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Tag: Hayes

  • Norwich to Heathrow (Skopje Trip)

    Norwich to Heathrow (Skopje Trip)

    I set off for Heathrow yesterday as there was a cheap offer advertised by Accor and, naturally, I hadn’t formed any other plan. This is what travel looked like before people insisted on having itineraries, aims and a vague sense of personal responsibility. Anyway, here’s the train to Stansted Airport which departed on time and without issue. There was no driver until one minute before departure and I was slightly hoping for a delay repay, but it wasn’t to be. I’d add at this stage that there isn’t any fascinating content in this post (not that there usually is), but I like a complete write-up for my own memory. And, imagine, a future historian might query why civilisation failed and they might discover the answer from this blog.

    Safely in Cambridge.

    There was a six minute connection time to get the Great Northern train to King’s Cross and it took me four minutes to cross Cambridge railway station so anyone with accessibility issues would have likely missed it.

    Setting off and the train remained relatively quiet, which made it easier for all the people with seats to keep them there. These trains, similar to Thameslink, don’t have power points but I do like the ironing board seats, although I seem to be about the only person who does.

    I always like arriving into King’s Cross, it’s a beautiful station.

    And safely into Hayes and Harlington railway station using the Elizabeth Line. There’s a decent fair from Norwich to here, it came in at £12 which felt rather reasonable.

    I thought I’d pop to the Botwell Inn, the JD Wetherspoon operated pub located near to the railway station. This real ale went back, it was vinegary on the taste, but the manager was quick at checking it and replacing it. Actually, the manager was very good in general, this always feels like a well-run pub and real ale based issues are inevitably going to occur.

    The replacement beer was the Wolf of the Woods from Twickenham Fine Ales with a biscuity, toffee and nutty taste to it. It also cost only £2.39 a pint which is the usual bargain price from the chain.

    I decided that it might be useful to actually plan my week at this stage, since it was already Sunday evening and I had no idea where I was going. I do know that I needed to be back in Bristol for Friday morning, so I needed a plan to get there cheaply. I decided on a route via Skopje, booked the flights, trains and National Express, ready now for the craft beer festival. I mentioned a few days ago that this is one of the countries that I haven’t visited, so it felt a wise choice.

    Given that I was lingering here, I paid £6.39 for the steak pudding with chips and that included the Guinness 0%. It’s not exactly going to surprise and delight those who like fine dining, but it’s hard to complain too much at that price.

    It was an hour walk to the hotel and this time I decided to have a look at the church in Harlington for the first time, but more of that in a separate post as I don’t want some ecclesiastical masonry interfering with this post.

    Back at the Heathrow Ibis hotel which I’ve stayed at numerous times before. The reason I stayed here is that with the Accor offer it came to £13 for the night, which I thought was reasonable.

    I also get my free welcome drink and here are some of the options.

    Not Magners, but the Eazy from Camden Town Brewery which is growing on me, it’s got flavours of orange, it’s hazy and it’s quite intriguing. That is a pint glass, it’s just that the chair the other side of the table is unusually large.

    A room. This blog really doesn’t fail to delight with riveting content…. But, I arrived here with a plan for the week and that felt like an achievement in itself.

  • Gothenburg Trip – Day 0 (We’re Off)

    Gothenburg Trip – Day 0 (We’re Off)

    And we’re off in Richard’s rickety old car, but I was very positive about it by talking about my friend Liam’s decadent car which does massages for the passenger seat…. I think Richard feels better when he hears about positive things.

    Safely at the car park at Stratford with none of Richard’s eggs being broken on the journey. Richard reassured me that all the cars sounding their horns at him was just typical London behaviour.

    There were some cancellations on the Elizabeth Line, but we had a wait of just a few minutes. Most of the delays were because Richard has bought a suitcase bigger than me that he’s trailing behind him, whereas I have my backpack to allow for efficient travel. I didn’t say anything though.

    Top travel tip, don’t use the Elizabeth Line to go to Heathrow Airport if you can avoid it, it’s around four times more than going to Hayes and Harlington on the Elizabeth Line.

    And safely into Hayes and Harlington where I had found a little restaurant for us to eat our evening meal in. But more of that in the next post….

  • Hayes – Botwell Inn

    There are two pubs in the Good Beer Guide in the area, so I decided to visit both today. This pub, the Botwell Inn, has been in the guide for the last ten years and is operated by JD Wetherspoon, so it certainly seems like a credit to them. The pub is large and was converted into one of the chain’s pubs in 2000 from its previous use as a furnishing store. The pub takes its name from the old village of Botwell which has now been rather subsumed by Hayes.

    An interesting little selection of real ales including the Chris Moose ale from Butcombe Beer, a brewery in Bristol who own a few pubs I’ve visited. There was also the standard JD Wetherspoon selection of Ruddles, Doom Bar and so on, with the prices being almost ridiculously cheap. I went for the Titanic Plum Porter using one of my CAMRA 50p vouchers, making it an almost unbeatable £1.65.

    One thing that initially bemused me was just how quiet the pub was, although I discovered a potential reason later on. The pub was though clean, organised and well presented throughout, it was one of the cleanest Wetherspoon outlets that I’ve visited (and since that’s nearly 400, that’s not a bad achievement).

    I ordered the traditional breakfast, just because I felt hungry and as usual it was reasonably priced. It was served promptly, was well presented and tasted of a good quality. Taking the price into account it was very acceptable.

    The service from what I suspect was the pub manager, or at least the team leader if he wasn’t, was excellent. He acknowledged waiting customers, made conversation and did make an effort to engage. The rest of the service was though all over the place and verged on rudeness, let alone basic customer service.

    The lack of check back wasn’t ideal, but isn’t particularly unusual, but the staff member who just ignored me when I thanked her for collecting the plate was unnecessarily rude. She did the same to other tables and I noticed customers didn’t react well to her. Customers were being served out of turn at the bar when I watched, but I’m not sure that the manager noticed this and it was clearly grating on some customers. Given that there were often more staff serving than customers, it did seem avoidable. And when I patiently waited for service and a staff member ignored me and walked by me to another customer she knew to serve them out of turn, I just gave up.

    Judging the visit in Wetherspoon terms, it’s just another chain pub and my custom isn’t particularly important to them. As a pub in the Good Beer Guide though, the service was rather disappointing given the range of beers and the competitive prices. The value offered by the pub was though excellent and it’s worth a visit to see just what real ales they have, as they change regularly.