There and Back Again

Robbie had promised me a nice relaxing trip to York on Saturday, but it almost didn’t happen because my asthma decided to play up on Friday afternoon. I was feeling much better by Saturday morning so I agreed to go out as long as Robbie didn’t rush me. Usually he has me trotting backwards and forwards along the platform like a demented hen as he tries to predict exactly where he needs to stand in order to get his favourite seat. I hate running up and down stairs between platforms at the best of times, but if he had tried that today I think I would have collapsed in a heap.

Baldric Burgess had a cunning plan to make up time, we travelled from Northampton to Tamworth, then we caught a Cross Country service to Derby and we were just in time to catch the 9.46 Southampton Central to Newcastle service which took us to York. We wouldn’t have made that train if we had gone via Birmingham. My new netbook is so small and portable that I was able to tuck it into my rucksack and I sat on the voyager catching up on my mail and editing photos, that really is my idea of heaven.

We waited for several minutes at Doncaster and as I glanced out of the window I had an uncomfortable feeling that we may have been invaded by a foreign power. There was no need to worry it was just a group of East Coast staff in their rather unfortunate uniform. I wonder if the company were striving for the Russian border guard look or if they just stumbled upon it by accident.

When we got to York Robbie was bouncing around like Tigger, he was really excited about going to the National Railway Museum again. He loves the shop at the NRM and he kept calling me over to look at all the interesting goodies he had spotted. We spent ages looking at everything, there were some lovely books and DVDs. Robbie bought himself a couple of mounted prints and I bought him a poster and a 1907 Bradshaws railway map (because I wanted it too) it’s amazing.

We had a nice journey back to Birmingham on a Voyager, but sadly there was no catering until Derby. I like travelling on Cross Country services, the staff are usually friendly and helpful, the biscuits are lovely, but the tea is absolutely dire. There is so much that they do right, so surely it shouldn’t be beyond them to produce something that bears a passing resemblance to a cup of tea!