A Weekend in Lincoln

Lincoln Has a Better Train Service Than Ever, but What About Sundays?

I had been invited to a special service at Lincoln Cathedral to celebrate, or at least to mark, the 150th anniversary of the founding of the erstwhile Theological College there which I had attended from 1980 to 1983 but which had been closed for some years now. There would be a chance to meet some old friends from those days (although I knew not who or how many) as well as some people I knew who had been there before or after me, so I leapt at the chance to go. As it happened, my wife would be at the cathedral on the day before, attending the first meeting of the newly-elected Diocesan Synod. As we had little else on that weekend we decided to make a weekend break out of it, and as, for various reasons, we, and especially she, had used our car rather a lot recently, we would go by train and relax properly. We booked two nights at the newly-refurbished White Hart Hotel in Bailgate, where we had stayed briefly a few months earlier, and I ensured that there were suitable train services. This last was especially important because we would be returning on a Sunday evening, after the early-evening service and the socialising over refreshments which would follow it, not knowing how long we should wish to stay to that.

On Sundays the roughly-hourly East Midlands train service via Sleaford and Spalding does not operate; it is Monday-Saturday only, so there would be a much-reduced choice of trains, all going on the LNER route via Newark and Grantham. However, it all looked fine, with trains back at a couple of suitable times in the evening which would allow enough flexibility, and with Super Off Peak tickets we would not be at all restricted.

So we set off from Stamford on a Friday afternoon and during our change-of-train at Peterborough bought tea (well, it was tea time!) to drink on the East Midlands Railway train to Lincoln. This service now uses decent trains with comfortable seats but still does not have any on-board catering, so we either have to take our own or buy at the station. Arriving at Lincoln we made our way across to the bus station and took the next bus up to the Cathedral, about a five-minute wait for a five-minute ride. It was then a short walk to the White Hart where we checked in and unpacked in our cosy and well-appointed room. We booked dinner in the hotel for the first night and really enjoyed the meal, served by friendly and efficient staff.

Breakfast at the hotel on Saturday morning was another matter: despite being almost the first to arrive when the dining room opened we were almost the last to be served, and my wife had a meeting to get to. I had given up and hurriedly eaten a croissant when my poached egg finally arrived - I managed about half of it when we had to rush off. Not good, but a chat with the duty manager elicited not just an apology but a substantial discount on the total bill which made everything look all right again and, sure enough, the following morning we were very well served indeed and we shall look to stay at the White Hart again when we need a hotel in uphill Lincoln. To be fair, the breakfast service was difficult that morning because a large party all needed to be ready at once, and there was also a wedding party all wanting time to get ready for the big event. And us ... and they didn't start until quite late on Saturdays so we all arrived in a short time - but still, we could have been served in order of arrival.

I went off around the city centre shops during the meeting, and in the afternoon attended a service at the cathedral marking thirty years since the first ordination of women priests in the Church of England (brilliant sermon!) while my wife went round the city centre shops. In the evening we went to an Italian restaurant in downhill Lincoln and then found a bus back up the hill at bedtime - not so easy as bus services thin out substantially after the evening peak, but it was OK provided we used the timetable (I use the live departures on Apple Maps on my iPhone) rather than just turn up and wait as we can do during the day. It was essential to get a bus (or taxi otherwise) because my current health condition would not easily cope with climbing the hill - anyone who thinks Lincolnshire is flat needs to see Lincoln.

Sunday morning breakfast could not have gone better, then we attended the morning Sung Eucharist at the Cathedral, had a rather less-then-usual Sunday lunch after the gastronomic delights of the previous two evenings and made our way back to the Cathedral for the special afternoon Evensong. It was good to meet some old friends and acquaintances, as well as some newer and current ones who had been at the college after my time. Two former members of staff who are now retired bishops were present, one of them preaching.

We had spoken to everyone we knew and exchanged contact details with some with whom we had lost touch and it was time to make our way home. The vergers had kindly stowed our luggage in their vestry and once I had recovered it we said our farewells and walked to the station. We'd had a choice of a departure which had a short wait at Newark and a long wait at Peterborough, or one that had a long wait at Newark and a short wait at Peterborough: we took the former, a long wait at Newark being a daunting prospect. Peterborough station is drab enough but Newark Northgate can be grim on an autumn night! In the event we arrived at Peterborough and decided to call a private-hire cab to take us home - this cost us an extra £25 but we were home before the long wait at Peterborough would have ended! We really do need a more frequent service between Peterborough and Stamford, or maybe we just need more Sunday services everywhere - the options for coming home were very sparse compared with the outward trip. Nevertheless, it was a great weekend, and I maintain still better than taking the car, with no restriction on drinking wine with friends and no trying to drive in the dark while tired after doing so much.

On the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express

Travelling home from Venice on a special train service

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Adventure In Venice

The Journey Can Sometimes Be More Important Than The Destination!

I had given up on taking the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express when they stopped using the British Pullman to operate the service through to and from London. That had always been the traditional route, the departure I used to see on the International Departures board at London Victoria many years ago and had always wanted to try; when it returned as a special luxury train I waited until an opportune time to take it, but then a coronavirus pandemic intervened, and by the time I started planning in the summer of 2023 a trip on the VSOE for my 70th birthday in 2024, Belmond had stopped operating out of Victoria, quoting difficulties owing to "Brexit". The last such trip was in the autumn of 2023 when I was in the middle of sorting out some health problems, so the idea was scrapped altogether. It would have been a lot of money to pay to have less than what I wanted to do; the new service involved starting from London St Pancras International by Eurostar and crossing Paris, as we have done so many times already - it lost so much of what made it special.

But then, out of the blue, came advertising from Great Rail Journeys, whose escorted tours we have taken many times. The advertising was for an independent tour comprising three nights in Venice, travelling out or back by VSOE and Eurostar and flying the other way, with an option of taking an extra day to travel by rail instead of air for the other direction. The price was what sold it, the whole trip less than what Belmond were asking just for the Orient Express and Eurostar section of the holiday .... to wheel out all the clichés, this was a game-changer, a no-brainer, and out came the diary to start the planning! To avoid the "we've done all this before" feeling at the start of the holiday, we would opt for the return trip being by the Venice Simplon Orient Express: this would take us as far as Paris and then Belmond, the VSOE operator, would book us Business Premier Class on Eurostar from Paris to London St Pancras International. We've never travelled Business Premier before so the whole trip back from Venice to London would be special.

For the outward trip we asked for the rail option, so that would indeed resemble many a previous departure from London but that was OK: this bit was not meant to be special - except that any European adventure is always special to a certain extent. Going by train would make it more of an adventure than flying since by travelling overland we would truly experience the journey and not simply drop into Venice from the sky - and in any case getting to an airport from where we live is a bit of a "mission" before we ever start. There would be an overnight stay in Montreux, Switzerland before an early-morning through train to Venice. This all looked great and we paid our deposit and awaited the departure date. Fortunately we had an adventure to Switzerland in the diary, too, also involving Montreux, in the summer, so we were not simply pacing the floor waiting for October to come round!

I booked the trip almost a year in advance, as soon as I was made aware of it, and so when my birthday came round both my wife and one of my sons bought me the Lego Orient Express set ... and although my daughter-in-law said they could take theirs back and get me something else I opted to keep it because the standard two coaches was a bit short and I thought I'd be able to make up something a bit longer using two sets! Such has been the busyness of my life this year that by the time we left I had completed only one set ... 

This being an independent trip, there was a fair bit of correspondence between me, Great Rail Journeys and Belmond to ensure that all the arrangements were complete (and I imagine a fair bit out of my sight between GRJ and several other companies, too), and eventually, a few weeks before departure, an email message from Great Rail Journeys arrived with multiple attachments containing the many train tickets and other vouchers and information that we would need while away. This time I bought my own train tickets to and from London and a room at the Premier Inn opposite St Pancras International station for the night before our departure. All was set.

Early on a sunny Saturday evening at the beginning of October we walked down to Stamford railway station with our cases packed for a real adventure. We were to see some familiar sights and a lot of very new sights, and we were on our own, exploring places and travelling a few new routes on new trains as well as some we had used many times before, including, of course, the very familiar Cross Country train from from Stamford to Peterborough! It was extremely busy, but everyone had a seat, and we sat near the luggage stack, ideal for our circumstances. I could not help thinking that this little train, perfectly adequate and comfortable (although in need of its pending refurbishment) was a long way from the splendid trains we were planning to use for the rest of our adventure!

At Peterborough we had a short wait for our connection to London; Sunday upgrade work on the East Coast Main Line meant that traffic on the line was rather reduced and when we boarded our train, on time, there were very few passengers in our coach so the complimentary service was very swift and fulsome. It was from the lowest-category Deli menu (trains were only starting at Grantham, so nothing hot was being served), but I enjoyed a very filling chicken brioche roll. We asked for a can of Hop On Board ale each as well as water for the trip and the usual crisps and the caramel pot for dessert and the little chocolate brownie to go with the coffee. Also supplied were biscuits, which we kept as "emergency rations" in case we needed them later in our adventure, and an extra can of ale each, which we also kept back for later.

Duly fortified we arrived in London needing no dinner and went straight to our hotel and to our room, via the Little Waitrose at Kings Cross station to buy fruit for the following morning when we had an early start. The adventure had begun! After all the planning and preparation it was hard to believe we were actually doing it, but I had a great "wodge" of home-printed tickets (also saved to our iPhones in case that would be more convenient) to prove that we really were.

You can never complain about a Premier Inn room!

We set alarms for six o'clock Sunday morning, got ready for the day and made our way to St Pancras International station. Walking down Midland Road and entering through the side entrance we were straight into the International Departures area as the gates were being opened at 06:45 for the 08:01 train for Paris. The queue moved swiftly and we were soon through the security check and the British and French passport control - although at the British one we were behind someone with really complex multiple passports which held us up a bit: how complicated can nationality and citizenship be? Anyway, early on a Sunday morning there was plenty of waiting space in the departures area, we found a table in the Station Pantry café and I went to buy coffee. At security I had got chatting to a smartly-dressed young man who was on his way to the races at Paris, "the biggest horse racing event in Europe," he said. Looking around there were several men in ties and many in waistcoats clearly going the same way. One of them was buying four pints of gassy beer to take to his table with his friends when I was buying our coffee - I really could not bring myself to drink any sort of beer at that time of day!

Travelling Standard Premier Class in this direction we were served a light breakfast soon after departure, having already eaten our fruit from Waitrose with our coffee at the Station Pantry. It is amazing how quickly the time passes on the train journey to Paris: it is not one of the world's most scenic railway routes, although some of the section through Kent, and some of that just north of the Paris suburbs are quite picturesque. The tunnels under London and under the English Channel, of course, provide no view of anything at all, but at least these days there is full 4G data coverage through the Channel Tunnel.

Having always changed station in Paris by the RER (two stops to Gare de Lyon from Gare du Nord, so fast and convenient, but the trains are unpleasant and often very busy and the stations are not wonderful, either), we experimented with the Metro which I knew would take longer but we were in no hurry, having plenty of time before our booked train to Geneva. It had been my intention to travel on Metro line 5 to the Gare d'Austerlitz which would have left us an easy walk to Gare de Lyon and had the side benefit of seeing the station at which we would arrive when we came back to Paris on the Venice Simplon Orient Express on Friday; unfortunately it was raining in Paris so that plan would have resulted in us becoming quite wet on that easy walk between stations, so instead of going on to Gare d'Austerlitz we changed trains at Bastille and went to all the way to Gare de Lyon under cover! We bought our lunch from Monop'daily at Gare de Lyon as we have before, but this time we ate it inside the station and not outside as on previous occasions.

As soon as the platform was announced we went to join our next train, a TGV Lyria for Geneva, and took our reserved seats on the lower deck of a First Class coach, a pair of window seats at a table for four, so we had company in the aisle seats for this stage of the trip, but in First Class we still had plenty of space to ourselves. This was a similar journey to the one we had taken on our escorted tour to Lausanne and Interlaken in the summer., the Alpine scenery beginning after the train left the high-speed line and started making its way eastward towards Switzerland. At Geneva we left the train and walked through the passport control and customs post with no delay: it was a bit busier there than usual because the train was terminating there, short of its normal terminus at Lausanne because of a problem on one Lyria set which left the service unable to operate its full timetable. Those going forward were directed to the next train for Lausanne, which was not long afterwards. We had a little longer to wait for the connection to Montreux where we were to spend the night, but that was fine because we wanted a coffee break anyway and found a strange little place called The Bloody Bar inside the station. I'm sure we used a café at this this station about ten years ago but it was not like this ...

Our regional train to Montreux was a Swiss double-decker and although we had no reserved seats we were in First Class and we opted to sit upstairs and enjoy the lake view. By the time we arrived in Montreux the sun was setting. Great Rail Journeys had booked us a room and breakfast at the Swiss Majestic Hotel, right opposite the station, but because our train was leaving very early in the morning we asked for packed breakfast to take on the train and were promised that this would be arranged. Our room was small but great, with all the features we needed, and a small balcony with a view over Lake Geneva. I was beginning to wish I'd asked for two nights here instead of just the one, but anyway we had some evening so we popped out for a salad from a supermarket and ate that for supper on our balcony. A brilliant part of the holiday. The sunset over the lake was fantastic, enhanced by a pleasure boat coming into Montreux pier, just along the shoreline from our hotel.

After supper we had a stroll along the lakeshore and then went to bed early ready for the morning's early start: that would be two early starts in a row, so we determined not to rush to be up on the third day!

When we checked out, our packed breakfasts were ready and waiting for us on the reception desk: this is Switzerland and most things just work. But we were off into Italy. Montreux station was familiar from our summer holiday, where we caught the Golden Pass Express to Interlaken among other things. This day we were taking a six-hour ride straight through to Venice on an Italian EuroCity train, starting with a Swiss crew and then to be changed for an Italian crew at Domodossola - where we found our timekeeping lost 13 minutes, which it never regained, during the crew change! Never mind, it did not affect our holiday but it just seemed an interesting factor in the way different nations operate. We were in First Class again and in the front coach, but although this was a long-distance international train it had no catering facility on board (well, not quite true: it had a buffet coach but the buffet counter was shut for the whole journey), but we had allowed for this eventuality and had boarded with coffee bought at the station, our packed breakfasts from the hotel, and a few bits left from our LNER trip two days before, as well as some fruit from home. The packed breakfasts were very worthwhile and so did last us through the whole morning, just before one o'clock at Venezia Santa Lucia station. The train had reversed at Milan, so when we arrived at Venice we were in the rearmost coach instead of being at the front, so we had a bit of a walk to the station exit, where we were met by our English-speaking guide who would escort us to our water taxi and take us to the hotel. I had wondered how this part of the tour would work: Great Rail Journeys had included a private boat transfer from the station to the hotel (I'd have walked!) and there was Francesco, as he introduced himself, waiting with a board with our name on it, and the GRJ logo, as we reached the station concourse. 

After waiting a few moments for the taxi to find docking space we were whisked off by the canals of central Venice, finishing up back on the Grand Canal (having cut off a big loop) for the final approach to  the Hotel Savoia & Jolanda which had been booked by Great Rail Journeys for us. Our room on the first floor had a view across the lagoon to the island of San Giorgio, and we overlooked the waterbus stops and gondola station right outside our windows. 

We took advice both from our guide who had brought us here and from the hotel reception staff concerning restaurants and gelateria, and their advice was to provide much of our agenda for the two full days we were here! It was, of course, already lunch time by now, so guided by Apple Maps we set off for a supermarket for a salad which we took back to our room for the "main course" and then set out again for a gelato for the "dessert". The recommended gelateria had such an enormous queue that we decided to look for a quieter one, which we duly found and enjoyed what we bought. We had been to the Tourist Information Office near the railway station and after taking advice bought a three-day pass each for the water buses, the "vaporetti," which are most practical way of getting around the whole city and its multiple islands. The passes were valid for 72 hours from first use, so would enable us to travel the rest of that day and the two full days. We tracked down the restaurant where we wanted to have dinner, advisedly the "best carbonara in Venice, the Dona Onesta. It did not take bookings, but it was by now almost our dinner time and its opening time, so we went for a short stroll and came back to ask for a table. We both ordered spaghetti carbonara and it was indeed extremely good, but not having tried the same thing in any other Venetian restaurant I cannot comment on whether it is the best!

We returned to our hotel by waterbus, using our passes, and it was soon time for bed in preparation for a day's exploring tomorrow. We wanted an early start because rain was forecast from about noon and we wanted to squeeze in as much as possible before the rain.

Breakfast in the hotel restaurant was good: the usual fruit juice, coffee and a buffet, which included scrambled egg so yellow that I wondered what happened to most of the egg whites! It was delicious, though. 

We took a waterbus to Murano, the island on which we had stayed last time we visited Venice, so it was interesting to revisit a few years on. We strolled around remembering our previous stay, and visited a few glassware shops, coming away with a new Christmas Tree decoration as our souvenir. One gelato, and it was time to take another waterbus to the island of Burano, much further out in the lagoon, which we had never visited before. This was to be a day of island-hopping, but it was dampened somewhat by the weather, as light rain began while we were on our way to the waterbus stop (the service to Burano only calls at one stop on Murano), and it was raining a bit more when we arrived on Burano, although it was patchy and we did have a couple of dry spells. We found a lovely café for coffee and a spot of lunch and then as we set off to explore the island the rain really came down solidly and quite heavily. The island was beautiful: it seems to be the thing to do to paint your house in bright, vibrant colour on Burano. You could never mistake it for any of the other islands. Well worth a visit. We walked as quickly as we could back to the waterbus stop and took the next departure back to central Venice, which took us via some of the other peripheral islands, but with wet and steamy windows we could not really appreciate them as we had hoped to do. The waterbus was busy but we managed to get seats, although in soaking wet trousers sitting was not easy! I had dried off reasonably well by the time the vaporetto moored at our local stop and we walked through the rain back to our hotel. We showered and changed and decided swiftly that dinner would be in the hotel restaurant that evening! As resident guests we received a 10% discount on the food bill at the restaurant, but the main incentive was not having to go back out in the rain!

The following day the weather was dry and mostly sunny, although a little windy but not too much. A much better day for weather, and we continued the island hopping theme, starting by taking the vaporetto straight across the the island of San Giorgio which was also new to us, although we had seen it quite a lot both on this visit and the previous one because you cannot really miss it! It is the background to life in this part of the city. We walked along the marina which forms the waterfront facing the place where our hotel is and saw the boats and ships making their way into and out of the Grand Canal and the Giudecca Canal which come together at this point: only the Giudecca Canal can take the larger vessels such as car ferries and the occasional cruise ship (which are no longer allowed to dock on Venice's islands). Building work on the island prevented us exploring there any further and we took the next waterbus along to Giudecca island and walked all along its waterfront, finding a local café for morning coffee, and crossing bridges until we reached the island of Sacca Fisola at the far end of the little chain of islands, from where we took a waterbus back into the city centre, for we were in search of a hat for Alison as well as some more exploring. In the hat shop were some interesting styles: the proprietor bought in a variety of plain hats and decorated them in various ways. We did not buy the steampunk top hat, although I was tempted until I remembered my luggage space!

Our exploration included some detective work to find the palazzo where we'd had dinner on our last night in Venice on the last trip - not to dine there again but because we had been taken there in the dark through a maze of back streets and picked up by water taxi direct from the palazzo and never really took in where we were. After a couple of false leads we did find it, the Palazzetto Pisani, with its front door in a narrow alley and a small mooring in which a boat was ready for its next trip. Now we knew where we had had that great dinner four years before: not a necessary piece of knowledge, but we were intrigued to know.

We walked back over the Grand Canal (using a bridge!) and took the next vaporetto back to San Marco and our hotel for dinner again. This time I had a pizza. I almost always have a Margherita, original and best in my opinion, and not just because they're usually the least expensive!

It was our last evening in Venice, for the following morning was to be the highlight of a trip which had already had its fair share of really, really good things: the ride home in the care of Belmond and its Venice Simplon-Orient-Express train. From check out at the hotel until arrival in London, all was booked and was to be of the highest standard. We had been used to Belmond's hospitality on the Royal Scotsman train three years ago and looked forward to a similar experience on the Orient-Express.