Travel – Page 22

Pump Madness

This is ridiculous.

I have a trip planned for the weekend, going to visit my sister up in Hastings. That’s a round trip of 180 miles. With some additional miles around the Hastings area I would expect that to go up to perhaps 220 miles. According the electronic brain in my car I have around 300 miles worth of fuel. So I should be able to get there and back no problem.

However, I don’t like to take the tank down to the dregs so I would normally top up the tank before I set out. If I head into a garage on my way out on Saturday I’ll get lumped in with the mindless lemmings that are jamming up the garage forecourts.

These idiots are the same folks who clear the supermarket shelves of bread and milk whenever there is a hint of snow down here in the south of England. One of the comments to the attached article suggests that with all these folks sucking up all the fuel, the delivery trucks will run dry. As a result there will be no food in the stores.

I’m heading down to ASDA, use some of my precious fuel, so I can stock up before the shelves are empty.

LIVE: Pump Watch web chat – Local Business – The News.

South West Trains are caught in a time warp – British Rail Lives On In Spirit

You catch the train at Portsmouth Harbour at 7.45am.

By 8.30am the train pulls into London Waterloo.

It sounds like a dream journey for any long-suffering commuter.

But the truth is South West Trains have been stuck in a time warp since British Summer Time started at 1am on Sunday.

Clocks on the announcement boards in carriages were still an hour behind yesterday – three days after the clocks went forward.

Clocks on station platforms have been set to the right time, making it even more confusing for passengers.

It’s good to see that privatisation has ensured that standards are being maintained. This is the stuff that kept British Rail a laughing stock and a constant source of frustration.

They, South West Trains, have blamed the equipment supplier but in truth this just goes to show their quality control is lacking. After all they should have pilot tested all their new equipment before inflicting it on the public.

This is a minor issue in the grand scheme but, if they aren’t paying attention to the little details, what else are they missing ?

South West Trains are caught in a time warp – Transport – The News.

Glorious Wells

Yesterday we spent a fabulous day visiting Wells in Somerset.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather. After around two hours traveling we arrived and promptly set about finding somewhere to have a bite to eat and a cuppa. We settled on The Crown at Wells and Antons Bistro and opted to eat in The Penns Bar.

Originally a separate inn, it was from an upper window here that William Penn, a Quaker who later gave his name to Pennsylvania USA (and our bar), preached to a crowd below in 1685.

After lunch we started our exploration in earnest. After browsing some of the market stalls and doing a bit of window shopping we passed through the archway and headed towards the Bishops Palace and Moat.

The weather was so good that many folks had brought picnics and were sitting enjoying the sunshine. Not something we are able to do as often as we would like. Of course nobody was allowed on the bowling green quality lawns immediately in front of the palace itself.

Before traveling down to Wells I had printed of the Wells Moat Walk map which guides you around the moat and makes sure you don’t miss the main sights. Each of the following views are from that walk.

The Tithe Barn, unfortunately, was surrounded by parked cars which was a shame. Its a lovely building and deserves to be seen without the automotive graffiti.

As we strolled along the moat we availed ourselves of a deliciously smooth 99 apiece. This really was just like a summers day. We had to keep reminding ourselves that it was still only the third week of March.

Wherever you are in the city the magnificent cathedral dominates the skyline. But there are plenty of other interesting sights.

Adjacent to the cathedral can be found the Vicars Close which has it’s own unique style and, having no through road, forms a quiet secluded area away from the general hustle and bustle.

The cathedral itself has many interesting feature both outside as well as in. Close to the entrance to the Vicars Close, on the cathedral wall you can see the Wells Clock, said to be the second oldest clock mechanism in Britain.

Inside, the cathedral has many beautiful architectural features. In the main body of the building is the scissor arch. An impressive feature but they serve a very real purpose. In the past a high tower topped by a lead covered wooden spire had been constructed but as the foundations were not stable large cracks began to appear in the tower structure. The scissor arch is an engineering solution to the problem.

Leading up to the Chapter House is a remarkable flight of stairs

The Chapter House, an octagonal structure, is a beautiful room constructed over the undercroft is where the Canons met to conduct cathedral business.

By far the most spectacular feature of the cathedral is the West Front which features some 300 statues.

After touring the cathedral we were ready to return home. On route we stopped, at the White Horse Ampfield, for dinner.

A fine and tasty end to a great day.

Letter To The Observer

My wife works with a lady whose other half recently made a trip to France. Oh all right, he went on a “booze-crooze”. Anyway, this trip had such an impact on him that he was driven to write to the editor of the Observer.

I include the letter below. For obvious reasons I have not included any names or addresses…..

Dear Editor,

This weekend (10-11 Dec) I went to France on a long-planned “booze cruise”. With David Cameron’s veto freshly ringing in my ears I was wondering how bad it would be. Would my Euros buy me anything?

I have to say I was stunned at how badly the French are doing. Walking through the main shopping centre of historic Bayeux (a city I would imagine to be roughly comparable to Winchester), I was totally unable to find a single charity shop. Nor was I able to spot any shops with “50% off everything” signs in their windows; in fact there were virtually no “soldes” signs there at all.

And guess what?, it got worse. Walking through the city centre, I couldn’t get a McDonald, a Burger King, a KFC, a Pizza Hut, a Costa, a Starbuck, a Wetherspoon – nothing! How do these French people survive without modern-day essentials such as these – essentials that every high street in the UK can proudly offer? As far as well-known chain stores were concerned, all I could find was modest-sized shops, not the vast malls or factory outlets required as evidence of a thriving economy. For the most part the shops were independent local retailers selling quality goods at roughly UK prices. In fact I’d go further and say “better quality goods”. Not at all the symbols of the successful economy that we are used to seeing in the UK. The experience was made worse because it was dreadful having to jostle through the crowds of pathetically non-obese stylishly-dressed shoppers, some of whom would even stop in the street and talk to each other.

As if I wasn’t angry enough already at the sorry state of the poor French people, I couldn’t even find any fast food cartons littering the street for me to kick to help me get it out of my system. I have to hold my hands up and admit that I took advantage of their weakness and bought the cheap high quality booze, then just gave up on them as a hopeless case and came back to good old Blighty.

No doubt about it, from what I saw in Bayeux, the Eurozone is in crisis. I now realise that David Cameron and George Osborne have been right all along, we mustn’t allow ourselves to end up like them.

Brits Abroad

Should I be sad that the behaviour, that once stopped me from going to Spain, is still happening ?

Brits abroad have a woeful reputation for drunkenness, drugs abuse and violence whether it be while following our football teams around or when on vacation.

Once upon a time all you ever heard was about the lager louts in Torremelinos or Fuengirola. Well the net has spread much wider and now apparently also encompasses France, Cyprus, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.

So in answer to my own question, Yes I am sad. On the bright side I now don’t let the behaviour of the minority stop me from enjoying myself and visiting these wonderful countries. What I do now is travel to the quieter parts or visit out of season.

A few years ago my wife and I visited Malia, Crete. The travel agent warned us that it was very noisy but should be OK as we were visiting out of season. She was right.

Although there were wall to wall bars and clubs with restaurants offering traditional English Breakfasts and Sunday Roasts we were able to eat traditional local cuisine although quite often the local dishes were at the back of the menus. Now that is sad.

Last year we visited Cyprus, renting a villa which was outside of town, Coral Bay, which to us looked like a mini Benidorm. We did not venture into Coral Bay preferring to go out into the local villages where there were fewer gaudy lights and loud music and definitely no English Pubs with Satellite TV and Karaoke.

So these wonderful countries are still out there to be visited, cherished and explored despite the best efforts of the rowdy minority to give us, the travelling Brit, a bad reputation. All it takes is a little effort to break out of the mould and away from the package holiday resorts.

And as a footnote, take a look at this article. Poor Richard Gaisford got himself a smack. Apparently from a bar owner who didn’t want the adverse publicity from preventing him from making money out of the good old English Lager Lout.