Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • GeoGuessr – Slight Miscalculation……

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    We had a little issue walking from JD Wetherspoons back to the railway station at Colchester Town. To avoid a long-winded story, the problem is that we (well, I especially) forgot how little time we had to get back. My short-cut didn’t have entirely the result that I wanted, so Nathan suggested that we had to run to get the train. I was dead thrilled at this and did a little jog thing. I think Nathan thought that I was as good as running at Clive, who he thinks is very slow indeed.

    We got to the train just as it pulling up into the railway station, so lots of relief. We then realised that it didn’t leave for five more minutes as the driver has to change end. We needn’t have rushed….. But, nonetheless, physically exhausted, the journey continued to Great Bentley….

  • GeoGuessr – Colchester Wetherspoons (Playhouse)

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    We had a little bit of spare time in Colchester and we realised that our train from there to Walton on the Naze went through Colchester Town railway station. I partly wanted to see if I could find Leon’s hat that went a bit missing a few years ago. But, then, we discovered that there was a JD Wetherspoons in Colchester that neither Nathan nor I had been to, so we thought that’d we’d go there and not worry about Leon’s hat. I was almost reminded of the huge branch that Dylan wanted to carry through the town.

    The Wetherspoon real ale festival was taking place, I went for half a pint of the Daleside IPA and Nathan went for the very lovely Mauldon’s Cherry Porter (one of my favourites, but I’m trying to go through the entire Wetherspoons beer options). Perfectly drinkable, all very good.

    We knew that we didn’t have long before the walk back to our train, so the slow service at the bar wasn’t ideal. There were a pair of customers in front of us who were keen to order their ‘breakfasses’ and two pints of beer, with the man thinking that they were hilarious for messing about with their order. The woman tried to engage with Nathan, telling him that she was 25 and had three kids, whilst I tried to studiously ignore her.

    Nice interior of the pub, which was the Playhouse theatre (hence the pub name) which opened in 1929. It wasn’t long before it was turned into a cinema, before becoming a bingo hall in the early 1980s. It became empty again before becoming a Wetherspoon pub, and it’s a sensitive and intriguing conversion.

    Every JD Wetherspoon has its own carpet design and this is one of the most imaginative that I’ve seen. The pub itself certainly had some challenging customers, not least the woman who was shouting angrily at a staff member as she didn’t like that her breakfast was cold. She made quite clear that the chef should be told about her anger. She seemed a nightmare, but fortunately not my problem to deal with.

    So, that’s another JD Wetherspoon outlet crossed off my list and it saved us spending over half an hour standing aimlessly in Colchester’s mainline railway station.

  • GeoGuessr – Diss Railway Station

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    We’ve arrived safely into Diss, and haven’t had to endure a conductor humorously announcing that “Dis is Diss” which was only partly amusing the first time I heard it….

    So, we went to sit in the waiting room. Since we were waiting for the train, so we thought that this was a good plan. The waiting room at Diss also has the female toilets in it (in a separate room, not actually in the centre of the waiting room).

    Then some bloody interfering old woman thinks she needs to inform us that this is a waiting room with the female toilets. Which I confirm. She then seems to suggest that the entire waiting room is therefore only accessible to women. Much as this segregation was all the rage in the nineteenth century, I’m pleased to confirm that Greater Anglia haven’t installed separate facilities for men and women.

    I tried to glare at her angrily, but Nathan was angrier as she had already barged him out of the way getting into the female waiting room. She left looking like she wanted to find something else to be grumpy about. I’m sure that she was successful.

    Anyway, onto Ipswich now….

  • GeoGuessr – It’s All Happening Now

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    This is still definitely a marvellous plan, which is going to a random place as determined by GeoGuessr. This was a plan devised in the pub, more of which here.

    Well, the day has started perfectly and we’ve successfully boarded the bus in Norwich, to get to the metropolis of Diss as there is a bus replacement service in operation. Being very raucous, we sat at the back (there was no Mark Donovan to remove us, so we were safe), before realising that meant we’d be last off at the other end. This meant that we were cutting back on our time in Diss, but we decided we’d get over that trauma.

    So, onwards to Diss!

  • Liverpool – Thomas Rigby’s

    I’ve been to this pub a few times before over the years and it’s an intriguing building with a rich heritage. It takes its name from Alderman Thomas Rigby, a businessman who made his fortune through pubs and hotels.

    The service was excellent and although I was initially a little unexcited by the beer options, I opted for the Nene Valley Brewery’s Dicks’s Extraordinary Bitter (DXB). The ratings for those beer aren’t great, but I thought it was well above average, a malty beer with a rich flavour.

    The back room of the pub which had some character to it, although the television did perhaps get a bit in the way of the whole atmosphere of the room. This pub is listed in the Good Beer Guide, and it’s another entry which I, for what it’s worth, think is entirely justified.

  • Liverpool – The Captain Alexander

    This is a new Wetherspoons for Liverpool, which opened in the city centre in July 2019. It’s perhaps a little generic inside in terms of the design, especially given the money spent on it (£2 million), but it was all clean and comfortable.

    One interesting element to the frontage of the building is that there’s a balcony, which can be accessed by customers, and this was once where a walkway entered the building from the railway station on the opposite side of the road. It was part of the failed, and expensive, attempt in the 1970s by the city council to develop a system of elevated walkways across Liverpool. The new sign installed by Wetherspoons has obscured this slightly, but it’s on the right-hand side, above the “Free House” section of the sign.

    The pub is named after Captain Alexander Allan and he looks an interesting character…. The text about the pub on the Wetherspoon web-site says:

    “On 23 May 1819, Scottish-born sea captain Alexander Allan advertised that the 169-ton brig Jean would shortly set sail for Canada. It was the forerunner of the Allan family’s large North Atlantic fleet of sailing ships. By the 1830s, the shipping-line company had offices in Glasgow, Liverpool and Montreal. Its Liverpool office closed in 1917.”

    I don’t really understand the logic Wetherspoons have had here with the naming of the pub though, Alexander Allan himself didn’t have particularly strong connections with Liverpool. His company did have offices next door to Victoria House, which is the home of the new pub, hence the pub name, but it’s all a bit tenuous. Personally, I’d have thought there were more relevant and interesting stories to be told.

    I opted for the Mash Brewing Challenger which came in at marginally over £1 for half a pint, very reasonable indeed in terms of the price. There is meant to be a taste of fruit (apricots and orange), but I didn’t really get that, but it was a perfectly pleasant IPA and was at the appropriate temperature. It’s not normally the type of beer I’d order, but it’s part of the JD Wetherspoon beer festival which is taking place at the moment.

    The service was all good, efficient and professional, despite the pub being pretty busy when I visited. All rather lovely and although I wasn’t entirely excited by the beer options, at least there were several to choose from.

  • Books about St.Osyth

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    For anyone who is absolutely inspired by our trip to St. Osyth (or, more likely, has stumbled across these pages via Google), here are some books which tell more of the story of the town’s history.

    The History of St. Osyth – Pubs and Publicans

    The St. Osyth Witch Story

    St. Osyth’s Priory

    The Essex Priory Way Walk

    The Spirits of the Cage – A True Account of Living in a Haunted Medieval Prison

    The Interwar Years – The Story of St. Osyth in the 1920s and 1930s

  • Liverpool – North Western

    The JD Wetherspoon operated North Western pub, located at Liverpool Lime Street railway station. This was the ground floor of the long since closed North Western Hotel, which was designed by Alfred Waterhouse, who also was the lead architect of London’s Natural History Museum.

    The ground floor retains its grand appearance, with plenty of space and some very competitive pricing for a railway station hub.

    Today is the first day of the JD Wetherspoon beer festival, and there are a number of intriguing and interesting options on the pub chain’s list. They’re not all available at once, so it’ll require multiple visits to try and get to see most of them, but I was pleased to see a beer from the Titanic Brewery. The half of this beer, the Another Pint in the Wall, was perfectly well-kept and drinkable, although this wasn’t a drink with strong flavours.

    I’m not quite sure why this pub isn’t in the Good Beer Guide, it has more character and more beers than some of other Wetherspoon outlets in the area. No doubt there is a natural limit to how many of their pubs can be listed in the book, but it’s perhaps unfortunate that this isn’t one of them.

    Staffing in the pub was efficient and there were no delays to the service, even though the pub was reasonably busy at the bar. The environment was comfortable and the choice of beers, and their prices, was excellent. All rather lovely.

  • Liverpool – Brewdog Deskdog

    I heard last week about a new scheme that Brewdog have introduced to allow people to get work done in their pubs (their own work, not work for the pub chain) which gives them a table, a free pint and unlimited coffee. The cost is £7, so I thought I’d give this marvellous concept a go.

    All rather excellent, they were expecting me. I don’t think a prior reservation is required though, so customers can just turn up. There’s a theoretical time limit of two and a half hours which the on-line reservation gives in the pub, but they do mention that it’s possible to extend this just by asking a staff member. I doubt that in practice there are any time restrictions (within reason).

    The first of several coffees. There’s a bell at the table which the very friendly staff member said that I could press to get another coffee, but, like the call button on aircraft, I rarely feel that comfortable pressing it. And since I was six feet from the bar, I was happy to make that commitment to walking over.

    The Punk IPA that was included in the price, the usual clean and refreshing flavours.

    The beer list with some tempting options, although I managed to restrain myself.

    Every Brewdog has a beer fridge where takeouts, or indeed drink-ins, can be obtained.

    The pinball machine area for those customers who might want a distraction.

    Decorative toilets with kegs on top of the cubicles, and they were also around the walls.

    Anyway, back to the concept. This is part of a sweeping move being made by pubs, restaurants and hotels to get remote workers, digital nomads, home workers, or whatever the exact term used, into using their facilities. Some do this better than others, with JD Wetherspoon leading the charge with their unlimited coffee for somewhere between £1.15 and £1.50 (or more at airports), but companies such as Accor are getting good at this as well.

    I like how Brewdog have made their plans very clear, as it means that people know that they are welcome within the pub for the day. The staff in this Brewdog were engaging and friendly, although the chain seems to be really good at this. The coffees kept flowing without any issue and the staff were knowledgeable about the whole process.

    I like pub and hotel environments with their ambient noise and ability to listen in to what are often ridiculous complaints made to staff. The noise in this Brewdog wasn’t disturbing at all, although the music did get a bit louder towards the end of my visit. I do prefer the policy that JD Wetherspoons have on dogs (they’re banned), but given the name of Brewdog and their open acceptance of dogs, at least their policy is clear and consistent.

    All in all, I really like this concept and Brewdog have implemented it with some professionalism. I can imagine that this will become more common over the next few years and it’s an excellent way of filling up what might otherwise be a nearly empty venue during the day.

  • Flixbus – Opole to Berlin

    So, after a lovely few days in Opole, it was necessary to get back to Berlin and I went back the same way that I went, via Flixbus. I don’t like Flixbus, based on many previous journeys, but my dislike of them is diminishing (since they’re actually generally turning up at the right place now), so this is positive for everyone…..

    On the morning of the bus journey, there was a notification from Flixbus that there would be a white bus instead of their usual green and orange effort. Unfortunately, there was no message within the app, but at least it alerted me as to what to expect, which was useful.

    I arrived at the bus stop early (as usual) and the departure time of the bus came and went. Thirty minutes later I message Flixbus and ask politely where the bus is, as the on-line tracking had stopped about 150 miles away. Two minutes after sending that message, a replacement coach branded with Euro Lines (another company that Flixbus have now bought out) turned up. Flixbus replied about ten minutes later, so I appreciated their efforts in replying quickly.

    I was able to get my preferred seat at the top of the stairs, so there was no-one in front of me. The bus was pretty quiet and not many customers boarded at any stage of the journey. The price of the journey was cheap and I can’t really complain about the value offered. There was very intermittent Internet and no power, although I’ve yet to be on a Flixbus that has delivered everything that they’ve promised, so I was hardly surprised.

    We eventually got into Berlin an hour late, but in the scale of things, that’s not unreasonable. The driving also felt safe throughout the journey, with no real delays along the route other than the wait for the bus to arrive, and then depart, in Opole. Judging solely by my experiences, Flixbus are definitely getting better.