Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Accor

Tuesday : Nearly Missing the Bloody Train in Krakow, Finn Air to Heathrow and Ibis Budget

After a few days in Krakow eating pizza and complaining about the heat to anyone who would listen, whilst calming my overheated nerves with the large hotel breakfast every day, it was time to return to the UK. The old railway station is visible in the photo above, but they’ve built a new station building which is linked it to the Galeria Krakowska shopping mall. It was also surprisingly busy for a Tuesday morning at just before 09:00.

The new platforms are in this photo, the old railway station is behind me. Like nearly everywhere in Poland, it’s all very clean and organised.

There were no ticket machines to be seen on the platform which seemed odd. I discovered on the way out that passengers could buy tickets on the train, but I wanted to get this sorted in advance and so I bought mine from the PKP web-site. It’s a ticket that doesn’t need validation and is for a specific train, which is the one that should be leaving from the platform I was standing by after the 09:01 to Gdynia got out of the way. Anyway, the train didn’t move and I heard part of an announcement which was only in Polish, stating that my train to the airport was switching to another platform. I was moderately annoyed as that meant I had to rush, but obviously I didn’t want to run in the Krakow heat. Or indeed run at all, it’s exhausting.

I caught the damn train with thirty seconds to go, but I noted some others didn’t and were still on the wrong platform. They didn’t even check the ticket (I mean the ticket inspectors on the train, not the people on the wrong platform). Anyway, I arrived into the airport as expected, but could have done without the rushing about the place. Clean train and on-time, so I can’t really complain.

I was through airport security in under two minutes and so next was the non-Schengen airport lounge at Krakow Airport, which was small, although luckily I had given myself three hours to sit in it. It reached near capacity by the time that I was about to leave the lounge, and it does feel a little under-sized. Very friendly staff and there are toilets and showers within the lounge complex.

Lard and bits of pepper sliced up, it’s not exactly Greggs is it?

Now we’re talking though.

My starter.

The amuse-bouche. They had a couple of different beers, nothing exceptional, but sufficient for me.

In fairness the chicken salad was very lovely, so that proved to be a useful main course. I never had the lard.

There was a ten minute delay, but nothing too bad, for the return flight to Heathrow.

This was as clear as mud, with a Ryanair and British Airways flight departing at the same time, as well as separate queues for Groups 1-3 and Groups 4 and 5. I guessed the queue correctly when the Groups 1-3 were called, but numerous other customers didn’t, finding themselves in the wrong place. Anyone who tried to access the Groups 1-3 queue without having the correct number on their ticket was sent packing, albeit politely.

As with my outward journey, this was a British Airways flight that they’ve wet leased to be operated by Finn Air. It’s the Airbus A321 with registration code OH-LZN, which Finn Air have operated since the aircraft was new in 2017.

This annoyed me, it started to pour with rain just as I boarded. All week I waited for rain and the moment I get on board to come back what happens?

I’ve blurred this (again) by mistake as I was trying to rush, but I was the first to board. The person in the photo is flight crew and they were all exceptional during the journey, again Finn Air should be proud of their professionalism. Someone in my row seemed quite seedy in the way he was talking to the crew member, but she professionally batted him and his attempt to take her for an Indian meal away.

Got my seat with lots of leg room again. The flight was near full, but the boarding was efficient and well managed. At this point we sat there for around 45 minutes, as the rain that I craved all week was now flooding the airport and so they had to temporarily shut down operations.

The chatty and friendly crew came around with the snack before take-off to ensure everyone remained happy. The water was served after we had taken off.

Safely back at Heathrow T3, ready to spend ten minutes walking around their slalom course. You could practice for an LDWA 100 walking around this.

I’m starting to feel that I know Heathrow T3 far too well.

The Central Bus Station, ready for me to pay for a bus to get me to the Ibis Budget on Bath Road since Heathrow have removed the Free Travel Zone. Yes, I will complain about that in every post for some months, there’s nothing like repetition to cheer the soul.

I had pre-paid for this room at a much cheaper rate, but this is a sign of the ridiculous prices in London. For an Ibis Budget which isn’t that well located to be charging £100 is far from ideal.

I stayed here a few weeks ago, it’s the former Travelodge they’ve converted into Ibis Budget. The windows here don’t open and I asked for a fan, which they said they’d bring to the room, but they didn’t bother. However, I decided the air conditioning worked sufficiently well for me to not traipse down again to ask where the fan was. The hotel though is still receiving deluges of negative reviews about the air conditioning not working, but it appears they should have it all fixed soon enough.

Not that I’m one for complaining, but just I got in the room it started to rain again. That weather is just ideal for me, cloudy and rainy, perfect for exploring a city.

July 6, 2022
Thursday : Heathrow T3 to Krakow with British Airways (operated by Finn Air)

After the excitement of being at Heathrow T3 through the night started to become marginally less exciting, I decided to walk through the bright lights of the walkways to get to the main terminal. It’s surprising how quiet Heathrow is at 03:00…..

I was ready. I was ready around 835 minutes before the flight to be fair.

They could probably do with some more seats on the first floor, but it was starting to get a little busier before the security lines opened at 04:30. I was confused why around 40 people were standing in what I thought was an odd place for the security line, at an overflow area. I decided these savvy travellers must know what they were doing, but I was hardly in a rush, so I stood in the normal place. Fortunately, I managed to find myself at the front of the queue and so was the second person (or second non-staff member to be more accurate) to enter airside.

Peace and quiet at duty free.

I’ve never really understood who buys all this stuff, it’s a huge retail area and nothing seems particularly good value to me. I don’t know whether it’s a mix of people buying presents and those who just get excited when they see alcohol for sale. Now, if they had a decent craft beer selection then I might be interested.

Slightly blurry, but there’s no shortage of seating if you go to the airport early. Who needs a hotel? An unnecessary decadence.

I have no idea how I’ve managed to take such blurry photos, but there’s the very quiet oyster and champagne bar or whatever it is. It’s not somewhere I’ve felt the need to spend much time. Actually, as an aside, I don’t really understand it, it’s expensive and I’d have thought if you can afford to go there, you’d likely have airline status to go to a lounge. And it’s a very open place to sit. But there we go, perhaps people like being seen when they’re being decadent.

I’d arrived before any of the shops had opened as well.

The BA lounge opened at 05:00. Well, it’s meant to, the bouncy and happy staff member went to open the First Class section at 05:00 and then she realised there was no-one at the main entrance. At 05:05 an harassed member of staff turns up and the lounge whirs into action. Fair play to her, what a time to get to the airport and the staff have to go through security every day, it must be tiring. Anyway, the First entrance is to the left and the Club entrance is to the right. Two of the customers in front of me were entirely the wrong place, they were going to the Aspire Lounge or whatever it was, and seemed annoyed at BA that they hadn’t made clear it was the BA lounge. The signage on the wall is a clue.

I must have been tired, these photos are dreadful. Anyway, the BA lounge main seating area.

Looking towards the rear, the little business section is to the right. No beer again in the lounge, just Heineken.

The BA order to the table app seems to have been removed, everything is on display again and it’s fair to say that’s it’s beautifully presented when no customer has mauled it all about.

The sausage and bacon rolls, which seem to be a waste of food if I’m being honest. A fair number of people ditch the rolls, including myself, to eat the bacon and sausage. The muffins were soggy and the rolls were hard and inedible, it just seems a waste of BA’s money. They must be able to deliver something better than this. I’m not specifically complaining, well no more than usual, for me, just that they’re spending all this money and delivering a product which is evidently inferior to the lounges around them (although I’d add the First section of the lounge is better, but I haven’t had access to that for years).

I asked a couple of times when the showers would be opening with no-one being sure, and the lovely lady on the First desk (not that I had access to that lounge, it’s just next to where the showers are) was confused why they were shut. She went off to find out and came back very apologetic to say the showers were closed for the week, but she hadn’t been told. I appreciated her help and assistance, but fortunately, there was a solution to this, the Cathay Pacific lounge which opened at 05:30. The staff try so hard in the BA lounge, but the airline doesn’t always seem to want to help them.

Cathay Pacific had showers which were immaculate, so that was that solved. The staff try so hard in the Cathay Pacific lounge and the airline does seem to want to help them. It wasn’t busy, and indeed I was the only person in the lounge for a few minutes, this is the part of the self-service breakfast selection. Spotless as ever.

And the other bit. There’s a selection of sausages, bacon and the like for those who want hot items.

But, yet again, I decided I wanted to order from the chefs at the Asian food counter and got my standard order of Thai coconut and vegetable soup, the Mix Dim sum basket, Fanta and beer. What a time to be alive…. And compare and contrast to the BA lounge. The flight time meant I didn’t really enough time to visit the Qantas lounge for some calamari as it opens a little later, but I was refreshed and ready for the new day after leaving the Cathay Pacific lounge. I’m disappointed to say I won’t be back in T3 for a while, as the flights I had departing from the terminal have been moved to T5.

It was unclear whether there was a priority line at the gate, but I wasn’t going to go hunting for it. The man behind me didn’t have the same restraint, I heard a series of “I will go and look”, “no, we’re entitled to use it” and the like, as his what I assume was wife tried to calm him. He stomped over in the end and asked where the priority line was, before shouting back to wife “we can enter the priority line here”. I admire his determination to sit in the gate slightly quicker than the others, although I have to confess to them following him. I tried to look as embarrassed as the guy’s wife.

The flight was booked with British Airways, but they’ve run out of aircraft, so they’re using Finn Air on a wet lease arrangement. So the pilots and cabin crew are all from Finn Air, whilst the service standard is British Airways. This has the advantage of this seat with lots of leg room, which as far as I’m concerned is the best in the economy part of the aircraft. I think I dozed off for a chunk of the flight and there was no-one sitting next to me, so this felt very spacious.

The mid-flight snack, a smaller bottle of water and a Nutrigrain bar. There was a man in the aisle seat, and we must have both dozed off, as the crew had just left them on the seat for us. The crew were excellent, friendly, personable and engaging, Finn Air should be very proud. Apparently they spend five days in London being put up at hotels, which must be costing BA a fortune, before returning to Helsinki for a few days.

Oh good, a bus to the terminal. Not that it matters, I’m hardly ever in a rush. I noticed that it was too hot.

Although getting a bus did give me time to take a photo of the aircraft, which is OH-LZU, an A321 which Finn Air have operated since it was manufactured in 2018.

It didn’t take long to get through border control, and I decided to use my limited Polish to the border guard. He replied, in Polish, asking if I was Polish as I would have then been in the wrong queue. He soon realised from my garbled answer that I wasn’t. Here’s the front of the terminal and it was evident to me that it was already too hot. I may have mentioned that.

The train from the airport to the city centre, which is over twice the price of the one from Warsaw. That’s the problem with these tourist cities.

I bought a ticket from the machine and then waited excitedly to board. The train was quite busy and unusually, you can buy tickets on board despite there being ticket facilities on the platform. One person showed their bus ticket, but the train guard was having none of it, they had to buy a rail ticket.

I’ve visited Krakow numerous times before, but here’s a quick photo from the city centre as I walked to the hotel in the searing heat. Krakow is a beautiful city, but it is very touristy, so I prefer visiting other cities in Poland, but it’s nonetheless a delight to be back.

Grrrrr, I didn’t entirely like the room, it’s one of these damn Ibis changes to make it feel like a nursing home. I’ve stayed at Ibis Krakow Centrum before, and they had better rooms with a desk and chair. I did query with reception if they had any of the older rooms, but they said they didn’t. Their answer was “we don’t put chairs in rooms any more”. I’m not entirely sure how that is seen as a good idea, as although I understand not everyone has the same requirements as me, a chair isn’t beyond Ibis Budget, let alone Ibis. This is, I think, an upgraded room, as there’s a coffee machine. I didn’t understand the point of that as they gave me two coffees for a five night stay, but those two were delicious I suppose. There’s also water provided, which I appreciated as it’s too hot. The window opened so that was positive, but the air conditioning in the room sort of worked, not to make the room as freezing as I’d like, but sufficient to be comfortable.

I appreciated the note though, that was kind. I’m not really into red wine, but it was a gift and that was very nice of them, so I did drink it as I didn’t want to be rude. I’m selfless like that.

Wwith that, I was back in Poland, although I had some sleep to catch up on.

July 4, 2022
Tuesday – Tuesday : Katowice Week (Ibis Budget Katowice)

This is the Accor complex in Katowice of Ibis Budget on the left and Novotel on the right. There’s also a Mercure hotel in the city centre, next to the railway station. This is my fourth stay in this Ibis Budget hotel and I think it’s one of the better managed that I’ve seen. I know that if Richard was here he’d be straight in the Novotel, but he’s very decadent and he likes expensive things.

Ibis Budget don’t need to provide a welcome gift or drink, so this gesture of a chocolate bar and coffee was much appreciated. The staff at this hotel were always friendly and helpful, with the housekeeping staff being thorough and personable as well. I’m not sure if there are kettles in every room or whether they put that in there for me, as it’s not usual to see them in Ibis Budget hotels.

I had been in the room for about three hours before I noticed this. A very nice touch 🙂

The breakfast buffet arrangement.

Half of the breakfast room, which always had plenty of space.

The room and breakfast was about £25 per night, which I thought was excellent value for money given that it was June when hotels are getting busier.

Anyway, this is a really rather lovely hotel at a budget price. Friendly staff, spotlessly clean, I didn’t have any problems during my week here. Although they could do with a faster lift, but I won’t hold that against them.

July 2, 2022
Tuesday : Leaving Katowice for Warsaw

After a relaxing and productive week in Katowice, it was a late morning intercity train back to Warsaw, costing around £10. As a summary of Katowice, I’d merrily recommend it as a destination and the budget airlines service it well from many cities around Europe. A former manufacturing area, it’s modernising and has plenty now for tourists to do and plenty of craft beer options. Not that craft beer options are the be all and end all of choosing destinations, but it should obviously be a factor….

I’m always a little nervous when two trains are departing at the same time, but mine was the 10:53 to Gdynia. Not the 10:53 to Krakow.

The platforms haven’t been much modernised in terms of facilities, as I made reference to in another post. But, everything was clean and organised and there were sufficient benches available.

Then the excitement starts, the train is showing as being delayed in Austria, as it was coming from Vienna. Obviously, the Polish bit of the journey was all fine, but it turned in around twenty minutes late. It was also evidently going to be a busy train given the number of people waiting for the service.

I can confirm it’s a relief to me when a train turns up when the app I was using it said that it would. I always leave lots of spare time in any travelling schedule, as I like to worry about things and always assume they’ll happen (my friend Liam would knock out all those frivolous gaps if he was arranging my travel, but he isn’t so I needn’t concern myself about that). Although I did think that this delay would be eating into my drinking time.

The train came in back to front, so I was standing at the wrong end of the platform. I muttered silently and traipsed to the other end of the platform and after getting to my carriage I was asked by a young Polish women to help her with getting her luggage on the train. The damn bag must have weighed about 30kgs, but I had to pretend that it was easy for me to manage lugging up the steps onto the train. The older Polish intercity trains aren’t very good for those with disabilities (although I think there are alternatives) and not are they easy to lift bloody heavy luggage up to. It was quite busy, and my reserved table seat had three of us, so this photo is after they left at the stop before me in Warsaw. The train made up the lost time, the guard was helpful and the power worked, all rather lovely.

A photo of the railway civil engineering project that is taking place just outside of Warsaw, I have to keep my content exciting for my friend Liam.

The whole of Warsaw to choose from, but of course, I had to go back to Hoppiness. This is the delectable Gelato : Orange Creamsicle from Funky Fluid, an ice cream sour packed with oranges from Portugal. I suspect this must have counted for three of my five a day, with the burger being as delicious as ever and there’s a tomato and lettuce in it, so that’s the other two of my five a day. I was careful not to impale any part of myself on the stick coming out of the burger.

I might have taken a photo of this before (I forget….) but it’s a pedestrian crossing which comes from all angles. Cars are very good at stopping for pedestrians at this junction, and indeed across Poland, but it’s an odd arrangement. The white hatching in the centre is part of the pedestrian crossing and it cuts across to all three pavements.

I always like looking at the Pomnik Chwała Saperom, or Glory to Sappers Memorial. It’s visible at the far end of this park, Park Sapera, which is currently being renovated and improved. Everything in Warsaw seems to have been either recently improved or redeveloped, part of why I very much like this city. Things seem to work and are constantly getting better in the city, which isn’t the case in other places that I’ve visited.

A monument in the park which I haven’t noticed before (I mean I haven’t noticed the monument, not the entire park), although there are literally thousands of memorials, tablets and plaques to the bravery of Poles in the Second World War, so I imagine I’ll still be noticing new ones for many years to come. This one is dedicated to the “Kryska” Home Army Grouping, although that included men from other European countries, who died during the Warsaw Uprising.

The Glory to Sappers Memorial I’ve written about before.

But this is the first time I’ve noticed there’s a list of names to the side of the memorial. Another list of the brave men who died in World War Two, so much of a generation wiped out by the hatred of a few national leaders who caused the conflict. These lists will be in Ukrainian cities in a few years, marking the bravery of those who lost their lives fighting for their nation and the right to be free.

And back again to the Ibis Budget in Warsaw for my final night in the city, probably for some months. I’ve written about this hotel before, so won’t bore my limited readership with further irrelevant prose…

I love the view over the Vistula and there’s the national stadium visible on the other side of the river. Very peaceful.

July 2, 2022
Thursday : Pottering Around Warsaw

I can’t remember the exact number of visits, but this is something like the twentieth time I’ve come to Warsaw, one of my most favourite cities. I thought that I’d treat myself to a leisurely day in the city without needing to rush around.

The leisurely day started with the Mercure hotel breakfast arrangement, with a mound of chicken that I’d hidden underneath the rolls as my first plate.

The selection has definitely got better here over the years, although there are no gherkins which is unusual for a Polish Accor hotel, but the selection of cold meats is certainly sufficiently decadent. Often Ibis hotels have meats that I can’t identify by sight or taste, so I tend to stay clear of those, but it was much better here. There are other counters with pastries, hot food and other random things such as fruit.

I thought I’d splash out the £2 or so for an unlimited travel card for the day, which are much more affordable than the equivalent ticket in London.

The POLIN Jewish museum, which I’ve been to before, but as it was the free admission day, I decided to see what temporary exhibitions they had on. There were a lot of school parties touring the museum, but they were all suitably well behaved, something rather necessary given the nature of the museum. Oddly, the museum has decided to let visitors put their bags into the luggage storage area themselves and pick them up themselves, which seems a slight security risk to me. I spent most of my time in the museum worrying whether my laptop was safe, as unlike my friend Liam, I feel the need to worry about these things. I doubt Liam would have even thought about the risk, he’s far too care-free.

Kazimierz is the Jewish quarter of Krakow, relevant to me as it’s where I’m currently sitting writing this a couple of weeks on. I’ll catch up on posts soon enough…..

The decorative nature of Jewish art, this is a recreation of the Gwoździec Synagogue which is now in Ukraine and which was destroyed by the Nazis during the Second World War.

One of the elements that is interesting to me about the situation for the Jews in Poland during the 1930s is that many didn’t know what to do. Some just hoped the Germans wouldn’t invade Poland, so the fear of repression and hatred that Jews in Germany were suffering from might not have come to pass in anywhere near the same way. This photo is of the Cembal family from the town of Wyszków which is located to the north-east of Warsaw. Israel (third from right) was able to get to Argentina in 1935, but there were sufficient anti-semitic incidents that caused his wife and daughter fearful and so in 1937 they too managed to join Israel in South America.

The part of this which I find relevant is just how much the remainder of the post-war Jewish population must have looked back on their lives and wondered if they should have fled earlier and why they didn’t. Some, such as Otto Frank, had taken their family from Germany to Amsterdam, hoping they would find peace and freedom there. It was never inevitable that the Germans would march across Europe so quickly and decimate the Jewish population to the extent that they did, so it’s understandable that many families didn’t take the risk of uprooting themselves and fleeing. Hindsight is of course a wonderful thing and those who successfully left must have only looked on with horror with what they escaped. Although many Jewish families wouldn’t have sufficient money to be able to afford to flee, or the domestic arrangements to support such a move.

This photograph appears frequently in displays on the Holocaust and it was taken in the Krakow ghetto in 1942 (although the museum dates it to 1940). That grinning face of the Nazi officer is sinister and the ever present on-looker who did nothing to help.

This image is from Krasiński Square in Warsaw and was taken in 1940, with the Polish reading “Jews must not walk on this side of the street”.

The museum doesn’t have a huge number of exhibits, partly because not much survived the ghetto and also because it’s relatively new and so other institutions have had time to build up more substantial collections. This is an anti-typhus vaccine which was smuggled into the Warsaw Ghetto, likely from Lwów (now the Ukrainian city of Lviv) or Krakow.

The ghettos established by the Germans in Poland, this is another example of the sheer enormity of what happened in the country during the early 1940s.

This photo is one of 53 taken by Franz Konrad to show the demise of the Warsaw Ghetto and the destruction of the city’s Jewish population. It’s not clear exactly what humiliation is being meted out by the Nazi guards, but that adds somewhat to the depth of the image, it could have been one of so many things.

Another one from the album of 53 photos, but I’ve seen this one in many exhibitions before given the powerful nature of the imagery. That poor little boy, who I imagine likely lost his life soon after.

Jedwabne is a live political issue in Poland, it’s the site of a war crime where 340 men, women and children were killed in the village. It took place on 10 July 1941 and became a political issue again between 2000 and 2003 when the site was excavated for historical purposes, with the conclusion that local Poles as well as Germans were responsible for the crimes. The Polish President apologised for the crimes against humanity, but some believed this was not the responsibility of the Poles. I’m not sure that the Poles need to be so defensive, the country was not to blame for the Holocaust, but of course there were individuals who signed up the violent and hateful ideology of the Nazis, especially at a time without a free media. There is a widespread feeling though in the country that concentration camps should be referred to Nazi camps in Poland, rather than as Polish concentration camps.

Back to the image, the keys in the photo were excavated from the barn where the villagers were burnt to death, so they’re quite haunting.

The special temporary exhibition in the museum was on Jewish food, which was interesting, although I’m more engaged in the historical angle of the exhibits. And I was also still worrying about my laptop, which I’m pleased to write was sitting there quite happily still in the museum’s luggage storage facility.

The frontage of the museum, which has won numerous design awards.

Located opposite the POLIN museum is this sculpture of Jan Karski who fearlessly travelled Europe to ensure that messages about what was happening in Poland, including in the ghettos, got through to the Provisional Polish Government. He was awarded the Righteous Among the Nations award in June 1982, a formidably brave man and there’s plenty more about his story at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Karski.

One of my many new rituals is to pop to KFC on the first full day that I arrive back in Warsaw. It tastes better than the UK version and it’s much cheaper.

It was very hot, so I thought the underground would be cooler, which it was. Travel during the warmer months is a challenge for me, goodness knows why people go and seek heat out.

Back in Jabeerwocky.

The Bah Oui DNEIPA and the Triple Coffee & Salt, both from Funky Fluid, one of the most creative brewers in Poland. I like the flavour of salt in beer incidentally, it can add a rather pleasant after-taste to the arrangement. Anyway, this is a craft beer pub that is worth a little meander along to.

The Warsaw skyline and I was pleased to see that the sun had disappeared and it was suddenly less hot.

Then something odd happened, all the signage for the trams was put on hold and emergency vehicles were using the tram tracks.

A poor pedestrian had been struck by a tram and was receiving medical attention behind the red hoarding they’d put up. I decided against getting photos any closer as I don’t know what happened in this incident, but I was intrigued to see just how quickly Warsaw became grid-locked. I was also impressed at how quickly the TV crews got there, they were filming right by the accident and I’m never sure how they get to some incidents like this faster than the emergency services.

The air ambulance flew in. Anyway, there’s no need for any more photos of this tragic incident.

It’s not entirely clear in this photo, but I could count over 18 trams lined up. I got on the one near the front and finally after around twenty minutes they were able to clear the road, so we were moving once again.

And the welcome drink back at the hotel, a delicious Żywiec Porter.

June 26, 2022
Wednesday : London to Warsaw via Helsinki

Today’s adventure wasn’t an ideal situation, but British Airways needed to change my flight from London Heathrow to Warsaw and the only way that they could get me there was via Helsinki. These are challenging times for airlines at the moment, but I hope that these schedules start to settle down over the next few months, it’s not really a routing that I would have thought the most cost effective to arrange.

I was starting at the Ibis Styles at Heathrow, not my first time in the hotel, but my first time in the separate accommodation bloc. It’s really not apparent, but there’s a floor above what is visible here which is reset a little, which is where my room was.

Not that it’s particularly interesting, but that additional floor is visible behind Esso, with the main part of the hotel on the right.

A bus journey to Heathrow T3 central bus station and my complaint, yet again, that Heathrow have blocked off the pedestrian and cyclist entrance to the airport and so people are forced to use cars or go on public transport. In the past, the airport themselves paid for that public transport, but they don’t now. There’s an element of greed here and I find it a little sinister who is benefiting from these changes, but I had better not meander down that path for too long. So a little ride on the Travelator from the central bus station to get me to Heathrow T3.

And here it is again in all its glory, my favourite of the terminals at Heathrow. This is solely because of the lounges where I can get the most free food, T5 is a much better designed and interesting terminal architecturally (including the bits that my friend Liam built).

I can use the premium security line at Heathrow T3 because of my silver card (I have to mention every time that I got this through judicious use of Flyertalk tips, my spend on flights is very low and wouldn’t normally get me such decadence). A member of staff came over and said that the premium security line was longer than the standard line if anyone wanted to move over. I was by that point near the front and didn’t take the risk, but I was amused when someone just behind me said “you’re the one who just sent me over here”. I laughed just a little inside because the man seemed to want an argue but the staff member walked off. Security at T3 always seems quite quick and I got fortunate with my choice of queue, I think I was through within five minutes including the waiting time in the queue.

Lounge hopping at T3, I decided to start with Qantas to get a Salmon Eggs Benedict and delicious it was too. The service in the lounge was as impeccable as ever, efficient, informal and professional.

Part of the cold food selection, but I’ve written about this Qantas lounge before and won’t bore readers unnecessarily. It was though quiet, comfortable and as lovely as ever. I can’t decide which lounge I prefer, Qantas or Cathay Pacific, so I just visit them both.

I thought some exercise would be in order and so I walked to the Cathay Pacific Lounge to get food there, with this being the menu of the day.

Delicious, that Dim Sum selection is always quite beautiful. There was some spicy kick to that Thai coconut and vegetable soup, which complemented the Asahi beer nicely. I didn’t bother visiting the British Airways lounge, it’s just not as decadent and they don’t have any beer there. Well, they have Heineken, but I mean proper beer. The barman mentioned that I had the last bottle of beer he had left, so I hope he had access to some more stock from somewhere. Service here, just as in the Qantas lounge, is professional and although more formal, it always feels welcoming. It’s a comfortable space as well, there are plenty of different seating types as well as lots of power points to charge devices. I mention that frequently as it is quite important to me, just imagine having a phone without any charge. It’s too much to even contemplate, I shall move on and away from that horrible thought.

My flights to Warsaw were with Finn Air, although it was a little difficult to work out when to board as the neighbouring gate spilled over and they had the wrong passengers in each queue for a short whilst. I think the other flight was going to Africa, so it would have been quite some distance if someone landed in Helsinki by mistake. I had a little problem when boarding as the staff member said “since you’re going to Warsaw as your final destination, I need to see your Covid pass”. I’m not actually sure that was right, as Poland doesn’t need the pass any more, so I spent about three minutes (that feels a long time when you know you’re holding up the queue) trying to find my older one, which he said would be sufficient. He was very helpful and after a few seconds of panic that I had forgotten to do something I should have done, I was ready to board.

I don’t know why they were using such a large aircraft, the Airbus A350-900, as the flight wasn’t that busy and it isn’t the usual aircraft that I’ve been on when shunted onto this service before. I was very pleased with it though, as it’s also a long-haul aircraft and I haven’t been on such a large aircraft since 2019.

I rarely get to see these sort of images, as British Airways opted out of the camera installation which isn’t relatively that expensive, they just claimed their passengers wouldn’t want it. I do, I like watching the plane from above and below, it’s quite surreal as it’s not the sort of image I’m used to seeing.

I had the entire row of three seats to myself, so I could lounge out and enjoy my free blueberry juice.

There was in-flight entertainment, so I watched an episode of Bear Grylls doing something adventurous with Alex Honnold, who I watched on board a BA flight a few years ago climbing with ropes in the film Free Solo (I mean I watched him on the BA in-flight entertainment, he wasn’t on the aircraft climbing things, although that would have been exciting). The series is Running Wild with Bear Grylls, it’s the sort of thing that my friend Liam would be excited to be on, it’s full of adventure and danger. I’d rather be in the pub than jumping out of aircraft or eating rattlesnakes.

We landed and I was transfixed watching the servicing of the aircraft underneath me. I hope British Airways change their minds and install these in the future, they’re very informative about how aircraft are serviced after landing, it’s all precisely timed.

I wasn’t in business class as I’m not that decadent, that’s the sort of thing my friend Richard does as he spends a lot of money on things he doesn’t need, but it looked really rather comfortable.

And there’s the aircraft.

I very much enjoyed visiting the non-Schengen Finn Air airport lounge a few weeks ago, but the Schengen one was much smaller and it was at near capacity when I went to it. The staff were friendly, although it’s the first time I’ve gone into a lounge and the check-in process has been via a scanner checking my boarding pass rather than a human inspecting it. The food wasn’t very exciting, a tray of pasta and a tray of cooked vegetables. It’s not exactly Michelin cuisine, nor actually is it even Greggs cuisine.

They had some feta salad with cooked vegetables, but I’d rather have had something cold and crisp with it, it was all very bland. I greedily got two slices of cheesecake as they looked delicious, but they weren’t very nice either. I can’t complain as this was all free, but I just got my hopes up from how good my experience had been before.

I had a couple of hours in the lounge and it got much quieter during the second half of my visit.

Wine and biscuits. I don’t know anything about wine to comment on the quality of that, but they needed some custard creams I thought. Or Jaffa Cakes, that would have been very good.

My laptop and I moved to the window to watch the aircraft. There were lots of power points in the lounge which was handy, so that I could get everything charged ready for the second flight.

All much more sedate when most people had left.

The self-pour selection.

I left the Finn Air lounge a little disappointed it wasn’t as good as their other one in the same airport, but I enjoyed the friendly service, the clean environment and indeed the entire airport felt relaxed and comfortable.

The flight to Warsaw was on a smaller aircraft.

The aircraft was at near capacity, so no empty row for me this time. The curtain between business class and economy is right at the front on this flight, there were just two people in business class. One of the debates on FlyerTalk is whether customers in economy should be able to use the washrooms in business class. usually it’s preferred not to, but on this flight, I saw the crew turning back three customers and sending them to the back of the aircraft to wait. I thought that was petty and it caused them service problems as then customers were trapped behind trolleys in the aisles and the crew had to reverse back up to let them pass. I don’t know how many washrooms they had on this aircraft, probably two at the rear and one at the front. Having one washroom for two customers and the other two for eighty customers doesn’t really make sense, however much you want to offer a differentiated service for business customers.

The crew member made an announcement at the end saying “please let business class passengers off first” which caused amusement as there were only two of them, and she looked annoyed people had laughed. I just thought it was all a bit odd, although it didn’t impact me.

Finn Air offer free blueberry juice and water, with other items being chargeable. I was quite happy with my blueberry juice.

The flight landed on time and I was through Warsaw airport security quickly enough, even though I (and others from the UK, it’s not just me) now have to wait in a queue separate to everyone else as I was from the UK and not in Schengen. I love being back here, it’s the railway station underneath Warsaw airport, which means I’m back in what is now my favourite city.

Warsaw landmarks on the seats, the train spotlessly clean and it cost me 74p for my ticket to the hotel. Bargain.

I was staying at the Warsaw Airport Mercure hotel again, one of my favourites and I’ve stayed there ten or so times I think now. It’s the smallest room I’ve been given in this particular hotel, but they said I might enjoy the tea theme of the room, so I thought that sounded interesting.

I wasn’t going to run out of tea.

My welcome gift and I always appreciate the gesture, even if it is mostly fruit. Indeed, as fruit goes, it was rather nice.

Pictures, all part of the tea theming of the room.

I liked it, there’s something quite fun about hotels having these individually designed rooms, it seems to be something that a few Accor hotels in the city are doing. Having quirky little elements like this makes things just a little more interesting, especially when it’s a room that I haven’t had before.

That’s the end of today’s little instalment. It was good to be back in Warsaw, I very much like it here.

June 25, 2022
Tuesday : Ealing, Angus Deayton and Heathrow

I liked the Ealing Ibis Styles, my first time there and it was a quiet and peaceful hotel with some strong movie related theming. The reviews aren’t great for the hotel and some are complaining that the hotel is charging for luggage storage, which is odd as I’d have thought that should have been included. I was fortunate to get this hotel for a reasonable price, the cost of staying in London is becoming ridiculous at the moment, well above pre-2020 prices. I hope for selfish reasons that this trend doesn’t continue permanently otherwise I’ll hardly be coming to London at all. At the moment, a single night at a city centre Travelodge is the same price as seven nights in an Accor hotel in some parts of Poland.

It was a pleasant day (well, too hot really, but I nearly always think it’s too hot as soon as the sun comes out) and this is Christ the Saviour Church in Ealing. It’s not that hard to guess the designer of this beautiful building, it’s Sir Gilbert Scott. Built in 1852 when Ealing’s population was starting to rapidly increase, it was damaged during the Second World War, but sensitively reconstructed and there’s plenty of foliage today around the building.

Fortunately, the underground strike of the previous day had come to an end, so the District Line was open again at Ealing Broadway Underground station. Note the old style signage of the station in the background.

It’s visible on the right hand side of this photo as well TFL note that these are originals, with the design dating to the early twentieth century. As an aside, you can buy original signage from the Underground at https://www.ltmuseumshop.co.uk/vintage-shop/underground-signs. It’s the kind of thing that I’d like, but it’s far too expensive and it’s not clear to me why I’d want a sign from London Liverpool Street in my flat. Although I would, I’d even appoint my friend Liam as the civil engineer responsible for the installation work.

All credit to TFL for this signage to help those coming from Ukraine.

Not many commuters on the Tuesday morning District Line service into central London. They try and paint the poles the same colour as the train service, so yellow for the Circle Line. It doesn’t always work out though, the District Line is green, but sometimes the lines share trains.

A quick Wetherspoons breakfast alongside countless refillable coffees, although it’s not entirely clear to me what they had done with the sausages, but I’d probably be best not knowing. I’m very productive in these surroundings and the coffees were delicious.

It was too hot so I went to St. James’s Park for a little while, a 57 acre park which was once land owned by the Palace of Whitehall.

This canal was added in the seventeenth century, although it doesn’t really go anywhere and is now more of a lake, they just diverted the Tyburn I think to fill it.

I was here a couple of days after the Jubilee weekend, so a lot of the barriers were still present and endless flags, although they might be permanent. The Government seem to be trying to put the union flag in as many places in London as they can and Priti Patel seems to spend most of her time standing in front of one. Anyway, I mustn’t get distracted back into politics.

I was annoyed at the heat so sat in Green Park trying to avoid the sun. The park was landscaped in 1820, but is one of the plainest of the parks, just lots of grass, but that suited my needs on this boiling hot day. Bloody global warming.

I had free tickets to the recording of Alone, which is a BBC Radio 4 comedy. It’s been going for a few years, but I’d never heard of it and half the audience also put their hands up saying they hadn’t heard the show before. This was by far the quietest of the shows that I’ve been to, the audience were only in the first few rows, although I think they had enough people to make it all work.

Another one of my hopeless photos, but this was the break and the performers (or whatever the word is) were just leaving the stage. There’s Angus Deayton, Pearce Quigley, Abigail Cruttenden, Kate Isitt and Bennett Arron. I like watching the process of recording these shows and how much of it has to be re-recorded because someone has made a mistake, there’s been a sound issue or something else went wrong. I hope the others wouldn’t be offended (although it hardly matters, they’re not going to read this) but I’d only heard of Angus Deayton and Pearce Quigley, the latter from the Detectorists. Anyway, it was all very entertaining.

A pizza from the very reliable and affordable Pizza Union chain, although I was conscious at this point that I should really get a move on to get to my hotel in Heathrow. I always have a slight fear that my hotel room will be resold and that would be a faff to resolve.

I had an hour’s journey on the Piccadilly Line from Holborn to Hounslow Central, where I would get a bus to the hotel. To my great annoyance, Heathrow still haven’t reinstated the Free Travel Zone around the airport, so I thought I’d get a bus from Hounslow instead of faffing about at the airport.

The Ibis Styles Heathrow Airport room, where I stayed a few weeks ago, and the room has a modern feel and I tolerate the lack of desk as that small table is sufficient. That also isn’t an oil slick on the floor, it’s the design of the carpet, which is clever as it hides any stains that guests might leave by just looking like it’s stained anyway. No problems though with my stay, quiet and comfortable with everything as expected.

The free welcome drinks, with the excitement for me that I was going overseas the next day. I never tire of that excited feeling and I wonder if I ever will.

June 25, 2022
Monday : Barnsley to Ealing During an Underground Strike

The LDWA 100 had seemed to go quickly, although the entrants might not say that, and it was the end of the Jubilee Bank Holiday so it was back to usual for me, which meant travelling about the place. I was heading to London, conscious that there was an underground strike which would make crossing the city just that bit more exciting when I got there.

Penny Pie Park is about to reopen soon and this site has had an interesting history. It was a colliery in the mid-nineteenth century, then brickworks were built there and those buildings remained until the post-war period. Then they were demolished and the local authorities dumped a load of refuse into the holes to fill them up, then it became a green space. As the road network nearby has been reworked, they’ve taken this opportunity to develop the park and they’ve been busy moving the trees about the site. They now have 243 trees, which is an increase of four. That doesn’t sound very aspirational to me in terms of increasing the amount of foliage, but there we go. The park wasn’t open when I walked by, but as can be seen, it wasn’t far off and I’m surprised some of the local hoodlums haven’t pulled that fencing down.

After walking back into Barnsley (again) from the hotel, I popped into the library for a while to use their electricity. I had thought about going into the Toby Carvery next to the hotel for another unlimited breakfast, but I overdosed on bacon and salt last time, so decided against it. My train journey was from Barnsley station, which is part of the integrated bus and rail interchange.

Welcome to Barnsley with some vibrant artwork.

I had two trains as part of my journey, the first to Peterborough and everything was going to plan timewise.

Not particularly busy, the colours remind me of a Ryanair aircraft, but the guard didn’t try and sell me lottery tickets.

At Peterborough station, the EMR Intercity train to London arrived a few minutes early.

As can be seen here, I was able to find an empty seat.

Into St. Pancras railway station in London on time. I was annoyed that they’d shut the front of the railway station because of the underground strike, I don’t know why they felt the need to do that, they could have just closed the entrance to the underground network itself. I noticed someone joined the queue to board Eurostar thinking it was the taxi queue, but fortunately he checked before accidentally arriving in Paris or something.

There was though quite a long queue for taxis, the drivers do well out of these strikes.

The strike did reduce my options to get to Ealing somewhat, with absolutely no services from King’s Cross.

So, I remained calm and resourceful and I went to Mikkeller bar to think what I should do. This is the All Day Haze which Mikkeller brew here, a very acceptable Double IPA with a depth of flavour and a not inconsiderable 8.4% ABV.

I’ve never really noticed their brewing equipment at the back at the bar, so I went to sit by it. I’d add there were tables here, I didn’t just sit randomly in their way. Although I could have lingered for hours, I thought one drink was enough as I wasn’t sure how busy the public transport options would be.

And with my plan developed whilst in the pub, I decided that I would walk to Farringdon’s Crossrail station as that line was still operating.

And my first time in the Crossrail part of the station at Farringdon.

I think it was also my first time on the central section of Crossrail, or the Elizabeth Line, which now all joins up to form a complete line, but for the next few months it’s still necessary to change trains at Paddington and Liverpool Street. It’s not ideal, but they’re getting there.

Very nice, platform edge doors have been put in here, just like on the central section of the Jubilee Line.

The section of the journey to Paddington wasn’t particularly busy, but these services are frequent at around every ten minutes and they’re long trains so have plenty of space.

This is a bit of a faff with the current set-up, as it’s necessary to leave Paddington station, walk through the concourse, towards the back and then connect with where the other part of the Crossrail service is. The part of the journey from Paddington to Ealing was much busier, although I was just able to get a seat, but thought it was a bit packed to take a photo.

Although I’m not entirely sure that I needed a seat, it’s only one stop to Ealing from Paddington. This Crossrail thing certainly speeds things up somewhat. And it was fortunate for me on this journey that the Crossrail drivers hadn’t also gone on strike, as otherwise it would have taken me three bus trips to get to Ealing, which would have been quite a trek.

I was staying at Ibis Styles Ealing for the first time, a rather attractive building about a ten-minute walk from the railway station.

There’s a movie theme across the hotel, which is one of the better Ibis Styles designs that I’ve seen. All clean and comfortable, with nothing for me to feel the need to complain about here.

Spot the movie related design items in the photos. I can’t remember why I booked a twin, but it was probably 20p cheaper or something.

My welcome drink, which was the Goose Island IPA, which is something else which is always acceptable to me. It sounds like I’m getting easier to please, but there are some grumbles coming up with some other hotels, so I hope no-one thinks I’m tolerating anything less than what I perceive to be perfection (and what some others would consider to be petty comments).

This is a nice environmental idea, avoiding the need for a plastic keycard.

They’ve put some real effort into this design and the welcome at the front desk was also friendly. The hotel seemed to have decent sound proofing as it felt like it was empty, but I noticed the next morning that it clearly wasn’t given the number of guests at breakfast. With that, it was time to spend some time getting work done that I’d neglected a little over the weekend, pleased that I had managed to tackle a public transport system which was partly on strike. And thank goodness for the Elizabeth Line.

June 24, 2022
Saturday : Still In Wales (Paddle Boarding and Drive to Daventry via Wolverhampton Cosmo)

As if the morning’s bravery zip-lining wasn’t enough, we had decided to go paddle boarding as we hadn’t done that before. I’m not very good at balancing, unless it’s in pubs where I’m world class, but I was already astounded at my own bravery so far in the day.

The walk to the paddle boarding place, which also hires out kayaks and canoes.

Mounting the paddle board, or whatever it’s called. This is effectively white water rafting, but I only took photos of the flat bits. I left my phone and the like in the upmarket changing facilities (a container unit) of the paddle boarding place, so Liam took this photo. I was too nervous about dropping my new phone into the water on the rapids section of the canal.

After some interesting manoeuvres I managed to get Liam’s phone to take photos of myself, although I was concentrating very hard on not dropping his phone into the water. I did record numerous videos of Liam doing his paddle boarding thing, although if anyone wants to see these, they’ll have to contact him as they’re still on his phone and he doesn’t feel the need to have a blog droning on in excessive detail about what he’s been doing.

Liam at Resolven Lock, by the River Neath.

The lock on the Neath Canal.

I’m not sure that this equipment is much used now, navigation ceased in the 1930s, although sections of the route have been kept open.

I had an offer on the app so this McDonald’s was cheap and we only had a short time, otherwise we would have hunted down a decadent local restaurant. We had wanted to investigate some historical sites in the area, but our hotel was in Daventry, where the prices were very reasonable, and we had a meal booked in Wolverhampton.

We did have time to pop into Aberdare and this is the war memorial, unveiled in 1922. It also has the details of Lance Corporal Phillip Anthony Sweet, who died in the Falklands War forty years ago.

The magic of Aberdare.

This stone commemorates the life of James James (Iago ap Ieuan) who composed the Welsh National Anthem and is buried in a nearby cemetery.

St. Elvan’s Church, which was constructed in 1852.

Ticking off another JD Wetherspoon, who have a relatively large number of outlets in these former mining towns, this is Yr Ieuan Ap Iago. The pub’s history on their web-site mentions the stone I wrote about earlier:

“Virtually outside the JDW premises is a memorial stone commemorating James James or Iago ap Ieuan, who composed the national anthem of Wales. The five-feet-high memorial stone was mined at a quarry just north of Aberdare. The commemorative plaque set into the stone is of north Wales slate. James moved to the Cynon Valley (which includes Aberdare) in 1873 and spent his last years in Abedare itself. He was buried in Aberdare Cemetery in 1902.”

The building was used as a Post Office before JD Wetherspoon took it over.

It’s easy to sneer at Wetherspoons, but having visited over 400 of their outlets, I’ve seen a lot of very good practice alongside some hard working staff. And my usual caveat of that it’s important to visit great independent pubs, as often seen in the Good Beer Guide, although I’ll add that this pub is listed in it as well. Trying to be as a polite as I can, understanding these are challenging times for pubs, this venue was a bloody disgrace though by any standards and just a little bit of an affront to hospitality, by far the worst Wetherspoons that I’ve visited. Surfaces were sticky, there was litter ground into the floor, there was food debris in random places and every table had empty glasses and plates on. The pub is towards the lower end of JD Wetherspoons on Google Reviews (the lowest rated in Wales and one of the lowest that I could find in the UK) which doesn’t really surprise me. Hopefully the pub didn’t get caught out on one of the company’s CQSMA inspections, although I imagine it’s had its moments in the past.

The app suggested the wait time on food was eight minutes, but it was clearly longer than that, with our drinks having not arrived after 35 minutes. I went to recover them at the bar as they were clearly not going to be delivered any time soon, with Liam’s soft drink having a glass with ice that had nearly entirely melted and my pint was substantially short measured. The staff were helpful and friendly, topping up the pint, but they were so short staffed that the manager probably should have suspended service for a short while as they couldn’t cope, especially as they had customers coming and leaving straight away anyway. The staff were also trying to deal with a number of complaints from customers, so I wasn’t entirely sure they were making much progress with the backlog given the issues they were trying to deal with.

I wondered at first why the staff weren’t collecting glasses when they walked back to the bar, but the hatch to the kitchen was already at capacity so it’s not clear where they would have put them. On the bright side, my Moose River from Hop Union Brewery was well-kept and suitably refreshing. As an aside, it could be asked why we stayed in a venue that was clearly bloody dreadful. I have to admit that the pub did have the advantage of having power points so that I could charge my phone up (unlike McDonald’s where I had hoped they might have charging facilities), so I have to give them credit for that and that’s why we stayed.

Going back to the pub reviews, one customer noted:

“The staff here really do work hard. Most of these reviews are probably from some very entitled people”

They might do, and indeed they did seem to be doing their best when we were there, but I note this review from two weeks ago:

“Slave treatment of the poor staff. Skeleton crew run ragged. No wonder hospitality industry can’t hire staff. Dirty tables uncleared of plates. Blame lies firmly with the employer NOT the staff”

Which is more in line with our experience.

“Usual dire service and did not like the look of the food being served so went elsewhere after using the WiFi”

That sounds like me using their electricity….. Not a bad idea to be fair.

“Food was acceptable but it was dirty, tables full of dirty dishes, no interest in cleaning away and wiping down these tables. The whole place needs a good clean up, everything looks grubby and shabby. I realise the drinks are cheap but not everyone goes there to just drink. When I go out for a meal I want things to be at least clean, at best light and cheerful. I haven’t been there for about 2 years because of the state of the place, I won’t be going again.”

This is from a year ago and there are tens of these reviews, not really ideal.

Anyway, enough negativity, I can’t copy and paste reviews for ages about cleanliness of a pub in Wales that I’m unlikely to ever go to again. I’ll be positive by saying the staff did seem to be doing their best.

Music is clearly important to the community, this is a statue of the composer Griffith Rhys Jones.

What was once clearly a rather lovely building, the old court rooms.

I had hoped for a delicious salad bar for our evening meal, but Liam was adamant he wanted to go to Cosmo in Wolverhampton, so I agreed. It was a bit of a drive, but I’m sure I entertained Liam for several hours with my entertaining conversation. Oh, and a song about Kettering that I’ve modified slightly.

The delights of the food selection at Cosmo. Without going on for too long, this was the best in the chain that I’ve been to, with everything clean, efficient and well managed. I had booked a table the night before (as in that’s when I had made the booking, not when I had booked the meal for), which was essential, and they had our booking and got us in ten minutes early. The food was kept well stocked, the quality was high and the range of curries was particularly decent. It’s inevitably pile it high in its design, but I liked that they had a wide range of food and it met my expectations in terms of the taste, temperature and presentation. Indeed, looking at the photos, it’s making my hungry again.

There are the usual refillable soft drinks as well and I went through far too many fizzy Vimtos, but they’re not often available and I’m easily pleased at the best of times. The portion sizes that the restaurant let me get were a little excessive, but it’s fair to say that I left not feeling hungry, and Liam seemed equally satisfied with the volume of food as well. Despite it being busy, the restaurant had plenty of food counters and I was rather pleased that Liam had picked such an excellent choice of place to go to. I need more friends who will take me on road trips and to all you can eat restaurants 🙂

And, after about another hour of driving, into the Mercure in Daventry, who had pre-annoyed me by ignoring my emails asking what time I could check-in at (which is really me checking they won’t oversell the room) and whether the bar was still open. 90% of Accor hotels seem to respond within an hour, some within minutes, so I wasn’t overly impressed as unlike Liam I do get worried about rooms being oversold. We got our free welcome drinks (which they forgot about unlike I helpfully reminded them) that I’m not sure we needed after such a long and brave day of zip-lining, but the Camden Pale Ale tasted as it should. There was a wedding going on at the hotel, but it didn’t give us any noise issues and the hotel pricing was very reasonable, so no complaints there.

Anyway, that was the end of a long day, and I don’t need to mention the bravery we showed (particularly me) as I may have happened upon that subject a few times already. And sorry to Stuart that there wasn’t likely as much coverage of Wales as he would have ideally liked.

June 19, 2022
Sunday : Returning from Daventry via St. Neots

Leaving the Mercure in Daventry, which had provided us with a quiet and restful night after the bravery of the previous day. Wetherspoons makes another appearance here, we (technically Liam did most of this) drove to St. Neots to visit the Weeping Ash, which means that I’ve now visited every one of the chain’s outlets in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. Getting to these pubs is often quite challenging for me on public transport and Liam provides an excellent chauffeur for such adventures, I think I will use his car driving services again.

Safely arriving into St Neots, a war memorial at Tan Yard, a road named after a tanning yard where cattle hides were made into leather.

This piece of land was used as a baptist church, since demolished but some of the graves remain. They’ve made a nice little park area from the site, but it feels sad that the church has been lost, it would have been so important to many people in the nineteenth century.

The pub we had come to see, the Weeping Ash. Pinching the text from the company’s web-site about the pub’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.

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.

And that is pretty much that, a really fun weekend and I won’t mention my bravery on the zip-lining again as I mentioned it once yesterday. Road trips with exciting things like craft beer (or just beer), adventure and Greggs are one of my favourite things, a rare event as I’m nearly always on public transport which is of course also exciting, but a change is good for the soul.

Thanks to Liam for marvellous company and I’m already looking forward to the next one (although I’m not sure my one or two blog readers can cope with even more bravery comments, but there we go…..). Although I might make him get Untappd for the next trip.

June 19, 2022