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  • Edinburgh – Ibis Edinburgh Centre South Bridge Royal Mile

    Edinburgh – Ibis Edinburgh Centre South Bridge Royal Mile

    Accor have several hotels in Edinburgh, hence the rather long name to identify this from other nearby locations. It’s just a short walk from the central railway station and also from the heart of Edinburgh action. The city isn’t exactly quiet at the moment, but there certainly aren’t anywhere near the number of leisure visitors that would usually be expected.

    I haven’t seen a Platinum Accor envelope like this before and it’s a handy little concept, place for the welcome drink and for the room key. And I should add that I very much liked when I e-mailed this hotel about an early check-in that they responded quickly and with a really helpful answer. The staff member at check-in was helpful, engaging and welcoming, really all very personable. The lobby felt an inviting place to visit as well, so my first impressions were all positive.

    As another of my random asides, this leads me to start being annoyed at some of the London Accor hotels who are making no effort to do anything and in some cases aren’t even responding to e-mails. The quality of Ibis hotels in the UK is all over the place, not least because of all of the different operators. At least in Poland there is just one operator of Ibis hotels, Orbis, meaning that the quality is consistent. Anyway, I digress, but I’d mention that this hotel isn’t taking any short cuts (or none that I noticed anyway).

    This is an enhanced room the staff member mentioned and other than the generic bathroom that Ibis use, it doesn’t feel like the usual Ibis room layout. I thought that it was all very light and modern, with the designers making use of the architecture of the historic building that the hotel is located in. I’m not a big advocate for losing large desks in hotel rooms, as I find these useful, but I accept that it would have looked rather out of place in this room and I assume that the hotel usually gets a lot of leisure guests. For my needs, the table and chair that they had were entirely sufficient. The room was spotlessly clean, fully stocked and the temperature was easy to control with the air conditioning. The windows were entirely sealed for guests (although the hotel can open them), which is a slight shame as I’m one of those strange guests who likes to hear street noise and traffic in the background.

    The view was really lovely, that’s Arthur’s Seat and I very much enjoyed sitting there looking at that late in the evening (I had forgotten it gets dark in Scotland much later than down south…..) As another aside, shortly after check-in, a staff member offered a dressing gown, which isn’t something that I want, but I really can’t recall any other Ibis trying to offer me this, so I was suitably impressed.

    And full marks for actually producing this, which is information about the hotel and something that many locations seem to entirely neglect. I’m never sure how hotels expect guests to actually know what is available as it often seems to be something of a secret, but everything was clearly laid out here. It’s a different way of doing things in these Covid times, but nice to see that the hotel has actually thought about it.

    The menu for the hotel’s bar and restaurant is easy to find and is clearly displayed. The hotel is located across several floors and because of the nature of the building’s architecture that means the reception desk is on the fourth floor (although that’s also at street level) and the bar is on the third floor. My room was on the top floor, which was the ninth.

    The welcome drink and I chose Innis and Gunn as that’s a nod towards localism. OK, in an ideal world there would have been some decadent craft beer, but they did offer me any beer that I wanted and so there were no limits placed on me. I visited before going back out into the city and I was the only one in the bar, but it was still welcoming and laid-back, a nicely set-out environment. The staff here were again friendly, especially when I realised that I had forgotten my room number (it was written on the drinks voucher which I handed over, forgetting I had meant to take a note of it before doing that) and the poor guy had to open the till to remind me. I expect they’re usually used to more competent guests.

    All told, this was one of the best run Ibis hotels that I can remember staying in. Punching above its Ibis weight a little, the welcome was genuine, the rooms clean and the quality of the experience high. I’d be very pleased to come here again and I liked the farewell where the staff member seemed genuinely interested if I had enjoyed my stay. Really all very well managed and I appreciate their help with the early check-in after my arrival into the city on the sleeper train.

  • Gateshead – Holiday Inn Express Newcastle Metro Centre

    Gateshead – Holiday Inn Express Newcastle Metro Centre

    Going back a week or so, this is the hotel that I went to after completing St. Cuthbert’s Way last week. It’s a slight faff to get to from central Newcastle for walkers, it really requires a train to the MetroCentre railway station and then a ten-minute walk from there. I got this train to get there (I felt that I had done enough walking), although I walked back via Gateshead the following morning which took about an hour (or would have done if I hadn’t stopped at the pub en route). Anyway, the hotel is usually quite keenly priced, not least as it’s not very central and it’s probably more usual to drive there.

    The welcome drink of a Goose Island IPA, which is a perfectly acceptable drink to start a hotel visit with. The bar wasn’t particularly busy, but the staff member was enthusiastic and friendly, so it all felt inviting.

    The room, all clean and comfortable, with some modern touches around the room (including a slightly fancy Bodum kettle that I forgot to take a photo of).

    The breakfast is included in the price here, although this particular IHG is perhaps making more of Covid restrictions than some others in the chain. I had to pre-order my bacon roll the evening before and had to give a time that I wanted it, which seems a little excessive (it’s not a complex cooked breakfast order). Other IHGs just stack them up in a big pile, but it was ready when I asked for it, so all was well. Much of the breakfast has been removed, although the area itself is self-service.

    My breakfast of orange juices (the glasses are little), yoghurts, the bacon roll and a croissant. Nothing overly exciting, but since the room rate was cheap and this breakfast was included in it, I was entirely satisfied.

    The hotel is generally well reviewed, complaints are mostly about the road being loud (they tend to be, or at least the cars on them tend to be) and noisy guests. The hotel says that it puts families and groups in different parts of the hotel, which sounds a good idea in principle, but they might be better trying to manage noise pro-actively rather than some random room selection like that given the issues they keep having. I’m not sure why this should be a party hotel given its location, but perhaps the price is what sends some groups there.

    All told, this wasn’t the easiest hotel to get to for a walker, so I probably wouldn’t pick this one again. However, that’s hardly the hotel’s fault (I find it bizarre when people rate down a hotel as it’s not near where they wanted to go, as if that’s the hotel’s problem to solve) and I liked everything else about this place. Quiet internally and externally, with a fan that worked sufficiently well, all really rather lovely.

  • Brighton – Brewdog

    Brighton – Brewdog

    I continue on my tour of the Brewdogs of the United Kingdom and I’m making steady progress, so thought that since I was in the area it’d be wrong not to pop into the Brighton location. I was disappointed to miss the Newcastle location last week, but they were temporarily closed for Covid-19 reasons.

    I booked a table, although I’m not entirely sure that they ever found the booking. It’s quite a large location and it seemed to be booked for most of the evening, so I assume it’s making them some money given how busy Brighton is at the moment. Everything seemed clean and tidy and I spotted some tempting beers in the fridges.

    I saw the staff member looking at giving me a small table by the door, which seemed ridiculous given that the entire bar was empty, but then without my saying anything a colleague mentioned that two larger tables were available. I was pleased by this and they had power available as well for my devices. So, all was well.

    I ordered a third of the Cannon Blast, which was unexciting, although it had a clean citrus flavour that wasn’t unpleasant. It was the first drink I’ve ever had from a Brewdog bar that was under-measured. I mention this not as a complaint that I received slightly too little liquid, but that it’s only fair since Brewdog have given me several free drinks by mispours over recent weeks.

    I was eyeing up the very well rated Tuesday (2020) from Cycle Brewing Company from St. Petersburg in Florida as one of my later drinks here. But, the service just felt wrong, it’s that Pret philosophy that their shops should seem inviting. I’m sure there were external factors, but the service seemed disengaged, cold and the staff didn’t seem very engaging about beer. To be fair, I could have started an engagement given it would be hard not to like the barrel aged imperial stout that I was considering, but then I decided that I’d just leave and head back to the campsite that was so far away. I don’t normally need to be upsold to as I’ve busily already ordered it, but I needed a bit of convincing to stay here and it wasn’t forthcoming.

    This was probably one of my most pointless Brewdog visits, lasting ten minutes of my two hour booking and I never even started charging my devices. On the bright side, it cleared a table for them as they seemed to have very limited availability. They received £1.79 for my one third of a pint and I left dreaming of the service of other Brewdogs. But, I’ll keep my eye out for that Tuesday (2020) beer in other Brewdogs, that’s too good to miss.

  • London – Barking and Dagenham (Borough of) – Ibis Barking

    London – Barking and Dagenham (Borough of) – Ibis Barking

    Of no great relevance to anyone other than me, but I’ve realised that I’ve never written about the Ibis at Barking, despite having stayed there three times. Given I can be quite a completist, I feel the need to quickly note a few things about the hotel for my own record if nothing else….

    This hotel is about an eight minute walk from Barking railway station or around ten minutes from East Ham underground station, so not ideally located for those using public transport (especially if they’re carrying things), but it’s also not in the middle of nowhere. There’s also an Ibis Budget very nearby, although I’ve not yet been to that one. Perhaps because of the location of the hotel, which is more suited for cars, it’s generally one of the cheaper Accor hotels in London, which is its main appeal to me. There is a reasonable amount of car parking on site, which is of no relevance to me, but it seems reasonably priced.

    The hotel has been clean and welcoming on my three visits here, all entirely functional and comfortable. There’s a small bar and restaurant area at reception which isn’t the largest, but it seems sufficient for the number of customers who want to use it. They have a slightly annoying system that the floor numbers don’t match the room numbers, so that the second floor has room numbers beginning with 3, but fortunately I manage not to let that concern me overly. All of the rooms appear to be the same, so there’s not much to add other than the photo above, with the usual Accor prefabricated shower pod being used as usual.

    The free welcome drink I had last week, which is a perfectly acceptable Brewdog Punk IPA. The drinks selection is not earth shattering, but it’s better than most other Ibis hotels, so I can’t much complain about that. I’ve never had any difficulties with noise, either internally or externally, nor indeed any other problems of note. So, all rather lovely.

  • London – Central London – The London Stone

    London – Central London – The London Stone

    There’s not much that I can add to the collective on-line resources about this stone, but I still find it an interesting survival. It was once part of a larger stone structure that might date back as far as the Saxon period (some say the Roman period), although the written record is more substantial from the medieval period. It’s known that in 1450 Jack Cade, the leader of a revolt against the governance of the country, entered London and struck the stone with his sword, which he claimed made him the Lord Mayor of London. He was dead soon after, the process wasn’t quite as smooth as he might have hoped.

    Here is the stone in its current home, 111 Cannon Street. It was once located at Candlewick Street, which was later widened to create the current Cannon Street. It has been something of a tourist attraction since the sixteenth century (I suppose they didn’t have many other options then, places like the London Dungeon weren’t trading in the way that they are now), although it had to be moved as it was in the way of traffic. Bloody typical that they move items of historic interest to make way for traffic, but nothing much changes. From the seventeenth century, the stone was placed safely in the wall of St. Swithin’s Church, but that was damaged during the Second World War. It was though included in the replacement building to ensure its future.

    The situation became a little ridiculous more recently when the stone became included in the WH Smiths store and got stuck behind the magazine rack. The entire building was demolished in 2016 and today it’s back in a nice alcove so that the public can easily see the stone. It might not be much to look at, but it’s a remarkable survivor and there’s some considerable heritage to the whole arrangement.

    There’s an information board by the stone (clicking on the image makes it larger). I accept that individuals have to use a lot of imagination here when looking at this lump of rock, but I like that it’s there.

  • London – Brewdog Tower Hill (Scramm’s Mead)

    London – Brewdog Tower Hill (Scramm’s Mead)

    My friend Richard was on another of his decadent trips to London at the weekend, which was handy as he was dropping my tent off for my week of camping. We popped into Tower Hill Brewdog and I wasn’t going to write about this, as I’ve written before about this bar which is near to the Tower of London (I’ve taken my main photo for this post from an earlier visit as well). We were slightly surprised to get a table as it two hours before the football started, but, fortunately, the fans weren’t much interested in Brewdog until the football was about to start.

    Two things of note though. Firstly, Richard wasn’t impressed at his avocado and feta bowl (I don’t know why he ordered this, but I didn’t say anything) as it was mostly leaves with only limited sprinklings of anything else. I didn’t bother taking a photo of the meal but would have done if I had known how disappointed he was with it. He was about to tell the staff his thoughts about it, but there was no check back and the staff member who collected the mostly left plate of leaves didn’t say anything either. I was a little disappointed by this, I would have been interested in what they had to say. Probably “why didn’t you order a burger?” or something….

    Anyway, of more relevance was the very decadent Marionberry from Schramm’s Mead which Richard spent a small fortune on. I was fortunate enough to pinch a little of it, because I noticed that this is one of the best rated breweries in the world. Schramm’s Mead are located in Ferndale, Missouri and I’ve decided that I need to have a visit to their taproom at some point in the future. Untappd note that this brewery averages at 4.52 from their 111,386 ratings, a quite phenomenal score. I accept that not everyone gets excited by very high scores on Untappd, but I’m easily excited by this.

    As for the Marionberry, which is a fruit mead (or melomel), this was absurdly good. Made with Marion Blackberries it had the taste of a rich jam and it was moving towards being a red wine in my eyes. Smooth for its 14%, but packed with flavour and a very different drinking experience. Not the cheapest, but I’d absolutely order from this brewery again if I see anything of theirs in the UK. And if not, I’ll just have to wait until I go and see them in the United States. A very lovely drink indeed and full credit to Brewdog for making this available.

  • National Express and Trustpilot

    National Express and Trustpilot

    As another one of my irrelevant asides that are of interest to only me, I wondered last week how National Express were getting such high marks on Trustpilot.

    National Express manage 4.2/5 which is “great” according to Trustpilot’s scheme, whereas Flixbus score 2.1/5 which is “poor” and Megabus score 2.0/5 which is also “poor”. Given that I can’t believe National Express are actually any better than their rivals, this felt a bit strange.

    It becomes clear from these feedback e-mails that National Express send to customers. If you click on the green happy icon (as I was a few weeks ago) you’re taken to a long questionnaire about how great National Express are, with the facility to leave feedback on external sites. If you click the red unhappy icon (as I was last week), it just says how sad they are that you weren’t happy. No attempt to collect feedback why and of course, no forwarding onto any external sites.

    Nothing wrong with all of this (indeed I’m sure National Express are very impressed at what they’ve done to skew the results), just a reminder of how bloody useless Trustpilot is at measuring anything.

  • Shoreham-by-Sea – YHA Truleigh Hill (Walk to Bus)

    Just photos of my walk to get the bus to get into Brighton and Hove. I admit that the scenery in the morning is quite nice, although I’ve got to traipse back to the campsite later again which I’m already pre-annoyed about.

    If I’m being honest, I don’t feel that I offer the same inspirational commentary on walking as Dave Morgan provides. But I do more food and drink photos, so half a dozen of one, half a dozen of the other…..

  • Shoreham-by-Sea – YHA Truleigh Hill

    Shoreham-by-Sea – YHA Truleigh Hill

    Back in February, when the world was a different place (and hotels were shut), I decided it might be interesting to go camping on my own and see if I liked it. I don’t entirely dislike it with groups of friends, but I thought it might be nice to get away from it all and be at one with nature. YHA had a deal where the campsite was just £7 per night, so a four night stay cost just £28. Given the accommodation prices in Brighton and Hove (any half decent hotel is £75+ per night), that’s considerably cheaper.

    I booked YHA Truleigh Hill, which is, as far as I’m concerned, in the middle of nowhere, although it is on the South Downs Way. It’s a 70 minute walk each way to Shoreham, although then it’s well connected with buses to the Brighton and Hove area.

    The YHA itself is a bit worn out internally, but they had been about to launch a refurbishment in 2020 before Covid hit. The renovations are on hold and might not take place for some time given the financial hit that YHA have had. One of the biggest problems is the lack of electrical points, which they had hoped to fix, but they can’t do this without an expensive electrical systems upgrade which was part of the planned renovations. The friendly staff member did though point out the four-way plug in the cafe where I could charge my devices, so that’s sorted that.

    The staff here are all perfectly friendly, although one is slightly exuberant, although I don’t suppose that’s really a complaint. There are more rules here that I’ve experienced at other YHAs, although that’s perhaps because others are a bit more lax sometimes in how they operate. There’s nothing off-putting though and the staff are doing their best to keep everything clean and organised.

    I picked this spot, which overlooks the sea (well it would have done if I had pointed the door that way).

    There’s a lower area to the camping area as well where visitors can pitch their tents, although given all the benches around there (and probably flies), I can’t imagine many do.

    My tent, which is slightly wonky but I’m not really into camping and tents. I messaged my friend Liam distressed at the complexity of putting the tent up, although the good news is that it’s still there (well, hopefully, I’m no longer near it) and I put the damn thing up unaided.

    The view from the tent. I sent this to some people who thought it must be marvellous to watch the sun go down. I’m not convinced, I spent five minutes extracting a moth the size of a seagull out of my tent.

    Anyway, I noted earlier on that it might be “nice to get away from it all”. I’ve realised that I actually really like “it all”, which is civilisation, Prets, good beer guide pubs, craft beer and public transport. I’ve come to realise how much of a city person I am and how I’m not going to set off on some solo expedition with a tent in the future. This camping thing is an interesting experiment, but I can’t see me repeating it, unless it’s with a group of friends, in a pub beer garden or in the middle of a city. The experiment isn’t yet over, but I can’t imagine my views of this whole thing will change.

  • Southern Railway : London Victoria to Shoreham-by Sea (gone wrong)

    Southern Railway : London Victoria to Shoreham-by Sea (gone wrong)

    I stupidly, and now regret to be fair, decided to go on a little camping trip to the south coast this week. That meant leaving the comfort of London with its bars, Prets, Greggs and other home comforts, for the wilds of the South Downs.

    With not much time spare (very unusually for me) I arrived at London Victoria. The platform for the train to Littlehampton wasn’t announced until 10:41, which isn’t entirely ideal when the service leaves at 10:45. Although, that gave me time to play guess the platform, and I guessed correctly that it would be platform 12, so I was ready and waiting. Any passenger in another part of the railway station with mobility issues would have had a rather more entertaining and stressful four minutes.

    Here we are, ready to board. At this stage, I didn’t think there would be much of interest during this rail journey, so I didn’t expect to use these photos.

    The Southern Train pulls in, all seems to be going to plan. It was a long train which was nearly entirely empty, but all was on time.

    The carriage. And with that, I was expecting to arrive into Shoreham-by-Sea around an hour later with no issues or delays.

    We got past Gatwick and there was then an announcement that the railway network on the southern coast had run out of power or something similar. This didn’t sound ideal, but a staff member at Haywards Heath said to just board the next train to Brighton and then change there. So I did that, whilst carrying my bag and traipsing another bag about. It’s fair to say, I’m not really getting into this camping thing. Indeed, I’ve spent most of the day moaning about it to people.

    Boarding the 11:43 to Brighton.

    On board that train into Brighton, carting all this bloody camping equipment with me.

    When at Brighton railway station it was evident that I had about fifteen minutes until the train to Hove, where I could catch a train to Shoreham from. I popped to the gateline and asked to be let out of the railway station (implying I also wanted letting back in shortly afterwards) so that I could visit Pret to get an emergency hot chocolate.

    I still have my Pret subscription, so this was a handy stop and got me an unexpected free drink.

    Back in the railway station I boarded the train to Hove, also relieved that I had been let back through the gateline without any problems.

    This train journey wasn’t particularly busy and since it only went to Hove it lasted all of around five minutes. My hot chocolate was so hot I still hadn’t drunk any of it by the time that we got to Hove (not that anyone will be too bothered about that).

    Anyway, I got off at Hove and this railway employee was giving advice on what to do next as it was clear not much rail traffic was leaving this station. The advice was primarily to get a bus and this was all arranged with the local company so that rail passengers wouldn’t have to pay. I liked his “there’s no point standing here” as some customers didn’t believe him when he said there were no trains for some time. As I understand, it transpired that it took the about three hours to fix the problem, so anyone waiting at the station for the services to be restored wouldn’t have had a quick departure.

    And a five minute walk saw me find a bus to Shoreham, which helpfully dropped me off slightly nearer to the campsite than the train would have done. But, I was well over an hour late, so at least this rail fare will be refunded under delay repay. With that, my camping adventure would begin, although writing this one day later, I can’t say that this is my favourite adventure that I’ve ever had. But we’ll see how it goes from here.