Yesterday as we drove home from Whitby there were yellow signs saying that 'The Flying Scotsman' was at Grosmont station, ready to ply and wend its way from Grosmont to Pickering over the next few days. All tickets are sold out by now, but the run is pretty, through the steep valley that runs through the North Yorks moor. I have only ever once taken the steam train out of Whitby with the family (it is expensive) and we stopped for tea at one of the stations, Goathland I think, but we all had to rush back, with cakes in hand, before it pulled out.
I like trains, when my brother and I came back from our schools in Wolverhampton to Willenhall, my brother Peter would attach himself to an unsuspecting person and get a free ride home on a train by sneaking on the train. Whereas I would go home on the bus and have to wait for him to join me so that we would arrive home together! This was fine for a time, but the day came when the housekeeper saw this and because she was 'wicked and nasty' held it over our heads should we not do as she said. Luckily she was found out it in the end, I had been ill and she had concocted 'scrambled eggs' the bits were rolling round in milk, yuck. I was in tears over this horrible meal when my grandfather came in to the bedroom and the whole story was told, and luckily she soon disappeared, she was a true Mrs Danvers.
The other train that leaves lasting memory was the one to Switzerland, the journey obviously follows the 'Orient Express' passage, through France and then waking up early in the morning and seeing the mountains in Switzerland is a magnificent sight. Getting on the train at midnight at Vevey, finding one's couchette, and then one terrible Christmas, our luggage with all the presents was stolen, probably somewhere in France..
Yesterday as we drove to Whitby, LS said years ago he would not have believed that one day he would be living in Yorkshire handing out eggs to villagers who every now and then pop by for a few to bake a cake ,etc. Someone had dropped in yesterday for half a dozen, our 'terms' are a donation to the church, and he had chattered for a long while delaying our journey. He is a collector of Victorian stuff in his little shop in their garden, and I had mentioned Jenny and her wondrous finds in Wales at Antique fairs. I am not a collector, though once did have an interest in Victorian books, but books take up space....
Yesterday as we drove to Whitby, LS said years ago he would not have believed that one day he would be living in Yorkshire handing out eggs to villagers who every now and then pop by for a few to bake a cake ,etc. Someone had dropped in yesterday for half a dozen, our 'terms' are a donation to the church, and he had chattered for a long while delaying our journey. He is a collector of Victorian stuff in his little shop in their garden, and I had mentioned Jenny and her wondrous finds in Wales at Antique fairs. I am not a collector, though once did have an interest in Victorian books, but books take up space....
I love trains too Thelma. One ofmy best ever holidays was on the trans-Siberian across from Khabarovsk (we couldn't go all the way from Vladivostok as it was still the days of USSR and Vlad was a closed city, but it was exciting waiting for the train on the platform and looking across the River Amur to China in the far distance. The train journey was wonderful, the food was atrocious, but then we didn't go for that and we supplemented our meagre rations with jacket potatoes from old ladies on the platforms when we stopped
ReplyDeleteSounds marvellous Pat, train journeys are exciting, the different countries and especially different houses and gardens are all deliciously novel....
ReplyDeleteHave you been back to Willenhall recently? - it was the last office that I worked at - (I took early retirement 1 1/2 years ago) - it's changed a lot - Goathland is a pretty village. I did the sleeper through France to Switzerland once but was only 12 years old and going to the Girl Guides centre and really didn't appreciate all the spectacular scenery.....I remember the sleeper wasn't that comfortable though xx
ReplyDeleteHi Trudie, I was only a child at Willenhall, we lived on a place I think called Manor Way, found the house where we lived sometime ago on the internet, it is now a care home I think. Bet the town has changed ;). It is quite funny how you find many English people in Switzerland, so I am not surprised about the girl guides. Vevey had Nestles and English churches, and of course there is Geneva with all the Unesco people.
ReplyDeleteThis is where I had written about it Trudie...
ReplyDeletehttp://northstoke.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/experimenting-with-biography.html
I have never journeyed by train but think I would much prefer it to air travel. Not the AmTrak commuter trains which whizz at lightning speed, something more leisurely.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a good traveler--always glad to return home.
Train journeys can be rather special, the slow ride through the countryside, though not sitting on freezing platforms waiting for late trains to arrive. Must admit though to being a trifle scared going places and it is always nice to return home.
ReplyDeleteThelma - ee you comment on exercise - both my doctor and my physio insist that I carry on with my exercise for the over sixties, insisting that it is the only thing that keeps me mobile. In any case we have such fun.
ReplyDeleteKeep it up then;)
ReplyDeleteI try to sell most of my finds, but have to say some are just too lovely to go any further than me. I still have a penchant for pretty china from my grandmother's time. Oh, and books . . .
ReplyDeleteMy train journeys are ones to Hampshire and Yorkshire, but I can still remember the steam trains of my youth, and diesel train trips down to Dorset in the 70s. We went on a short run from Swanage to Wareham on the Flying Scotsman one year when we were down there on holiday. Sadly Danny was only 3 or so, and probably doesn't remember it!
There was a time when Ben my grandson would not go by Whitby station without demanding to go in and watch the train come in when he was young, sometimes it was a long wait....
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