Prague
So the school holiday arrived, I rushed home to get sorted before a very early morning the next day. Brain, another teacher, and I had planned and amazing Christmas markets tour that began with Prague, a day in Vienna then a few days in Budapest. We were both pretty excited to be heading off the next day until Damien got a text message from Easy jet. As it was snowing, and nothing works in London when it is snowing, our 6am flight from Luton was cancelled. We took this in our stride and rebooked for a later flight from Stansted. Ever optimistic, I packed my bag whilst watching the heaviest snow I have ever seen fall outside my window. We checked the flight status online one last time, it was still scheduled. Brian and I headed off to Liverpool St Station where we caught the Stansted Express. This turned out to be a longer wait than we anticipated and we were glad we had allowed extra time to get to the airport due to the weather. We should have taken this as a warning for what was to come but we were still both feeling optimistic about our trip as we froze on the platform watching the snow melt from the stationary trains.
Finally, after a couple of confusing announcements and platform changes, we were on our way. The train was quite full but it was nice to be out of the cold. We admired the winter landscape of frozen lakes, white fields and families building snowmen from the warmth of the carriage. Then the train had arrived at the airport, had just checked the flight status again on Brian’s I phone and were reassured by the website claiming our flight was still scheduled. This relief was short lived as we discovered soon after that our flight, along with all Easy jet flights had actually been cancelled! It is a strange thing to look at the website which states the flight is scheduled alongside the information screen which told us otherwise. By this point we were both a little annoyed as there were no Easy jet staff in site, in fact the airport terminal looked deserted of staff. There were hundreds of people milling around trying to work out what to do next but not anyone to give information. Brian and I did what any disappointed person would do, we headed for the nearest bar.
Whilst this was a good idea at the time, we were both feeling irritated, disappointed and hungry it may not have been the best idea in retrospect. We did have an ok time but when we got back to the train platform a couple of hours later there was mayhem! All the people who had come out to the airport for cancelled flights, along with all the people who had their flights grounded at Stansted which was the last London airport to close, were trying to get back into central London. What made matters worse was the fact that the trains were not working very well due to the weather, remember nothing works in London when it snows. We spent the next couple of hours chatting to strangers on the platform whilst we waited for a train. We met a German girl who had been trying to get home for three days and a family from Florida who had a connecting flight from a different airport. We didn’t feel so bad about missing our holiday considering we intended to be in London for Christmas anyway. After a couple of hours on the freezing platform, and again with confusing announcements directing people to other platforms, we finally made it onto a very crowded train. We were relieved again to be out of the cold but soon became frustrated as the train broke down twice! We did finally make it back to London and are still waiting for a reply to Brian’s very stern letter about the lack of staff and organisation at the Stansted train platforms.
Meanwhile, Damien being Damien decided he wasn’t going to waste a day off by waiting for me to leave on my holiday. He headed out into the country to go walking in the blizzard! I was very relieved when he arrived home in one piece and very jealous that he had a lovely day out when mine was quite frankly lousy.
Damien Walk, Pluckley
Despite the weather and Christine leaving for Prague today, I got myself moving. The night before I had checked out a really handy hiking England website and decided on my plan of attack. After breakfast, saying bye to Christine, visiting the internet cafe to print the walking instructions and catching the train to London Bridge, I was ready to take the train out of London, a bit later than I had planned. The guy at the ticket window warned unless travel was essential he advised against it, they weren’t certain the trains would run all day due to the snow. But some times you just need to ‘take a gamble on the weather’ so I bought a ticket, jumped on the first train and hoped for the best.
Well I am happy to say that today has changed my opinion on English people, somewhat. Maybe it was my mood, or maybe it was the individuals I met, but today I met the nicest English people I have ever met!
So the school holiday arrived, I rushed home to get sorted before a very early morning the next day. Brain, another teacher, and I had planned and amazing Christmas markets tour that began with Prague, a day in Vienna then a few days in Budapest. We were both pretty excited to be heading off the next day until Damien got a text message from Easy jet. As it was snowing, and nothing works in London when it is snowing, our 6am flight from Luton was cancelled. We took this in our stride and rebooked for a later flight from Stansted. Ever optimistic, I packed my bag whilst watching the heaviest snow I have ever seen fall outside my window. We checked the flight status online one last time, it was still scheduled. Brian and I headed off to Liverpool St Station where we caught the Stansted Express. This turned out to be a longer wait than we anticipated and we were glad we had allowed extra time to get to the airport due to the weather. We should have taken this as a warning for what was to come but we were still both feeling optimistic about our trip as we froze on the platform watching the snow melt from the stationary trains.
Finally, after a couple of confusing announcements and platform changes, we were on our way. The train was quite full but it was nice to be out of the cold. We admired the winter landscape of frozen lakes, white fields and families building snowmen from the warmth of the carriage. Then the train had arrived at the airport, had just checked the flight status again on Brian’s I phone and were reassured by the website claiming our flight was still scheduled. This relief was short lived as we discovered soon after that our flight, along with all Easy jet flights had actually been cancelled! It is a strange thing to look at the website which states the flight is scheduled alongside the information screen which told us otherwise. By this point we were both a little annoyed as there were no Easy jet staff in site, in fact the airport terminal looked deserted of staff. There were hundreds of people milling around trying to work out what to do next but not anyone to give information. Brian and I did what any disappointed person would do, we headed for the nearest bar.
Whilst this was a good idea at the time, we were both feeling irritated, disappointed and hungry it may not have been the best idea in retrospect. We did have an ok time but when we got back to the train platform a couple of hours later there was mayhem! All the people who had come out to the airport for cancelled flights, along with all the people who had their flights grounded at Stansted which was the last London airport to close, were trying to get back into central London. What made matters worse was the fact that the trains were not working very well due to the weather, remember nothing works in London when it snows. We spent the next couple of hours chatting to strangers on the platform whilst we waited for a train. We met a German girl who had been trying to get home for three days and a family from Florida who had a connecting flight from a different airport. We didn’t feel so bad about missing our holiday considering we intended to be in London for Christmas anyway. After a couple of hours on the freezing platform, and again with confusing announcements directing people to other platforms, we finally made it onto a very crowded train. We were relieved again to be out of the cold but soon became frustrated as the train broke down twice! We did finally make it back to London and are still waiting for a reply to Brian’s very stern letter about the lack of staff and organisation at the Stansted train platforms.
Meanwhile, Damien being Damien decided he wasn’t going to waste a day off by waiting for me to leave on my holiday. He headed out into the country to go walking in the blizzard! I was very relieved when he arrived home in one piece and very jealous that he had a lovely day out when mine was quite frankly lousy.
Damien Walk, Pluckley
Despite the weather and Christine leaving for Prague today, I got myself moving. The night before I had checked out a really handy hiking England website and decided on my plan of attack. After breakfast, saying bye to Christine, visiting the internet cafe to print the walking instructions and catching the train to London Bridge, I was ready to take the train out of London, a bit later than I had planned. The guy at the ticket window warned unless travel was essential he advised against it, they weren’t certain the trains would run all day due to the snow. But some times you just need to ‘take a gamble on the weather’ so I bought a ticket, jumped on the first train and hoped for the best.
Well I am happy to say that today has changed my opinion on English people, somewhat. Maybe it was my mood, or maybe it was the individuals I met, but today I met the nicest English people I have ever met!
As the train rolled out of London Town, the snow continued to fall, if anything it got heavier and heavier. Unusually, for the first part of the journey I had a carriage to myself, which was nice, I enjoyed my coffee and read the printout of the walk I had bought with me.
The train ride was only supposed to take an hour but took well over this, due to the weather. In uncharacteristic fashion, this did not annoy me! After about an hour the train pulled into Tonbridge, a place I had never heard of, but was quite busy. I had finished my reading and the next part of the journey took another hour, but again this did not upset me. After Tonbridge I got chatting to someone who had just got on the train. Turns out she had been in London for the week with exams, then had a work party somewhere near Tonbridge the night before and was gradually making her way home to Canterbury. She was lovely and we chatted most of the way until finally the train arrived at Pluckley, and I made my way off the train.
The snow is so pretty, especially from the warmth and comfort of the train. As I stepped off the train it was blizzard like (or as close to a blizzard as you will find in England). I started my 4 hour hike, knowing I only had about 4.5 hours of daylight left. The first part was hard going, because of the snow. The instructions talk about gravel roads and crossing fields, which is made difficult by snow covered ground and 10-15m visability. At point 3 of my 45 point hiking guide I very nearly turned around, having no idea where I was or which direction I was supposed to be headed (standing in a field, not seeing a fence in any direction). It was at this point that I was cold too, I had all the right gear, thermals, snow socks and ski jacket, but after being on the warm train the first 30-40 minutes was cold.
I kept going, for a while I had didn’t know where I was but figured I was going in the right ‘general’ direction. After skipping a few points, I made my way back onto the hiking guide instructions which was re assuring, and about 30 minutes later the snow calmed down and eventually stopped. This meant I was able to see and walk faster, warming me up so I was no longer cold.
I kept going, for a while I had didn’t know where I was but figured I was going in the right ‘general’ direction. After skipping a few points, I made my way back onto the hiking guide instructions which was re assuring, and about 30 minutes later the snow calmed down and eventually stopped. This meant I was able to see and walk faster, warming me up so I was no longer cold.
For the next 3 hours I enjoyed walking through fields, paddocks small towns and small country roads. There was orchids that the walk went through, views over snow covered valleys and forrest with snow covered trees. The small towns were lovely, small churches and not much else. Part of my plan was to turn the walk into a bit of a pub crawl, but this didn’t eventuate. The first pub ‘The Swan’ I skipped and kept walking, as I had left a bit late I wanted to get at least a bit of the way into the walk, then the pub about ¾ of the way through I got to a bit late. Instead I grabbed some cans of beer and kept walking. Just down the track I found a seat with a great view of the valley and fields all covered in snow. I sat ate a banana, bag of chips, drank my beers and enjoyed the winter sunset, at 4pm!
From this point I had to head down in to the valley and back up the otherside. This was made difficult by a slight wrong turn, then back tracking I found myself in the middle of the fog which dropped into the valley quite quickly after sunset. So I was back where I started, in the middle of a field with no visability. I continued through the fog, and made it to the other side of the valley, from here the walk was along country roads back to the train. For the first time since I got of the train, I actually saw other people. As I walked I chatted to a couple of guys, both out walking their dogs, heading in the same direction. My last stop was going to be the local pub in Pluckley, ‘Dering Arms’, but would you believe, on a Saturday afternoon it was closed! Instead I headed back to the train station and waited on the platform, hoping the trains were still running!
I had to wait about half an hour, but the trains were running which was good. Instead of running all the way back to London, the train was terminating at Tonbridge, about half way. At Tonbridge there was a train on a different platform about to head to London, but instead I decided to have a wonder around town.
From this point I had to head down in to the valley and back up the otherside. This was made difficult by a slight wrong turn, then back tracking I found myself in the middle of the fog which dropped into the valley quite quickly after sunset. So I was back where I started, in the middle of a field with no visability. I continued through the fog, and made it to the other side of the valley, from here the walk was along country roads back to the train. For the first time since I got of the train, I actually saw other people. As I walked I chatted to a couple of guys, both out walking their dogs, heading in the same direction. My last stop was going to be the local pub in Pluckley, ‘Dering Arms’, but would you believe, on a Saturday afternoon it was closed! Instead I headed back to the train station and waited on the platform, hoping the trains were still running!
I had to wait about half an hour, but the trains were running which was good. Instead of running all the way back to London, the train was terminating at Tonbridge, about half way. At Tonbridge there was a train on a different platform about to head to London, but instead I decided to have a wonder around town.
It was nice yet the same as every other town in some ways. For a start it was covered in snow and ice, had a small river running through the town. There was an old castle and cathedral which I walked around before finding a small pub on a side street. I got a seat by the open fire, a pint of Guinness and dried out for an hour or so. Sadly the pub didn’t do food, so I still didn’t get to eat.
I headed back to the train station, past the high st shops and chain restaurants. The staff at the station had no idea. There was no information on the screens, and the guy in the information booth would look at his screen every time someone asked him something, only to reply ‘I’m not sure when the next train will be’ or he would say things like ‘we just need to wait for a train to arrive and ask the driver where he is going!’.
After waiting about half hour I headed back over to the ‘information’ guy. The girl in front of me asked about London, so I didn’t have to, he still had no idea. We got chatting, her name was Rachel and she was lovely. A school teacher at Tunbridge Wells, a nearby town, she was trying to get to London to see her sister for dinner. She had driven to the station, and was about to head out to the car to drive to London instead of wait for the train. She had offered me a lift which was very generous. Moments later two trains rolled into the station, and we were advised to take one of them to another small town, which would then have a connecting train to London. I didn’t know any different, so hesitantly, we got onboard, not knowing if there would actually be a connecting train or not.
Luckily there were connecting trains and we did end up back in London reasonably quickly. Rachel had invited me to dinner, since I hadn’t eaten still, but I thought I should get home and out of my wet clothes. We said goodbye and headed off from Victoria Station.
I headed back to the train station, past the high st shops and chain restaurants. The staff at the station had no idea. There was no information on the screens, and the guy in the information booth would look at his screen every time someone asked him something, only to reply ‘I’m not sure when the next train will be’ or he would say things like ‘we just need to wait for a train to arrive and ask the driver where he is going!’.
After waiting about half hour I headed back over to the ‘information’ guy. The girl in front of me asked about London, so I didn’t have to, he still had no idea. We got chatting, her name was Rachel and she was lovely. A school teacher at Tunbridge Wells, a nearby town, she was trying to get to London to see her sister for dinner. She had driven to the station, and was about to head out to the car to drive to London instead of wait for the train. She had offered me a lift which was very generous. Moments later two trains rolled into the station, and we were advised to take one of them to another small town, which would then have a connecting train to London. I didn’t know any different, so hesitantly, we got onboard, not knowing if there would actually be a connecting train or not.
Luckily there were connecting trains and we did end up back in London reasonably quickly. Rachel had invited me to dinner, since I hadn’t eaten still, but I thought I should get home and out of my wet clothes. We said goodbye and headed off from Victoria Station.
I had had a long and enjoyable day, the snow was so nice and being out of London is always great. I had met some great people and for once, delays with trains had not even annoyed me! Sadly as Christine had the camera to take to Prague, I did not get any photos of the countryside covered in snow.
