The Return of a Decent Train Service ...

Hourly Cross Country Trains Between Birmingham and Stansted Airport Once More

The summer timetable for my local train service, the Birmingham-Stansted Cross Country route, brought the surprise return of the full hourly timetable, not seen since the start of the first pandemic lockdowns. No gap in service morning and afternoon, and the the regular trains now work through to and from the airport again, not some of them terminating at Cambridge. So far, so good, but ... anyone can publish a timetable! Will the trains actually run and will they be reliable? 

Well, for several reasons I have had to make a few trips to and from Peterborough recently, and so far I have to say I have been impressed. Most of the trains have run precisely to time (and here in Stamford there is plenty of scope for something to upset them before they get to us), an improvement over recent performance. None of the trains I have needed has so far been cancelled: that should not be remarkable, but it is remarkable because cancellations had become very frequent. A couple of eastbound trains were running a few minutes late, but only a few minutes and my plans were unaffected. Other people may have had different experiences but for me this has been a welcome return to the good standard of service that we used to have a few years ago, better in fact because exact on-time running was always a rarity whereas now it has become the norm.

Things will always go wrong, of course: trains can break down, crew can suddenly be off sick, signals can fail, but so far it has been excellent for me and is encouraging me to want to take a few more trips ....

One of the boldest little trips I have done lately which required great faith in four trains working together well was when I took one of my granddaughters to Peterborough where her mother was arriving from London to take her on home to London. Also meeting us in Peterborough was another grandchild who lives there and was joining her cousin for a few days, so child 2's parents got her to Peterborough station where child 1's mother met her on the concourse after arriving by LNER from London, while I travelled with child 1 from Stamford to meet them both. Unfortunately this was the train that had a few minutes' delay. It was tight, but worked: child 2 with child 1's mother came to our arrival platform and once the two girls had greeted each other with their classic hugs the four of us made our was to the platform where the girls' train to London was due to depart. It arrived at the platform just as we walked on to it, five minutes before it was due to leave and in plenty of time for me to bid them all farewell and for them to find their seats. I then wandered back to platform 7 for my train home to Stamford, and this one was on time. The whole operation worked flawlessly in spite of the delay my outgoing train.

As an aside, travelling with the children is interesting. I have five grandchildren in three households and while all of them have 25% of their genetic input from me (and a fair bit of nurture, too, some direct and some via one parent!), their attitude to travel differs considerably. One child once declared as soon as we had sat on a train, "I'm bored!", while the one I took to Peterborough that day engaged me in interesting conversation about the crops in the fields that we passed on the way and much else that we saw from the window. Not once did I have to find something to entertain her. It is not an age thing, for they are of a similar age. Interesting.

Catalonia, Paris, London and Home

Tapas At Last!

 Barcelona

The last city of our tour was Barcelona, on the Catalan coast of north-eastern Spain. This is Spain's second-largest city and again has an interesting history, although rather different from the Andalusian cities we had visited in the past few days. Barcelona was a city hardly known in Britain until 1992 when it hosted the Olympic Games which propelled it into the spotlight, but it is a fantastic place and this is the one we shall have to visit again. We barely scratched the surface of this fascinating place. Before 1992 it had no beach, just docks and quayside, and tourists all went to the Costa Brava a few kilometres south. For many of us, Barcelona is just a football team and the most amazing Christian Church ever designed which has been under construction for well over a century, the Basilica of the Holy Family, Sagrada Familia.

On the Tuesday morning in Córdoba our coach transferred us to the railway station where we boarded a through RENFE high-speed train direct to Barcelona Sants. Another coach took us to our hotel ... while our luggage made its way slowly by van and arrived several hours later. Fortunately, although the weather was not quite as hot and sunny as it had been in Andalusia, it was warm enough and we could manage without our luggage for the afternoon and evening. Once checked in, our rooms being ready incredibly early, we set off for a walk down to the beach: this was about a mile or so and not undertaken lightly, but it was very good exercise after sitting on a train all morning and several days of guided tours involving shuffling around from place to place. Like, say, London, Roman Barcelona occupied a small walled site, and the medieval city broke through the Roman wall and occupied a rather larger walled site. Population growth and regional prosperity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries led to an enormous planned expansion into the surrounding countryside, planned on a grid street pattern and with a large variety of modernist archtitecture, almost all of high quality and excellent design. 

Our walk to the sea was therefore dead straight until we reached the marina full of expensive "yachts" (some of them I'd have called "ships"!), when we made our way around its rim until we came to the beach. There were many people sitting on the soft sand: people were handing our blankets for the purpose - I assume there was a charge but it was not obvious - but we were not staying and declined the offer. After that long walk we were in search of sangria and after declining it at a bar on the beach we went to another nearby where it was half as expensive ... in tourist resorts one does have to be careful!

The route back, of course, was slightly uphill and we decided to try the Metro for much of the way back to our hotel. Always fun to try these things in new places: we'd used a bus in Madrid and would try the Metro here. We walked to the nearest stop, Barceloneta, which happened to be on a direct line to one of the nearest stops to the hotel. Now, how to buy a ticket ... I had brought some cash with me but intended to pay contactless using my Apple Watch, having left my credit card and most of the cash in the safe in our hotel room in order to minimise loss in case of pick-pockets. The ticket machine had a variety of language interfaces and charges a flat fare for a single trip, so choosing a couple of these was straightforward and simple, but paying was more problematic. A member of staff appeared out of nowhere like a fairy godfather and advised that we'd have to insert a card; the machines could not read contactless. So I started again and inserted cash, and behold: two tickets were printed! Taking care to get the correct platform for where we were going we made our way down and boarded a jam-packed train bound for the city centre and beyond. Of all the underground railways I have used this one was the most similar to London, with frequent long trains and with crowds! We had to stand the whole way but younger passengers took pity on us and moved so that we could lean against the side: there were fewer poles than in London and no hanging straps. This was a quick and efficient way of travelling and we were soon back at our room for a quick freshen-up before setting off for our evening meal. 

We had tried all the Spanish specialities that had come to mind, and that we had thought we might like, but had yet to try tapas (or "tapes" in Catalan - we found that Spanish was not a lot of use here when it came to reading signs, although the people understand and can speak Spanish). We had asked for advice at the hotel reception and had been recommended La Pepita, just along and across the street, and that was where we tried. It was great: English-speaking staff and some wonderful food to share, and the prices were very reasonable. Customers were encouraged to write graffiti on the walls and we were given pens to make our mark - not that I really expect anyone to read it among the thousands and thousands of others! 

The following morning we had our final guided tour of our holiday, by coach and on foot around the historic core of Barcelona, including a quick look at the outside of the Cathedral and of St Mary of the Sea, and of the little streets where craftspeople's shops have largely given way to expensive boutiques and gift shops as people have retired. We passed some modern art galleries, notably the Picasso Museum - a return to Barcelona is going to be necessary! We were taken  by coach through the modernist grid-iron extension of the city. Very little art deco there, but quite a lot of art nouveau. We drove round the Sagrada Familia which has a definite art nouveau feel to it but whole contraction began much earlier. It is as much a monument and museum to its architect Antoni Gaudí as it is a place of prayer and worship. There is no point in attempting to describe this building, you simply have to see it for yourself: I hope to publish a video on YouTube soon to tide you over until you get there. Meanwhile here are some stills. Most of the sculptures which tell the story of Jesus (as well as Mary and Joseph - his family), are on the outside and we spect a lot of time looking at the Nativity façade before entering and at the Passion façade after leaving the building. But inside the light through the windows was breathtaking, as was the interior design.

Back at our hotel room we prepared for the last dinner of the tour, which was included, with all drinks, at a farmhouse restaurant, Can Travi Nou, on the edge of the city, to which we were taken and brought back by a small coach. As ever, like all the included dinners on this tour it was excellent. This time we were all at one table and we had a chance to say farewell to our three American friends who had joined us in Madrid and would be leaving the hotel early in the morning for their flight home. 

The meal consisted of a shared first course, a sort of tapas, and it was vital to be disciplined and bear in mind that the main course and dessert were still to come!

It was a great "last supper" and, still being in Spain, meant we were late to bed again!

Homeward via Paris

The following morning after breakfast we completed our packing, checked out and started the long journey home, starting with one enormous leap on a French TGV all the way from Barcelona to Paris. Again the security checks but this time no request for passports even though it was an international train. There was a bit of a delay at one intermediate stop while the police removed someone who was travelling without a ticket, but the run after that was very fast, especially the last stretch towards Gare de Lyon where a coach met us for the transfer to Gare du Nord for the Eurostar train home.

After an uneventful transfer across Paris, the quickest I think I have experience by coach, we arrived at Gare du Nord too soon to go the the Eurostar departures but we went up to the "Hall 2" deck anyway and waited until we were allowed to pass the tickets gates - our Tour Manager negotiated a ten-minute early check-in for the group. For some reason I was taken straight to the manual passport check, and my wife with me, and sped through: usually I have an unsuccessful five-minute attempt to get through the electronic check before I am allowed to go through the manual check and I lose track of my wife in the process. No-one seems to understand why, insisting that there is nothing wrong with my passport, and indeed, I have never been questioned about it. Ah well, maybe there is a criminal with my name or likeness somewhere ... 

And so we waited together. The wait was easy in the company of people we had come to know over almost two weeks, and so we said our farewells on the last leg as we crossed Kent on our way to St Pancras International, having been served our light meal as soon as we had left Paris.

On arrival at St Pancras International we all gathered on the platform for the last time and then went our own ways, most of us to a variety of Premier Inns around the area; in our case this was the Euston one, adjacent to St Pancras Church. Of the three Premier Inns we have used in this area, this is not one to which we shall wish to return; while the bed was as comfortable as ever, there was no air-conditioning (or, rather, there had been but it failed to"years" ago) and so it was too warm to sleep well. I think Kings Cross will be the one to use in future! The following morning we met our son for breakfast on his way to work and then parted ways so that I could get back for a baptism and a wedding while my wife awaited the end of school to collect some grandchildren to bring home later. So I waited in the lounge at Kings Cross for the 13:03 for Bradford Forster Square which I was taking as far as Peterborough. It would be a tight connection at Peterborough so I did not buy my tickets onward to Stamford until I had got there and could be confident of catching the train - otherwise I'd have a taxi home from there. However, the train from London was in good time and I bought my ticket to Stamford as it drew into the platform; I was straight in the lift and as I made my way across the footbridge the Cross Country train to Stamford was just coming in. Luggage stowed I sat down and booked my taxi home from Stamford station.

As you might imagine, it is going to be a busy weekend, so I am completing this on the train home so I hope you can manage with the description of my arrival in Stamford and my taxi ride home because I must upload this as soon as I get there!

Adiós!

Into the Sunshine

Touring Andalusia

After breakfast on our last morning in Madrid we repacked our suitcases and took anything needed for the day in hand luggage and left the cases at the hotel for collection by First Luggage who would take them for us to our next hotel, in Seville. We were then able to board our coach for transfer to Atocha station in Madrid for the next stage of our Spanish adventure which was to be a tour of historic towns and cities in the southern Andalusia region. Having arrived at the building site of Chamartin station I was looking forward to seeing Atocha which I knew had some fantastic planting resembling a tropical greenhouse ... but I was disappointed because once again there was a lot of building work taking place and only glimpses of the lush planting could be seen between hoardings and plastic sheets. No photographs, I'm afraid. We had time in hand at Atocha before our train was due to leave and wandering around the shops there found a luggage dealer who had just the backpack we needed to replace one which had finally had to be discarded after seam failure in Madrid - and this one was made by Samsonite so we expect it to last. 

Seville

Soon it was time to go to the platform for our train, and we had to put our hand luggage through security scanners before being allowed onto the platform: we had only had this at Eurostar terminals before, but Spain is being especially vigilant. Our train was another High Speed one, a Talgo, rather longer and even more comfortable than the one we had used from Irun two days before. Catering was similar, a cafeteria car and a trolley service as well. After a good breakfast and with an arrival in Seville not too late we only needed coffee and biscuits on the train.

We were again collected by coach at the station and with no suitcases to stow this was a quick and simple ride to a stop a block or two away from the hotel - here again the streets are too narrow and busy to be dropped at the door! We were too early to check in but were able to leave our hand luggage and set off with Manuel our local guide for a tour of the city centre. 

Velasquez supervises the market place

Seville has a gothic cathedral that would be quite at home in England but for the Moorish tower which was once the minaret of the mosque which used to occupy the site

The Cathedral was the biggest in the world when built and has since been overtaken by St Peter's in Rome and St Paul's in London, although I do think that some other cathedrals, including Lincoln, have longer naves: what make this one so big is its enormous width! 

Christopher Colombus lived in Seville and his tomb (well, one of them: a long story but bits of him seem to be buried elsewhere, in South America!) is in the Cathedral. The memorial is well worth a look: it depicts a coffin being carried by four kings, representing the four kingdoms which comprised Spain in his day.

The tour continued through over a thousand years of history, from Roman through Gothic and Islamic to the present Catholic eras, and included a Jewish quarter and a glimpse of the royal palace of Seville. We returned to our hotel after the tour and were reunited with our suitcases and given the key to our rooms. The "boutique" hotel Casa Romana was in Roman style, complete with open atrium (although, disappointingly, without an impluvium - perhaps Andalusia is too dry to make it worth having), and we had a room at the front overlooking the narrow street. Both this hotel and the one in Madrid had brilliant air-conditioning, effective, and quiet enough to run at night allowing us to sleep in cool conditions which assist a good night's sleep.

Included in the holiday were a glass of Cava at the rooftop bar on the first evening in Seville, and then a tasting restaurant dinner at the ancient restaurant El Rinconcillo, a short walk away. 

Once more we were rather late in bed: the Spanish habit of eating late in the evening was having to become our habit as restaurants such as this one did not open early enough to suit our usual routine! We were the first in when it opened at eight o'clock! The food was great, although there was a little too much of it, and while we had to pay for our drinks these were not expensive.

The full day in Seville was completely free of inclusive activities and we were able to recover a little from the activity and late nights of the last few days. It was also the hottest and sunniest day so far and we dressed accordingly when we set off to explore the city, starting with the Metropol Parasol:

We made our way to the riverside for boat trip. We were immediately haled by a man in nautical dress selling tickets for a tour boat at €20 per person. We took his leaflet and thought about it - we had 55 minutes before the next departure. A little way along the river a young lady was offering the same length of trip on a new electrically-powered boat at €15 per person, with bar and toilet on board, same departure time. We took her leaflet and thought about it: we returned swiftly and bought tickets from her! An ice-cream ("Helado", the Spanish way of saying "Gelato"!) later we returned and waited to board. It was a much smaller boat than the other, and smooth and quiet; furthermore, it could pass under one bridge which the larger boat could not. As soon as we had found our seats on the upper deck we bought a couple of beers from the bar and sat back and enjoyed the trip, and with recorded commentary in Spanish, French and English we were able to exercise our language skills, too, although it was soon obvious that they were not always direct translations.

We ambled back to our hotel via another, more Italian-style, ice-cream (that was lunch!) and took it easy for a bit, resting after our walks in the heat of the day, before setting out once more to explore the city  on the other side of the river where we had our dinner at a lovely riverside bar-restaurant with excellent service and good food - a salad for me after all that ice-cream. And sangria! Our first sangria of our Spanish holiday!

And so to bed, having prepared our luggage for the following morning's departure to Granada. This time we would have no opportunity to take anything to our hotel on arrival, so as much as possible was packed into our cases which would be taken on by porterage and our hand luggage restricted to our immediate needs.

Granada ...

...I'm falling under your spell ...

After breakfast we checked out and walked to our coach which took us back to Santa Justa station for our train to Granada. We had time at the station for coffee before having our luggage and passports checked in order to board the regional train for Granada. No First Class and no catering on this train, and no wi-fi or charging points, but the seats were very comfortable and the journey was swift and smooth: no frills but efficient. Granada was the terminus so there was no great haste to get off the train, and we were without our luggage which was travelling separately. Our local guide Manu met us at the station and took us to the coach which carried us up the hill to the top of the Albaicin district of the city from which we could look across to the snow-clad Sierra Nevada mountains beyond the Alhambra palace. Looking at snow while basking in temperatures approaching thirty degrees was a surreal experience!

We took a walking tour of Albaycin and explored its Roman-Visigoth-Muslim-Catholic history. Most of the culture from ancient times is African Muslim in origin and this is still apparent in the street layout and architectural styles. As Frank Sinatra sang, "If you could speak, what a fascinating tale you would tell, of an age the world has long forgotten". In particular we learnt about the dwellings called Carmen whose outside walls are blank without windows and which are built around gardens with fruit and vegetables with all windows and doors opening inwards and just one access gate from the street. Narrow streets generate plenty of shade and make things difficulty for anyone trying to take the city back from its Muslim invaders who built it up in this defensive way.

There was a break for lunch in a little square with cafés and bars, and shade, and then the walking tour continued downhill until we came to our hotel in a little courtyard near the river in the city centre. The hotel was obviously made up of two adjacent houses with inner courtyards and our own room was very quirky, with two extra single beds on a mezzanine - which is where the table was where I was sitting to type this paragraph - and although small was comfortable and had a decent bathroom and enough electrical points to keep our devices charged.

Yes, this IS a salad!

We went out for a stroll around the city centre and were amazed to find a fairly frequent, and well-used, bus service (with small buses) and a lot of taxis in the narrow streets, slowly pushing their way through the crowds of people on foot, and a wide main square with a lot going on (it was Saturday, late afternoon), a busy city. After passing many crowded, tourist-orientated restaurants we came across a place in a back street with a keenly-priced and interesting menu (salad was what we needed now!) and we stopped initially for a drink and decided to stay to eat right then. My salmon salad with avocado and mango looked more like a dessert, with a coconut topping, but if you'd ordered it for pudding the salmon might come as a bit of a shock! It was great ... and I did have a pudding after it. For two of us with sangria and coffee the whole bill, including 10% service charge, and the nibbles that came even before we'd decided to stay and eat, was €50. Spain is very good value if you look around.

We continued our stroll then went back to bath and bed, ready for the following day's included tour of the Alhambra.

After breakfast we were taken by coach up to the Alhambra with our local guide who then took us into the site and showed us around. We began in the Generalife gardens (not, as Manu emphasised, pronounced "General Life" as if it were an insurance company!) which is where the food for the Alhambra city was grown and is now being restored, more as a decorative garden, although with some fruit and vegetables. Everything was a month further advanced than in England. By now the sun was hot and we were very glad of our sun hats. After an hour or so enjoying the gardens and learning about the history of them, we had a break for a drink and a snack and then went into the palace complex. We needed to show our passports to enter both places, along with our ticket, which was times for 13:00 at the palace entrance. There are three interiors to be seen, each built by a successive Sultan, and thereafter their successors continued to use the buildings thus created and no further major development took place.

Symmetry and other geometrical matters were important in the architecture in an attempt to represent the perfection of God - Allah - and although such things are less significant in Christian architecture and design there was nothing about it that contradicted Christian belief and practice so when the complex was handed over at the end of the Muslim era it was repurposed with no significant alteration. The glory of God is as important to Christians as to Muslims and Jews (and many others!).

We bade farewell to Manu and our coach returned us to the city centre for a walk back to the hotel and preparation for the evening's special meal and packing for the next couple of moves. There were not many included dinners on this tour, which was an advantage in many ways, giving us the chance to try a few places of our own choosing and allowing us to work through some local specialities. Great Rail Journeys had made some effort, however, to provide a handful of rather special meals, and tonights was one of those. We were at a restaurant, Las Tomases, with a tremendous view over the Alhambra and beyond to the Sierra Nevada mountains; the group was at two tables so we were sitting with several people whom we had come to know quite well over the week we had been together, and all the drinks were included, with unlimited wine - indeed it was an effort to turn away the wine wine when I thought I'd had enough! The food was delicious and plentiful: my second pork cheeks (a regional delicacy) of the tour, and if anything even better than those I enjoyed in Madrid. I have never before known pork to be so tender.

As darkness fell the Alhambra was floodlit, and for a few delicious moments we could see the illuminated buildings while the peaks of the Sierra Nevada were still visible behind them.

This was not only by far the best meal of the tour on all levels but was one of my favourite experiences ever: a group of super friends in a wonderful location with excellent food and wine.

Many of us walked back to the hotel, almost all downhill (of course) on pleasant side streets, but a few of those who were less mobile decided to share taxis. Interestingly, the walking group left at the same time as the first taxi and arrived at the same time, too: the road goes such a long was round that it was no quicker than walking. We were late in bed that night - an early night after eating our in Spain is next to impossible - and the following morning were up and about as usual for breakfast with our bags packed ready for the next move.

Códoba

Our journey from Granada to Córdoba was by road coach and our hotel kindly took our suitcases to the coach stop on their trolley while we walked with our hand luggage. Once aboard we were whisked on smooth highways, via a stop at a very pleasant motorway service station for coffee and the facilities (very unlike the brash, noisy places on our British motorways), to Córdoba where we were to stay for only one night. Although it was only around noon when we arrived our rooms were ready and we were able to settle in, have a quick snack, and take an independent walk around before the 3pm guided tour began.

A lesson in religious tolerance?

The main sit to visit here is the Mezquita, the Cathedral of Córdoba which used to be a mosque. There is so much to the fascinating history of this place. When the Muslims first arrived here from Africa, as an invading foreign power, they lived side-by-side with the Christian Visigoth population and did not interfere, leaving in place the Christian church which had been on this site and founding their mosques elsewhere. When the number of Islamic worshippers became too large they paid the Christians to build a new church and demolished the original to build the biggest mosque in the world (when Egypt built a bigger one they extended this one to make it the biggest in the world again!). There had also been a long-standing Jewish population, dating right back to Roman times when some of the Romans who moved in were Jewish. The three Abrahamic faiths seem to have co-existed peacefully for many centuries here in Córdoba and when the Christian armies finally ousted the Muslim army to take back control of Andalusia, the local Christians insisted that their Muslim neighbours be accommodated. When in due course the mosque became a Cathedral and Christian worship returned to the site, the building was retained with Christian paraphernalia installed. There was plenty of space because the mosque had also been used as a university, with religion, philosophy and science all being seen as one, and a great deal of knowledge and wisdom being imparted, which unfortunately ended with the end of Muslim dominance. Because of the size of the building, a gothic nave was constructed in the centre of the Cathedral to allow light to enter through clerestory windows, and the huge counter-reformation altar-piece contrasts with the surrounding Islamic-style building.

This amazing and unique place is well worth a visit, and I think our group greatly benefitted from having a local guide who was able to interpret the building for us.

The bell tower, built around the original minaret

The forest of columns of the mosque, now a cathedral

After the Mozqueta we briefly toured the Jewish quarter where there exist modern mosques and synagogues, the three faiths still existing peacefully, indeed harmoniously, together here, in spite of the efforts made by some adherents of these faiths in other places to spread discord through violence and destruction. The God they all profess to worship and serve would, I am sure, prefer peaceful dialogue, which would also perhaps be more effective at witnessing to him?

Back at our hotel we repaired to the rooftop bar for cocktails overlooking the city and then strolled along to a restaurant where we had a great meal on the street and were eventually joined by about half of the Great Rail Journeys group. Then bath and bed ready to move on. The following morning would begin our homeward journey, but with one more city to explore .... See the next blog post, available in a day or two!