So I'll start with our trip up north last week.
Last Monday (13th May), we took the 09:37 Virgin Train in 1st class from Wolverhampton to Carlisle. The first train we can use our Two Together on heading north, and we just catch breakfast in 1st class before Crewe on that service.
It was a beautiful ride up and we were so lucky with the weather. The 1st Class service was excellent as ever, breakfast before Preston, bacon roll and a beer(!) for the brunch service after Preston.
The aim of the day was to ride the Settle Carlisle railway, and the weather could not have been any better. We had a 2 hour wait at Carlisle, so a couple of delicious ales were tried in the wonderful 301 miles from London bar on platform 4. We had decided on the 14:04 to Leeds, one of the fast trains. A lot of people were waiting for it, so I told my wife I'll run ahead and find a good seat in the front carriage. However, on entering the carriage on the 2 car train (a 158 I believe), I discovered that the whole carriage had been reserved for a coach party of pensioners...which effectively turned the service into a 1 coach train for the rest of us. Thankfully, managed to grab the last pair of forward facing seats in the rear carriage. At Appleby, we had managed to move onto a table seat which we shared with a lovely lady who was travelling from Glasgow to see family in Ilkley with her Border Terrier, Brodie, who both proved to be brilliant company.
The trolley came and I had what was a surprisingly good cup of tea. The refreshment lady told us that it was unusual to get a coach booking on that particular service and we had been a bit unlucky.
The views, as you'll be aware, were tremendous. The weather so spectacular. The train emptied out at Settle as a tour guide was waiting on the platform for the coach party of pensioners. Who I have to say, didn't seem at all in good spirits. The regular passengers seemed to be having a better time in the rear coach. The train filled up again as it got closer to Leeds as people were leaving work/school etc.
We had an hour wait in Leeds in the evening peak, so we decided to try and find the south entrance as we heard it's worth a look. It was a good move, firstly because it was so much quieter at that time of day but best of all, what they've done with Granary Wharf and particularly the arches under the station is brilliant. Check it out next time you're in Leeds stations...and google it to see what I mean if you've never been down there. We walked around back to the main entrance which is being refurbished at the moment and made our way to platform 11 for the 17:40 to York train (which cost £2 each on our railcard!). We noticed just how busy platform 17 was and were glad we weren't travelling west on a Transpennine Express which were stopping there which was part of our original plan.
A brand new LNER Azuma was idling in the platform next to us. We also noticed the yellow Network Rail class 43 come through the station, we had seen one earlier in the day at Carlisle and wondered if it was the same one.
The 158 to York was a straightforward if a little dull journey, it was fairly busy but everyone had a seat. At York, I helped a Spanish visitor who had just arrived in the country find a train to Peterborough as he had somehow got on our train at Leeds instead of heading south. Thankfully for him, at Kings Cross service stopping at Peterborough was soon due in. I don't know what ticket he had as it was a mobile one and he couldn't understand me when I was asked him. I pointed him in the direction of the platform staff and reassured him that he hadn't gone too far out of his way as he seemed quite distressed when he realised he had gone in the wrong direction. I usually find railway staff helpful in those situations so hopefully he found the same and made his way to Peterborough. Also in York, that yellow Network Rail train was waiting again, my wife was now quite suspicious it was following us. 3 times in 3 different stations we had seen it that day!
Now the reason we were in York, as a thank you to my wife for trying the Settle-Carlisle with me, I had booked us into The Principal Hotel, a hotel she had always wanted to stay in. I had got a reasonably priced deal which included £25 each towards dinner and breakfast. We also got a free upgrade to a larger room. It is an amazing hotel, very lovely and comfortable. Dinner was amazing and breakfast next morning was pretty good too. It manages to balance the traditions of a railway hotel with the brightness and openness of a modern hotel...and does this extremely well. The very expensive rooms give you a view over York Minster...we had a view over York Station roof. Even though there were the sounds of idling engines and squealing wheels coming from the station, it was muffled enough so it didn't disturb us.
The next morning, (Tuesday), we boarded the 09:39 Transpennine Express service to Liverpool. I had bagged a couple of cheap 1st class advances. We had a very pleasant ride through West Yorkshire and the first class was fairly lightly loaded the whole way down. Transpennine Express won the best coffee of the week award with their Lavazza filter coffee cups. Great little invention those and very good coffee.
We arrived in Liverpool on time and made our way on Merseyrail to James St Station where we walked to our next hotel, the Malmasion on the docks. A very modern hotel and very different to the Principal in York...but very comfortable!
We spent the rest of the day being proper tourists in Liverpool, went on the Mersey Ferry, looked around the Beatles story and enjoyed various stop offs for coffee/food/beer. We had another great meal in the hotel and a very good nights sleep.
The next morning, after breakfast, we took a cab back to Lime St station. We had tickets home to Wolverhampton booked on the 18:27 from Manchester Piccadilly so intended on spending some time in Manchester. When we arrived at Lime St, I went to the ticket office to get 2 singles to Manchester. We wanted to be in Piccadilly to use the left luggage there. The lady sold me 2 singles for £8, which seemed cheap and told me to head to platform 10 for the 10:52 East Midlands Train to Norwich. She then said, "Come back to me if you don't make it," which I found odd. When I looked at the tickets, and looked at the clock, I realised why she had said that. It was 10:50 and she had sold me advanced tickets for that train. My wife had already clocked on to what was happening and was already halfway to platform 10 by the time I had the tickets! (I was impressed with her, she seems to embracing this crazy winging it travelling by train stuff that I love!) We made the train and it was virtually empty all the way through Warrington to Piccadilly. After spending a good amount of time trying to find left luggage at Piccadilly and then discovering it was on platform 10, the other side of the barriers, we took a tram out to Salford Quays to look around the Imperial War Museum North. I had been there before but my wife hadn't. A really worthwhile visit and just as good as it's London cousin.
We then went back to Exchange Square on the tram to eat in Wahaca. Wahaca is a Mexican food restaurant. We always love Wahaca when we go to London, having lived in the USA for 2 years, we discovered it's the closest to real Mexican we have found in the UK so far and were pleased to see they were branching out of London. The food in the Manchester branch was just as good as the London ones, with the advantage of the restaurant being much quieter than the London ones too.
After eating, we jumped on a tram at Exchange Square towards Victoria where we could change to a Piccadilly tram. However, the tram just sat in Exchange square and there was a significant queue of trams and buses ahead. The driver announced that there had been a points failure at Victoria (I assume, as what happens in Birmingham when the Grand Central points fail, the drivers were having to get out and manually move them with a bar) and that this was delaying us. So we bailed and walked through the Arndale Centre and Piccadilly Gardens to Piccadilly station. I had a brief argument with the rude man on the ticket gates at Piccadilly. Apparently, when going to left luggage to get my bag, I was walking through the wrong door, I was supposed to use the door leading onto platform 10, and not 11, which was only a couple of feet away. I told him I couldn't see what difference it made and carried on anyway. The staff in the left luggage office told me that have difficulty with that particular person every day when they come to work and he sometimes refuses them to come through to get to their job! In contrast to the barrier staff, the left luggage staff were very helpful and friendly.
So we boarded the 18:27 Crosscountry to Bournemouth to head home to Wolverhampton, I had once again got hold of some cheap first class advances on our railcard. 1st class was actually fairly full the whole way which I wasn't expecting considering how cheap the advance tickets were for that particular train. Got a weak cup of tea and a bacon roll from the 1st class host, who had a strange method of serving each passenger one at the time which meant him running back and forwards constantly to the kitchen. I was worried he was going to have an accident. Fair play though, he got everyone served quickly...but surely there's an easier way? He was no spring chicken either and we could see how much hard work it was for him. Nice chap though.
And that was it, back we where we started in Wolverhampton after a pleasant couple of nights away in the north...and the sun was still shining!