'young-old' travellers - 'Green' Travel Tips from David Bruce

Off to Salcombe with Westbury Park Strollers

2013-09-24T10:13:00.000-07:00

We are off to Salcombe this coming Saturday (28th) - this trip is now fully booked
but take a look to see where you get to in a day out from Bristol by train and bus.

91 greenish trips for the first five years of retirement

2013-09-21T03:57:00.000-07:00

The Page lists days out , short breaks and longer trips from Bristol which have all been taken since the date of my retirement in October 2008.
A number of them are detailed in posts on this blog or the green charity challenge blog. More will be. Please contact me about any individual trip. A recent contibutor to Clare Balding's BBC Ramblings reckoned it takes five years to get used to retirement - trips and travel are part of that process.

The 91 identified trips were taken in generally "green"- low carbon - ways: cycle, bus, train, occasionally ship (but sea and cruise
travel is under represented). MORE DETAIL AND LINKS WI|LL BE ADDED.

Visit Italy without leaving Bristol!

2013-08-27T05:09:00.000-07:00

The new programme for the Bristol Anglo-Italian Circle is now (provisionally) available. There is a range of talks on the second Tuesday of each month and the occasional visit to an Italian-related place in the area around Bristol.

Recent Publications by David Bruce are listed

2013-08-13T13:31:00.000-07:00

Three recently published Baedeker related book chapters and publications mainly on walled towns are listed on the David M Bruce Publications page

Charity challenge by green travel.

2013-07-14T13:06:00.000-07:00

an earlier Grumpy trip

The 'Grumpies' David, Michael, Roger, Ken and Nigel
set off from the Far East (...of England that is) to cycle the 400 or so kilometres back from Lowestoft in Suffolk to Bristol over five days via London. In keeping with the principles of green travel, we leave for Lowestoft by train from Bristol at 6am tomorrow morning and with judicious ticketing we should get there before midday with our cycles for just over £20 each. We pay that our B&B's and all incidental expenses on the way back. See more at http://www.green-charity-challenge.org/. Any money you donate via http://www.justgiving.com/Michael-Duffy8 all goes to Teenage Cancer Trust

Dusk from the Briancon Sleeper

2013-07-12T14:33:00.000-07:00

Night train at Chorge

Lac Serre-Poncon from the night train

Every night the train leaves Briancon high in the French Alps and arrives in Paris in the morning. Every night the reverse train takes you to the Alps. This Wednesday 17th July 2013, Embrun and Chorges will feature as start and end of a time trial along Lac Serre-Poncon for the Tour de France. Lake is great for swimming too. Details and booking from SNCF or RailEurope.

Dawn from the Scotrail Sleeper

2013-06-07T06:13:00.000-07:00

DMB photo 2008

Leave grimy Euston at 9pm arrive at the edge of the Highlands next morning!Scotrail Caledonian Sleeper Bargain Berths start at only £19 each!. Bookable three month ahead.
Visit the walled town of Stirling on your way home.

24 hours in Paris.

2013-02-18T06:49:00.002-08:00

12th Feb - Wedding Anniversary but it might have been an early (or late) Valentine – In Paris for 24 hours.

Paris by Eurostar from Bristol with an hotel and restaurant in St Germain is not the cheapest 'greenish' trip described in this blog.

We set off with our bus passes at ten to nine in the morning.

The bus obligingly waited a minute or two (it was running ahead of schedule) to let us get on free on the stroke of nine. It took us down to the Bristol City Centre, from where we could walk across Queen's Square along the line of only completely pedestrianised (until the 1980s) dual carriageway that I know, by way of the baste bridge over the floating harbour, past St Mary's Redcliffe (Queen Elizabeth's “finest Parish church in all England”) to Brunel's grand Temple Meads Station.

Reasonably cheap advance tickets (with a senior Railcard) took us to Paddington on the 10 o'clock train. The travelling chef (selected trains on First Great western) tempted us to a breakfast of for instance salmon and scrambled eggs. The fare, booked a mouth in advance was at £17-50 each - the cheapest sub-£10 tickets seem very few and far between now. It included the Underground to St Pancras (“sonponcrra” as the French so happily say it - somehow they were never so comfortable with “ooaaterrloo”). St Pancras, where France infiltrates London

with a Champagne bar and 'Paul' patisserie is where we joined the Eurostar after an airport styled luggage and body scan (but much quicker and more relaxed - after all the size of a bomb needed to derail a train is vastly larger than the small devises capable of wreaking devastation on a plane). Swift French (and Schengen) passport control left us in the calm brick vaulted beer barrel cellar of Victorian St Pancras - a pleasant place to write a postcard and buy Paris metro tickets, with which they give you a free map of Paris for the asking.

The Eurostar train itself, showing its age now with its grimy exterior and rather cramped second class seats, is still the fastest land based object in all Britain.

It whisked us through tunnels, a dismal hit of Essex, snowy attractive Kent and into the Channel Tunnel itself, as we washed down a lumpfish caviar and quiche picnic with a half bottle of Moet Chandon (well it was a wedding anniversary!). Rail Europ's £59 January special offer return felt even better value as we sped through snow covered Northern France to reach the Gare du Nord just before five in the evening. We had given ourselves in Bristol and London ample transfer times. Even so it was a massive improvement on the old rail-sea-rail times which until 1992 had hardly improved since Baedeker's Paris guide of 1904 suggested about 12 hours to Paris via Calais or Boulogne and that was just from London with a calm sea - not guaranteed in February!

Paris outside the Gare du Nord at five on a weekday evening is hectic but walking in towards the centre soon took us to the classic Parisian covered market of St Quentin, unchanged in form, though I guess a lot more salubrious than in 1904.

A cornucopia of fish, flowers, fruits, vegetables even apparently unseasonable chanterelle wild mushrooms (from Portugal) told us we were indeed in Paris.

In the dull, wintry and fading light, Paris lured us down the Rue du Faubourg de St Denis past the grand arch of Ludovico Magna (Louis XIV) and into the Rue St Denis - still medieval, still with a few fur-stolled ‘ladies’ on the comers of the street, seeking the dangerous second glance. Through the much changed Les Halles - no more the great canopied bustle of the central markets which still drew visitors for onion soup in the early 1970s, described in the 1904 Baedeker (p188) as .”a vast structure chiefly of iron, and covered with zinc...erected by the architect Baltard in 1851.” Onion soup is still available but not at the price that market traders used to demand.

In forty minutes walk from the Gare du Nord, we reach the Seine and the Ile de la Cite with the delicate spike of the Sainte Chapelle peeping out from within the fortress of the Conciergerie. To this day it is the Paris Police headquarters and the Palais de Justice; in the twilight the fine elaborate ceilings and musty leather backed rows of books suggest ever prosperous lawyers occupying the ‘grand etage’ (first floor) of the ancient buildings.

One more bridge part of Henri IV’s Pont Neuf took us to the left bank and the twisted narrow streets of St Germain, crammed with amazing designer shop windows. Only the prices make the artwork – terracotta Far Eastern camels, deeply woven Persian rugs, glowing illustrated art books – less than immediately tempting. One good, quirky, playing card

and African travel decorated hotel has double en- suite rooms for less than €100(though even nicer ones tempting presented for €120). The Hotel Nesle (pronounced N e l) attracts more Belgians and Americans than Brits – perhaps because it can only be booked by phone within a month of arrival. With painted rooms and a large secluded garden and utter silence, it is a delight.

The delight was re-doubled at the small modernist restaurant, 'cut above a bistro' (as the Rough Guide 2010 puts it). With its 'Easyjet' orange bold facade it is at its most attractive for lunch in daylight but the food was no less excellent by candle light. 'Le Christine’ just round the corner from the Hotel Nesle makes a fine combination.

Next day, all Paris was at hand before we caught the 6pm train back to London and home to Bristol by 11pm. We had time to window shop and more to find an unusual exhibition at the Pinacotheque near the Madeleine, to have a late, leisurely but not expensive lunch in the little streets near the Pont Mich

and enjoy a few minutes in inimitable Shakespeare and Co. Bookshop – we might have chosen a thousand other things to do in our 24 hours in Paris.

Green ways to reach Berwick-upon-Tweed Walled Town

2013-01-08T09:25:00.000-08:00

Starting from Bristol (but it could quite easily have been London - see note at end) a trip by public transport to the strongest fortified town in the British Isles - Berwick-upon Tweed - makes a fine short break. With the Border Country and/or Northumberland it can be the centre for a wonderful longer holiday or stop off on the way to Scotland. Lowry loved Berwick for holidays and painted many views of the town. Berwick-upon Tweed is a member of European Walled Towns for friendship and professional co-operation and was previously a member of Walled Towns Friendship Circle (see DMB Walled Towns Research Pages).
Berwick is on three Sustrans Cycle Routes 1, 68 and 76 and is the centre of a network of bus services.
Photos and a note on rail travel follow.
South of Berwick the Northumberland Coast with mysterious Holy Island and much filmed Bamborough Castle are within easy bus cycle or even walking access. West and North of Berwick Scotland is at hand.

The Walled Towns of Stirling up in Scotland and York on the way back to London make attractive extra destinations.
Rail travel Note
Cross Country Trains can be reasonably cheap if booked well in advance and take just under 6 hours; good often cheaper options via London (or if starting in London) are with East Coast Railways (in just over 3 1/2 hours from London and about 6 from Bristol). Using the 13h00 from Kings Cross mid week seems the cheapest) . Another way may be to take a First Scotrail Bargain Berth Sleeper from London Euston to Edinburgh (one way from just £19 !!) and then get a ticket back to Berwick-upon Tweed in under an hour. Via London King's Cross/St Pancras, it is easy (as seat 61 always says) to change onto Eurostar for travel to and from the continental walled towns.

Further Photos of Berwick and its fortifications:-

Grey day - green ride to Chepstow

2013-01-07T10:27:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year but what to do on a grey day in January?
Well from Bristol you can take an X14 bus (FREE on an English Diamond Concessionary pass) over the sea to Wales Monday to Saturday every daytime hour. See Traveline South West for the strange route and stop variations of the two operators - Stagecoach in South Wales and First Bristol - each takes about one hour.

Even on a grey day the route over the 'old' 1960s Severn and Wye Bridges is spectacular and the dramatic setting of Chepstow with its medieval gate, walls and Castle makes it a real day out.

Chepstow has a variety of shops (and charity shops), charm-filled little streets and good local museum. The great Norman and later medieval Castle, set on a cliff above the Wye is one of the most special in Britain. From Chepstow there are a variety of walks out along the river Wye and into the Forest of Dean (back in England).
You can also cycle all the way (about 13 miles/20 Kms)and Chepstow is a centre of Sustrans routes.

The T.I.C.and Museum on an earlier, sunnier day

It is not clear why the usually helpful tourist information office by the Castle was closed when we went on a Wednesday after New Year.
Chepstow was an early member of the Walled Towns Friendship Circle (1990-2011). Walled Towns Friendship Circle is now European Walled Towns for friendship and professional co-operation. Further information is available on the walled towns research pages

Why and whither to Hither Green?

2012-08-04T09:21:00.001-07:00

An answer after travelling towards Hither Green (well actually to Waterloo and Central London) on Wednesday 8th August 2012.
In brief: IT IS ACTUALLY CHEAPER TO BUY RAIL TICKETS TO OBSCURE STATIONS IN LONDON SUBURBS ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF LONDON FROM WHENCE YOU COME, THAN TO BUY TICKETS TO 'YOUR' LONDON TERMINAL.
So a return ticket to Hither Green at the height of the Olympics, admittedly via the slow Salisbury route cost a Senior rail card holder £20.40; a similar return to Waterloo was about £25 and to Paddington about £30 - all advance tickets available two or three days before travel and arriving in London after 11.00 and getting back to Bristol after 22.00.
Experiment on the First Great Western website.

Recent trips from Bristol to be reported

2012-07-31T09:17:00.004-07:00

Photo selection from recent days out - details to be reported in due course

One night trip to Pembrokeshire coast

Staying in Bristol - the Henleaze Lake

A trip to Greenwich

Camping in the Forest of Dean

Staying in Bristol - street parties

Staying in Bristol - Withywood

Staying in Bristol - Civic Society historic walks

Fishguard Lower Town or is it Llaraggub?

South Devon but where?

Exmouth la Ronde (NT)

Westbury Park Strollers 7th October 2012 day out

2012-07-02T07:31:00.002-07:00

Further details in due course for Westbury Park Strollers

Day Out from Bristol to Stourhead NT Sat. 19th May 2012

2012-05-18T11:16:00.000-07:00

STOURHEAD with BRISTOL'S HIGH CROSS 19th May

Stourhead -- National Trust
arranged by dnembruce@btinternet.com

18^thCentury Italian Park and Gardens

and BRISTOL’S HIGH CROSS then
Palladian Mansion
A day out with the Bristol Civic Society

on Saturday 19^th May.

An Opportunity to go round
Italian Gardens at Stourhead Mansion
at the peak of the spring
and the rhododendrons

BUT ALSO a chance to see at close hand BRISTOL’s High Cross,
which for centuries stood at the heart of
the Old Walled City of Bristol
BCS Members and potential members made welcome.
NEW PRICE £19 only (NT Members);
Book with David Bruce 07788198673
or dnembruce@btinternet.com

1) MEET at Bristol Temple Meads station at 0900 Saturday 19th.
( we will travel by train+ taxi)

2) National Trust will provide a guide to the Gardens,
who has a special interest in the Bristol High Cross.

3) Prefer to travel in your own car? Contact me in advance
- the fee to cover the guided tour and coffee will be £12 (NT members)
payable in advance:

4) Arrive by cycle (route available) price £6-00!)

Coffee/tea on arrival - Guided tour of gardens –
time to visit House (piano available to play - special offer for a pianist!)

Depart 4pm ( a bit earlier if we are travelling by train via Bruton)
for Bristol (back about 6.30 pm; )
(£7-20 extra for non NT members)
Note all Bristol Civic Society Members can down load
ONE single day membership of NT gratis
from Civic Voice Website www.civicvoice.org.uk

David

Greenish way to Tenby Walled Town

2012-05-04T07:22:00.000-07:00

Starting from Bristol (but it could quite easily have been London - see note at end) a trip by public transport to the walled town of Tenby makes a fine short break and with Pembrokeshire a wonderful longer holiday or stop off on the way to Ireland. Tenby is the founder member of Walled Towns Friendship Circle (now European WalledTowns) and home of Peter Osborne MBE Life President. DMB Research pages are at http://www.walledtownsresearch.org

Once within Wales train fares in advance can be very inexpensive to West Wales. The art is to find a cheap ticket to Cardiff and then onwards (sometimes even on the same train: see note at foot of post).

Around Tenby the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park offers a coastal path for example by taking the train 10 mins further to Manorbier and walking back to Tenby in about 3 hours (weather not guaranteed!) with magnificent scenery and then views of Tenby walled town on its distinctive promontory.
The Walled Town of Pembroke is a few stations further and the ports of Pembroke Dock and more remote Fishguard have twice daily ferries to Ireland (see a future write up of a trip to Waterford and Youghal walled towns).
Rail travel Note
For example there is a early train from Bristol Temple Meads at 07.14 on which (the day before) you can get a ticket for £2.95 with Senior Railcard. From Cardiff changing at Carmarthen you can reach Tenby for £5.30, again booked the day before. For some reason returning is often a bit more expensive. Minimum found (17.38) was £5.90 back to Cardiff and £2.65 onto Bristol Parkway on same train from Swansea. Total return Bristol Parkway to Tenby then is £16.80) ALL PRICES ARE BOOKABLE AT LEAST A DAY IN ADVANCE, ON SPECIFIC TRAINS AND FOR SENIOR RAILCARD HOLDERS and seem to vary day by day! from First Great Western and Arriva Trains Wales websites). For London add about £15 to reach Bristol Parkway after 11 a.m and the same back again. On Summer Saturdays a direct train London Paddington to Tenby has some good fares.

Bristol to Dorset for a couple of days with BdyB

2012-03-28T06:58:00.000-07:00

For a Young-Old traveller or two, Dorset is an interesting place to go from Bristol. It is not really very accessible so better for a couple of days than a single day out. In the current (extraordinary) warm March weather, it can be a delight and, even in normal weather, a pleasure.
For instance:
Day one
Take the 0841 First Great Western (FGW) Weymouth train,
which accepts off-peak senior returns to Dorchester for £16-75 each. It passes - not very fast - through some of the finest railway country in Europe, particularly in the spring when most trees and hedges are still bare and views clear.
The first forty minutes out of Bristol follows the the valley of the Avon: tunnel and dramatic river glimpses between Bristol and Bath with the sad view of the the fine old Frys/Cadbury factory at Keynsham, now empty, closed by a multi-national. World Heritage Bath displays its trademark Georgian Terraces as a frame for its medieval Abbey.
After Bath, we leave the mainline to follow the canal which steps up the Avon towards the Kennet and London. The train goes under the canal three times: the first two involved Brunel in adapting the classical eighteenth century aqueducts spanning the narrow valley. Snaking along the wooded valley views of the high bridge come unexpectedly before the first brief stop (Freshford) apparently in the middle of empty wood bounded fields: the village, drifting down down the slope of aside valley to congregate with magnolia blossom around the pub and a stocky spired Cotswold stone Church, only comes into sight after we leave the station. Under the next aqueduct is Avoncliff Halt: the span itself is out of sight but a broad weir, gentle cottages and primroses in the still bare woods are good compensation.
Bradford-on-Avon is the last picture postcard Cotswold village before the train turns south under a utilitarian aqueduct into the junctions lands around Westbury. After Frome - itself a charming town but hidden from its rather decayed station - a short stretch of main line takes us to Castle Cary and the branch line south. The different rolling downs of South Somerset lead into Dorset. This classic introduction to Hardy country , with stops at Yeovil and remote feeling Maiden Newton, takes us to Dorchester (West), where we were due at 10.48. Traveline gave us fifteen minutes to catch the bus at a stop seven minutes walk away.
The train was a bit late, the path unclear, the bus missed: beware of useful Traveline . Little matter - Dorchester was pleasant enough for a hour's exploration though I am not sure the advice of the friendly Tourist Information Office to spend most of it seeking out the Roman town house. True it is well presented with lottery funded weather protection for fairly good mosaics but it was still in the frankly unattractive County Hall car park.
The ride on the bus to Bridport was simply magnificent: the narrow A35 Trunk road is a horror but not from the top deck of a bus creating an empty road over the high downs ahead (and a long if invisible tailback behind). The downs dwarf the little villages sunk deep in wooded valleys below and even on this sunny March day the bare wildness speaks of Tess's miserable stone picking - Hardy breathes through this landscape.

Forty five minutes later, dull sounding Bridport - think Bridgnorth, Bridgwater - proves in fact to be a delightful small town, with a generous High Street bounded by unusually thriving bookshops - new, bargain, charity, but also second hand and well stocked antiquarian - I found a Murray's 1859 guide to the Isle of White and a 1979 Ward Lock Guide to Dorset.

There was also, in a beam dominated grade II listed town house, a good cafe/restaurant - the Beach and Barnicott - which itself put on literary dining evenings - a discussion over dinner of Edmund de Waal's "Hare with the Amber Eyes" was coming up on the next Tuesday.

Escaping Bridport's thin layer of suburbs, it was a couple of hours of chalked hilled, lamb entranced walk to get over to the classic Dorset village of Burton Bradstock. A prosperous post office shop, a delicately 'arts and crafts' restored cruciform mediaeval church, two good pubs; tulips and daffodils galore.

To drop down on this idyll in the pre-sunset glower to an inexpensive BdyB was fine conclusion to day one,

BdyB perhaps needs a little explanation, though surely it is an idea whose time has come. "Bed do your own Breakfast" is exactly what it says on the packet. It does not google yet so perhaps you are reading about it first here. The Old Pottery Annexe provides a double/twin ensuite room with the usual tea maker BUT also a small Fridge containing a pint of fresh milk and a pair of croissant. Cereals, bowls. plates and cutlery-give everything for a simple and time-flexible self made Breakfast. At £45 for acouple, it undercuts the standard B&B by twenty to thirty pounds sterling. I would love to hear of and will pass on other examples.

Quietly buried in a lane off the main road, it is only two hundred metres further up before we came out at a terrifying cliff edge with views of all Chesil beach to the left and a far as Lyme Regis, the Undercliff and Jurassic Devon to the right.

Day Two.

Too tired after day one, to go out after dark to appreciate the doubtless remarkable clear starlit, crescent moon night, we had a lazy 'do your own' breakfast to start the next day. The village shop provided bus information and a Guardian. Good news was the two hourly X53 Exeter - Axminster - Lyme Regis - Bridport - Weymouth double deck bus.

Plenty of opportunities to explore the World Heritage Jurassic Coast. We opted for a short circular walk before a bus to Weymouth. What a circular walk it is. Up over a steep style, across a downland meadow to Southover Beach NT. A pleasant looking cafe and over generous if at least grassed National Trust car park leads to a stoney tail end to Chesil Beach. It almost totally lacked drift wood for firemaking so we walked over the cliff path. An approachable gold braided Coast Watcher advised me about the outgoing tide, which in this mill calm weather was safe to swim - "cold, mind" he warned.

up and down double decker

Walking along the cliff top stretch of the South West path, we gathered what small sticks were to hand. A strictly sedentary couple told us it was 250 miles (400 km) to go to Minehead in North Somerset. We denied any such ambition and the next beach had everything we wanted. A boulder-built crossing of the little river proved an ideal drift wood trap; a previously used fire place gave more chunks of timber; the sun was hot; the tide low enough to give a sandy entry to the sea - the sea cold enough to guarantee a palm numbing very short swim; spiced lamb sausages could be cooked on the beach fire and there was time for a short sunbathe before the walk round to Burton Bradstock for the X53 bus to Weymouth and the train back home to Bristol. Sorry Weymouth - not much to say.

Bristol to Totnes and Dartmouth

2011-11-10T09:57:00.001-08:00

Westbury park Strollers enjoyed this day by train, foot and boat on 2nd October: Please follow links to the blog to see details costs and a report

Great NEWS about Swansea Gower Plus Bus

2011-06-06T14:56:00.000-07:00

Discounted Swansea Plus Bus for Senior Rail Card holders. Only £1.50 to get to and from Pennard on the Gower when you buy a rail ticket to Swansea and they can be had for as little as £3.30 from Bristol Parkway.
Perhaps they listened to my plea last summer. Shame that the Gower Explorer is not included!
Anyway I shall try it out on 21st June - Watch this space.

How about.... (1) A day trip to the Gower

2010-08-18T05:23:00.000-07:00

A day trip to the Gower from Bristol is easy and cheap without a car: about £15 return to Oxwich:

First Great Western Bristol Parkway to Swansea advance tickets can be as cheap as £3.30 each eachway. Seem to be plenty going out on mid morning trains and back in the late afternoon evening. Currently available at that price less tahn a week ahead and even for tomorrow FIRST CLASS (with free coffee etc.) is offered at about £6-70 each eachway

The buses into the Gower are relatively expensive - no concession for England resident 'young-olds' - about £4-00 each way. Veolia Gower Explorer is good value.

Wouldn't it be great if Wales Tourism could arrange a combined rail-bus ticket to attract English Concession Visitors to the Gower (and rest of Wales) WITHOUT A CAR!

Cuenca - just one place to visit in May June by train

2010-07-06T15:46:00.000-07:00

Cuenca the town on the precipitous cliff (see photo) in deepest, airport distant, Spain is just one of half a dozen places that we checked out by train this year. In less than three weeks we travelled over to Paris (Eurostar) on to Madrid (by Francisco de Goya Sleeper Train) and arriving in lovely Aranquez (World Heritage Site) by mid morning.(see photo).

We took a day out to visit historic Toledo (World Heritage City)with its grim past but great setting (photo) and then on to Cuenca (another World Heritage City), which is aiming to be Spain's European City of Culture in 2016.... (to be continued) nnnnn

The contrail free sky but...

2010-04-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

RIVER AVON within the city limits of Bristol.

Welcome to a contrail free sky over Britain as volcanic dust grounds all aircraft but it can cause some problems...
However few problems for 'greenish' travellers except overcowded long distance and overnight trains etc.
TIPS
A pedestrian place with a cycle could be had last night on the Portsmouth Le Havre ferry for today for £28 and on day boats there are places Harwich-Hook of Holland from Tuesday (£33 with a cycle or £29 without). From Hook of Holland trains East and North can be booked even as far as Helsinki or Moscow ALTHOUGH NIGHT TRAINS ARE HEAVILY BOOKED IN THE NEAR FUTURE. Try German Rail website and booking number in UK 08718808066 or of course Seat61.com.
But it probably a good time to stay closer to home and use the diamond bus pass!

update on 'When it rains...'

2010-04-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

sadly the *Michelin Restaurant in Foye has closed. Any recommendations on where now to eat in th rain would be welcome!
When it doesn't rain or even when it does Trebar Gardens near Falmouth are terrific and reachable either by the South West Coast Path (with a little difficulty) or by the 500 bus every couple of hours or so Mon-Sat. Why not Sunday we may ask?

When it rains in Cornwall...

2010-01-14T09:30:00.000-08:00

...inevitably it costs twice as much. A short summer cycling trip became a short gourmet break when we saw the final definitive appalling forecast for Cornwall. Committed to travel by advance-booked cheap rail tickets down to St Austell and a night’s bed and breakfast, we set off into the gathering rain. Anticipating the weather, one partner had succeeded in making a secret late reservation at a Michelin* restaurant in Fowey.

The free senior Diamond national bus pass now came into its own.
Because of the bus pass we had an alternative to fall back on. We cycled only to the B &B and abandoning our bikes, walked back into town. St Austell has very inadequate tourist information facilities – they are stuck out on some bypass or other – but a delightful librarian who sorted us out with a bus timetable and put us on route for Mevagissy. Taken direct and speedily to the centre of this classic fishing village, we asked the helpful and efficient tourist information officer based unusually in tea rooms, about the long ferry from there to Fowey across St Austell Bay. Problem... the sullen sea of east facing Mevagissy was a raging sou'wester at the mouth of the Fowey estuary: it was cancelled. So we had time for a walk to the next cove where we had a low tide swim and discovered a welcoming Inn with such good snacks and hot soup that we marked it out for a 'gastro' return. Next we took the bus from Megavissy to Fowey changing at Par. It was fairly slow but gave the chance (not taken this time) to visit the Lost Gardens of Helligan as it took a grandly Cornish ‘visit-every-village (and back street of St Austell)’ route. Thinking of the meal ahead, we opted for a swim at Readymoney Beach in the Fowey estuary. Again we had the rain bespattered swim to ourselves while the storm raged safe beyond the headland. With no further distractions, we changed clothes in a bedroom kindly provided and settled in for the Michelin-starred experience.

A couple of hours later 'well fed-up and agreeably drunk', we took the bus back to St Austell and walked up to the B&B.

Next morning well fortified by the B&B B, we cycled down to the station though blustery but dry weather. Our target was Falmouth and beyond it to Trebar Gardens and beach. The glorious rain forest garden had been only too pointedly heralded by a tropical storm. Even so it was lovely enough (as was the lonely swim down on the Helford River) to let us forgive the vicious oath provoking uphill cycle ride from Falmouth. A large mug of unseasonable cocoa rounded off a pasty-picnic lunch. The walk up through the flower dripping jungle left us wondering why Trebar is missed out of the Cornwall Rough Guide - too much loved by the editor, we concluded.

Only one puncture to go (and tyre to change) before we settled down to a champagne (well Cava) picnic on the evening train direct from Truro back home to Bristol.

Low carbon, some adventure, rotten weather, great hospitality - classic Cornwall - worth it anytime, any weather.

DMBruce

NOTES
Rail Bristol - St Austel (FGW advance Senior return for two ) £40
Bus tickets "Diamond Pass" Free
Pub lunch after swim near Mevagissy £12.20
(Ferry (weather cancelled) otherwise £8)
so bus to Fowey (free)
Swim at Fowey 'Readymoney’ beach,
followed by gourmet dinner all in for two £170
Bus back to St Austel free
B&B St Austel (1 night double en suite) £65
Return train to Falmouth for two £5.90
Trebar Gardens £12
Picnic lunch £3.40
Express train St Austel-Bristol £13.90
M&S champagne(well Cava) picnic on train £12

Total Midweek break for two baby boomers at 60 £342
(£172 without Michelin meal)
(From London an advance £69 twin sleeper can replace the B&B even for under 60’s and there are good food cheaper options for an evening meal)

A Stroll to Teignmouth and the Torbay Express at Dawlish

2009-09-08T03:10:00.000-07:00

Sixteen Westbury Park Strollers fom Bristol went to Dawlish, Tiegnmouth and Shaldon this Sunday. Half walked on to Newton Abbot up the Etuary . For earlybird Senior Rail card bookers the rail fare was only about £9-00. From the 0ver bridge, we saw another type of day out - the Torbay Express Bristol etc to Torbay on Summer Sundays but NO DISCOUNTS for Ancient Brits, I'm afraid:

Visiting Malta and Sicily by Rail and Ferry?

2009-09-04T02:11:00.000-07:00

ENJOY THE STATION -Taomina

Travelling home from Malta by ferry and train through Sicily, I chose to stop off at Taormina-Guardini simply to enjoy the station. In setting and architecture it is arguably the finest in Southern Europe. Approached from the South (from Catania) it springs out after a short tunnel. Approached from the North (Messina), the headland of Taormina first comes into sight, then again after a tunnel the line curves steeply down the cornice, displaying the station with an immediate backdrop of cactus covered cliffs and with the might of Etna, snow topped and smoke plumed behind.
The finest treasures of the station are inside the building, designed by architect Ernesto Basile (1857-1932), who had developed an especially Sicilian
version of Art Nouveau.
The ticket hall is not very large but unique. Three ticket booths are defended by high arched elaborate black ironwork grills. In the centre of a pleasantly patterned stone floor stands a large glass case containing an antique vase and Greek and Roman stone fragments. It is however the ceiling which is extraordinary: superbly painted wood panels and beams present Sicilian coats of arms and brightly coloured fantastical mythical beasts. Gryphons and Unicorns compete with Phoenix and weirder birds, snakes and canines.
Perhaps even better is the First Class Waiting Room, which can be glimpsed through the reflection of a glass panelled door. Its leather seats are focussed around a fine looking ceramic jar but the gloom is too deep to see much of the tiled floor or to see a painted ceiling at all. All might be revealed after 10am, when the ticket office deigns to open for business, but by then the trains to and from Rome, Naples and the North have all departed.
Outside the station sits between the sea and lava cliff, capped by Taormina village. When the trains have gone, the quietness is intensified by the sound of waves breaking close by. Orange trees, palms and potted prickly pear plants set off the faded dark green railway paraphernalia – water hose derricks for long past steam engines, delicate pillared platform canopies around a castellated gothic and Norman Romanesque station building with mosaic name boards. The outside of this building is ill-served by standard Italian railway signing and bland magenta plaster wash, while jarring modern light standards and cable posts further detract.
Still the coffee and croissant from the station buffet are good and the tables on the platform offer delightful views. Station thoroughly enjoyed – it would be worth a trip itself, even if Taormina the village high up above was not a beauty as well.
David Bruce March 2009