Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • British Airways (Heathrow T5 to Boston)

    The British Airways 747-400 service from Heathrow T5 (B Gates) to Boston Logan Airport. It had 22 crew and is aircraft G-CIVE, which has been operating for the airline since 1994. The boarding was well managed, with a staff member guarding access to the desks and checking that customers boarded in the correct group.

    I did hear a few customers complaining that they weren’t allowed to board whenever they wanted, but if someone has Group 5 on their ticket and they’re calling Group 1 only, it shouldn’t come as a complete surprise to them. The person behind me was also extremely displeased at the queue of customers who needed priority boarding for whatever reason. I heard a “he doesn’t look ill” and “that one definitely isn’t ill, he must know the pilot” with lots of tuts.

    My seat was 40D, which is a bulkhead aisle seat, and there was also no-one next to me, so the whole arrangement was spacious and comfortable.

    The first drinks service, which was my only alcoholic drink of the flight (and indeed day) which was a gin and tonic. British Airways have done away with Tribute ale and instead have the slightly ridiculous products of Heineken and Tiger. Ridiculous given that BA is British and quite why it isn’t serving anything British is a mystery to me. The lady in the row behind asked for Tribute and rejected the other beer options, and quite right too.

    The other drink was a sparkling water, and a water which the crew member accidentally poured. Best to stay hydrated though.

    I think it’s fair to say that British Airways don’t serve the most beautifully presented food in World Traveller. One half of the cabin was advertising the choice as “chicken chasseur or pasta with a pesto sauce?”, the other was offering “chicken or pasta?”. I’m not sure that this really is chicken chasseur in any traditional sense, but it tasted much better than it looked. The chicken was tender, the sauce had a decent flavour and the vegetables retained just the slightest of bites.

    As for the rest, the posset actually contained lemon and was satisfactorily sharp, the cheddar cheese was excellent and the starter was tolerable. The roll was soft and the two portions of butter were, well, butter and not margarine. For the cabin, I thought that this was a perfectly good meal.

    The mid-flight ice cream.

    The second meal was basic, but this is an east coast flight, and this is better than it was for a while on British Airways when Cruz’s first cuts came in. The seeded roll had some tender chicken in as well as some tomatoes, which I wouldn’t have guessed were slow roasted. That might be over selling just a little. The chocolate bar was, well, chocolatey.

    The in-flight entertainment system, which now has the seat number handily showing on the front of the screen. Saves looking up I suppose.

    This was a highlight, a film that I had wanted to see last year. Free Solo is the incredible documentary of when the free climber Alex Honnold ascended El Capitan. He did this climb up what looks to me like a sheer rock face and it’s 3,000 feet high. He did this without any ropes, so if he made a single mistake during his 3 hour and 56 minute climb then he would have died. Brave isn’t the word for it….. On reflection, if he had made a mistake in the first few minutes, he wouldn’t have died as he wouldn’t have fallen very far. But the rest was very dangerous indeed.

    A mid-flight view.

    One important thing to note about this flight is that it cost £128 for a single trip (which includes the positioning flight from Newcastle), plus I received back around £5 back in Avios. Taking into account it cost BA £78 in air passenger duty, it cost £56 in Heathrow charges and about £26 in US airport arrival charges. They then had to cover the costs for my lounge access at Heathrow T5. It doesn’t take a Labour Shadow Home Secretary to work out that this is more than the ticket cost I paid……

    Taking into account the cost of the ticket, this flight was IMO excellent value for money. The flight arrived on time, the crew were helpful, the seat was comfortable and everything on board worked as it should. All very lovely.

  • British Airways (Newcastle to Heathrow T5)

    It’s the first time that I’ve flown from Newcastle and also, I think, the first time that I’ve taken a flight starting and ending in England. It was aircraft G-EUXL, a British Airways Airbus A321.

    The boarding process was one of the smoothest I’ve had with British Airways and the lines were clearly divided between boarding groups 1-3 and boarding groups 4-5. It was also one of those times where I managed to walk through the boarding pass scan just as boarding started, so I didn’t have to wait at all.

    I assume he was de-icing the plane……

    Reading material.

    Seat 24F, an exit row seat which has the advantage of not having a seat in front of it. So, lots of space, especially as there was no-one sitting next to me. The flight was around 75% full with, I think, four rows in Club Europe up at the front of the aircraft.

    The crew did their M&S buy on board trolley run and managed to sell very little. The flight only lasts for 45 minutes, but the service seemed efficient and well managed. The crew member was excellent, she was merrily making conversation and was personable, it’s these little things that British Airways can do really well. She said that she was then about to fly to Geneva and back, which now makes me realise that I should go back to Geneva at some point….

    Anyway, the flight arrived on time and at Heathrow T5 A Gates, making it easy to transfer to my next flight.

  • Newcastle – Metro System

    I’ve never used the Newcastle metro before and my first plan to get a train from the station next to the central railway station were foiled after I discovered it was shut for maintenance. Fortunately there was a sign saying where the nearest open station was, which was only 0.4 miles away, so it could have been worse.

    The metro, which is properly known as the Tyne and Wear Metro, was first opened in August 1980 and they’ve added on chunks since, with 60 stations now on the network. There are two lines and the one I was going to use was closed, but they had merged the services together a bit during the maintenance which meant that I could still get to the airport easily enough. The journey from the city centre to Newcastle airport took around 25 minutes, not including the 20 minute walk to get to the damn thing.

    It was more like the London Underground than I had anticipated, including a train to a similarly named station. There were staff members at the entrance to the station who were helpful and engaging.

    I was pleased to discover that it’s like the DLR in London, so it’s possible to sit at the front (or rear) and pretend to be driving. I’m too mature to be impressed by that of course, but I’m sure Dylan and Leon would like it….

    It wasn’t the busiest train. By not the busiest, I mean that I was the only passenger in the carriage. It was all very efficient and the price of the trip was included in my rail ticket, so there was some integrated ticketing going on. It looks a well-run service, if only Norwich could have something similar.

  • Newcastle – Britannia Hotel

    Since I arrived into Newcastle late at night and was leaving early in the morning, my initial intention was just to faff about at the 24-hour Greggs at the airport for a few hours. However, the airport hotel operated by Britannia was selling rooms for £22.50, value which was hard to turn down. So I didn’t.

    Britannia have a reputation for, well, not being very good. Which Magazine continually rate them as the worst hotel group and some of their hotels, such as the Liverpool Adelphi, have some of the worst ratings in their locality. But, for £22.50, it wasn’t clear how much they could get wrong.

    The room came with toiletries and tea/coffee making facilities, and was actually perfectly well presented. It didn’t have a feeling of having been deep cleaned, but it was adequate when taking into account how much they’re charging.

    The bathroom was again moderately clean, it was clear that no-one had burdened themselves by spending too long cleaning the room, but it’s hard to be too critical with the price point where it is. And the service at the check-in desk was well above average, warm, friendly and efficient. They had my booking ready even though I had only placed it around an hour before, so there were no delays.

    The internal soundproofing was though dreadful, and especially for an airport hotel, it isn’t ideal as they’re going to have guests arriving and departing at all manner of times. I only had a couple of hours sleep by want of when I was arriving and leaving the hotel, but fortunately I wasn’t woken by anyone else, but I could hear doors closing (and shaking the walls slightly) further down the corridor and from the floor above.

    For £22.50 I thought this was much better than I had expected, although I’d be cautious of booking a longer stay here. I’m not sure I’ll ever be a fan of Britannia Hotels, but if they keep putting rooms out at this price, I might yet be tempted again.

  • Newcastle – Newcastle Airport

    It’s 3.30am and I’m safely at Newcastle Airport. I should perhaps reconsider what time flights I get in future, although the terminal is already surprisingly busy.

  • Newcastle – Newcastle Airport (Greggs)

    Well, how marvellous, a 24-hour Greggs at Newcastle airport. Despite it being 3.30am the staff were friendly, welcoming and engaging, an impressive effort. And I was moderately surprised that the prices of the fine Greggs food isn’t much more expensive than the standard pricing at high street shops.

    A large latte and a packet of Cheese Puffs, just what any traveller needs before their long journey. And, both were free with the Greggs rewards app, so it’s a win win for the hungry traveller.

    I note the TripAdvisor review of this fine outlet which said:

    “Staff are more interested in conducting their social life and exchanging banter with each other than serving customers. I am surprised that Greggs continues to be so successful because all the stores have similar issues in my experience.”

    I suspect that Greggs are so successful simply because their staff are friendly and exchanging banter, and I’ve never been to one where they haven’t been serving customers…. Anyway, all very lovely, and every airport in the country should perhaps (well, not perhaps) have a Greggs in it.

  • Manchester – Manchester Victoria Station (Tiled Map)

    Whilst meandering around the railway station of Manchester Victoria waiting for my train to Newcastle, I saw this rather impressive tiled map of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. It’d be quite hard to miss it, it’s a not inconsiderable map on the wall.

    I can’t help thinking that it shows a rail network rather in isolation, as if the passengers didn’t intend to go very far north or south with any other rail operating company. Manchester Victoria was the most substantial railway station in the L&Y network, although it’s much smaller now. The network lasted until January 1922 when the area was regrouped into the larger London and North Western Railway (which lasted for all of one year before becoming London, Midland and Scottish Railway). Of all the routes on the map, it looks like the significant majority are still in operation.

  • Ingleton – Three Horseshoes

    I’ve been in this pub before during one of the coast to coast walks I’ve done, so a return visit seemed worthwhile given we were walking by. The pub was very quiet when we walked in, but it seemed warm and comfortable.

    There were no dark beers available either on draft or in bottles, slightly disappointing given that the pub has four ales on. I went for the rather generic Thwaites best bitter, which was bland, but to the pub’s credit, it tasted well kept and was at the appropriate temperature.

    There was nothing particularly wrong with the pub, it was clean and comfortable, with the beers all tasting fine. However, looking at the reviews of the pub, there’s something upsetting a not inconsiderable number of people, although I didn’t encounter the problems raised by others. I do like that the pub has taken a forthright stance in how it replies to reviews though on TripAdvisor.

    “We have opinions of people as well from our side of the bar but these opinions are usually kept to ourselves.In some cases it is just as well.”

    Some responses I found humorous at least…. And one customer wrote:

    “We met up with family and called onto this pub for a drink. The pub was clean and tidy but the bar man was the most miserable, and unfriendly man we’d ever seen. He barely spoke, didn’t smile once and didn’t want to chat. A really poor advocate for customer service!”

    The pub’s response was “we like him” which is an impressively good response in my opinion, no need to bother to defend against such a nasty review.

    “We all enjoy what we do but some times we all get a little bit fraught.It is a family run pub and we do our best for our customers with pleasure. Sometimes though we get it wrong.”

    I quite like the honesty of this response. We didn’t order food this time so I don’t know about the quality, but I’d return here again for drinks. And although I will confess that the service wasn’t particularly engaging, there was certainly none of the rudeness mentioned by others in their reviews.

  • Ingleton – Old Post Office

    The Post Office which operated from here only closed four years ago and it was turned into a bar soon afterwards. There are now new owners of the bar, who took over just a few weeks ago, and the venues positions itself as a primarily craft beer and spirits bar. I came here on two nights and it was busy on both occasions, so they’re doing something right.

    The beer selection with some interesting options available. I tried the rhubarb & custard, toffee temptation and the black cherry from the second shelf down as they sounded tempting. They all had the appropriate taste although the beers were just a little watery and the aftertaste was rather more limited. The lockers on the right of the above photo are also used for storing bottles before moving them into the fridge, a clever use of the limited space that is available.

    The Imperial Flump King at 10% from Hawkshead which had the inevitable depth of taste I’d expect from an imperial stout. There was a slightly sweet taste although I thought it was more vanilla in flavour than marshmallow, but nonetheless, this felt like a quality product. I wonder what this would taste like if available in cask, something rather glorious I should imagine. I was pleased incidentally that there was such a wide selection of dark beers to choose from, not least since I didn’t manage to get that anywhere else in Ingleton.

    Quirky interior and there are numerous decorative items on the wall to add some character. The only element missing for me is that there is nothing about the history of the building, and I’m sure there must be some stories to tell given how long the Post Office was located here.

    The owners were engaging, friendly and welcoming, offering one of the best welcomes I’ve had this year in a pub. They are clearly proud of their new bar and that’s evident in the comfortable nature of the surroundings and the informal nature of the atmosphere. The beer selection on draft is limited, although that’s inevitable given how small this pub is, but there’s some thought been taken with the bottled beers. There are a selection of upmarket snacks and also some slightly quirky spirits to offer extra choice.

    The prices in the bar are reasonable for both bar snacks and drinks, with credit and debit cards being accepted. I have to say (well, write) that this was my favourite pub of the weekend, with the welcome being authentic and I’m confident that it’ll remain a popular location to visit. All very lovely.

  • Ingleton – Masons Freehouse

    With an eventual group size of 11, finding a place to eat in Ingleton isn’t necessarily easy on a Friday night. However, I booked ten months in advance to ensure availability, which was rather organised of me. And to be fair to Masons, they were equally professional and organised, confirming the booking promptly and reconfirming this week. They didn’t need a deposit or pre-ordering, so it all felt well managed.

    And the table was successfully reserved. I liked that the pub was proud of its history by putting some photos up of how it appeared in the nineteenth century and it takes its name from when it was run by a family of masons.

    On the first night I opted for fish and chips, which was well presented. The fish tasted of a good quality, the batter had a reasonable depth of taste and the mushy peas had the appropriately consistency. I wasn’t really sold on the chips, slightly greasy and over-cooked for my liking, but overall this didn’t represent poor value for money.

    We returned for food on the second night, and I went for the steak pie. Stupidly of me I forgot that the chips weren’t overly exciting, but the pie seemed home-made and there was a generous amount of steak inside and this was of a decent quality meat. The gravy was also authentic and home-made with lots of flavour. For the money, this again proved to be perfectly acceptable value for money.

    This pub is mentioned in the Good Beer Guide and is the only location in Ingleton which is. This perhaps increased my expectations too much as the dark beer selection was non existent and the nearest was Doom Bar which has nearly no appeal to me given its lack of flavour (or at least what I perceive to lack flavour as the beer isn’t exactly unpopular). Since the pub doesn’t do bottled dark beer either I just went for soft drinks, a mild disappointment given the selection I’d just experienced in the Old Post Office. Personally, with five real ales on I’d have liked at least one of them to be dark, but it’d be ideal if they could perhaps offer cans or bottles at least as an alternative.

    Anyway, nonetheless, it’s apparent that they’ve tidied up the pub in recent years and it is a professionally run location. We didn’t experience any issues, but I’m fairly sure that they’d have been resolved in a helpful and willing manner if we had. The temperature in the pub was also off the scale hot for my liking, although since the pub was busy it’d be harsh to complain about that.

    So, for those with groups wanting food, this is a location I’d recommend and if I was taking a large party to Ingleton again then I’d certainly book again. The prices were reasonable, the food was brought out promptly and the staff were personable and helpful.