Why is Retired Life so Complicated?
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| Chichester - well worth a visit if you've never been |
We recently visited our friends in Chichester. Timing was determined by a theatre visit (Oliver! at the Chichester Festival Theatre, excellent production), and a desire to attend church with them on the Sunday, where they have both joined the choir. The trip there was almost uneventful, except that our first train, from Stamford to Peterborough, was late enough for us to miss our booked Thameslink connection at Peterborough, setting us back half an hour as we awaited the next departure. This was fine: we simply informed our friends we'd be half an hour late, sat back and enjoyed the ride: by travelling in the declassified rearmost section of the Thameslink train we enjoyed First Class accommodation on our Standard Class tickets. Once out of Peterborough there is not a lot of scenery until the rolling hills (and tunnels) of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and the spectacular Digswell Viaduct overlooking Welwyn. The most interesting section of this ride for me is the slow trundle though central London: we go from being a 100mph main line express to an urban metro with frequent stops, automatic doors and big inflows and outflows of passengers. After the pause at Farringdon for the change from overhead to third rail electric pick-up, there is the crossing of the Thames at Blackfriars, where the station is actually over the river, and the curve round Southwark Cathedral into London Bridge station. So many landmarks are visible from this route and the train travels very slowly, so there is plenty of opportunity to look for them. After London Bridge we became an express train once more, not stopping again until East Croydon.
We changed trains at East Croydon, and with no delay to the Thameslink train we made the expected Southern connection to Chichester, half an hour behind the booked one - there was no complication with tickets since we were travelling on ordinary Super Off-peak tickets with no reservations. At Barnham, the last station before Chichester, some light rain began, and with slippery rails the train began to lose a little time as the driver struggled to accelerate. Arrival was therefore delayed by just a couple more minutes and thus we were over half an hour late and were able to claim worthwhile Delay Repay compensation, although to us it really did not matter much on this occasion.
To cut a long story, but almost certainly a boring story for readers of this blog, very short, we had a great few days with our friends (which did involve a certain amount of railway modelling ...) and then it was time to move on.
The last-minute add-on bit - to London
Our son in west London invited us to use his home as a base for a London break while he and his family were away visiting other relatives in Scotland. Their departure coincided with our commitment to visit our friends in Chichester, and their return with a commitment to our other son in Peterborough, so our opportunity for a few days in London was short, and we would not see the family there either before or after the stay, but we have a key to the house and we gratefully accepted the chance to visit London once again, even though for only three nights. Moving on, then, involved just turning up at Chichester railway station and buying two off-peak singles to London Victoria ... except that it was not that easy. The booking office at Chichester railway station was closed, and so I had to challenge the ticket machine to sell me the right ticket. Thank heaven I am an experienced train traveller with science A levels and a couple of university degrees, because I struggled to use the machine to get what I wanted and I felt sorry for anyone new to this sort of thing and who had not had the technical education I'd been blessed with! The machine suggested a lot of "popular" tickets, but none was for an off-peak single and it was not at all clear how one would go about telling the machine that one had a Senior Railcard and required the discount. Further, I never did discover how to buy two tickets at once and had to repeat the whole drawn-out process to buy a second ticket for my wife. By now we were looking at getting the next train... Which was fine. But I have learnt that in future I need to book online even if I do it on my way to the station. I would still have to confront the machine to deliver the actual tickets (Southern do not do digital tickets), but at least they'd have been chosen and paid-for.
The actual journey went well. Very well. The view of Arundel as the line curves round it is always a joy, and the green, leafy scenery of rural Sussex and Surrey is delightful, too. Soon we were in London and used the District Line to Hammersmith and then the Hammersmith & City Line to our son's home before letting ourselves in and settling in for our brief stay.
Our agenda for London included a visit to Buckingham Palace state rooms on the first day, and lunch at Murano in Mayfair on the second, both booked in advance as soon as we had accepted the offer of the accommodation. The Buckingham Palace trip would be free of charge because the ticket we bought last year was still valid for another couple of weeks.
And so after a good night's sleep in our temporary home we travelled back the way we had come, via Hammersmith to Victoria, and then walked to the ticket office at Buckingham Palace to pick up the tickets we had booked in advance and await our turn to enter the State Rooms. This visit is very well done, as you would hope of the Royal family! There is a multi-media handset to allow a self-guided tour at ones own pace, and as we had done the tour the previous year our pace was quicker than most, although there is a lot to see, including some new things, such as the new portrait of the King, and a second visit is certainly well worth while. The art collection alone is worth seeing more than once. While there we saw advertising for the photographic exhibition at The Kings Gallery, with pictures by many photographers of members of the Royal family over many years, and decided to visit that after lunch on our second day, Murano being about an after-lunch stroll from Buckingham Palace ...
So, emerging from tha Palace and after booking our tour of the King's Gallery the following day we went for a walk through Belgravia to Sloane Square, really not very far at all. The walk took us through Eaton Square and we popped into St Peter's Church, rebuilt after a disastrous fire just a few years ago, and there we discovered (or, rather, were reminded) that the new parish priest is the grandson of a now-deceased old lady I used to visit in one of my past parishes and who told me about her grandson being ordained - a small world indeed. Eaton Square is a mathematician's nightmare, being far from square, about six times as long as it is broad! But at least it is, more or less, a rectangle.
At Sloane Square we visited the Peter Jones store, probably the only remaining John Lewis branch to retain its original name. Tea and cake there rounded off our eating out and then we caught the District Line and Hammersmith and City Line back to our temporary home.
Our first engagement the following day was the lunch at Murano in Mayfair, so we were in no hurry when we went out and walked down to Goldhawk Road to catch a bus on Route 94 to Piccadilly Circus, from where we planned to walk to Fortnum and Mason, just for fun, really! The bus ride took us right along the north side of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, along Oxford Street and then down Regent's Street, a really great ride, for those with the time. From Shepherd's Bush as far as Oxford Circus it very much parallels the Central Line of the Underground, which is the obvious alternative if time matters more than the top-deck view (and the free ride if you've a Senior Citizen's bus pass!).
Fortnum & Mason is always good fun to look around, and although there were some tempting cheeses there was no way we could keep them to take home, so could not buy. But we did get a few small treats for the grandchildren by way of thanking the family for the loan of their house while they were away.
The complicated bit - getting home, collecting children on the way
On our last morning we tidied the house after breakfast and left early. We had a busy day ahead, for we were only able to fit in this last-minute royal jolly if we picked up our Peterborough grandchildren on the way home, for we had promised to look after them for a few days at our home. So, a Hammersmith & City line train to Kings Cross to begin the day (via Fortnum & Mason's St Pancras branch to buy our favourite St Pancras Blend tea, only available there) then the 10:30 LNER train to Peterborough; once more we travelled Standard Class because it was not a meal time and there was little to be gained in First Class for such a short journey on what we think is a pretty comfortable train anyway. Our son handed over his children in the entrance hall at Peterborough station and we took them to the platform to await our Cross Country train home to Stamford. We had not been on the train more than two minutes, still in Peterborough, when the senior grandchild declared that she was bored. Encouragement to look out of the window fell on deaf ears, even though this is the child who travelled happily all the way to Bournemouth with us a couple of years previously ... I don't think I'll ever understand children even after two generations of trying to care for them! Maybe it's because for a long trip we brought things to do on the way, but that was hardly worthwhile, especially when we had been via Chichester and London, for a trip of less than fifteen minutes. Finally we walked home from Stamford station, which was far from boring with two children reluctant to carry or trail their "Trunky" luggage, but we got there. Straight into lunchtime, and the rest is beyond the scope of this weblog! Just a note to say that booking the tickets required a little thought: we needed adult, Senior Railcard, singles for ourselves, one child single and nothing for the younger child but the hope that we could get her a seat (we could). All these were bought in advance along with the outgoing fares and the the fare from London: the only tickets I didn't book in advance but very much wish I had, were the ones from Chichester to London. I have learnt my lesson, and the railway company (Southern in this case) has hammered one more nail into the coffin of the station booking office.
It is easy to think that for complex trips a car is necessary, but I think this is far from the case. Indeed, sometimes taking the car can be a hindrance when there is nowhere to park it or when you need to finish something in a different place from where you start, or if two of you need to separate. With some planning, this sort of trip worked well. It helped that all the trains that mattered were on time - and I have now received the compensation for the one that was late at the start of the adventure - and the smartphone apps that allow us to track one another made the meet-ups at both Chichester and Peterborough stations a breeze.
It would also have been easy to think that it was not worth the effort to squeeze in a few days in London, but to forego both free accommodation and a free visit to Buckingham Palace was just not on! We did not have the chance to see our London family that week, but they visited us just a few days later, so that was not too much of a loss.
