(Backdated. Posted 26/8/2017) Good morning! It’s 5:30am! Here’s your breakfast tray! Actually the sleeper train wake-up call was not as perky as that. And it was fine getting up, despite being early, because I’d set my phone to beep 10 minutes beforehand. I pulled up the blind and looked out the window. We were sitting ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 22/8/2017.) Unlike the budget hotel in Bath, this hotel in Penzance included a full English breakfast, of which we availed ourselves. Very tasty. We’d be spending the day in and around Penzance, but leaving in the evening, so we had to check-out. The hotel initially seemed a bit iffy about having the space ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 16/8/2017) We bade our farewells to the family and my uncle K gave us a lift to Taunton station. First step to our next destination was a train to Exeter, or to be precise, Exeter St Davids. As with Bath a few days earlier, Exeter is served by multiple railway stations, originally built ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 15/8/2017) Sunday, and today was the day we were scheduled to meet all the English relatives – aged from 2 to 92 – this was one of the primary reasons for the trip. But first – breakfast! We hit the streets of Bath in search of food, discovering yet again that before 8am, ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 10/8/2017.) The hotel, being a cheapie, didn’t offer breakfast, so we sprung out around 7:30 looking for food… and discovered that almost nowhere in Bath is open before 8am, at least not on a Saturday. Eventually (eg at 8am, or just before) we found a great cafe near Bath Abbey just opening up, ... [More]
Friday morning in Cardiff, yet another warm sunny day — I was in danger of getting sunburnt. The locals all swore it was highly unusual to have this much sun — apparently “sunburn” and “Wales” are words not often found in one sentence. Time to head elsewhere, but first, one more walk to Cardiff Bay ... [More]
Yes, it’s that time when I run out of blog post ideas delve into the photo archive and post another in my series of photos from ten years ago. This first photo I probably took because I’ve long had a bee in my bonnet about fare gates being left open. But look how amazingly empty ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 4/8/2017.) We’d be leaving Cardiff the next day, so before heading out we decided to get some laundry done. This is one of the benefits of Air B’n’B over hotels – at least if you’ve booked somewhere with a washing machine. Then, what excursion today? We’d considered trying to get to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 31/7/2017) Oh the joys of jetlag. Having gone to bed at 8pm, I woke at about 5am. But being summer, it was already light. Eventually it seemed like a half-decent time to get up and out, and we prepared for our mission. Why had we come to Cardiff in the first place? And ... [More]
The PTV web site reckons there are 298 car spaces in the car park at Clayton railway station. Until recently the spaces were distributed around the station, some on the western side of Clayton Road, most on the eastern side, both sides of the railway line. But with the new elevated “skyrail” line under construction ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 28/7/2017) Click on any photo to see it larger After a long flight from Singapore, we landed in London, and as we taxied I did my usual thing of checking out the exotic airlines you can see at airports outside Australia. I particularly liked the Brussels Airlines slogan “We fly you to the ... [More]
(I am prone to do long overly-detailed blog posts about my holidays, perhaps more for my benefit and enjoyment than yours. Here’s the first instalment. This post is backdated. Published 26/7/2017) This holiday was a long time coming. Co-ordinating with my sons (including university holidays) and work and M and relatives, let alone getting the ... [More]