mark 1 coaches hauled by a vintage diesel locomotive in mock BR steam locomotive lined black livery. At the rear, which would become the front when the train departed, was another vintage diesel in British Rail Scotrail livery.We were to be diesel-hauled as far as Crewe from where the A2 pacific Blue Peter, one of the most powerful British steam locomotives, would take us to Carlisle via the spectacular Settle and Carlisle route when the black diesel loco then on the rear would take us in the other direction southwards to Oxenholme for the Lake District. Meanwhile our luggage would have plenty of time to be driven to our hotel and would await our arrival.

We had our allocated seats in one of the coaches near the front of the train, a "club duo" pair of single seats facing across a table, and being a Mk 1 coach, the table was aligned with a nice big window with a ventilator we could (just) open as needed. The table was set with a linen tablecloth and crockery ready for breakfast, promising looking champagne glasses, and substantial booklets giving details about the journey and the holiday ahead. As people took their seats there was a great deal of excitement in the air. Unlike our several Great Rail Journeys holidays that use service trains, this was a whole train, many coaches long, on which everyone was going on more-or-less the same holiday, although our expectations will have varied. 

As the train left, so the champagne saucers were filled with Bellini, a peach juice and Prosecco cocktail, and the next stage of the adventure began. Now Victoria is not the most obvious London terminal to use if you are taking a train to Carlisle! Although north of the Thames, all the tracks out of the station head south, straight over the river, which is not a good start, but this was not a train in a hurry, it was a journey worth savouring and an adventure in itself, a journey of discovery, if you like. I have visited London very much in the last few years (regular readers are probably fed up with it!) and have begun to form a mental map of its railways, but I had not twigged exactly which way we would go. Some parts of the route were not normal passenger routes either, but I had guessed correctly that it would include the line back over the river northbound in Chelsea and up though Kensington Olympia and Sheperds Bush to Willesden Junction where we were to join the West Coast Main Line from Euston. By now we had enjoyed the first course of breakfast, a really good Bircher Muesli, and eagerly awaited our cooked course for which the order had been taken. For whatever reason this took an age to appear, so much so that they served the pastries first, which kept us going a bit, until eventually a very delicious English Breakfast arrived. So delayed was it that that the mid-morning coffee and pastries followed more closely behind it than the cooked course had followed the starter!

After the dawdling around the south and west of London the run up the main line was pretty swift, exploiting the performance of the Class 47 diesel locomotive that was hauling us on this leg of the journey. Although we were on the slow tracks most of the time, our speed was still over 80 mph, and as this was not a route we have ever had much cause to use, it was good to see the view from the train for the first time over most of it. Occasionally there were trackside photographers capturing images of this vintage diesel engine with its vintage coaches. 

Soon we were drawing into Crewe where we had a chance to leave the train for about twenty minutes while the locomotive change took place, 47 709 coming off and 60532 Blue Peter backing down with its crew coach to couple on in its place. While all this was happening we could have a walk up and down the platform to walk off some of the breakfast and pastries in preparation for the lunch and dinner that were still to come! The anticipation of haulage by such a great locomotive over such an interesting route was immensely exciting, and we were not in the least disappointed. The weather remained dry and sunny all afternoon and it was just a brilliant day in every way. If your only experience of riding behind a steam locomotive is on short heritage lines with their low speed limits, then you really need to do one of these mainline steam journeys, especially if you are too young to have experienced them as normal railway life. Here we were on a train of carriages built in the 1950s and 1960s and hauled by splendid locomotive from the late 1940s performing like a main-line express train of its era, and reasonable speeds over long stretches of double track. Once on the Settle & Carlisle line we were climbing the long 1 in 100 to the summit of the line with Blue Peter working hard (and her fireman stoker working even harder) to keep the speed up. Smoke and steam passed continually by our window as we made the climb. All this after an interesting wander through Warrington, Wigan and Blackburn to get as far as Settle in the first place! What a journey.

Meanwhile a light lunch was served. There was no danger of eating between meals on this journey, for there was insufficient time between meals to get anything else.

All the time we could follow the description of the journey in the brochure provided to every passenger, and most of the time we could track our location on our iPhones. (From time to time I tracked my luggage, too, which had an AirTag in it, and was pleased to see that while we had been taking this interesting route around both London and the north of England, our cases had made it to our hotel.) A couple of times the train made an extended stop for the locomotive to be watered. The water troughs which used to be provided to allow expresses to top up their tenders without stopping had long ago been removed and so steam trains on the main line now have to be stopped to take on water.

It was not long after the table had been cleared following lunch that it was set again in preparation for dinner. Champagne and canapés were served at about the time one might normally expect a cup of tea ... but it was not long before the starter appeared and dinner had already begun! Slow roast shin of beef with vegetables were absolutely wonderful, with the wine we had ordered from the wine waiter earlier (there is an allowance included for the drinks but we spent just a touch more so that we could have port with the cheese). Curiously the cheese course was served after the main course rather than at the end of the meal.

After the cheese course had been consumed we arrived at Carlisle and there was another opportunity to take some fresh air and exercise while another locomotive change took place. This one was rather simpler and quicker because the train was reversing here and trailing behind us all the way from London was the vintage diesel locomotive which had brought the empty coaches into Victoria first thing in the morning, and it would now become the train locomotive which would take us on to Oxenholme. Blue Peter was detached, with its staff coach, and a tail lamp added to that end of the train. and after a few moments we were all back on board as the train set off southbound for the Lake District.

The dessert course of dinner was served as we headed to Oxenholme and soon we were preparing to leave the train to be taken by road coach to our hotels. There is a railway station at Windermere, but it would not be able to deal with such a long train as this one, nor the number of passengers it would disgorge all at once nor the coaches needed to take them onwards. As it was, we were a bit of a strain on Oxenholme station! We said our farewells to the train crew who had looked after us so admirably and made our way outside where there were two road coaches taking passengers to the MacDonald Old England Hotel for which we were bound, and Steam Dreams tour managers met us and made sure we were all on the correct coaches for our hotels. As we were  driven the half-hour to the Old England Hotel in Bowness the sun set and we arrived just as dark was falling.

We were handed our room cards at the hotel reception and directed to our rooms where our luggage awaited us. The whole operation had been executed extremely efficiently and we had had a brilliant day. If we'd had to go home the following day it would still have been worth coming, and we had three more exciting days to come. The weather was not expected to remain sunny and dry but we were prepared for whatever was likely to come. But first, a short stroll to the lake, a shower and a good night's sleep.

A lake cruise and another steam train

The weather forecast for our first full day in the lakes was very promising for the morning, but with rain later, so we decided to get going early - we should not need a huge breakfast after the Pullman dining of the previous day - and have a great day out. We walked down to the Bowness quayside, immediately next to our hotel, and bought combination tickets for a lake cruise to Lakeside Pier and a ride on the Lakeside and Haverthaite steam railway. With the tickets safely in my pocket we had time for a short stroll around the most local streets and found ourselves exploring the parish church of St Martin, the same dedication as our own church at home in Stamford. A service was scheduled to begin soon, but we had a boat to catch so could not stay and walked down to join the queue to board MV Teal waiting at the pier.

It had been a dull morning although bright enough, but as Teal slipped away from Bowness and started southwards along Windermere the sun broke through the cloud and we enjoyed sunny weather with blue skies for most of the rest of the morning. We sat on the open top deck and watched the glorious Windermere scenery, mostly woodland dotted with occasional houses, until the boat docked at the quay at Lakeside. The whole operation, the boat, the quays and the boat/rail interchange at Lakeside, had been planned and developed by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway to provide a holiday route to Bowness; it no longer worked like that because the railway from Lakeside no longer goes more than the few miles to Havethwaite whereas originally trains at Lakeside went to and from major towns and cities all over the country. The trains and boats, though, are still carefully planned to connect, and we had a leaflet with a combined timetable which we had used to plan our trip. A slick connection at Lakeside took us to Haverthwaite and there, so we had been told by the ticket clerk at Bowness, we would find a good tearoom to pass an hour before getting a later train back rather than  going straight back on the next train ... We took her advice, with coffee and a scone, but we did also visit the locomotive shed and went for a walk through the steeply-graded woodland over the tunnel at the end of the station: quite an adventure!

Back on the platform after our scramble through the woods we returned to Lakeside and boarded the next boat, MV Tern, back to Bowness. The weather was clouding over now and becoming a little windier, but we sat outside again and partook of a glass on Prosecco to watch the scenery on the other shore of Windermere: less hilly and slightly less wooded with more human habitation.

Once docked at Bowness we caught a bus to Grasmere: these are open-top buses on route 599 and run every twenty minutes, but as the drizzle had started we did not sit in the open section on the top deck but towards the front in the small enclosed area. The view from there was amazing, even in the drizzle. Although we have been that way before by car - many years ago - there is no doubt that a bus gives a far better view of the lakeland scenery, and safer, too than trying to drive while looking at it. 

We had a walk through Grasmere to William Wordsworth's grave and ate a local ice-cream before taking a bus back as far as Ambleside. Ambleside is bigger than I remember it from previous visits and our walk through the town centre included just a little shopping before we took another bus back through Windermere to Bowness where we returned to our room to prepare for dinner. Dinner at the hotel was included in the Steam Dreams package and we had had a choice of timing, opting for 18:30 as that is similar to our dinner time at home and with summer now over we would have the last of the sunshine over dinner, watching the sun set over the lake. This time, because it was raining, we also saw a spectacular rainbow.

Sunshine and showers

The following day the weather forecast was not so good but we determined to travel on to Keswick anyway, and if there were time to go perhaps to Kendal as well. When we arrived at the bus stop and saw the heavy traffic we knew there would be problems, and our first bus, the 599 which had served us so well yesterday, was late but got us to Windermere rail station where we were to change to the half-hourly 555 for Keswick. Ominously there was an enormous crowd waiting for the 555, and fortunately there was a canopy to shelter from the occasional heavy downpour. A glance at the bustimes.org bus tracker showed that the bus was 42 minutes late ... the one behind it was twenty minutes late and the one behind that just two minutes late, so although this was a great nuisance to start the day I imagined that within an hour everything would be more-or-less back to normal. How wrong I was! Apparently a lorry had overturned on the M6 past Kendal and caught fire, so the motorway was closed northbound and reduce to one lane southbound. Now there are not many roads in Cumbria and all the others were choked with the displaced traffic; further, alternate 555 buses are scheduled to use the M6 between Lancaster and Kendal so even without the congestion they would be slower. Then there were bus drivers who could not get to work. The whole thing was a complete mess but the company ran what buses they could and we did get, through rain and shine, to Keswick where we had a cup of coffee and another local ice-cream ... The rain came and went; the sunshine came and went, it was more like April than September, but only a fool comes to the Lake District for the weather!

Eventually we boarded a bus back to Windermere and abandoned the idea of carrying on to Kendal given that it was the epicentre of the continuing chaos on the roads. The M6 was still closed and expected to remain closed for the rest of the day and the traffic had not improved. We had not seen the town centre at Windermere, so we decided to walk back to Bowness, looking at Windermere as we went, and we visited the most amazing ice-cream parlour on the way ... so many locally-made ice-creams! We ordered "single" scoops, just as well (see picture).

The umbrella was up and down like a yo-yo as we walked down to Bowness and to our hotel.

And so back to our room and in due course to dinner once more overlooking the lake. Again, the dinner was really good: wine not included at the hotel but was available to order and the house white complemented the meal nicely. This was our last evening at the Old England Hotel but there was still a lot to look forward to. The rain and the traffic had been an issue, yes, but it had still been a great day and we had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves; again, an adventure. And tomorrow we would be back on the train and re-acquainted with Blue Peter for the trip back to London.

Home via Chester

We packed our cases and left them outside our room for the porterage company to collect - these would be waiting for us at London Victoria when we arrived - and made our way to breakfast for the last time then joined the coach which took us south along the lakeside to Newby Bridge and then west to Barrow-in-Furness where we waited for our train. It was quite late, having been held up by a service train on the way from its depot, but when it did arrive it was a magnificent sight, with Blue Peter hauling it at this stage, ready to take us on the first leg of the journey. Soon after leaving Barrow the Champagne was poured and then a light lunch served, the sort of service we had now come to expect in Pullman Dining Class on The Lakes Express!

Blue Peter took us to Carnforth and then south along the West Coast Main Line through Wigan and Warrington before turning south-west towards Chester where was had over two hours to enjoy the town while the train was taken away to return later with another vintage diesel locomotive at its head. we spent our time simply wandering around and looking at the interesting architecture, although we did pop into the Cathedral gift shop to buy a gift we needed - we had actually visited the Cathedral properly on a previous occasion.

Once back on the train we were soon served dinner as we sped south to London and from Crewe it was the reverse of our northbound journey a few days before, including the line through Northampton (which serves as the slow tracks at this point) and the stretch around west London which incorporates some sections not normally used by passenger trains. The train was now on time, having left Chester at the planned time by reducing the length of our stay there - I don't think anyone complained because we did not want to be any later getting to London.

We bade farewell to our Pullman hosts and to the tour managers who had looked after us so well, promising that we would see them again on a future trip. It had been a short holiday but an absolutely brilliant one in so many ways. It had also come at a time when we really needed a break and fulfilled that need perfectly.

Our holiday was not quite over, though, of we were still only in London and I had booked a hotel there for one further night so as not to be pressured to catch the last train home to Lincolnshire. By now the Underground strike was mercifully over (though I have no idea what the outcome of the negotiations might have been) and we made our way via Hammersmith to a hotel in Shepherds Bush, conveniently close to our son's family home where my wife was to spend the next day, Saturday, while I attended a meeting in Southwark (no, not the Unite the Kingdom demo!). Later I collected her and the luggage and we took the Underground to Farringdon were we joined the next Thameslink service to Peterborough which made a neat connection to a Cross Country train for Stamford. We enjoyed the walk across the meadows and through town to arrive at home after a fantastic week, thoroughly refreshed and ready to face a very busy week ahead.

A Sunny South Tour by Train

A Flawless Train Journey to Chichester 

The time had come for our annual summer visit to our friends in Chichester, slightly earlier than we usually go in order to fit around their other holiday plans. It was to be the start of an extended tour, going on for a few days' holiday in Weymouth and then staying with other friends near Gloucester, so packing was difficult: we needed to minimise and yet cope with unpredictable weather. We have, however, developed our planning and packing skills over the years and all went into two mid-sized wheeled suitcases, with a small foldable backpack for our lunch things and a small briefcase, slid over the extended handle of my suitcase, to carry my computer and a few other bits and pieces. The situation was complicated by our having to carry also a substantial flatbed photo-and-slide scanner which we were lending to our Chichester friends; this went into a larger backpack into which it fitted neatly with all its fixtures and fittings. At least we should not be taking it on to Weymouth and Gloucester! Our friends were to return it when they next come to see us.

In order to cope with all the luggage I booked a taxi to Stamford station, slightly complicated by the closure this summer of the Town Bridge for important structural repairs which meant that the journey's timing was rather less predictable, so we arrived at the station in very good time to await the first in a long list of trains! The usual Cross Country train to Peterborough was on time and we travelled with our next-door neighbour who was off to Hitchin on family business and taking the same Thameslink connection at Peterborough. She had had her lunch but we had a packed lunch to eat on the train and we popped in to the Bike Barista at Peterborough to buy coffee to have at the end of our lunch. Sitting in the declassified First Class section on the Thameslink train we had a nice big table to spread out our picnic.

We were travelling with Thameslink because it greatly simplified travel to the south coast, taking us straight through London to a slick interchange at East Croydon where our arrival and departure were both on time, delivering us to Chichester on time by Southern Railway. The train journey had been flawless, but the whole experience was slightly marred by the ticket barrier at Chichester not accepting our tickets - our friends stood there watching us fruitlessly posting and reposting our tickets while we tried to get to them! Eventually it conceded, opened and stayed open. I didn't see any staff which is unusual when automatic barriers are in use: if they cannot be staffed they are usually left open in order to prevent these incidents. 

And so began a great few days, including our customary visit to Chichester Festival Theatre for their summer musical show, Top Hat this year, all in beautiful art deco style!

Onward to Weymouth

When the time came to leave Chichester the station was heaving. Glorious Goodwood was under way and it turned out to be Ladies' Day. Smartly-dressed and inappropriately-shod ladies and their escorts, some rather tipsy, were all over the place, but we managed to navigate our way through without anything being spilt on us ...

Our train eventually turned up just a few minutes late, the usual sort of electric multiple unit but in red Gatwick Express livery and it seemed to have rather more spacious accommodation than I remember from other journey on trains in Southern Railway livery. Whatever, it gave us a smooth and comfortable journey as far as Southampton Central where we were to change trains for the rest of the trip to Weymouth. We had seats with a table and on the way we ate our picnic lunch we had bought before leaving Chichester, there being no catering on the trains for either leg of our journey.

We had enough time at Southampton to buy some coffee to round off our lunch and sat drinking this in the waiting room until a few moments before the departure of our onward train. We had to ensure that we travelled in the front section of the train, because the rear portion was to be detached at Bournemouth, there being less demand beyond there. This train, operated by Southwestern Railway, was less spacious and although the seats were comfortable the aisles were narrow and it was hard to find room for the luggage - other passengers' luggage therefore crammed the aisles making it hard to move through the train, but we eventually found seats with enough space around them to stow our cases and have an enjoyable trip the rest of the way to Weymouth. The sun was shining, the countryside beautiful, the ride through Poole (which we had often visited by car or by bus but never by train) was interesting, and we soon arrived at our seaside destination. The railway station in Weymouth is right in the town centre and it was a very short walk from there to our little seafront hotel where we were to spend the next four nights.

The Weymouth Bay Hotel describes itself as a "5 star" luxury hotel on the seafront and it has some brilliant reviews on Booking.com but mixed reviews on Tripadvisor. Now, in the conventional hotel star-rating it is definitely not 5 star for it has virtually no facilities or services beyond its rooms, but it deservedly has some 5-star ratings, for its rooms are really good. The whole building has been refurbished and everything is spotless and tastefully decorated; the rooms have ample power and USB sockets, good en-suite facilities and reasonable tea and coffee making provision. Our room on the top floor was partly in the roof and so was smaller than some but still had two chairs and a small table and, crucially, a very comfortable bed. The hotel is advertised as having no breakfast room and I was expecting to go out and buy breakfast elsewhere, but in fact the room was provided with a selection of cereals and a refrigerator with our choice of milk. We asked for skimmed and the housekeeper went out and bought some for us as the milk delivery had not arrived in time - now that is service. I think my only criticism would be that only instant coffee was available in the room, but this did not affect us as we travel with decaffeinated coffee bags and made our coffee using those. The room's tea-bags were fine for making tea. "Luxury"? Well, it depends on your perspective, and I suppose that compared with the run-down boarding houses of most seaside resorts these days, the Weymouth Bay is head-and-shoulders above those and I think you'd struggle to find anything much better. We asked for a look at some of the other rooms and there were some at the front on other floors that looked spectacular and when we return, as we surely shall, we shall ask for one of those: I think my days of climbing three flights of stairs with my luggage are, or jolly-well ought to be, over now, and to climb one or two flights to one of those wonderful rooms will be fine by me!

After checking in and settling in we went for a stroll around Weymouth and re-acquainted ourselves with a place we had visited before and stayed with an acquaintance when our children were children, so maybe thirty years ago, and once for a day when staying at Maiden Newton when we caught a train here from the little station there. Dinner was at the Marlboro fish and chip restaurant, still trading and still as good as when we went there on our first visit. They do "light bites" which are actually the children's portions and were perfect for us after almost a week of eating well with our friends in Chichester. And so to bed. Tomorrow was Friday, the first day of August, and we had our plans ...

A Seaside Holiday in Dorset

Our first day, Friday, began with a visit to The Tudor House in Weymouth, which we had discovered on our evening walk on the day of our arrival. It is open only occasionally and now was the time. A volunteer guide took us on a fascination tour of this house which, built of stone, is not what a midlander like me thinks of as a Tudor house. The story of its preservation is almost the most interesting part of its history and it is well worth a visit if history or architecture is your thing.

After our tour of the Tudor House we strolled down to the café by the riverside where we had reserved a table for crab sandwiches for an early lunch. I can take or leave crabmeat myself, but my wife adores it so that is what we had, with a cup of tea in this sort of establishment. To me, I think, a unique lunch in my life to date. Then we walked back across the bridge and found the appropriate bus stop for the next number 10 bus to Dorchester, where we had long ago decided to spend some time on this holiday. All the buses to, from and around Weymouth have their terminal at a place called "King's Statue," a square created around a great statue  celebrating the golden jubilee of King George III so it is easy there to look around for the bus you need. We would be back the following day for our next outing. 

In Dorchester the only thing we really did was to visit the remains, long buried and relatively recently unearthed, of a Roman Town House. The site is well-presented, although usually unmanned, in a public park right behind the council offices in the town centre. Such a town house is, apparently, unique in England and therefore well worth seeing.

We wandered the streets for a bit, looking at shops and after refreshments walked to a suitable bus stop and returned to Weymouth where we arrived just in time for an ice-cream for supper before Henley's ice-cream shop closed for the evening, We went for long walk into the evening up to Nothe Fort and along the harbour wall and the former ferry terminal. All trace of the disused boat train tramway now seems to have disappeared and you would never know that trains and ships to the Channel Islands once used connect here. But there was a tall ship moored there which deserved further investigation .... 

Along the Coast by Bus

Another trip we had promised ourselves on this holiday, the weather bring suitable, was an adventurous bus ride to Bridport, where we had enjoyed a couple of summer holidays by car, going on to Lyme Regis which we had visited for days out from Bridport on those holidays. (As an aside, it was on our way home from one of these previous holidays that I decided never again to take a summer holiday by road, so dreadful was the drive home.) There is a reasonably frequent open-top bus service along the coast road to Bridport from Weymouth, and then a connection onwards to Lyme Regis, although we'd be in no hurry because we wanted to see Bridport again anyway. After breakfast in our room, then, we caught the 09:14 X52 "Jurassic Coaster" bus to Bridport. 

It had an open section on the top deck, but although the weather was pleasant we did not feel it was quite warm enough to justify sitting in the open on such a long coastal trip, so we sat forward on the top deck under the minimal shelter provided. The scenery was, as you would expect, really good, although the sea was not visible all the way. There were some great views of Chesil Beach, though, and we squeezed through some very attractive towns and villages and were already looking forward to seeing them from the other direction on our way back later in the day. (Unfortunately photographs do not do justice to this sort of thing, so you'll just have to do it for yourself!). After a look around Bridport market (the traffic to which caused our bus to be delayed!) we had coffee at Beppino, an Italian style coffee and ice-cream shop, and then went to take an onward bus to Lyme Regis, the X53, which did not have the open-top option, but that was fine.

Again, some great views but by now Chesil Beach was behind us and much of the route was more inland. We walked along the promenade at Lyme Regis which we had known from previous visits, heard a choir sing and began looking for lunch, which we eventually found after climbing a zig-zag path through the park back up to the town centre, at a community café called Waffle Lyme, although we did not have a waffle.

Back on the X53 we headed back to Bridport where I visited an outfitters shop I'd been in before and came out with a new pair of shorts ... and we had coffee and an ice-cream back at the Italian place before taking the X52 Jurassic Coaster back to Weymouth, taking a sunset walk along the promenade and out beyond the town, then back to our room for a picnic supper.

Traditional Sunday

Sunday morning was a slightly later start. After breakfast in our room we went off to Holy Trinity church, just across the bascule bridge, which we thought looked like our sort of place for a Sunday morning. Parish Eucharist at 10:00, not too early for worship on holiday! After the service we went straight to the nearby bus stop and took a bus out to Chickerell, on the edge of town for Bennett's Water Gardens which we had seen advertised since arriving in Weymouth. Straight to the coffee shop (accessible without paying to enter) and then we bought our tickets and went in to see the gardens, home of the national collection of water lilies. We spent a good while here enjoying the marvellous spectacle and finishing with a cream tea back in the café which passed for our Sunday lunch!

One final look around and we went back to the bus stop and made our way back into Weymouth. Buses are not so frequent on Sundays but with so much information available on smartphones these days it is not hard to find our way around by bus even on the edge of a town like Weymouth.

So, church, a day out and a cream tea, but rather less traditional for a Sunday was our final meal at Marlboro fish and chip restaurant (the small portions again after our cream tea!), and then we had booked to look around the replica of Colombus's ship, Santa Maria, which we had seen berthed at Custom House Quay when we had been exploring the harbour area earlier in holiday. It is amazing to think that all those people crossed the Atlantic Ocean, not knowing where they were going or what they might find, aboard such a small vessel. She was due to sail the next day and we were very fortunate to have had the chance to look around her.

Our time in Weymouth was drawing to a close, but the following morning after checkout but with our bags safely stored for us at the hotel, we had one final morning before taking the train to the next destination in our 2026 tour of the south of England.

The museum in Weymouth was closed for substantial building works, but meanwhile there was a series of "pop-up" museums in empty shops in the town centre, and we fitted in a visit to the current one on our last morning, bought some lunch - and gifts for our next hosts - then collected our cases and made our way to the station for the next phase of our holiday.

Slow Train to Gloucester

There is an hourly GWR through train service between Weymouth and Gloucester, believe it or not, which served our purposes to perfection. The train was waiting at the platform when we arrived with our luggage but was not due to depart for a while and so we chose a good place to wait for the sort of seats we wanted and I went off to buy coffee to finish off the lunch we brought to eat on the journey. The train appeared to have former First Class sections at each end which would give us better seats and a decent table as well as power sockets  - essential to keep our devices charged on such a long journey. In due course the crew arrived and the train was started up and unlocked and we took our places. Another advantage of sitting in an end section is that there is less disturbance from passengers walking through at stations, although it does usually mean a longer walk to the toilet - but that is usually only once per journey! 

This train passes through the heart of the English countryside and is scenically extremely good. Although there had been some drizzle in Weymouth we had excellent weather for most of the ride and thoroughly enjoyed the view from the train, beginning by passing through the western side of Dorchester town centre and out towards Yeovil, Bath and Bristol before the final run in to Gloucester. This is a curious service, a long-distance and yet local train! It stopped at every station on the way and not many people were travelling the whole length of the route as we were doing; it suited our purposes perfectly, inexpensive, comfortable, interesting and quick enough. For me, the stretch on the approach to Bath Spa station, through both the countryside and the town, is the best part of the journey, but it's the best of a lot of good bits and others may have different views: you have to travel it for yourself. I'd love to do it one day when I have all day to spare and can stop at pubs and cafés along the way and enjoy the places I go through!

At Bristol the train reverses to go north to Gloucester so we were at the back of train on arrival, unfortunate because the train terminates at the end of one of the longest stations platform in the country and we had to walk pst the whole train and then a lot further to the exit, where we were met by our friends who took us by car to their home for the next three nights.

Our stay with our friends there did include one day when we set off by bus to visit other friends for lunch in a village south of Gloucester. I had long understood that the friends we were staying with were reasonably served by bus and that we could have arrived there by bus if they had not picked us up: now I had a chance to sample the bus service and see how easy it would be to use. The trip, crossing Gloucester, meant taking a  number 71 bus from the end of the lane into the city - a journey of just a few minutes - and changing at the new Gloucester transport hub, a huge improvement on the old bus station that I had known there when we lived in Cirencester. There we took another bus on route 63 on to Woodchester where our other friends live. We had lunch with them and then a short walk, returning the same way after taking a bus back to Gloucester from another stop near them, with the same change of bus in Gloucester. Some of the scenery on this route, especially along the escarpment, was fantastic with views for miles, so much better seen from the top deck of a double-decker bus than we have ever seen it before. We drove this way several times when we lived locally but I had never seen it from a bus before.

Everything in Gloucester exudes history, often Roman history, even the bus interchange!

At the end of our time with them, our friends drove us on to Cheltenham Spa station to begin our journey home, a path we have trodden many a time, beginning with a Cross Country train, in First Class, to Birmingham New Street. It is not far and I remember little about it except the arrival, slightly late, through Edgbaston and the southern suburbs of Birmingham. Fortunately we had reserved seats and the journey was fine, with attentive hosts - not guaranteed on this route.

At New Street we had a few minutes to make our way to the platform for our connection onwards to Stamford, the last leg of a very long adventure around the south of England. The little Cross Country "Turbostar" did its job smoothly and without incident and we were soon on the platform at Stamford station and making our way around to look for our private-hire cab. While on the train as it approached Stamford station I had used the local taxi firm's app to book a ride home so that there would be a cab waiting for us at the station. These apps do make things much easier, although there are some glitches to be sorted sometimes ... anyway, we got our ride home, on time.

We had had a great time, packing in a lot and although visiting places we had seen before - and even lived in one case - we had still seen much that was new or seen differently. And we still had a holiday to look forward to shortly, but first a couple of weeks looking after grandchildren!