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!
