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. […]
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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 […]
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 […]
Sunday 1st September 2019 Today we travel from Fort William to Stornoway. A more leisurely breakfast is available from 07:30 to 9:00 and while breakfast is eaten our luggage is taken from outside our rooms down to reception. Brian, the driver, arrives and we load the luggage onto the coach. Departing at 9:00 Brian drives us up to the ferry port at Mallaig, where we arrive at 10:15. I pop into the ferry terminal and collect all the individual tickets for the three ferry crossings that we will take during this tour. I have a quick moment to cross the road to visit Mallaig railway station. Mallaig station is at the end of the railway line from Fort William and the end of the Jacobite stream route. It is also the most westerly railway station on mainland Britain. Surprisingly, further west than Penzance. At 10:30 we begin boarding the ferry. Although we arrived on a coach, and the same coach with our luggage on drives onto the ferry, we have to walk on as foot passengers. At 11:00 the ferry departs for the crossing to Armdale on the Isle of Skye. Whilst the coach journey to Mallaig had been accompanied by rain, the crossing to Skye was dry, sunny and calm. The ferry takes 35 minutes to cross from the mainland. Arriving at Armdale . . . . . . we re-board the coach and Brian drives us for an hour and a half up to Uig at the north […]
Thursday June 18th 2019 The second day of this tour is spent at Beamish. However, following discussions with Eric, the coach driver, we took a brief detour on the way to the open air museum, to stop and view the Angel of the North. The Beamish museum is an open air museum that looks to preserve examples of every day living in the North East of England from the 1920s onwards. There are three railways, old trams, a coal mine, villages etc. I went for a walk down the mine. As I was watching them shunt an old steam engine backwards and forwards it unfortunately derailed! The preserved railway station. The village high street. The fully functioning pub. The trams take the visitors around the whole museum. The museum is currently expanding by building a new 1950s area. This involves, amongst other things, demolishing a cinema in Sunderland, brick-by-brick and rebuilding it a the museum. I was fortunate enough to blag my way into the press launch of the new community centre. It reminds me of the Oliver Bird Hall in Solihull where I went to a youth club in my teens. I particularly liked the wagon way. Video of the day: RailDiscoveries Tour Map: Selfie of the day: Recent Posts: Related Posts:
Thursday 6th June 2019 Today’s trip started with a coach journey to Goathland, familiar to many as the location for the fictional village Aidensfield in the ITV series Heartbeat. Goathland also has a picturesque station on the preserved North Yorkshire Moors Railway [NYMR] which allowed an opportunity for the many rail enthusiasts on the tour to photograph and film the locomotives. From Goathland the coach took us on to Whitby, a beautiful port town. While the tourees went off on their own I had a walk around the town … … and visited the beach. However, I chose not to climb the 199 steps up to the church and Abbey ruins as I am saving that treat for when I revisit Whitby with my wife and daughters in a couple of months time. Instead I did some research to find a good place to take them to for lunch and a beer. I found a really good, glass-sided balcony with views overlooking the harbour. From Whitby the tourees and I caught a steam train to Pickering on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and from Pickering we travelled back to Harrogate and our hotel by coach. At the hotel I took the opportunity of taking a photograph of a very charming and stylish couple on the tour. Not only were they both extremely smartly dressed in period clothing throughout the whole trip, but they had also travelled up to Harrogate in a classic old Bentley. Video of the day: RailDiscoveries Tour […]
Saturday 18th, May Following breakfast at 08:00 our coach collected us at 09:00 and delivered us to Sarlat for 09:40. This gave the tourees three and a half hours to explore this lovely town. Saturdays feature a very large traditional French market which spreads throughout the cobbled streets of the town, which are all closed to traffic. Sarlat is principally a market town with a central square Place de la Liberte. The Cathedral is worth visiting dedicated to Saint Sacerdos. The main street is the Rue De la Republique. Exploring both sides of this main street leads you to courtyards and alleyways and cobbled hideaways. After meeting at our coach drop-off point at 13:00 we were driven the the wonderful village of La Roque Gageac. The village is set against a steep and sometimes crumbling cliff face. The village is on the river Dordogne. It is partly tidal and is fast flowing, its banks can be flooded in heavy rain. Speeds of 50mph are not unknown. The river was used for transporting goods from upstream to downstream. The Gabares were the original flat bottomed boats for transporting goods between the Massif Centrale and the ports of Bergerac. We took part in a one hour journey along the river in a replica Gabare. Our coach again returned us to our hotel in Souillac for 16:30, giving the tourees a bit of R&R time before dinner at 19:00. RailDiscoveries Tour Map: Video of the day: Selfie of the day: Recent Posts: […]