Channel Islands 1: King’s Lynn to Guernsey

Beginning my account of a family holiday in Guernsey and Alderney with an account of getting to Guernsey.

I am writing this post in a guest house at St Peter Port on the island of Guernsey. I am on a family holiday the centrepiece of which is a few days in Fort Clonque on the island of Alderney. We have time on Guernsey either side of that due to the fact the only ferries we could book were one going out of Portsmouth yesterday morning and one returning to Poole a week today. Just for the record these ferries are run by Condor, which is not part of the Pathetic & Obnoxious Group (P&O for short) who are currently treating their employees so atrociously.

KING’S LYNN TO PORTSMOUTH

Owing to the amount of stuff she and my nephew were taking my sister drove from King’s Lynn to Portsmouth, then took her car to Poole ready for the return journey before getting a train back to Portsmouth. I travelled by train (I had intended to do the same for the return journey from Poole before change in ferry times nixed that idea, so I will be a passenger in her car for the return journey). I got the 13:44 from Lynn to London which ran to time, giving me just under an hour to get from King’s Cross to Waterloo for the train to Poole, far more time than needed for that journey. I elected to take the Victoria line to Oxford Circus and then the Bakerloo line to Waterloo, deciding that although changing to the Jubilee at Green Park was quicker in terms of time spent on trains that difference would be more than accounted for by the difference between the cross-platform hop at Oxford Circus and the long interchange at Green Park, especially given the weight of my bags.

I arrived at Waterloo half an hour before my train to Portsmouth was due to depart, and had to wait for the platform to be confirmed. The train arrived in Portsmouth on time, and I made my way to the Travelodge, about three minutes walk from Portsmouth and Southsea station, where my sister my nephew and I were booked into a three bed room for the night.

PORTSMOUTH TO GUERNSEY

Originally our ferry was supposed to set out at 9AM, which would have meant being at the terminal by 8AM (Guernsey is a ‘crown dependency’, not part of Britain, so this is officially an international journey), but a delay meant that check was not until 9:30AM. Once we got underway it was smooth sailing – there were a few small waves in evidence in the open sea but it was never remotely rough.

We arrived into St Peter Port just after 5PM, and were established at our guest house an hour later.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A Long Weekend 1: Setting the Scene, Kegworth and St Hardulph’s cave

The first in what will be a series of posts about my long weekend away doing family related things – setting the scene and telling the story of the first day..

I have been away for a few days, mostly without internet connection, doing various family related things. This post is the first of several I shall be doing about the events of those few days (Saturday 14 to Tuesday 17 August inclusive). Before getting into the meat of today’s post I will set out the most noteworthy events of the days in question so that you can orient yourselves.

THE ITINERARY IN BRIEF

I had a fixed return date of the Tuesday as I had an NAS West Norfolk related commitment that evening (I could only have stayed one further night anyway, as I have recently returned to work on a one day per week basis, that day being Thursday). The events between Saturday morning and Tuesday evening were as follows:

Saturday morning: travel from King’s Lynn to Kegworth in the east midlands for a barbecue at a cousin’s house.
Saturday afternoon: barbecue, followed by a visit to the cave of St Hardulph and a church that claims a connection to that story.
Saturday evening/night: Holiday Inn, South Normanton, with a supper at the Brewers Fayre.
Sunday morning/ early afternoon: South Wingfield for a thanksgiving service in honour of Ivy Helen Joy Handforth, daughter of a cousin of mine.
Sunday afternoon/early evening: travel from South Wingfield to Akeld Manor near Wooler, Northumberland.
Monday: Holy Island (Lindisfarne) and Bamburgh (Bebbanburg in Bernard Cornwell’s Uhtred series).
Tuesday morning: Brief exploration of Berwick Upon Tweed before catching a train from that town.
Tuesday late morning/ afternoon/ early evening: train journey in four parts: Berwick – York, York – Peterborugh, Peterborough – Ely, Ely – King’s Lynn.
Tuesday late evening: Steak Night at The Globe on King Street, King’s Lynn

I cover the important bits of Saturday in this post. Sunday may take two posts, Monday definitely will, likewise Tuesday.

KEGWORTH

My sister picked me up for the journey to Kegworth. We were a little late setting out, but arrived there at 1:00PM. Before the barbecue we took Covid-19 tests in preparation for the following day. The barbecue itself was excellent, and there were various relations present who I had met either rarely or in one case never before. We were among the last guests to leave, at which point we headed for…

ST HARDULPH’S CAVE

St Hardulph is generally reckoned to have previously been King Eardwulf of Northumbria. He spent his last years living reclusively in a cave in what is now Derbyshire (it is not far from Repton, which numbers CB Fry and Roald Dahl among its alumni).

There is one clearly sculpted column in the cave that looks very ecclesiastic – it may have originally been formed in the usual manner of cave columns by the meeting of stalactite and stalagmite but that is definitely not the whole story.

The nearby church is also quite impressive. I opted out of taking a look at Repton Prep School, being by that point very tired.

The journey on to to Holiday Inn South Normanton where we were spending Saturday night was reasonably smooth (one minor confusion involving a wrong exit from a roundabout, but that did not cost us much time). The rooms at the Holiday Inn were fine, and the supper at the Brewers Fayre was of acceptable quality.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

I took a number of shots of the fishpond at Kegworth.

Greece: Day 1-2 – Getting to Tseria

The beginning of full coverage of my holiday, starting atv the beginning with the journey to Tseria and the rest of that day.

INTRODUCTION

Yes folks, after yesterday’s little offering I am now able to start the story of my Greek holiday in earnest, and my usual logical fashion I am beginning at the beginning.

THE JOURNEY TO TSERIA

The flight to Kalamata (nearest airport to my parent’s house in Tseria) takes off at 5:40AM (the return flight leaves Kalamata at 12:00 Greek time, enabling the same crew to do both flights), which means that for a public transport user who lives in Norfolk the only way to get to the airport is to travel down the night before. I did this, arriving at Gatwick as planned just after 1AM, and making my way via the automatic monorail to the North terminal, where I waited landside until the EasyJet check in desks opened just after 3AM. An uneventful passage through security and I was safely airside and had about 90 minutes to wait for gate information to appear on the screen. I had had a beer landside, and now airside I had a bagel and a coffee while waiting.

There were equally few dramas boarding the plane. I had an aisle seat, which meant no chance of seeing anything through the windows (they are too small to be of use unless you are in a window seat) and also that I had to get up more often than would have been the case had I been in a window seat.

I had had the forethought to equip myself with plenty of reading matter. We landed at Kalamata fractionally ahead of schedule, a gain that was more than lost to slow baggage handling at that end. My parents collected me in their hire car, a nice sensible Skoda Citigo, very economical on the fuel, and suitably robust for handling rural Greek roads (which are much better than they were when I visited Greece in the early 1980s, but still a fair way from being describable as ‘good’).

Inspite of a sleepless night I managed to get through the day without napping and went to bed at a sensible time, following a meal at the new taverna that has opened in the village. It was good of its kind and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Church just below my parents house — This is the first of a number of pictures taken from the balcony outside my parent’s house.

New tower, Tseria — This tower is newly built since I was last in Tseria.

Kardamili from above — A distant view of Kardamili and the mouth of the Viros Gorge.

artwork, local church I — There is a lot of fascinating artwork set into the walls of the church just below my parent’s house in Tseria and I captured some of it.

Pictures From The Stockholm Archipelago

The first post about my travels in Sweden, with lots of photographs.

INTRODUCTION

This is the first in what will be a series of posts about Sweden, where I am currently on holiday. If you enjoy this post I recommend that you make Anna’s blog your next port of call.

AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES

Although I have only been in Sweden since Friday night, I already have a huge number of stunning pictures to share. For this first part of my stay I have been in the company of a cousin and his Swedish fiancee Ida. My cousin met me at Stockholm central bus station (Skavsta airport, where my flight landed is too far out of town for him to meet me there, so I got the Flygbussarna into town on Friday night. On Saturday we travelled to an island that has been owned by Ida’s family for some time. This journey entailed a bus to Stavsnas, a boat out to the nearest island reachable by commercial boat, and a walk across said island, on the other side of which we met Ida who rowed us across the sound to the island on which we would be staying. Here are a few pictures from this part of the stay…

DSCN8084 — These first couple of pictures were taken through the window of an aeroplane from high above.

These first couple of pictures were taken through the window of an aeroplane from high above.

DSCN8097 — The remainder were taken either from the bus to Stavsnas or the ferry.

The Island

This Island has no flushing toilets, and save for the main house no running water. It only got electricity in the 1940s. The sea is lovely to swim in, as I can attest from personal experience. We start with the house itself…

Here some pictures from inside the house…

I will be looking at more detail at the insect life I have encountered in a future post, but to whet the appetite here is a rare butterfly whose English name is Apollo…

Now, some general pictures taken while on the island…

DSCN8245 — As a lead up to the next section, here is a map of the Stockholm Archipelago.

SAILING THE STOCKHOLM ARCHIPELAGO IN AN OPEN BOAT

Richard and Ida had too much stuff to take back to their flat in Stockholm for the way we had reached the island to be appropriate, so we were escorted by private boat, along with Ida’s brother and his daughter. Here are some pictures from the Stockholm Archipelago…

DSCN8314 — Lars (skipper of the boat), setting off on his return journey to the island from Stavsnas

Stavsnas to Stockholm

The last stage of the journey to the flat in which I write this, before heading off later today to catch a train to Kristinehamn, southern terminal of Inlandsbanan was by bus and tunnelbahn (the Stockholm Undergound, which I will be covering in a later post) yielded a few more pictures…

DSCN8335 — These last six pictures feature central Stockholm, as seen from the bus as it approached Slussen.

Travel and Other Stuff

INTRODUCTION

As well as my title piece I have some links, and few photographs to share. I am producing a post specifically about travel because I have always enjoyed travelling and also because in honour of a forthcoming visit to the UK one of my favourite bloggers, Autism Mom

THOMAS ON TRAVEL

PUBLIC TRANSPORT AND SUTCLIFFE’S FIRST LAW

Not only do I not drive, I knew long before I was of an age to drive that I would never do so, so all travelling that i do under my own steam is done on public transport. Since I am now 40, my experience of public transport is long, and because I am British it is also not entirely happy!

The second part of my title refers to a law I have coined for travelling by public transport which reads as follows:

Sutcliffe’s First Law of Travelling by Public Transport – If you allow time for things to go wrong they won’t but if you don’t they will.

The practical application of this somewhat cynical ‘law’ is that when planning a journey where you need to be at your destination by a certain time you should work out the particular bus or train you need to catch and then aim for the one before to allow for mishaps.

These pictures of an RAF rescue helicopter were taken through the window of an X8 bus on the way home from work…

DSCN7486 DSCN7487 DSCN7488

IN TRANSIT

When in transit I either seek to enjoy the scenery (if I am not familiar with the route) or to read a book (if I am)

Another reason that travel is much on my mind at the moment is that my local bus station, which I use frequently is in the process of being refurbished. Here are a couple of pictures…

DSCN7133 DSCN7489

LINKS

My first link comes courtesy of Autism Daily Newscast and features some advice from Jamie Lee Curtis.

Next, we have a little gem of a post from my friends at Faraday’s Candle.

Now, a new discovery for me, seabirdwatchireland

Next two items concerned with the 50:50 campaign for gender equality in parliament:

1)A blog post on Huffington Post

2)A link to a petition related to the above blog post.

My final link, to end this section on an upbeat note is to news of a victory of a campaign in Hackney.

CONCLUSION

I hope you have enjoyed this post and will be encouraged to share it.

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