Posted without any real comment, just I’m not sure that I’ve seen pub signage on an inter-war building quite like this. Made up of bits of wood nailed together it’s quite quirky and has some character, although I suppose quite thrifty…… But if you need a sign and have some wood, it’s perhaps a sensible choice.

After an overnight coach journey with National Express, I felt that I deserved a coffee and I knew a place that would do unlimited coffees for £1.89. This is the JD Wetherspoon operated Commercial Rooms, which they’ve been running since the 1990s, so it’s one of their earlier venues outside of London.

It’s a grand building internally and the chain give the history of the name:

“Situated in the heart of Bristol’s old city and opposite the historic Corn Exchange, The Commercial Rooms was built in 1810 as a meeting point for the city’s traders. The retained weather vane, above the bar, would let merchants know whether it was safe for ships to negotiate the treacherous Avon Gorge. The three statues at the top of this grade II listed building represent Bristol, commerce and navigation.”

It’s one of the smaller JD Wetherspoon venues, there’s the main room and then a back room that was once a meeting area, with the toilets located upstairs. They had an impressive seven real ales available including options from Thornbridge, Brains and Otter, all priced at under £4 a pint.

I sat near the coffee machine as I thought that would save time.

My now obligatory carpet photo.

As it’s a JD Wetherspoon venue, I feel obliged to have a little look at the reviews, which are broadly in keeping with the chain’s average across the country.

“If you want to hang out with friends and have a fun time, don’t go to commercial rooms. The atmosphere was awful, no music at all and the dim lighting is horrendous”

Perfect. No music.

“The security was so rude and very aggressive. He said he doesn’t take BRP. Im international student and if we can not use BRP, we can use E-visa. No one goes around carrying Passport, which is the most important document while staying abroad”

I carry my passport. No ID, no entry….

“The bouncer informed us that Wetherspoons management had installed microphones around the pub to listen in to what the customers are talking about.”

They haven’t.

“Not Pet friendly. Went elsewhere.”

Disappointingly, this is the only negative review about someone not being allowed their dog inside. Well, I assume it was a dog they tried to bring in, I suppose that it might have been a cat.

Now there is one review of a pint of Guinness with absolutely no head and that does seem to be a very valid complaint, it would be hard to pour a Guinness like that. A deserved 1 out of 5 if that is genuinely true and it was from three years ago, so more unlikely to be AI generated.

“Waiter told 2 year old to shut up on a Saturday affernoon”

Reasonable.

Anyway, I was entirely content at this visit, the team members were friendly, it was pretty clean and I had several coffees for £1.89. And the building had some history to it, which always adds positively to a visit for me. I’ve visited this one a few times over the years and for a cheap coffee (well, several coffees), it certainly didn’t disappoint.

After the first part of my coach journey from London Luton to London Victoria coach station, it was now time for the second part which would get me to Bristol. I’ll note here that I was getting a coach because GWR’s fares are far too expensive and although I do enjoy trains, I prefer not to fund them as though I am making a modest contribution to railway infrastructure personally.

O2 give me one baked item, or coffee, at Greggs for £1 every week, so I thought now was an ideal time to get a chicken bake for £1. It was hot and delicious.

I managed to find a seat at the packed gate. It is not an especially glamorous place if I’m being honest, but it does at least provide a useful reminder that all forms of travel eventually involve sitting near strangers and hoping everyone behaves. Unless you’re my friend Richard who tries to avoid people unless it’s in a VIP area.

Much as I’m sure these warnings are useful to avoid anyone doing something dangerous, a number of passengers were struggling to read the departure information which is a little lost at the bottom of the screen.

And time to board.

And the emergency exit row seat again, very lovely.

This turned into something of a sleeper service for me as I fell asleep in London and woke up in Bristol. This tells its own story that the coach must have been peaceful and the driving smooth, so I was suitably impressed and refreshed ready for the excitement of Bristol which I knew was going to involve food, craft beer and a museum. And is there anything more to life?

It was another reminder though that National Express services seem to be getting quieter, it might now be the time to increase the space between seats and address some of their high pricing, before FlixBus steals their entire market. FlixBus are getting a little bit unstoppable, they’re already knocked most Megabus services out of business…..

As I always allow far too much time for connections, I had a wait of three hours at London Luton Airport after my flight from Skopje. I tried to get a filter coffee at Pret as they’re a cheap option, but they told me that they had run out. I remained at Pret anyway as they had a power point which suited my needs. At this stage, the commercial transaction was less about food and drink and more about temporary access to electricity whilst sitting in a chair. But, I couldn’t board a coach hungry and so I obtained a breakfast of champions meal deal at the new Sainsbury’s at the airport. Does travel get any more exciting than this?

And is there anything more beautiful than London Luton Airport at sunrise? OK, there probably is, but it’s intriguing watching the light appear whilst also observing already pre-annoyed families wheeling their cases and angry children into the airport.

Mine was the 05:40 which was showing as delayed by six minutes. This didn’t overly worry me, but I was conscious that National Express often saw their delays extend and I only had a thirty minute connection at London Victoria Coach station. I decided to ask the driver of the 05:25 service before if I could get on his coach and he told me that I could do what I liked, which I took as a yes. In fairness, the driver was very friendly and it was early.

Two of us boarded the coach, so I understood the driver’s lack of concern about whether I boarded or not.

I got the emergency exit door seat, although there wasn’t a huge demand for it as the other passenger had sat at the front of the coach. It was too early for a logistical dilemma over seating, so I was pleased at the efficiency of this arrangement. I think this service regularity is more for getting passengers to the airport for their early morning flights, so there is likely usually a surplus of spaces for taking passengers away from the airport.

And safely into London Victoria coach station. As an aside, National Express seems to have been struggling recently and their services rarely seem very full. It’s been a while since I’ve been here and half the services appear to now be run by FlixBus, perhaps an observation that National Express got greedy with their prices and customers walked away. Anyway, it was then time to find the coach that would take me to Bristol.

One of the slight annoyances about Skopje Airport is that I couldn’t complete online check-in in advance, I had to go and see a staff member at the Wizz Air check-in desk to check documents. Despite checking, the staff member at the check-in desks for earlier flights couldn’t check my documents, but he did tell me what desk would be opening and when so that I wouldn’t have to wait in a queue when my flight did open.

It wasn’t the busiest of airports.

The helpful check-in agent told me to wait at precisely this spot at a particular time. I looked like a very experienced traveller at this point and a number of people started to queue behind me.

It worked, it meant I was at the front of the queue and was the first one through the security area and that meant I could have more time in the Primeclass lounge. I accept that there’s more to life than a free coffee and beer in an airport lounge, but there’s no point lingering about when that’s available.

The signage, as ever for Wizz Air, was clear and there wasn’t long to wait despite the aircraft having been delayed.

The aircraft was G-WUKY and this is the same aircraft that I was on two days before that got me here.

This will interest no-one other than me, although that’s true for this blog in general, but not only was it the same aircraft but it was also the same row. This photo from my previous flight shows the window seat I had this time, so that’s handy planning in blog imagery terms. Some people arrange their lives around career development, relationships or spiritual growth. I appear to have reached the stage where I am pleased by the efficient reuse of an aircraft seating photograph.

Wizz Air are very good at keeping the cabin relatively dark on late evening flights, they do their usual run of food and drink, but they did it quietly and try to avoid disturbing passengers. I was happy with my randomly allocated window seat as I fell asleep for half the flight.

And safely back into London Luton airport and it was pretty much on-time as the padded schedule had enabled them to catch up. Unusually, there were very long queues for non-UK passport holders, I was through the border in under five minutes but it would have been a longer wait for those without UK or EU passports.

Anyway, this was another £8.99 flight with Wizz Air where I was suitably delighted with the whole arrangement. The aircraft was clean, the crew were friendly, everything was just about on time and it was a stress free experience.

After faffing about a bit waiting to check-in, more on which later, I reached Primeclass Lounge quickly given that there were no queues at security and it’s about a 20 metre walk after getting through.

There was a friendly welcome at the front desk and it was relatively quiet when I entered, although it got a little busier. I found a seat near to a power point, although they could have probably have done with a few more of them dotted around the place as civilisation might fall if my phone runs out of charge. The lounge is open 24 hours a day with everything being clean and organised.

The cold food selection with the Caesar salad being particularly delightful and I made sure I went through a fair amount of ajvar as I like to support local condiments when overseas. There were also some hot food options, with plenty of choice available for customers.

Delicious.

And a second round, this time with the local beer. Customers have to order alcohol at the bar, although the staff presence at the bar was slightly erratic.

I had quite a few of these lemon amaretti biscuits, they were delightful alongside a coffee. I tested them on numerous occasions during my visit.

My flight was showing as half an hour late, but the screens were saying go to gate, so I decided not to risk it and I meandered off. This was one of those frequent airport moments where technology gives two slightly contradictory instructions and expects the passenger to provide the missing strategic judgement, with me always erring on the side of caution.

The lounge is being brave in having their soft drinks in bottles that can be easily removed and I noticed that two passengers took 14 bottles of water away between them, which felt a little excessive. There’s taking a water for the flight and then’s there stockpiling.

Anyway, I was suitably impressed with this lounge, it was clean, there were plenty of food and drink options and the environment was comfortable. And once again, it was time to walk from luxury to the low-cost aviation offered by Wizz Air.

As I had about three hours before I could check-in, more on which later, I needed to find a seat and, more importantly, a power point. This looked like an appropriate place to visit and it was hardly packed with customers. Anyway, my main requirement from a venue is not ambience, cuisine or human connection, but electricity.

Thank you to AI for removing my thumb from this image…… Here are the food options, although I knew that I had a lounge visit coming up and so I resisted the temptation. Not that I was tempted anyway at those prices.

This was the limit of my purchase, a £3 can of Fanta, which I considered acceptable since I remained fully charged in terms of devices, I was in an air conditioned area and I had wifi. The online reviews for this place are pretty terrible, as they often are in airports, where everyone is tired, financially wounded and only one problem away from writing an angry one-star review. But I was content enough, which by airport standards is dangerously close to praise.

This isn’t the bus to the airport, it’s one of the standard buses used in the city and they reminded me somewhat of London buses. Albeit more dented versions.

This is the bus that took me to the airport and I took this photo when I disembarked. I wasn’t at all sure of the bus arrangement here, it departed from the city’s main bus station but it goes from outside the front rather than inside. I had purchased an all-day ticket and decided to get the 17:00 bus as the only later option was 19:00 and I don’t like ever getting the last bus in case something goes wrong. My mind is programmed to prepare for disaster at all times, unlike my friend Liam who doesn’t even let the thought cross his mind. I couldn’t live in that state of not being concerned.

I wasn’t sure of the bus arrangement and so I asked someone who didn’t look grumpy if I was in the right place. She was a lovely lady, also travelling to just about every European country that she could and was travelling on the same flight as me, albeit ending up in Birmingham. I was confused as she had purchased her ticket at the bus station, whereas I got mine online, and got a seat reservation. It felt like a different process to mine so I was slightly concerned about the arrangements in case I was waiting for the wrong bus. After boarding, it became clear that the seat reservation process was irrelevant and customers sat where they liked, something which I think is just much easier.

I was reassured when I zoomed into the driver’s timetable and saw that it was similar to the timetable I had booked from. This is the sort of detective work that gives travel a pleasing sense of purpose, even if it is mostly just me staring intensely at laminated paper through a phone camera. The tickets weren’t checked when boarding, but they were checked when we were getting off. For anyone who might need to know, this is the only company offering bus services to the airport and tickets can be purchased online, on the bus or at the bus station. It was all rather lovely, although as usual I had managed to arrive about six hours early at the airport, but I think that punctuality becomes more emotionally satisfying when taken to a completely unnecessary extreme.

In 1989, Skopje held a referendum on whether to develop a tram network, and the people of the city voted against it. This is mentioned in the museum where this poster was on display and also in various places online, but I’ve been unable to find the actual result of this referendum. I must admit to finding this less than ideal as I like my historical uncertainty to have the decency to be either fully obscure or properly documented, not sitting somewhere inbetween.

Anyway, it’s one of those decisions that may have made sense at the time, because large transport projects are expensive, disruptive and usually involve someone digging up a road just when everyone has decided they quite liked the road where it was. But looking at Skopje now, with its traffic, heat, wide roads and scattered districts, the decision does feel a little sub-optimal.

The idea has not gone away either, which suggests that the 1989 decision did not entirely settle the matter and numerous politicians have tried to bring the project back. They’ve had more success with their strategy of constructing tens of large statues about the place though and a lovely new tram system doesn’t look like it’ll be introduced in Skopje any time soon. On a similar note, Norwich needs a tram system, and frankly that is not talked about enough, presumably because everyone is too busy sitting in traffic pretending buses are the final stage of transportation civilisation.

No, this isn’t a statue of Richard that he’s been planning of himself for outside the Morrisons in Dereham, it’s Philip II of Macedon, with the whole arrangement being known as ‘the warrior’. It was installed here in 2012 and is not exactly easy to miss, showing the ancient Macedonian king standing with his fist raised and a staff in his other hand. Philip II, who lived from 382 to 336 BC, was the father of Alexander the Great and the ruler who transformed Macedon into the dominant military power in Greece. Alexander went on to become the more famous one, which feels slightly unfair, as Philip did quite a lot of the awkward preparatory work before his son took over the family expansion project to take over most of the then known world.

The statue is controversial, as are quite a few of Skopje’s grander monuments from this period. It formed part of the Skopje 2014 project, a huge and much-debated attempt to reshape the city centre with statues, fountains and neoclassical architecture. The problem, diplomatically speaking, was that ancient Macedonian history was also part of the long-running dispute with Greece over identity, heritage and the name of the country. And this is complex, so entirely over my knowledge base, but the Macedon empire that belonged to Philip II didn’t include what is now Skopje, it was much further south. But, as far as I’m concerned, if Skopje wants to have a statue to Philip II of Macedon then they should be welcome to do so. On that matter, I wonder whether Morrisons would put a little money towards the new statue of Richard he’s planning.