Thursday, 10th October 2019 The final full day of the tour takes us to the Welsh Highland Railway. The coach drove a very scenic route through the centre of the Snowdonia National Park. Unfortunately, Snowdon itself was hidden in clouds today. The coach dropped us in the village of Beddgelert. It is a pretty Welsh stone built village, which has won “Britain in Bloom” competitions. It has also been described as “a wondrous valley”. Gelert was the name of a dog that belonged to Prince Llewellyn. The Prince returned from hunting one day to find the dog with blood around its mouth and his son missing. Believing that the hound had killed the boy, Llewellyn slew it. However, the child was found alive and a dead wolf was discovered nearby. The dog Gelert had saved the boy from the wolf. Llewellyn was filled with remorse and allegedly never smiled again. The legend was embellished in the nineteenth century by the landlord of the Goat Hotel. It is possible to visit “Gelert’s grave”. The train is hauled by a South African Railways narrow gauge Garratt. This is a huge 2-6-2 + 2-6-2 locomotive. The demise in 1936 and the eventual reconstruction of the Welsh Highland Railway had been a long, tortuous and of highly legal progress such that it is too long to relate here. There were legal cases, liquidations, funding issues, public inquiries and political intrigues. However there was above all else a determination to reconstruct the railway and extend […]
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Wednesday, 9th October 2019 Norman, the coach driver, collects us at 08:45 and we are on our way to the railway station at Llangollen. The journey takes an hour and a quarter. The Llangollen railway is the longest preserved standard gauge steam Railway in Wales now at 12.5 miles long. Work has been undertaken to extend it from 10 miles at Carrog to 12.5 miles near Corwen. Our train terminated at Carrog, and we had a 40 minute wait at the station before our return trip to Llangollen. This allowed time for coffee and a comfort break. The railway was originally opened in 1862 to serve the mining industry. It closed in 1964 and restoration commenced in 1975. The line as far as Carrog was opened in 1996 and work on the extension to Corwen started in 2011. Back at Llangollen there was a hour to have some lunch and to walk around the town. Llangollen is an attractive town on the River Dee and its bridge from 1345 (renovated in 1960) used to be on the London -Holyhead horse drawn coaching route improved by Thomas Telford in 1815. The canal was built in 1806 and was one of Britain’ finest feats of canal engineering. It was designed by Thomas Telford to transport slates from the quarries on the Horseshoe Pass and to provide water for the Shropshire Union canal. The water is fed from the Horseshoe Falls via a very small opening controlling the flow in the pump […]
Tuesday, 8th October 2019 Today, on this tour, is what is called a free day when the tourees are at liberty to explore on their own. So from 09:00 to 10:00 I establish myself in the hotel reception with two big boxes of pocket guidebooks and local leaflets. Before heading out for the day myself I make suggestions, point places out on maps and generally assist the tourees in deciding what they want to do for the day. From 10:00 I am free to head off and experience some of the highlights of Llandudno. So after leaving the hotel I discover . . . . . . Llandudno is the largest seaside resort in Wales, and in my view, has not lost its charm like so many seaside resorts throughout the UK. One of the most famous residents of the town was Alice Liddell (of Alice in Wonderland fame), so as I walk through the town I pass statues of characters from the books. These are part of the Alice in Wonderland Town Trail. The target of my walk was Victoria Station, the start of the Great Orme Tramway. The Great Orme Tramway is Britain’s only cable-hauled tramway which travels on public roads. It opened in 1902. It adheres to the funicular principle where the trams are permanently fixed to the cable and are made to move by stopping and starting the cable. The tramway is split into two parts. In the first part the cables are under the road. […]
Sunday, 6th October 2019 Today starts a new tour: Rail Discoveries’ Railways of Wales. This is based in one hotel in Llandudno. As is similar to most UK based tours I meet the tourees on the first day at 16:00 in the hotel. This means that they can choose their method of travel to the venue, most will have chosen to drive. I, however, travel by train. Bromley South to Victoria, then tube to Euston. From Euston it is a train to Llandudno Junction. Unfortunately, on a weekend, there are no trains that go to Llandudno Station which is more central. This means traveling by taxi from Llandudno Junction to the hotel on the Promenade. When I tell the taxi driver the name of the hotel where I am staying he duly replies with “I can’t take you there, there is a car rally going on”. “Oh” I reply, “Get me as close as I you can”. As we are driving along I get out Google Maps on my phone and suggest the odd route alteration to the driver. He says to me in a quite astonished voice, “How have you got the new car satellite thing on a phone?” Arriving at the back of the hotel he says “Wow, I didn’t know that you could go that way”. “Just download the Google Maps app on you phone” I reply. “I’d have to get a phone first,” he says. True enough outside my hotel is the finish of the Wales […]
![Passau and Home [via Köln] on the Imperial Cities & Danube Cruise tour](http://iciel.uk/imagesROTR/19-06-HUR1906s/Post5/19-06-05-feature.jpeg)
Tuesday, 1st October 2019 I had left Munich on the 13:24 regional train to Passau. Arriving 30 minutes late at 16:10 I found my hotel and checked in. As is usual for me, I wasted no time before I was out and about. My aim was to walk down to the banks of the Danube and have a look to see where my group’s cruise ship was moored. Having looked in the guide book I spotted that the key place to visit was St Stephen’s Cathedral. With 17,774 pipes and 233 registers, the organ at St. Stephen’s was long held to be the largest church pipe organ in the world and is today second in size only to an organ in Los Angeles which was expanded in 1994. By the cathedral is a large square (Domplatz) with the Lamberg-Palais. Up on the hill over looking Passau is Veste Oberhaus, a fortress that was founded in 1219 which was the stronghold of the Bishop of Passau. I couldn’t find the river cruise. It was at this point that I received a text to say that because the water levels in the Danube were so low is had moored south of Passau and I would need to get a taxi there in the morning. Wednesday, 2nd October 2019 Up early and a taxi up river to the cruise boat. The luggage was already outside and the coaches there waiting when I arrived. Having loaded the group onto our coach we transferred to […]
![London to Munich [for Oktoberfest] on the Imperial Cities & Danube Cruise tour](http://iciel.uk/imagesROTR/19-06-HUR1906s/Post4/19-06-04-feature.jpeg)
Monday, 30th September 2019 I was supposed to fly out to Munich on Tuesday, 1st October and then catch a train down to Passau to collect my group of passengers, but I had another idea. During the last week of September and the first week of October there is a huge beer festival in Munich called the Oktoberfest. I have never had the opportunity to visit this renowned event – teachers aren’t allowed to drop out of school mid-term to go abroad on a jolly [although I did do precisely that when the Rugby World Cup was on in France]. I have always wanted to go and see what the Oktoberfest is like. I asked my manager if it would be possible for them to fly me out to Munich a day early and I would source my own hotel. Great Railway Journeys had no issues with that, so I booked a hotel (expensive during Oktoberfest, but free for me as I was paying with accumulated stay points) and off I went. I arrived at my hotel and dropped off my bag and immediately headed off to the festival. Oktoberfest is about 15 minutes walk from the main Munich railway station and located on a massive asphalt park. It is free to enter and is absolutely HUGE. Each brewery has its own tent with outside seating areas. Interspersed between these are eating stands and a massive fun fair. I was there at 18:00 on a Monday evening. Mondays are the […]
![Prague to Budapest [then back to London] on the Imperial Cities & Danube Cruise tour](http://iciel.uk/imagesROTR/19-06-HUR1906s/Post3/19-06-03-feature.jpeg)
Thursday, 26th September 2019 Today I am flying back to Gatwick from Budapest. The flight is at 14:15 so I have a brief opportunity to do a bit of culture before I head off to the airport. Just along from my hotel I pop my head into the New York Cafe. Unfortunately the large queue of people waiting to enter, even this early in the day, doesn’t mean I can do much more than take a photograph of the interior. Next I walk down into the old Jewish quarter of the city, first stopping at the wall memorial. The most famous tribute to the half a million Hungarian Jews who perished under the Nazis during the Holocaust is the 60 pairs of cast-iron shoes placed on the edge of the Danube’s bank in memory of Budapest Jews killed here by members of the Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross Party. They were ordered to remove their shoes before being shot and their bodies fell into the river and drifted away. The old entrance to the Jewish ghetto is marked by a large memorial. The ghetto was a 0.12 square mile walled area of Budapest created by the Nazis in 1944. It only lasted for six weeks. 70,000 Jews were crammed into 4,513 apartments (14 people per room). 10,000 lost their lives during those six weeks. From the memorial I walked down to visit the Dohány Street Synagogue. This is the largest Synagogue in Europe, built between 1854-9 in a Moorish style. Unfortunately […]
Tuesday, 24th September 2019 After travelling for two days, today is a day based in one place only – Prague. It is an early start this morning because we are first going to Prague Castle, which is notoriously busy. I have been to Prague previously, on a trip with my wife, and we never ventured into the castle complex because the queues were so long. The coach, along with our guide, collect us from the hotel at 08:15 and we head off to the castle. The drive has us skirt round the centre of Prague as coaches and other vehicles are not allowed in the central area to allow space for pedestrians. From the coach we have a 15 minute walk down to the castle where we join the queue to enter. It takes about 30 minutes to reach the front of the queue, with the queue getting longer and longer as we wait. I am glad we got here early. The castle is, according to the Guinness Book of Records, the largest ancient castle in the world and occupies nearly 70,000 square meters of area. Originally built in the ninth century it was last rebuilt at the end of the 18th century. Hitler stayed here in 1939 when he forced the Czech President to hand over the Czech nation to the Germans. During the war it was used as the headquarters of Reinhard Heydrich. An old Czech legend says that a usurper who places a crown upon his head […]
![London to Prague [via Berlin] on the Imperial Cities & Danube Cruise tour](http://iciel.uk/imagesROTR/19-06-HUR1906s/Post1/19-06-01-feature.jpeg)
Saturday, 21st September 2019 This trip is a Great Railway Journeys (GRJ) tour. It is titled ‘Imperial Cities and 5 star Danube Cruise’. GRJ have a cruise ship that will travel for seven days from Budapest along the Danube to Passau. There are several options for getting to the cruise ship, these include direct flight; two days by train (first or second class) or four days by train (first or second class) travelling via either Berlin and Prague or via Bavaria. My tour is the four day tour, second class, via Berlin and Prague to Budapest. At Budapest I will leave the group on the cruise ship and return home to the UK. I then journey back later in the week to meet the group at Passau and take them back to the UK over two days, staying in Köln on the way back. Since it is an early start from St Pancras on the Sunday morning, I travel up to London on the Saturday afternoon and stay in a hotel close to St Pancras. Sunday, 22nd September 2019 I am up early on Sunday morning and meeting and greeting the tourees from 07:00 to 08:00 at the GreatRail offices, upstairs at St Pancras. This is a busy day for GreatRail with nine tours going out from St Pancras the same morning. The Eurostar train departs London St Pancras at 08:55 and arrives in Brussels at 12:05 where we are met by man and a baggage cage and our luggage […]
Wednesday, 18th September 2019 Again, today we are collected by John with his coach and are driven the opposite way down the promenade to Douglas Railway Station. This 3 ft narrow gauge railway is 15.3 miles long, and is all that remains of the more extensive 46 mile network that originally serviced Peel, Ramsey and Foxdale. The steam-hauled journey passes old-fashioned fishing ports and small towns on its way from Douglas to Port Erin. The railway is Manx government owned and still uses the original rolling stock and locomotives. At Port Erin I visited the Steam Railway Museum. From Ramsey we travel by coach to The Sound with views of the Calf of Man. Here we see and hear seals in the sea and basking on the Calf of Man. The coach then takes us on to the town of Castletown. Castletown is the former capital of the Isle of Man. Castletown has a castle called Castle Rushen. This is a very well preserved castle, built by a Norse king in 1265, then fortified and added to by successive rulers between the 13th and 16th centuries.The castle has been used as a fortress, a residence for the Kings and Lords of Mann, the site of a mint and then a prison. Robert the Bruce captured the castle three times. We then visit the Old House of Keys. Owned by the Manx National Heritage it is a museum. A private guided tour takes place and the tourees take part in an […]
Tuesday, 17th September 2019 The day starts with a leisurely buffet breakfast at the hotel. At 10:00 we gather in the hotel lounge for the brief walk down to the promenade. John, our coach driver, meets us and takes us the short distance along the promenade to the Douglas Electric Tram station. The 10:40 tram takes us to Laxey. At Laxey we change trams . . . . . to travel on the branch line up to the top of Snaefell. Snaefell is the highest spot on the Isle of Man. And on a clear day you can see England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Today is bright and sunny, but at the top it is cold and very windy. Just below the summit is another of the roads that the TT races travel along. After an hour at the top of Snaefell (most of it spent queuing to buy a coffee in the café) we catch a tram back down to Laxey. The route down is not electric powered. It is powered by gravity and as a consequence of this it is a very loud, squeaky journey as the brakes grip the central rail. At Laxey we visit Isobel Wheel. Historically the wheel, which is water powered, was used to pump water from the Laxey mine. The mine, now disused, but visitable, was a lead mine. A steep spiral staircase is used to access the platform at the top. Walking back into the village of Laxey, we pass by the […]
Saturday, 14th September 2019 The tour officially starts on Sunday 15th, when I meet the passengers at Heysham ferry port. The ferry departs at 14:15 and the only train into the port on a Sunday arrives at 12.56. I would be due to meet the tourees between 13:00 and the boarding time of 13:30. Prior to meeting the tourees I need to collect and double check tickets/boarding passes. Because this is a tight turn around and there is the risk that the train could be delayed I need to travel up to Heysham the day before. At Euston station it was nice to see a Virgin Intercity train logo-ed in tribute to my favourite architect. Having caught the 09:30 train I arrive in Lancaster at 11:55. After a short trip outside the station I am back on platform 1 for the short, old, two carriage, EMU to Heysham Port. Heysham Port station has absolutely no charm at all. Arriving at 13:17, I walk to my B&B. After I deposit my luggage I take a taxi into Lancaster. I did my degree in Lancaster, and having only been back once since, and even that was over 30 years ago, it was an interesting afternoon/evening revisiting my old haunts. Sunday, 15th September 2019 The ferry terminal at Heysham opens at 11:30 but my B&B check-out time is 10:00, so I spend some time sitting on my own in a deserted terminal. At 11:30 I am able to collect the tickets for the […]
Thursday, 5th September 2019 The penultimate day of the tour takes us from Inverness by train down to Glasgow. After a leisurely breakfast the tourees gather with their luggage in the hotel reception. A man with a van duly arrives and the luggage is loaded into the van and will be delivered directly to our rooms in this evening’s hotel in Glasgow. A coach arrives and takes us into central Inverness. The tourees then have three hours to themselves to discover Inverness and have lunch. I go for a wonder on my own, first visiting the Victorian market opposite the railway station. A walk beside the River Ness gives me views of Inverness Castle. On the other side of the river to the castle is Inverness Cathedral. Back across the river I climb up to the castle to get the views. There have been several castles built at this site over the centuries. The existing castle was built in the 1830s and is currently used a Sheriff Court. Since it is a working court you can’t wonder around inside, unfortunately. In the weeks before the Battle of Culloden, in 1746, 3,000 of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobite followers seized the then castle. They plundered the stores for food and weapons before razing the site in a blaze of explosives. When Mary, Queen of Scots visited in 1562, the Governor had entrusted the castle to his Captain. The Captain refused entry to the Queen, causing great offence, so he was executed and […]
Wednesday, 4th September 2019 Today we head north from Stornoway for a trip to the beach, then some free time in Stornoway before catching the ferry across to the mainland at Ullapool and a coach to Inverness. As we drive north with our own version of the Chuckle Brothers (Chris, the guide and Jon Murdo, the driver) we pass through the village of Tunga. This is the birthplace of US president, Donald Trump’s mum. Donald’s cousins still live here and he has previously visited them. Between 1918 and 1923 the island of Lewis was owned by Lord Leverhulme [of Lever Brothers and Persil fame]. He proposed a road from Tolsta to Port of Ness. It was a time when servicemen were returning from the first world war and wanted land for crofting and not work from Leverhulme. The road was never completed. The only part ever built was a bridge at the southern end in Garry: during its construction 140 men mixed the concrete by hand. Since construction of the road stopped it is now know as ‘The Bridge to Nowhere’. The views from the bridge are stunning. Don’t be alarmed by the blue bits of sky, it was just a temporary break in the rain fall. Our driver, John Murdo, gave us a quick bagpipe recital next to the Garry beach. To watch and listen see the Video of the day at the bottom of the blog. A walk on the beach. We returned to Stornoway and were able […]
Tuesday, 3rd September 2019 Today’s itinerary is a journey, by coach through the Isle of Harris. We are again guided and driven by the double act of Chris Ryan and John Murdo. Heading south from Stornoway we travel south through the Isle of Lewis and down to the Isle of Harris. They are, in fact, one island, but were ruled by two distinct McLeod clans so have historically been treated as two separate areas and hence the names. Once in Harris we travel down to Seilebost. The landscape changes in this area to a ‘lunar landscape’. Stanley Kubricks’ 2001: A Space Odyssey’s Jupiter, alien planet surface scenes, where filmed here. At Seilebost we stop for views of the sandy beaches. On arrival in Tarbert we have lunch at the Harris Hotel. After lunch we visit the Harris Tweed shop. We then walk to the Harris Distillery. This distillery was recently built as a community project, first distilling in 2016. In order to be called a Scottish single malt whisky, it must mature in barrels for 3 years. Harris distillery plan to mature theirs for longer. As a consequence in order to generate funds while they wait to sell their own malt whisky, they distill, bottle and sell Harris Gin. The botanical that is unique to the Harris Gin is a seaweed called sugar kelp. The sugar kelp is hand-harvested by a local diver from the deep underwater forests of the Outer Hebrides. So following our visit to the stills, we […]
Monday, 2nd September 2019 Today’s itinerary is a journey, by coach, around the north of the Isle of Lewis. After breakfast at 08:00 we depart from the hotel at 09:30 with our local guide, Chris Ryan, and our driver John Murdo, from Lochs Motor Coaches,. Chris provides a running commentary as we travel throughout the day, interspersed with humorous interjections from John Murdo: a very good double act. As we travel north we pass the peat diggings in the crofts. On the left are the mechanised ’sausages’, on the right the rectangular manual diggings. At the Butt of Lewis we visit the lighthouse at the top of the island, which is unusual as it is a red brick construction, rather than being painted white. We look at the view across the Atlantic to Canada in the distance. We take in a visit to the northerly Port of Ness. As we travel down the westerly side of the island we stop to visit the Gearrannan Blackhouse Village. The village is now a museum. The Blackhouse Village features traditional blockhouses. The village has recently been preserved having fallen into disrepair when the residents moved out into more modern council-provided housing nearby. The houses are thatched and have double stone walls. There was no incentive for the residents, who had rented the properties, to make any improvements to the buildings as they did not have secured tenure. If they had made improvements the landlord could potentially kick them out and then rent the […]