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  • Gdansk Group Trip – Day 1 (The Ryanair Flight to Gdansk)

    Gdansk Group Trip – Day 1 (The Ryanair Flight to Gdansk)

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    All this telling me to relax is very stressful. I just want to know when and where the aircraft is going from, I like being in a state of heightened tension before a flight and certainly not relaxing. Things have moved about since I was last at Stansted a few years ago and my favourite seating area has gone, but I found a quiet seating area a level below the main terminal which was rather peaceful and delightful. Or as much as these things can be anyway.

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    Safely at gate 49 and I have to comment positively that Ryanair are incredibly efficient when things go right. The signage is clear, it’s obvious where to stand, the process is managed well and they do this better than British Airways which often is either organised chaos or not organised at all.

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    The big long queue to board, but the wait was for only five minutes or so.

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    At least with no airbridge I can take a photo of the aircraft. The aircraft is SP-RNA which was brought into use in 2008 and has a few weeks ago been transferred to Buzz, which are a division of Ryanair. What I find fascinating is that this aircraft will be used for seven flights today, from Stansted to Gdansk to Prague to Gdansk to Oslo to Gdansk to Dublin and back to Gdansk. They get their money’s worth out of these Boeing 737s.

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    The flight was nearly full and I cannot fault Ryanair for the service today. The cabin crew were pro-active and polite, the pilots made clear announcements, the aircraft was clean and everything was organised and on time. This flight cost £25 and I have to note that I’ve been surprised and delighted by Ryanair. I was asleep for most of the flight, but I received exactly what I paid for which was simply a glorified bus journey and they don’t pretend that it’s anything more than that. I’ve never actually had any problems with Ryanair after over a decade travelling with them, but when things go wrong they do have a poor reputation of fixing the issues.

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    Safely at Gdansk Airport where three shuttle buses swept passengers away to the main terminal.

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    Where we had to wait of course because we’re not in Schengen and the border guard, who was very amenable, spent some time adding up the number of days that I’ve been in the European Union. But it’s good to be back in Poland and the weather is warm and frankly too hot. But I don’t complain.

  • Gdansk Group Trip – Day 1 (The Overnight Wait)

    Gdansk Group Trip – Day 1 (The Overnight Wait)

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    As it was now nearly 03:00 we thought that we’d locate from the quietness of Stansted coach station to the rather more busy terminal. This is my first Ryanair flight in years and I’m already pre-annoyed about it, but to be fair it might surpass my expectations.

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    The barriers were removed and a stampede of excited passengers surged towards the security lines unable to control their excitement at entering the airside area of the airport.

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    I’ve never noticed this interesting military history which is rather hidden away but contains a list of the units which have been stationed at Stansted when it was a military airport.

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    The anticipation…… The whole process was efficient and we were through to the airside area by 03:15 with only a brief wait in the queue for security. The staff were enthusiastic and helpful, full credit to them given the early time of the day and the inevitable many hours before their shift ended.

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    After spending what seemed to be half an hour meandering around the compulsory trudge through duty free we reached what was, for now at least, the tranquility of the airside area.

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    There were tens of these USB chargers in the seats and I couldn’t find any that worked. Very sub-optimal as I watched numerous people trying each one in turn in the hope of being able to charge their devices. Given how airlines encourage passengers to use boarding passes on their phone, the airport do perhaps need to provide more working charging units.

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    Here was our plan (which I suspect was mostly my plan that Ross went along with), I spent £3.25 for three hours worth of unlimited hot drinks at the Windmill, the JD Wetherspoon outlet at the airport. More importantly there was a power point so that I could charge my devices to my heart’s content. Everything fully charged for the flight, that’s my nerves settled.

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    The history of the pub’s name and I remember the old JD Wetherspoon outlet at the airport, it was tiny in comparison to the cavernous pub they have now.

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    The pub’s interior and it’s located over two floors, with a windmill design in the centre. The service was helpful, immediate and polite, it was all stress-free which is just as I like it.

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    As my friends know, I’m easily pleased, and I was very excited and delighted to see the cold milk option for the first time. That will save me countless minutes over the course of the year, perhaps as many as twenty, getting the milk jug refilled.

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    Several coffees later, I was suitably refreshed and recharged. Ross didn’t go for such coffee extravagance, he only likes slightly posh soft drinks. Ross also had to try and avoid the friendly team member at the entrance to the pub who was in danger of making conversation with him, but that crisis was averted by Ross’s sneaking in and out. There’s quite a lot of frivolity at this pub before 5am which I suppose is understandable as it’s a primarily leisure airport, but I’m naturally grumpy in the morning (and indeed throughout most of the day) and it’s all a bit exciting for my liking.

    We are now ready to depart for the gate and it’s evident how bored I am by how I’m now writing up the most tangential of things. But, Poland is getting ever closer, it’s light outside and all we have to do now is not miss our flight.

  • Gdansk Group Trip – Day 1 (Stansted Shanty Town)

    Gdansk Group Trip – Day 1 (Stansted Shanty Town)

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    A couple of years ago the decision makers at Stansted Airport decided that they didn’t want people staying overnight in the terminal, but there appears to have been a compromise where a small section has been begrudgingly turned over to passengers. God forbid that the passengers that Stansted serves might have any chance of getting some crumbs of comfort. The airport has poor early morning public transport connections and limited affordable hotels, so it’s not clear what the management are actually expecting to happen here. Perhaps the whole Sleepless in Stansted arrangement is a complete surprise to them, bewildered that their lack of forward planning in enabling more accommodation options to be available has become part of the problem. But anyway, I mustn’t digress into such matters because I’m being very positive for this entire trip, I’ve decided.

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    They’ve cordoned their seating area off in case anyone might get comfortable. They’re trying to avoid people sleeping, but it also means that people use the seating areas at places such as Burger King, so customers of their fast food delights then can’t get a table.

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    The confined area is inevitably full of people, some trying to sleep and some just trying to find a wall to lean against. They’ll be lucky in this terminal to even find a pillar to lean on.

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    The main area of the terminal is closed off and there’s a sign saying that it’s open at 03:00.

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    Fortunately, most people don’t seem to know about the nearby coach terminal which is peaceful and quiet. I don’t travel from Stansted Airport very much, but this is always where I go as it’s calm and there’s relatively comfortable seating. The only slight issue for me is that the airport appears to turn its wi-fi off overnight, which is sub-optimal when I was trying to save my phone battery. Anyway, not long now before the terminal re-opens and the delights of Stansted airside will become available to me in all of their glory.

  • Gdansk Group Trip – Day 0 (Norwich to Stansted Airport via London Liverpool Street)

    Gdansk Group Trip – Day 0 (Norwich to Stansted Airport via London Liverpool Street)

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    After a successful little sojourn in the Queen of the Iceni we meandered back to Norwich railway station amidst a deluge of torrential rain. There were no issues with late running trains, whatever issue there had been at Romford had been resolved. I do little some adventure when things go wrong, but on this occasion I was just keen to get to Poland without too many issues. It’s more interesting to watch other people have random adventures when things go IRROPS anyway.

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    There’s our train on the right, ready to board half an hour before departure.

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    A suitably decadent meal deal from the Co-op of roast beef monster munch, a prawn sandwich and a Dr Pepper, for only just a little bit more than the Tesco version would have cost. I intended to save all this for when I got to Stansted Airport, but I finished the crisps before we left the railway station and the sandwich by the time we reached Ipswich. All the food and drink met my expectations and I also successfully completed the Gogen puzzle in the Evening Standard. I was going to do the cryptic crossword as well but I didn’t know any of the answers.

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    Our train arrived in at 22:55, just five minutes before the Greggs at Liverpool Street station closed. Fortunately, they were still opening with no early closing going on here. This is the first time that I’ve been here (at this outlet, I’ve obviously been to Greggs before, I’m not a heathen), I was surprised and delighted at the friendly service and how much they had left just before closing which I think goes off to the homeless. All very efficient.

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    And a sausage roll safely acquired.

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    I toasted the King’s Coronation weekend with my sausage roll.

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    I mutter and moan about the Stansted Express train operating the Norwich to London Liverpool Street mainline, not least because it has no tables. This is though its natural home and I thought this would be a good time to eat my sausage roll, I had waited long enough.

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    I can cope with this lack of table provision on the relatively short journey from London Liverpool Street to Stansted.

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    It wasn’t overly busy fortunately.

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    And safely at Stansted Airport railway station just after midnight, with only several hours left before we can go through security. This isn’t the ideal situation, but who needs the luxury of hotels at Stansted when you can meander around the terminal and coach station for a few hours to amuse yourselves? The main thing is that we had arrived safely, ready for the flight in the morning and the delights of Gdansk.

  • Gdansk Group Trip – Day 0 (Will this Train be Operating?)

    Gdansk Group Trip – Day 0 (Will this Train be Operating?)

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    The excitement is increasing, our train is just a couple of hours away from departing but there has been heavy rain with reports of delays on the train track near Romford. We’re on the last train from London Liverpool Street to Stansted Airport with only 30 minutes to play with at Liverpool Street, so a delay is sub-optimal to say the least. Anyway, Ross and I have started our trip with a quick trip to the Queen of Iceni in Norwich, I’ve had the little burger and salad as I’m very health conscious like that.

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    My drink came after the food was served, but I’m not one to complain and just privately seethed that I had eaten my little burger and salad just as the drink arrived. The meal came with the 500ml can of Tin Man from Williams Brothers Brewing Co, a very agreeable hazy IPA.

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    A balanced diet is important, so here are some Mini Cheddars along with half a pint of Reedlighter from Woodforde’s Brewery. The good news is that the delays on the track near Romford seem to have gone away, they’ve fixed the flooding, which means we should be getting into Stansted on time. I’m very excited about this whole Polish trip even though my very wealthy friend Gordon isn’t going, we’re about to leave for the railway station now to see what delights and surprises the rail network will bring us.

  • Gdansk Group Trip – Day 0

    Gdansk Group Trip – Day 0

    How exciting, it’s a group trip this week to Gdansk, with six of us going to this quite marvellous city. Of course, nothing is simple, Ross and I are departing by train this evening whilst the others arrive at random times during the week. Everyone is flying with Ryanair to Gdansk other than Richard who has hired a private jet or something to take him to Warsaw and then a first class train to Gdansk. How the other half live….

    Here’s my scribbling down an itinerary that will likely change numerous times, but showing my commitment to organisational excellence. We have museums, bars, restaurants, bars, a boat trip, bars, trams, bars, cathedrals, bars, churches, bars and pizzerias. I have already whetted my appetite by looking at ontap.pl to see what beers are being sold in Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot at the moment. I am beyond excited at just how many tempting sours there are across the city and very excitingly, I’ve discovered there’s an outlet of PINTA in Sopot.

    I’ve missed Poland and if any of the other five going don’t enjoy Gdansk then they’re idiots and I am unanimous in that. And for anyone interested, which I readily accept is likely below one in number, the photo on this page is from my trip last year to Pikawa in Gdansk.

  • Norfolk GeoGuessr 1

    Norfolk GeoGuessr 1

    Liam and I got round to drawing the first random location for our wave of Norfolk GeoGuessr this summer, and maybe beyond if it proves to be exciting and delighting. I wouldn’t use post this in advance, but Liam managed to guess the location of this in Norfolk, which is more than I did. It’s accessible within two bus rides of Norwich and there’s a nearby pub and church, so that’s that sorted……

  • Norfolk GeoGuessr – New Series

    Norfolk GeoGuessr – New Series

    Woooo, after a slight gap in proceedings, feeling that this blog needs even more variety of content (to achieve my dream of three readers), I’ve convinced my friend Liam to start on a new round of GeoGuessr locations. I haven’t got quite round to writing up the national one we did last year, that’s something else on my little list. The old series is here and I’ve done these with either Liam or Nathan (with the expeditions always being exciting and giving me something to write about). We did some national locations and Liam and I do have a national one to do at some stage that we’ve already drawn, but for this run we’re going to limit ourselves to Norfolk.

    The aim is to travel to a random point in Norfolk which we generate on Geoguessr and then get there using public transport, before also visiting the nearest historic point of interest and the nearest pub. Potentially, we might visit a local restaurant of choice as well if there’s something appropriate in the area. We might get a location three metres from the King’s Head in Norwich, or we might get somewhere in Thetford Forest with snakes. The benefit is that Geoguessr uses Google Streetview to get its random locations, so it will be on a road of some kind and won’t be in the middle of a snake den.

    When we get to the point we will draw the next location and it might occasionally be possible to immediately get there, but likely we’ll manage just one in each day. Especially if I decide that there are two pubs nearby to visit.

    I doubt very little can go wrong with this plan….. We draw our first location tomorrow and hopefully will be able to visit a few this summer. I might even do a little bit of video, but don’t expect anything of any decent quality.

  • Peterborough – Blind Tiger

    Peterborough – Blind Tiger

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    Richard and I tried to visit this bar in a previous trip to Peterborough, but due to some poor planning on our behalf it was about to close so I didn’t get chance to go in. However, in Peterborough on my own for the day, I saw their Untappd list of beers in advance and was suitably impressed.

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    An inviting and organised set-up, with the screen behind the bar showing the Untappd list of beers. The staff member was knowledgeable and welcoming, with me being the only customer amidst the Coronation excitement going on across Peterborough. In terms of the choice of beers here, this must be one of the best in Peterborough and it has been well curated.

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    The set-up is bright and informal, catering for a slightly younger audience and offering an extensive range of cocktails. It all feels on-trend and perhaps Richard would have enjoyed sitting on the swing benches.

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    I went for one half pint and two 1/3 pints. Starting on the right, that’s part of the Ultimate Bar Snacks range from Northern Monk, this one the Scampi Fries beer. The staff member said that it was like a Radler and he was right, but it was better than I anticipated with somewhat of a depth of flavour rather than just a taste similar to a shandy. It’s tacky, but to be fair, it wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve ordered a beer because it’s tacky.

    The beer in the middle is from Three Hills Brewery, who produce some of the best stouts going, and was the Arctic Fruit Rice Pudding sour. This worked for me, I like rice pudding and the flavours didn’t disappoint.

    It’s the beer on the left though that was the star of my little line-up, again from Three Hills and it’s the Summer Fruits Custard Crumble. The smell of this was like a fruit smoothie, it was thick, luscious and had a backdrop of custard flavour along with tastes of blackberries and blueberries. This was a complete delight, what a way to celebrate the Coronation.

    It’s a well reviewed bar, which is unsurprising given the effort made to supply interesting and quirky beers, alongside a wider choice of drinks. It was closed off during my visit, but there’s a large cellar bar which is available to private groups, with some external seating. As an aside, I also got an Untappd badge for checking in here, not many places offer that, so perhaps I’ll revisit to get my second level of the Tiger Stripes badge. Very impressed.

  • Dereham Pub Day Two – Two Julians

    Dereham Pub Day Two – Two Julians

    Julian and I returned to Dereham this week to visit the second batch of pubs (here’s the post about the first visit) to complete the 12 venues that we wanted to go to in the town. We’ve greatly enjoyed the expedition and have eaten at three of the pubs to ensure that we can try and experience as much of their offerings as we can, with the breadth of offering across Dereham being much more substantial that I had anticipated.

    Railway Tavern

    Greenstone

    Royal Standard

    Bull

    Gemini

    The Coachmakers Pub And Kitchen

    We’re looking at visiting Bungay next, although there seem to be plenty of provincial market towns in Norfolk and Suffolk which all sound equally tempting. The £2 bus fare each way for me is also a handy bonus, cost effective public transport is always a result.

    And here’s a reminder of the other six pubs we visited on the first trip.

    Cherry Tree

    George Hotel

    Red Lion

    Romany Rye

    King’s Head

    The Cock