I was wondering why I’d heard of Banbury Cross, but then I realised that it was from an historic nursery rhyme. This main event is the “Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross, to see a fine lady upon a white horse.” but no-one knows for sure who the fine lady was meant to be, which is terribly British, to celebrate someone anonymously for centuries. Theories range from Queen Elizabeth I to Lady Godiva, to some entirely fictional woman who had the good sense to sit on a horse while everyone else was walking. Anyway, the cross in the nursery rhyme was pulled down in 1600.
This ornate little number dates from 1859 when it was erected to mark the wedding of the Princess Royal (1840-1901), the daughter of Queen Victoria, to Prince Frederick of Prussia (1831-1888) in the previous year. She was a little unlucky, as she was Empress of Prussia for just 99 days after her husband died soon after becoming Emperor in March 1888.
In 1914, the statues of Queen Victoria, King Edward VII and King George V were added, with the cross being restored in 2012. Its major fault as far as I’m concerned is that it’s inaccessible, or without risking life and limb, as it’s stuck in the middle of a roundabout. It does take away a little from the excitement when it can only be seen from behind barriers. There’s a photo on the Francis Frith website at https://www.francisfrith.com/banbury/banbury-cross-1921_70582 from 1921 which shows that it was once rather more accessible.
The first pub stop en route to Cardiff was The Exchange pub in Banbury, operated by JD Wetherspoon. Using the chain’s text to explain the pub name and history:
“For almost 50 years, countless letters and parcels were brought in and out of this building. Banbury’s former head post office was built in 1936, on the site of an earlier 1877 post office. The new building, and the telephone exchange giving this building its name, was designed by Henry Seccombe of HM Office of Works. It was opened on 15 December 1936, by Colonel A Heenage, MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Postmaster-General.”
As usual, I have to applaud the chain’s efforts to explain the history of the local area, there are tens of these boards across the pub. There’s a photo of when this venue was a telephone exchange at https://telephone-exchanges.org.uk/exchanges/banbury-exchanges/.
My now obligatory photo of the unique carpet.
The entrance and lower area of the pub, the main bar is on the raised area to the right.
And another photo looking towards the bar. There were around six real ales available, all at the usual low prices. For anyone staying late and wanting to go to a club at the weekend, the nightclub Fever is located literally behind the venue.
The pub is on the chain’s lowest price band, so this meal and drink were a grand total of £7. The steak pudding is OK, it’s not packed with the finest quality steak, but that Hazy Jane is a pint bottle and so that seems like excellent value to me. Ross went for the Christmas wrap as he loves this time of year and Liam I think went for the all day brunch or similar. The drinks and food all arrived promptly and were at the appropriate temperature, so everyone was happy.
This leads me seamlessly onto my having a look at the online reviews of the venue, which are about average for the chain.
“The “chef” kept coming out to the eating area in her grubby uniform and dancing all over the place.”
I’m with the customer, there’s no need for frivolity, it’s bad for the soul.
“My daughter, 18 today, tried to enter this establishment 30 minutes ago, with her approved photographic I.d. And was turned away for being underage, because she had to be 18 years old and one day, this is in contravention of the current licensing laws.”
That does seem a bit harsh, the excitement of turning 18 and being told that you should wait another day. Although it isn’t a contravention of the current licensing laws.
However, this is back in the day when venues were allowed to respond and they did.
“Your daughters ID showed her as turning 18 on 10/08/2019, so until 00:00:01 on 10/08/2019, she would not have been able to enter the premises. We are open until 01:00 on Fridays and Saturdays, which technically is the next day, so if she had come in between midnight and 01:00 she would have been allowed entry.”
A rather different story and I like that they would have let her in for one hour after midnight, that’s quite a classy response.
“Very disappointing experience where the rude staff member wouldn’t even consider looking at my son’s valid electronic Australian drivers licence as ID. We had already been served once? I was rudely told when the staff member was talking over me that it was company policy to see a physical document. We had no issue is Bristol. I guess Banbury isn’t used to seeing many international visitors”
As it stands, despite the Government planning a change to this, a pub can’t accept a digital ID. So that’s a 1 star review as the venue refused to break the law to serve someone…..
“Very disappointed,got to be the worst Wetherspoons I’ve ever been in.No fish and the Wiltshire ham was almost see-through with chips I could almost count on two hands. Usually I would have made a big fuss for being ripped off but it was my birthday and my wife talked me down. Safe to say I’ll never frequent this branch again OR RECOMMEND IT.”
Complaining should be allowed on your birthday…..
“Dreadfull , ordered a starter , main all arrived at once starter was cold and clearly not cooked , main pizza arrived 2 small pizzas as they had run out of large bases , just poor service , nasty nasty”
That feels sub-optimal, sending two pizzas to make up for not having a larger base. However, I felt the need to think about this and JD Wetherspoon offers 8 inch and 11 inch pizzas. I went to https://www.omnicalculator.com/food/pizza-comparison and it seems that the customer got a better deal here in terms of the area of pizza…. I think I should probably get out more….
“I think your staff need to brush up on the laws of photography within a public place.”
Goodness knows what the back story is here but the interior of a pub is not a public place. If the chain wants they could be as ridiculous as Sam Smiths and ban all photos.
“Widely regarded as being one of the worst in the chain.”
Not judging by Google Reviews.
Anyway, I digress and I rather liked this venue. In an ideal world they might have been clearing tables a little faster, but it was clean, comfortable and seemed to be decent value for money. The team members were friendly, the prices were cheap and that’s another outlet in the chain visited.
Richard and I stopped off at the Weeping Ash in St Neots following the LDWA Local Groups’ weekend. It had been a successful few days, although it was fair to say that I was now getting quite tired.
Here he is enjoying his coffee. The pub was relatively quiet, but everything felt clean and organised.
I went for a pint of the Moose River from Hop Union Brewery, a hoppy, light, fluffy and bouncy beer. Eagle eyed viewers will note that Richard hid his ginger biscuits when he went to explore the pub, he was nervous that someone would scoop them up when they were walking past.
As for the pub itself, for the rest of this post, I’m going to copy and paste some text from a previous visit, which Liam and I made after I was brave going zip-lining in Wales.
The pub’s own text about the venue’s history:
“This former post office stands on part of what was once a much-admired Victorian garden belonging to the house across the road – the home of William Medland, an important man in St Neots. Bank manager and town commissioner, Medland died in 1872 in his late 60s. His widow lived in the house until the 1890s, when it was bought for the Conservative Club, which is still there. Medland’s garden was well known for its many fine trees and shrubs, particularly for its ‘magnificent weeping ash’.”
I have no complaints about the pub, it was clean, well managed and sizeable. The reviews on-line are a little less impressive, with the usual sneering type:
“It’s full of lads in white trainers and white socks that are really excited but have no idea what their excited about and badly dressed girls”
Fortunately, we didn’t have white trainers or white socks to avoid clearly offending this customer.
“They gave me a empty coffee cup without saying I needed to go and fill it up myself like I’m supposed to know this”
I do see this occasionally, often when the empty coffee cup is traipsed half way across the pub by a staff member, and then the confused customer has to traipse the same distance back to get their drink.
I find simple things entertaining, so was very excited to see a new type of coffee machine at a JD Wetherspoons. Now, I accept that I should get out more rather than spend time writing drivel like this, but it pleased me. For £1.20 for unlimited hot drinks, a complete bargain as far as I’m concerned. [I’d add that it’s now £1.81 since I wrote this with the coffee machine no longer being new]
It was a little early, but I did get a quick half with my hot drink, just so I could comment on the beer quality. I’m very dedicated to ensuring beer quality, but I do it for very selfless reasons of course. I went for the Jemima’s Pitchfork from the Glamorgan Brewing Co, a not particularly interesting beer, but at least well-kept.
The very keenly priced avocado muffin, my new go to breakfast option since the recent price hikes on the traditional breakfast. [I wrote that a couple of years agoAs an aside, this menu item isn’t available in many JD Wetherspoons which is sub-optimal from my perspective.]
Anyway, I’ve visited here a few times, not least my latest visit with Richard this week, along with the food visit with Liam a couple of years ago. It’s towards the lower end of the online reviews for JD Wetherpoon outlets, but it’s always felt well managed when I’ve been before.
And so the final day of LDWA Local Groups’ weekend was upon us (I’ll stress that we’ll be talking to groups and individuals more about what was discussed, this blog post is really more about Richard as I’m his chief publicity officer).
We started the Sunday morning (after breakfast of course) with an uplifting introduction from Phoebe Smith, the LDWA President.
And as a summary about the LDWA, it’s marvellous value for money, membership is £15 a year at the moment via direct debit and we have hundreds of challenge events that take place every year, alongside social walks and a website packed with information about long-distance trails. It’s also a way for people to be inspired by the travels of others, I like hearing about how brave other people have been and wondering if I can do the same.
Richard was considering all the exciting adventures that he could go on having been inspired by Phoebe. Phoebe has written numerous books and gone on endless adventures, I recommend her Instagram account at https://www.instagram.com/phoebersmith/.
The rest of the morning was spent in workshops which were very helpful and informative. It’s often the case that members can come up with great ideas that we just haven’t thought of before. Weekends like this are also really helpful because groups can share best practice with each other, learning from how things are done differently.
There was a really rather lovely lunch before we headed off home, the plaice goujons were very agreeable. Thanks to Woodland Grange for their really helpful staff and consistently good food, it’s much appreciated!
We managed to work out how to exit the car park.
And then it was time to head home, popping into a JD Wetherspoon en route, although I felt quite exhausted during the latter part of the drive. I obviously remained very brave. It was definitely worth the mad dash across mainland Europe to get back for the weekend.
The second day of the LDWA Groups’ Weekend (here’s more about day one) started with a hearty breakfast arrangement.
There were two walks laid on for members, with a 16-mile option and a 23-mile option. I opted for the shorter walk and everyone, other than Richard, was ready for the 09:00 start. There were calls to just leave him behind, but they were mostly from me.
Here we are, ready for action!
This is the River Avon, we crossed over on Hill Wootton Road, located just off of Kenilworth Road.
Richard and Madeleine discussing something important.
Richard working out where he was, which at this point was near to Hatton Park.
The series of locks at Hatton and I realised later on that this is near to where the Elephant, Bear and Bull touched on.
A dragonfly sculpture (or at least I think it’s a dragonfly).
The walk then went from Hatton into the outskirts of Warwick, this photo was taken near to Warwick Parkway railway station.
Richard demanded to be in another photo near to Budbrooke Industrial Estate.
And then into Warwick although we unfortunately didn’t have time to stop in any of the pubs. Fortunately, I’ve visited most of them already.
Richard needed a sit down and medical treatment. Fortunately, the ever tolerant Pam and Sarah were able to assist with this.
Madeleine is looking up at a leaking bridge, which feels sub-optimal as it’s from the canal above. The River Avon is on our right.
Getting towards the end of the walk now, this is near Old Milverton.
The light isn’t very good here, but this was a quick diversion to Saxon Mill.
St. James the Great church at Old Milverton.
This looked exciting, disc golf. Must add that to my list of things to try.
The board showed the evening’s entertainment. From my perspective, many thanks to Simon Pipe for producing such a professional video of the LDWA 100 and we were able to show a bit of a sneak preview of that. And also thanks to Andy for his introducing the expanding media team.
The evening meal included chicken and leek pie, one of my favourite things….
And some rather lovely looking desserts.
The NEC members present gave some talks, here’s Richard as he likes his photo being taken. Could I also mention here to check BBC iPlayer for Farm 999, series 1 and episode 14, where he makes his latest TV appearance. We’re very lucky in the LDWA to have this media talent.
With that, the day’s excitement came to an end with some lingering in the bar. I’m pleased to say that NEC Richard mostly recovered from his long walk and many thanks to Richard and Sally for their walk leading during the day. Thanks to everyone who attended the day, the feedback is always very useful and its great to see to many volunteers.
After a rail journey from Luton Airport, via London, I arrived into Leamington Spa and then walked to the Woodland Grange hotel. This is where the LDWA Groups’ weekend was taking place from Friday to Sunday.
The venue is one which the LDWA (I should note that this is the Long Distance Walkers Association) has used before and I recall the friendliness from the staff and the cleanliness of the hotel. It’s a lovely hotel and after an initial piece of confusion where they thought I was sharing a room with Richard, I was allocated a lovely private room.
Madeleine, the rather wonderful LDWA chair, also presented me with a chicken bake and that’s why she’s my favourite NEC member 🙂 I doubt any other NEC member will read this (other than Richard), so I’ll get away with that.
Here’s Penny, the Volunteer Support Officer, giving a talk about the weekend. Engagement with groups is important to the LDWA as we’re a volunteer led organisation and the NEC needs to get feedback from individual members and groups to properly deliver what the organisation needs.
I’d add that I won’t reveal any private discussions, but for those going, a report will be produced and all members will be able to see the various things that the LDWA is doing.
Everyone taking part got a free drink from the LDWA, which is rather lovely. I won’t name people individually as I’ll forget someone and that might annoy them, but it’s always lovely to see Chelle, Andy and Sarah from Norfolk & Suffolk LDWA. Richard was also there from the group in his national IT role.
It’s important to be well fed on these occasions and we weren’t let down by the venue.
And a little dessert to go with it (I didn’t have all of what’s in the photo).
And the highlight of the evening was the talk from the LDWA Vice-President Ken Falconer. He walked Lands End to John O’Groats fifty years ago and thought it would be a good idea to do it again fifty years later. It all led to one of the most entertaining talks that I’ve heard at an LDWA event, all really rather lovely.
I was rather pleased to actually get to Leamington Spa given the complexities of the travel arrangements, but this is an exciting and important weekend with the whole LDWA waiting to be surprised and delighted by the IT announcements.
A new JD Wetherspoon has opened at London Bridge station in what was formerly the London Dungeons. The entrance here is the former way into the London Dungeons, which was here between 1974 and 2013. This venue is a considerable project for the pub chain and it’s open for long hours, between 06:30 and 00:30 every day of the week.
As usual, I’ll take the pub’s history from their own website:
“Next to London Bridge station’s entrance, 48–50 Tooley Street are distinctive brick arches. Until 2013 (almost 40 years), this had been The London Dungeon. The arches were occupied by importers and provision agents, whose livelihoods depended on the warehouses opposite. Many have survived (Hay’s Wharf, now Hay’s Galleria). Fenning’s Wharf and Sun Wharf were replaced (in 1984/85) by the huge No.1 London Bridge complex. During that site’s redevelopment, a Bronze Age burial mound was unearthed.”
The bar which is bright and open.
Some of the brick arches and I can see why this was a suitable place for the London Dungeons. The rooms flow into each other, I like this sort of quirky thing.
The new coffee machine and there’s only hot milk, with no jugs for the cold milk.
There’s a bank of three coffee machines.
The unique carpet.
There’s a display about the carpet and why they’ve designed this one in this manner.
The menu.
Part of the support elements that I assume stop the building from falling down. The trains are evident running above both by noise and also because things vibrate a little.
This feels like a really well designed building, there is a choice of seating styles including low and higher tables. There are quieter areas, open-plan areas and plenty of power points. The team members seemed engaged, helpful and I saw numerous positive customer service interactions. As a conversion into a pub, this is one of the best that I’ve seen.
Although the venue has only been open for a few weeks, I thought I’d see what the few online reviews posted are like so far.
“Had had a lovely evening here but sadly the dessert menu isn’t clear enough – says “vanilla ice cream” as if it’s plain but it actually comes with sauce and the staff member wouldn’t switch it for plain despite asking. It’s a scoop of ice cream! Don’t argue the toss just switch it hahahah. Sauce was horrible by the way”
The printed menu and the online menu both mention toffee sauce and Belgian chocolate sauce. And then to give the venue 1/5 after a lovely evening….
“Told off for bringing in a fully wrapped Greggs Muffin.”
Probably best not to bring in a Greggs…..
No-one has complained yet that they can’t bring their dog in, but I imagine that’ll be coming soon. Anyway, this is a large venue that has lots of little smaller areas, something forced upon the chain by the historic nature of the building. It all felt well managed to me, spotlessly clean and evidently already popular with local office workers. All rather lovely.
After a long-distance rail journey from Warsaw to Budapest the day before, I had a few hours of sleep before getting up at 02:30 to get to the airport for a 06:00 flight. Here’s the Ibis Budapest City, a rather lovely hotel from what I saw of it.
There’s an airport bus every ten minutes so I wasn’t entirely broken hearted when I just missed this one by just seconds.
The 100E airport bus is a well managed operation with staff always available by the bus stop, even throughout the night. I got a seat on the bus, which filled up at the next stop, and within thirty minutes I was at the airport. In terms of efficiency, it’s one of the best airport buses and there are numerous ways to pay, including just using a contactless card on the bus.
Mine was the 06:00 flight to London Luton, visible about halfway down the left-hand column.
It all felt busy in the airport, but the signage was clear and the security process took under ten minutes. A lot of bags were caught for manual check and there were some annoyed people that their liquids and pastes were removed. My bag, unusually, was included for manual check but the security officer by the second machine looked at the x-ray and just handed me my bag back without checking anything inside.
There were lots of sleeping people in the airport and also lots of quiet places to sit.
To kill some time I popped to the external observation deck, which was of limited excitement in the dark. It also doubles up as the smoking deck, not something that I have much use for, although I liked the temperature out here.
My flight was at 06:00, the gate closed at 05:30 and so I pondered whether I should go into the lounge at 05:00 when it opened.
I did and I was the only person in there (other than the staff obviously).
Breakfast for champions…. Chips with a spicy sauce, jalapenos, tomatoes, chicken wraps, a dessert and an espresso.
It was a lot busier last time I was in this lounge. I charged my already nearly full devices a little, had a final coffee and then left for the gate.
I got to the gate just after 05:20, which is cutting it fine for me. I was pleased with my breakfast, it was quick, but helpful for giving me energy. It will surprise no-one when I say that the boarding process was efficient and well managed.
After a wait of five minutes standing on the airport bus waiting to be let out, we were allowed to board. The aircraft is HA-LZM, one that I haven’t been on before.
The seating Gods had allocated me an aisle seat, but a crew member came over during boarding and asked if I spoke English. This is something that is within my skill-set and I was ushered to guard the emergency exit door. The helpful crew member told me that I could have all three seats if I wanted to lie down to sleep after take-off.
The extra space was very useful in terms of having a nap and I spent most of the flight asleep. The flight was yet another well managed arrangement from Wiz Air, the aircraft was clean, the crew were friendly, the operations were smooth and nothing annoying happened.
Here we are in sunny Luton, the beating heart of Bedfordshire.
Just under thirty minutes waiting for border control, but the queue moved constantly which helps in feeling that progress was being made. It had been quite an expedition to go from Genoa to Warsaw to Budapest to Luton, but I was pleased to be safely back in the UK. And so was Madeleine, the very talented national chair of the LDWA, as I had to get to Leamington Spa for the Local Groups’ Weekend…..
I’ve created myself a precedent now by merrily writing about Müllermilch whenever I try a new flavour, so I don’t want to end that routine in case it’s unlikely. Anyway, for my long rail journey from Warsaw to Budapest, I had a couple of these and they were both really rather lovely.
The Angel Hair one tasted of pistachio and was really quite sweet (who would have thought….), although there’s a place for such things…. I preferred the Apple Pie style one, a richer and more decadent taste.
And they’re about 90p each, seemingly with some addictive qualities as I keep finding myself drawn to them…..
After a quick visit to Carrefour for snacks, I embarked on what was the longest rail journey that I’ve taken in Europe (I went for over 24 hours in the US….) from Warsaw to Budapest. Here’s the display screen at Warszawa Centralna, with the departure being second from top on the right-hand screen.
Waiting at Platform 3.
Here’s the train layout, and I had gone for first class as it wasn’t much more expensive as I’d booked it at the last minute.
It’s all happening now with the departure board on the platform updating to show the train. I had a flight booked for very early the next morning, so if something went wrong here, it would be hard to resolve. Well, hard to resolve cheaply anyway.
The train after it had pulled into the station and I was glad to see it.
I was disappointed that it was a compartment train, it wasn’t meant to be and I assume it was swapped in at the last minute. These are old fashioned and being removed from the rail network with a preference for open seating which feels safer. It transpired that the lady in the window seat (who had briefly left the compartment when I took the photo) was only going a short distance, so I had that window seat with table for nearly all of the journey. This did make me happier at matters as I do like a table for my laptop.
I switched this down to cold at the first available moment.
A view down looking at the compartments. There was a refreshments carriage next door, but it didn’t look very exciting.
For a long time, it was just me (and my bag and laptop) in the compartment, although a couple came in later on and were annoyed it was a compartment train.
Being in First gives no luxuries other than a free bottle of water and a little more space. It was a nice bottle of water to be fair as far as these things go.
Not only was I going from Poland’s capital to Hungary’s capital, but the train also stopped in Slovakia’s capital of Bratislava. I must admit that I was tempted to get off here as it’s one of my favourite cities, but that would have caused me some logistical issues….
And here’s the train in Budapest Nyugati railway station at the end of the journey. I did take a lot of photos of stations en route, to remind myself I quite fancy going to some of those locations (Ostrava in the Czech Republic looked interesting which has the nickname of Black Heart which I like), but there were no great pieces of scenery that I felt the need to photograph. There were a lot of fields though.
And safely in Hungary.
Overall, I rather enjoyed gazing out of the window for hours, but there was no wifi and the phone connection was poor for much of the journey. It’s generally cheaper by plane, it’s obviously quicker and ultimately much more convenient. Flying isn’t though very environmental and there is a push towards more long-distance trains, although this was 11 hours in total so it’s hardly a fast-paced arrangement.
The cost was relatively expensive for European rail at £50, although as an experience it was worth it. But, there’s going to need to be modernisation here, basic things like allowing for ordering food and drink on the train for either collection in the refreshments car or delivery to the compartment. I had no idea when meal service was, they needed to be clearer about that. They also do need wifi, although they did have power outlets and they were useful.
I had eight ticket checks during the journey, which is excessive by any means. The US system is better here, they check tickets on entry and write the journey on a card above the seat. I also didn’t like the compulsory reservation system, I was lucky to have a quiet carriage because there were no-shows, but I’d rather just sit where there’s space and not be tied to a certain seat (although I had moved across one from my middle seat I had been allocated). I thought that it all went quickly, so I certainly enjoyed the restful nature of the whole arrangement.
The whole thing felt a little old-fashioned and there’s a place for that, but I can’t see passenger numbers ever soaring for services like this unless they can speed them up a bit and make them more comfortable and modern. However, there is a sleeper version of this service so you get a choice between the two trains and that makes more sense in terms of time efficiency. However, I wanted to look out of the window at things as this was more of an experience.
The train arrived into Budapest just twenty minutes late, which isn’t bad given the complexity of going across four countries, namely Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. There were announcements throughout the journey, just about all of them in English. The service is run by České dráhy, who are the national rail operator in the Czech Republic, and I’d say that this sort of long-distance train service is certainly an experience worth trying at least once. So all really rather quite lovely and a reminder that I’ll take more trains on the European mainland.
