A Couple of Nights Away

The First of Several Short Breaks for 2025

The holiday bookings seem to have come in bunches this year. We have long planned our first visit to Spain for late spring/early summer, and have been taking Spanish lessons in preparation for it, and then, in early January, a series of advertisements arrived ... One was for a steam-hauled short break for later in the year, duly booked and paid-for (details will be published after we get home from that), then I had a message from the Royal Hotel in Bath advertising a mid-week deal too good to miss, involving dinner, bed and breakfast, plus Champagne and one cream tea for about what we'd expect to pay for bed and breakfast. I had been wanting for some time to return to Bath, and so it did not take a lot of thought to book it, just two nights. Especially as the "Rail Sale" was on, giving discounts on certain tickets. This being a year of celebration of Jane Austen, we also booked to visit the Jane Austen Museum in Bath on our last morning. Hotel, rail tickets (via Birmingham, less faff than London) and entry to the Jane Austen Museum and the Thermae Bath Spa were all being booked when my wife received an email message from the Knoll House Hotel offering a bargain two-night break there, on the Dorset coast overlooking the Solent. Again, booked rapidly and then the rail tickets (this time we did opt for travel via London as for the south coast it is so much quicker than via Birmingham, and ir would make a change as we'd always done this trip via Birmingham in the past). 

No sooner had these two, rather inexpensive, short breaks been booked than advertising arrived from Great Rail Journeys offering a very expensive series of short breaks in Switzerland and Italy, linked by some rather special trains ("iconic" they call them these days, but I am not sure that they really are). Now normally I'd look at this sort of thing and think how lovely it would be to do this but it really is far too expensive, albeit reasonable value, and throw the brochure in the recycling bin, but ... When we left Venice last autumn we both thought how we'd love to come back, and when we arrived in Paris on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express on our way home we thought we'd like to do it again some time, and as two nights in Venice and the Orient Express were included in this deal it was not easy to throw it away. Then there were two other two-night stays in Zermatt and St Moritz, both of which we'd like to see again before the snow clears (we've only stayed in them in warm sunshine!), and a journey between St Moritz and Venice via the famous Bernina Pass on the Bernina Express as well as from Zermatt to St Moritz on the Glacier Express. It was not cheap and we really cannot keep doing this, but, just this once we went ahead and booked it, savings were raided and fees paid.

So, here we are, home from Bath and looking forward to Knoll House, Basle (did I mention one night in Basle on the way to Zermatt?), Zermatt, St Moritz, Venice and the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express before we leave for Spain.

Our trip to Bath has been great. We set off late morning from Stamford, our local station, to Birmingham New Street where I had allowed an hour or so, over lunchtime, for the change of train, giving us the chance to buy a takeaway salad from one of the many outlets at the station to eat while awaiting our connection to Bristol Temple Meads, another Cross Country Trains service in which we had booked First Class Advance tickets, even cheaper than usual in the Rail Sale. Although that train was a few minutes late that did not matter to us (although the replatforming at New Street was a bit of a nuisance, having to march over to another platform after getting in the right place on the original one in good time). At Bristol Temple Meads we simply took the next train to Bath: these are frequent as the  the two cities is served by several routes and there was one about to depart as we arrived from Birmingham.

Our walk to the Royal Hotel basically involved crossing a street, and we were checked in and in residence. The weather on our journey out of Stamford for Birmingham was really good for February, bright and sunny, and made for fabulous views from the train. It began that way south from Birmingham, too, and our train took the unusual route via what had always been a freight-only line through Moseley, where new stations are being built for a forthcoming local passenger service, so it was interesting to see the view from a line I had never travelled before in all my years of travelling via Birmingham. The rain began as we approached Bristol, but we did not have to step out from under the roof at Temple Meads, so we were not really affected, and the rain had stopped by the time we arrived in Bath.

We went straight into town, with some little jobs to do, and a little refamiliarisation, and then it was time to "dress" for dinner (taking off my outdoor coat and donning a jacket in my case). The included dinner came with the included Champagne, and we decided that we did not need further wine with the meal this time. There was nothing cut-down about the included meal, three courses from the normal menu, with even steaks being an option at no extra cost. Brilliant value. And so to bed, with the novelty for us of a real bath! 

The full day included our visit to the Thermae Bath Spa, always the centrepiece of a holiday in Bath! I'd love to show pictures of our time there but, perfectly reasonably, photography is not allowed. e always enjoy a visit there, even though there has been a steady decline in the standard of what they offer: now we have to take our own footwear, for example, for flip-flops are no longer included in the price - fine, I still have the ones from my last visit but they will not last forever, and it is one more thing to remember to pack. We went to the rooftop pool first, for while it is warm, hot even, in the water, getting out is always a struggle in winter but at least we'd have dry robes and a dry towel to use when we did get out! Then to the steam rooms (and ice afterwards, optional!), coffee, and then the Minerva Pool on the lower ground floor until we were ready to leave. Our two hours and a half soon passed.

We had decided to take the cream tea offered as part of our hotel deal as "lunch" on this day: tea and two scones with clotted cream and jam, which we had served in the lounge bar at the hotel, and after that indulgence we went for a long, and really quite arduous, walk up the hill overlooking the city from the south. We had a fine view of most of the Bath landmarks, and of the Royal Hotel, seen in the centre of this picture:

We climbed up the shortest, and therefore steepest, way, which was great fun but quite hard going, good exercise after scones and clotted cream!

And so back to dress and enjoy dinner, and this time we both had steak with a glass of rather splendid red wine, preceded by the included Champagne, of course.

On the last morning we asked the hotel to take care of our luggage after check out and we walked to the Jane Austen Centre for a tour of a house similar to one she once stayed in just along the street and where an exhibition celebrating her life has been set up. Now, I am very new to her novels and probably would never have read anything of hers but for this year's bicentenary celebrations, but I did find it interesting to hear how she was very much describing in less-than flattering terms the genteel society of her day. Well worth a visit whether you are fan of hers or know nothing at all.

There was a tea room on the top floor where we had our coffee for that day and shared a piece of cake - the portions are huge - which would obviate the need for a proper lunch later.

Soon we walked back to the hotel, retrieved our luggage and made our way across the street to the station to await the next train to Bristol, which happened to be a local stopping train, comfortable enough and with some luggage space, so we were soon at Temple Meads for our train to Birmingham. Too soon, really but we wanted to get the journey under way once we had finished in Bath. We had intended to sit in the bar at the station for a pint while waiting, but the bar was no more! Closed down and boarded up - we asked advice from staff and went to a café instead, which was warm and reasonably welcoming. In fact we were so ensconced there that we might easily have missed our train and it was in the end, after having time to spare, a bit of a rush to board. 

We had reserved seats in the First Class coach and, rather later than we anticipated, tea and cake eventually appeared: this train did not have a dedicated First Class host, so we had to wait until she had finished her retail trolley round before she fetched the First Class trolley to bring us our tea. It was very welcome when it came, and we did finish it before arriving at Birmingham, where we had just a few minutes before our train home to Stamford. The winter is beginning to fade now, and it was still daylight as the train, the 16:22 to Stansted Airport made its way out through the suburbs of Birmingham, alongside the construction of the High Speed Two railway line. For some unexplained reason the train became more and more delayed, one by a minute or two, at each station, so we were abut eight minutes late at Stamford. It did not matter to us, but I was curious about why that should be. It was very busy (although not overcrowded), so perhaps each station stop just took a little longer as everyone got off and on. I don't know.

We walked home: the walk was good for us and quite enjoyable. The suitcases will not be going back in the loft this time as they'll be needed again soon!

The Best Laid Plans ...

Not quite the trip we planned - but still a great trip

We were to look after our grandchildren in London while their parents were off to Scotland for another relative's eightieth birthday celebration. Great, the first trip for a while and we would have the Friday while they were at school to do something in London. I booked to usual route there, local Cross Country train to Peterborough - cheaper than before now that Advance tickets are available on this short trip - and LNER to London; I also considered Thameslink but LNER's Advance First Class tickets were at a good price and as we would be travelling over lunchtime on the Thursday (in order to get things done before we left home), this would be a way of having lunch on the move in pleasant surroundings. We booked tickets to The Silk Road Exhibition at the British Museum for the Friday, which we both thought would be a god thing to see and had long had in mind to go next time we found ourselves in London. 

Booking the train ride home was not so straightforward: this would be on the Sunday and, as often happens at present, the main line between Kings Cross and Peterborough was to be closed for engineering work. Usually we take a train from St Pancras to Leicester when this happens, and change there for Stamford. But for some reason this option did not seem to be available either. LNER and Thameslink both offered various options involving a replacement bus between various stations on the Midland Main Line and the line to Peterborough but these did not look attractive for a cold, dark Sunday night with luggage, so I looked at travelling from London Liverpool Street to Cambridge and from there to Stamford. It was a long way round and slow, but straightforward with just one change. There would be no catering, either, so we'd have to cope, but having a good Sunday lunch before leaving should make that OK!

Although our train from Stamford to Peterborough was a few minutes late, it still easily made our connection to London without us having to rush, and we took our reserved "club duo" seats in the second coach and relaxed as the cold drinks trolley came along, followed by the food and hot drinks. As I have remarked before, we felt very much at home in the care of LNER's First Class hosts and enjoyed our cold buffet from their basic "Deli" menu which is always the option served on the Lincoln-London train. We like these five-coach trains because they are seldom crowded and with a small First Class section we never have to wait long to be served. I have also travelled Standard Class on them on my various trip to Lincoln and there is very little crowding there, too, and never a queue at the little buffet counter.

Arriving in London our first job was to pop over to St Pancras station to visit the Fortnum and Mason shop there and buy some St Pancras Blend tea, for we had run out of it and have never found a worthy substitute locally! Then we made our way to the Underground to go to our temporary home in Shepherds Bush. And this where a series of unfortunate events began (we seem to be having these recently!). Now the weather forecast was not good: a Red Warning was in place in the north of England, in all of Ireland and the south of Scotland. We were a long way from there but did not entirely escape the mischief of Storm Éowyn and when we left the Underground there was an enormously heavy shower well under way. We paused at the station to do up all our clothing and make ourselves ready to step out: the man on duty at the station even checked that we were OK as we were taking so long to leave! We had decided to take a bus two stops along the street to our destination rather than walk as usual, and we were fairly soaked just walking to the adjacent bus stop. People already in the shelter made room for us and we squeezed our way in - Londoners are so friendly, especially in this multi-cultural part of the city which we have grown to love since starting to visit. The bus dropped us a short walk from the house and by the time we let ourselves in we were pretty wet and although our storm-proof jackets had taken most of the rain we were wet from the knees down. The suitcases dripped onto the floor but certainly proved themselves as waterproof. No sooner had we arrived than the sun came out and it became a glorious afternoon, and even warm by recent standards. But too late for us.

We had more-or-less dried out when we went to meet the children from their out-of-school club and take them home to dinner. The following day was to be our "free" day in London, once we had taken them back to school after breakfast at home. It is an easy trip to the British Museum from Shepherds Bush, just a simple ride on the Central Line to Tottenham Court Road and a short walk. We were about half-way there when an email message arrived to say that they could not open and that we would not be able to visit the exhibition ... we went along anyway to see how much of the museum might be open and whether the problem might be fixed - we had all day, after all - but staff came along the substantial queue to explain that they could not open the museum yet and had no idea when they would be able to open but to "check the website in a couple of hours". So we immediately decided that a refund was the way forward for us, and indeed it later transpired that the temporary exhibitions have not opened yet as I type this on the following evening ... and may not even open before we're back in Stamford.

The actual Neal's Yard, where the remedies come from. It really is a yard!

I thought that maybe a visit to Seven Dials, just a short walk away, may be in order as I had not seen the place for about fifty years when I visited a run-down and largely derelict area on a field visit from my Town Planning degree course. First call was to a coffee shop, near to which we also discovered what looked like an excellent fish and chip restaurant, where we bagged a table for an hour or so later. Seven Dials is worth having a look for its interesting collection of shops, eating and drinking places (we fitted in half an hour in a pub between coffee and lunch!) and even a couple of theatres, all among historic streets including the original Neal's Yard. I wouldn't come to London just to see it, but a trip to London can include it if you like that kind of thing. The pub was surprisingly uncrowded: when we left we reduced the clientele by two thirds. So it was a peaceful pint, unusual in London, but I gather that Fridays have become quiet post-pandemic. 

The fish and chips were superb, and I think The Rock and Sole Plaice lived  up to its advertising as the best fish and chips in London - not that I have tried them all, but is hard to imagine anything better. 

After lunch we had a final walk around streets we had missed - there are seven radials plus a few streets linking them - and then made our way back to Tottenham Court Road Underground station to go home. That was when the wind struck, the only real trace of Storm Éowyn that we encountered that day, but we were soon sheltered inside the entrance to the Underground station and by the time we emerged at White City the wind had dropped and we could feel the warmth again, the warmest day for some time, and warmest we were expecting for some time to come.

That was our day out done, for we were on our way to collect the children from school and go home to dinner.

Saturday was spent doing family things with the children and then on Sunday they wanted to take us to their church, which is not their local one five minutes' walk away but St Mary Abbots in Kensington where their Dad is a churchwarden (an absent churchwarden that Sunday!), which involved another rail adventure by Underground. I usually walk when I do this on my own, but it's too far for children. We took the Central Line from White City station to Notting Hill Gate and walked from there, a pleasant enough walk along Kensington Church Street, and then on return we decided to do less walking and went a slightly longer way round from High Street Kensington to Edgware Road by Circle Line where we changed to the Hammersmith and City to return home from Shepherds Bush Market station - less walking at both ends!

Before the train filled up at Tottenham Hale

And so home - and this was the interesting bit. Such a shame it was during winter so that the view from the trains was just for the first few minutes. After lunch we took the Hammersmith and City Line through to Liverpool Street. Either route would have got us there, but this is a nicer ride than the Central Line, and either route would have allowed a change into the Elizabeth Line, but all the apps suggested that we did not change, so we didn't. We arrived at Liverpool Street just ten minutes before a Greater Anglia train to Cambridge. This was ten coaches, high density commuter stock with little luggage space and we easily found seats, although not as spacious as we're used to. The first stop was at Tottenham Hale where hundreds more people joined the train! This is the connection point with the Victoria Line Underground and my guess is that these were people en route from Kings Cross or St Pancras to Cambridge and beyond who could not ate their usual train for the same reason that we could not. I don't know if Great Anglia had added more coaches to this train to cope or not, but all the seats were soon taken and there were many standing in the aisles. It might have been prudent to increase the frequency of the service in the circumstances, but the fragmented railway simply does not work in this way - roll on Great British Railways and its "single guiding mind" ... I hope.

The crowds thinned out after Bishops Stortford and most people got off at Cambridge with us - the train was going on to Cambridge North. We walked along the platform to where our connecting train home would stop and were able to sit in a pair of seats near the luggage rack. There was a refreshment trolley from which we eagerly anticipated buying a cup of tea, but it did not start its rounds until just before we reached Stamford, which was a bit of a disappointment. As the refreshment vendor was standing in the vestibule right behind us I wish I had approached him and asked for tea, but I didn't and now it was too late; we had tea after we'd walked home. After a few hours on trains taking the long way round it was good to walk across the Meadows and through town home, much quieter on a Sunday evening than on the more usual Friday or Saturday!

It turned out that the alternative route home worked quite well, but it would have been better if it had been daylight. I also still wait to see the Midland Main Line route in daylight: we only ever seem to get these diversions in winter! 

And now, coming up soon we have a trip to Bath via Birmingham and Bristol, done before but not for a few years, and Studland Bay via London and Bournemouth, a new route for us because we have always gone via Birmingham before. Then, Zermatt, St Moritz and Venice via London and Paris. Suitcases are never away at the moment.

A Minor Milestone

Something of a celebration this morning. YouTube dropped me a line to say that I had reached 100 subscribers. Now, that is not many compared with the great people to whom I am myself subscribed on YouTube, but the number following my channel, https://www.youtube.com/@Marks_Trains has been growing much more rapidly recently, and unlike, say, Jago Hazzard, I do not post once or more per week, video not being the only thing I do. Some of the early stuff I'd now publish as "shorts" but there was no such thing when I uploaded those! 

If you're not subscribed to the @Marks_Trains channel, please have a look and see if you'd be interested, and subscribe for new videos when I get round to publishing them. I am thinking of producing video of some of my more interesting blog posts, as time allows, so they may be more often than the trips now being undertaken!

An Intensive Week of Planning

Lots of Exciting Leisure Trips Coming Up! 

Having "ticked off" the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express last autumn I never expected to travel on it again (and if I had any financial sense, I probably never would!), but there came a rather splendid Great Rail Journeys Independent itinerary that we really could not refuse ... although we must stop or we'll burn through our life savings long before we expect to run out of life. I'll talk about that in a moment, but soon after we booked that, some other things cropped up and the next few weeks are beginning to look like we shall not be putting our suitcases away for quite a while. Let me start at the beginning ...

Some months ago we had booked our long-planned main holiday for the spring, a Great Rail Journeys escorted tour of some of Spain's great cities and historic sites, and we have been learning Spanish at evening classes our local college in preparation for this, just as we learnt Italian before we began travelling to Italy. 

Then just before Christmas we had a call asking if we could look after our London grandchildren for a few days while their parents attended a family birthday party in Scotland. That will be nice, and we'll have some free time while they're at school, too, but there is more to come and I spent the best part of one January day booking hotels and train tickets and planning itineraries for a couple of short breaks in England which we do need and had not yet been able to fit into our diaries. 

I had a message from The Royal Hotel, Bath, offering room, breakfast, dinner, cream tea and Champagne for about the usual bed & breakfast rate, and we had been considering a short winter break so this would be ideal, and we took up the offer with enthusiasm, shuffling the diary slightly to fit in a couple of nights away. As it happened this coincided with the "rail sale" and we were able to get discounted train tickets, too! Then my wife received a message from the Knoll House Hotel in Dorset offering two-night breaks there at a reduced price, so we grabbed that as well and again were able to get reduced-price train tickets in the rail sale. We had never been there in winter, so that would be interesting.

Coming soon after those two short breaks in England, but booked before them and requiring a considerable raid on our savings, though, is the Venice Simplon Orient Express, Glacier Express and Bernina Express with Great Rail Journeys Independent. Like the English breaks this gives us two-night hotel stays, but in three different places with three interesting train journeys, and fulfilled my wife's wish to see the Alps again in winter.

I look forward to sharing all these with you when we return. First up, London!