Today was a fairly cruisy day checking out some local areas while Scott had a bit of time off. It was lucky he was able to swing some time off in lieu of extra work he had done during a bank holiday (public holiday for those of you reading back home).
We headed out to Cheddar Gorge, the home of Cheddar cheese, though given how much cheese we had already sampled during the Bath and West show the other day I’m not sure either of us were particularly keen for another round of taste testing. I certainly wasn’t. We did have breakfast at a local inn, The Lion Rock Tea Rooms. I had a half-sized English breakfast and I’m glad I went for the half size because I didn’t even get through all of that!
We had a bit of wander around town before playing a round of mini golf at the local course. It there wasn’t anything crazy but seeing their leaderboard it’s impressive someone was able to score a 43 around it. Must have been a few hole in ones!
As we weren’t really sampling any cheeses Scott suggested we head to Blagdon Lake as it was only a short drive away. So we hopped in and made our way around to The New Inn Blagdon to have a pint. We sat there for probably 45 minutes just taking in the scenery over our ciders. I’ve seen some epic views on this trip but this one was just idyllic. Only interrupted by the occasional aeroplane taking off from Bristol Airport around 10km away.
From there we tossed up the idea of heading to Stonehenge as it was only around an hour away from where we were. Looking at the time though we decided against it as it would mean we would be heading back with peak traffic which according to Scott (who has been driving in it a fair bit for work) is not a fun time. So we made our way back to Weston and visited another mini golf venue. This one was indoors and only nine holes instead of 18 but it was still fun as there a few interesting mechanisms and shortcuts on offer.
That was pretty much it for the day. We ordered in Chinese for dinner and continued our viewing of The Mummy film series.
Thought we were done with train trips? You thought wrong!
The West Somerset Railway used to form the bulk of a branch line from Taunton to Minehead. A journey that is just over 24 miles (around 40-45 kilometres) originally, though now only the 20 mile stretch from Bishops Lydeard to Minehead remains operational. The now scenic railway operates regular steam and diesel services throughout the year, along with special event and theme trains. In the Christmas period there is a night train similar to the Puffing Billy Light Train that operates to a Christmas festival in Dunster.
Scott and I arrived early to catch the first service of the day. As we arrived so early there was time for some souvenir shopping. The station building blew a fuse while we were there so there was a bit of hectic action to get things sorted as the power outage affected the ticket stalls for around 10 minutes.
We boarded the train around 10 minutes before the scheduled departure and found some seats in one of the middle carriages of the train. It was actually interesting looking at what was considered luxury at the time and also what creature comforts we take for granted these days.
As much as I have enjoyed blazing along train tracks at 300kph in modern electric trains there’s certainly something special about steam trains. I suppose it will be the same for people who like internal combustion cars in an era where EV’s are starting to take over.
The train departed on schedule and we wound our way along the track towards the coast. We passed a diesel service heading back to Bishops Lydeard, the older Diesel Motor Units (DMU’s) show how far that technology has come where they can now fit a diesel unit under a train carriage that still allows passengers to board a carriage above it. Much like comparing older VLine services hauled by diesel locos to modern VLocity trains back home.
We arrived in Dunster around 4 minutes behind schedule. But who needs a schedule with these trains?
Dunster is a traditional medieval village at the base of the Dunster castle. Every Christmas they host a massive festival where a light train (similar to Puffing Billy train of lights) runs to bring people to the festival. The main streets get closed off and turned into a massive winter market with food, drinks, and crafts.
For us though, it’s not Christmas so we were seeing the town in its day-to-day life. It must be strange to live in a place like this knowing that people are coming to visit it as a tourist attraction. Certainly would be a good motivation to keep up with the garden maintenance! We had lunch at one of the pubs, I had a traditional lamb roast. As someone that hasn’t had a decent roast since leaving home it was certainly no disappointment to see that was the only thing on the lunch menu.
As we finished lunch we checked the train schedule for departures so we knew how much time we would have to look around. It was either just over an hour or just over three hours. I think having our time again we might have opted to stick around for the later train but hindsight is a wonderful thing isn’t it?
Catching the earlier train meant we were rather time limited so did not opt to pay to go into Dunster castle itself, we attempted to wander around the outside but part of the northern area encompasses the watermill that falls into the castle grounds that you have to pay to get into. So we just wandered around the medieval village, found a set of scales that we paid the 20p to check our weight (I’m suss on the reading but more on that another day) and then went and bought ice creams for the walk back to the station.
From the coastline section of the line you can see across the Bristol Channel to Wales. The town of Barry can be seen on clear days, it was a bit hazy but we could still see it today. At Watchet there’s a boat museum. Blue Anchor is a seaside holiday resort town, one of the areas that initially grew as a result of the train line running through the area.
That was pretty much it for the Sunday, we made our way back from Taunton area and had a light dinner as most places close early on Sundays. We picked a few items up from the supermarket and called it a day.
We were up early to head to the Bath and West Royal Show. I would summarise it by saying it is what Royal Melbourne Show would be if it were mixed with the Whittlesea Show’s agriculture community aspect. While Melbourne Show still has agricultural stuff it has very much become more a focus on the entertainment (rides, sideshow alley) over the agricultural stuff for most people.
Sarah and her sister Emily ended up spending most of the day watching the events on the main arena as that was were the bulk of the equine activity was taking place at the show. Scott and I, meanwhile, wandered the event and checked out the offerings of gin, rum, vodka, and cheese. We also checked out the market stalls but that wasn’t as important as the food!
We also tried our hand at air rifle target shooting. It took some adjusting to the scope as (rightfully so now I think about it) the instructor advised us not to put the eye all the way up to the scope due to the recoil. Anyway, I feel like I did pretty well, pulled the shots a little to the right but still had a good grouping in the 9-10 range.
We had a pint at the Thatchers bar, this time I tried Thatchers Haze. They make some pretty good cider let me tell you. We thought about having some food but opted against it as they were still serving the early menu and there were plenty of food trucks around the event to purchase food from.
Walked around a bit more, then it was time for lunch. I ended up having Pad Thai. Scott had a pulled pork burger. A Blues Brothers tribute band was playing on the live stage as we were eating. Some good tunes. We walked around some more, then watched the doggos do their main arena event. Then to finish off the day there was this event with ponies. Juniour riders do these challenges on ponies as practice for ridership (including mounting and dismounting) where they have to pick things up from tables or on the ground then drop them off in another location. A lot of skill and precision involved, it was quite interesting to watch even though I understand very little of the art of horse riding.
After that it was basically time to call it a day. We picked up some fresh cinnamon donuts on the way out but then Sarah forebode us from eating them in the car. So Scott ate all of his before we got to the car, except the one Sarah eventually nabbed off him.
Woke up this morning and my ankle was sore again. Just when I thought it was all recovered the pain has returned. Not quite as bad as it was the day I could barely walk in Lucerne but still quite painful.
Not wanting to do much with it I hung around Scott and Sarah’s place for the morning. Sarah came home at lunch time to work from home for the remainder of the day so I endeavoured to get out for a bit of a walk to leave her in peace for a while and also test out my ankle.
It wasn’t the worst it’s been, but it also wasn’t the best. I did a small loop around West Wick, doing just enough to get me close to 10k steps so that whatever was planned for dinner that night would get me over the line.
Scott and I ended up having dinner at the St Nicks Night Market in Bristol, Sarah dropped us off and went to do her own thing for a couple of hours while we had a wander around the market and a bite to eat. It was a slow wander and enough to get me over 10k. Our only regret was not having more of a wander around before picking on food as we found more food joints past the markets after we had already eaten. The burger I had was nice but there was an interesting looking Taco joint I probably would have opted for instead had I known it was there.
We stopped at a bar by the waterfront, watched a couple of party boats expertly handle the narrow channel, had a pint, and made our way back.
Today was a fairly low key day, it was all train travel via National Rail from London to Weston Super-Mare to spend some time with Scott and Sarah.
I was on the tube by 9:30 as I was aiming to be on the early train to Bristol so I could get near to Weston where Sarah works. So much for not using this station on the way back though, the best suggested route over the Circle Line. Look it’s not ideal having to lug the case up three flights of stairs but it is what it is.
Paddington was the destination, and there were plenty of lifts here to use. I made my way from the tube to the main concourse. The 10am Bristol Temple Meads train was on time, I just had to upgrade my ticket from an off-peak ticket that wasn’t valid to one that was. Easy done, just had to wait to find out what platform we’d be departing from.
Luckily I had opted for this route over heading straight to Worle station (which is near where Sarah works) as the train that would have taken me directly got cancelled.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) service was running on one of the new Hitachi trains from the High Speed program. Built in conjunction with upgrades to the Eurotunnel corridor the High Speed 1 and High Speed 2 projects improve connections with regional centres.
We got held up due to a signal fault near Swansea, and that delay was enough to put the timing for the ongoing connection out. I should have organised the ticket for the Bristol to Worle train in the morning but neglected to do it and had to head to the ticket office when I got to Bristol. So I missed the connecting service and had to wait for the next one.
That service arrived on time, and I got to Worle as expected. Met up with Sarah who had arranged to drop me at their place during her lunch break so I could drop my stuff off. Sarah headed back to work and I made my way out the rest of the way to Weston Super-Mare for the afternoon to see what was happening out there.
Short answer was there was a lot of kids as it’s currently school holidays, but that is ending this weekend so it should be quieter around there later this week when I head back.
Headed back to Scott and Sarah’s, got in just before 5pm. Sarah cooked a delicious pasta bake and garlic bread.
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