Travel Archives - Neil Turner's Blog

My disabled bus pass

October 9, 2026 by Neil Turner

A photo of my Disabled Person’s Travel Pass - a bus pass giving me free off-peak bus travel

As I’m currently unable to drive for health reasons, I’ve applied for a Disabled Person’s Travel Pass to give me free bus travel. Indeed, the letter I received from the DVLA notifying me that I was unfit to drive was sufficient proof that I’m eligible for a bus pass.

I wish I’d known this when I first got my letter through in June. As it was, it took me until mid-August to apply, and then it took around a month for my application to be approved. The card then arrived in the post around a week later. In that time, I’d made a number of bus journeys that would’ve been free, had I received my card sooner.

Applying for your bus pass

Generally, you apply for your bus pass via your local authority’s web site, or in person at their offices. However, some counties, like where we live in West Yorkshire, have county-level passenger transport organisations. Ours is currently called Metro, hence the big red ‘M’ on my card, but they’re in the process of re-branding to the Weaver Network. This in the same way that Transport for Greater Manchester is now more commonly known as the Bee Network, thanks to Andy Burnham’s time as Mayor of Greater Manchester. Information about bus passes for blind and disabled people is here on Metro’s web site, if you live in West Yorkshire.

If you think you’re eligible for a disabled bus pass, then generally your local authority is a good starting point. Their web site should signpost you elsewhere if it’s handled by another organisation.

What your bus pass entitles you to

As I write this in October 2026, having a Disabled Person’s Travel Pass entitles me to free bus travel between the hours of 9:30am and 11pm, Monday to Friday, and all day at weekends and on public holidays, across the whole of England. However, one of the first things that Andy Burnham announced when he became Prime Minister was that time restrictions would be abolished from the 1st April 2027. That means that, in just under six months time, my disabled bus pass will be valid 24 hours per day, across England. Because we’re disabled, not werewolves, and sometimes disabled people have places we need to be before 9:30am. Some of my hospital appointments require more than one bus to get to, and each journey is £2.50, or £6 for an all-day ticket when my bus pass isn’t yet valid.

Individual counties and local authorities can also offer additional benefits to bus pass holders from their area. For example, on buses in West Yorkshire, my pass can be used until midnight, rather than 11pm. I can also use it on train journeys within West Yorkshire, although not for free travel – instead, I get half price off-peak travel. This doesn’t help me with commuting, although my Disabled Person’s Railcard is valid at peak times so I can still use that on the way to work. I’ve used my 50% bus pass discount once on a weekend recently, and most online ticket booking web sites seem to have an option to use it as a railcard when buying tickets.

If you live in Greater Manchester and have a Disabled Person’s Travel Pass, then I believe it’s already valid 24 hours per day within Greater Manchester. In effect, come April 1st, Andy Burnham is rolling out one of his Manchester mayoral policies nationally. You also get free off-peak travel on all trams and trains within Greater Manchester.

Within my local authority area, it can also be used at many of the places that a Passport to Leisure card can be used, which offers discounts at council-run gyms, and discounted entry to some local attractions.

Eligibility

Whereas the Disabled Person’s Railcard has wide eligibility – I was able to get one simply because I’m a hearing aid user – you have to me more profoundly disabled to qualify for a Disabled Person’s Travel Pass. As mentioned, having the DVLA declare you medically unfit to drive is one such criteria. For West Yorkshire, here’s the list along with the evidence required.

My pass has only been issued for a year; hopefully, I’ll have no more seizures and will be back to driving, at which point I’ll no longer be eligible for my bus pass. Which would be okay – when I could drive, I rarely used the bus. The few occasions that I did use it were when our car was in the garage, or I needed to get home when all the trains were cancelled. But at the moment, I’m using buses at least weekly, and so having a free bus pass is a great help.

By the way, if you’re wondering why I have blanked out my face on my card it’s because:

It’s an awful photo
The same photo is on my passport

We’re in Wales

July 21, 2026 by Neil Turner

A photo of Mostyn Street in Llandudno in Wales, looking towards the Great Orme

As mentioned at the start of the month, we’re off to Wales again for our summer holiday, and by the time you read this, we should have been there a couple of days. We’re staying near Conwy again, in a rented holiday cottage, as a group of five – me, Christine, our ten-year-old and my parents.

We were unsure whether this holiday would happen; I’ve had my injuries to recover from, and my Dad was unwell earlier in the year too. And there was a major wildfire not far from where we’re staying. But my Dad and I have recovered sufficiently, and the fire seems to be under control and has not spread to the cottage we’re renting for the week.

Weather-wise, it looks like quite a nice week, but cooler than it has been recently. Which I’m appreciating.

There will still be regular blog posts going live whilst I’m away, as I’ve written plenty in advance. Having spent most of the month working part-time, as part of a phased return to work, has meant I’ve had more time for writing new blog posts. So, I’ve made the most of it and ensured that there’s content for the rest of this week and next.

Once I’m back, I’ll start writing about the places we visited and what we got up to. See you then.

We’re off to London today

March 19, 2026 by Neil Turner

A photo of the Union Flag flying in front of Tower Bridge in London

So, in the start of the month round-up, I mentioned that Sci-Fi Weekender had been cancelled with only a few weeks notice. This meant that we had three nights of childcare arranged, with no plans. So, as this post goes live, Christine and I will be on our way down to London.

It’ll be my first trip to London in two years, although Christine has been more recently for some conferences related to her work. Normally we go once a year, so a two year gap is unusual for me. We’re travelling down by train, as per usual; I drove to London and back once, and vowed never to do so again.

It’s also the first time since 2021 that we’ve had a child-free weekend in London. We, of course, love our ten-year-old to bits, and there’s no shortage of things to do in London as a family. But when it’s just two of us, we can just be a little more agile and spontaneous, and can be a bit more daring when it comes to food. Plus, some of the places we’re planning to visit are things that our ten-year-old would either dislike or find boring. Instead, they’re staying with my cousins, and then with my parents in York.

That being said, as I write this, we haven’t firmly decided what we plan to visit. So far, we’ve got the train and the hotel booked, and may go and see a West End show one night. The trips to London we’ve enjoyed the most have had a mixture of planned and spontaneous activities, so we deliberately don’t plan the trip too much before we arrive.

I’ve got a few pre-written blog posts to go live over the next few days, and then I’ll write about where we went. See you soon.

Ponhog laptop backpack review

February 15, 2026 by Neil Turner

I was in need of a new backpack that can carry a laptop, and so I bought this Ponhog laptop backpack (sponsored link) a few weeks ago. Here’s my review of it, but firstly a bit of background.

I’m a hybrid worker, and when I go into the office I tend to commute by train. In the near future, I’m likely to need to transport my work laptop around more often than I do now. At present, I have a lightweight backpack designed for hiking and cycling, which can hold my iPad, my lunch bag, and not a lot else, so I have a separate laptop bag.

I’d rather not have two bags – I don’t want to be that guy who has to grovel to our IT department because I left the laptop on the train. So, I needed a backpack which could also safely transport a laptop, and this Ponhog laptop backpack seemed to fit the bill.

Overlooking the name ‘ponhog’

Firstly, I’d like to address the elephant, or rather, ‘hog’ in the room: frankly, I think ‘ponhog’ is a terrible name for a luggage brand. Whilst the word ‘ponhog’ itself isn’t in Urban Dictionary (a baseline test for any brand – looking at you, Nonce Finance), ‘pon’ just means ‘on’ and ‘hog’ means ‘pig’.

I don’t have any better suggestions myself, but I’m sure there are many potential brand names that are better than ‘Ponhog’.

The outside of the backpack

There are a number of different styles and colours available. I went with blue, which I mainly chose because I liked the colour, but it also appears to be cheaper than some of the others. The fabric feels like a plastic-y denim, which gives it some water resistance. It certainly hasn’t let in any of the rain that we’ve had in recent weeks whilst I’ve been using it, so that’s good.

There are five zipped compartments accessible from outside. There’s the big main one (more on this later), a smaller one which is behind some black shiny fabric, a small flat one on the front with reflective material, and two tall side compartments. I particularly like the side compartments, as I can pop a water bottle in one, and a reusable coffee cup in the other, and they can be completely enclosed inside. There are also two thin side pockets that don’t zip up, one on each side.

Inside the backpack

It’s possible to open the backpack so both the top and bottom of the main compartment are completely flat. Apparently this is so that you can have it open for inspection at airport security. There are Velcro flaps on each side that you can close if you don’t want to open it fully.

The main compartment is pretty big – it claims to have a 30 litre capacity. At the back are two padded pockets – a larger one for a laptop, and a smaller one for a tablet. A Velcro strap helps to anchor the devices in these pockets in place, although it doesn’t fit snugly around the device like some dedicated laptop bags do. As such, it’ll protect your devices somewhat, but not as much as one with a tighter strap. Also, whilst I could fit my iPad Air into the tablet pocket, I could only do so without a case on. But there’s plenty of room in the laptop pocket for a really chunky laptop and a larger tablet.

The front compartment with the black shiny fabric has four little sub-pockets. I like these – it means that I can sort the various gubbins I carry around with me into each pocket. This includes spare headphones, charger cable and plug, hearing aid batteries, a pen, some hand cream and a power bank. It makes finding things a lot easier, and it’s handy that it’s separate from the main compartment.

What it’s like to wear the backpack

All this would be for nothing if this backpack wasn’t comfortable to wear, so thankfully it is relatively pleasant to have on your back. Overall, it is heavier than my old backpack, which was made of much lighter material, but it also seems more waterproof. The back panel is made of a breathable mesh, and as well as the shoulder straps, there’s a cross brace so that you can transfer some of the weight to your ribcage.

The dimensions mean that it is (just) small enough to be classed as a ‘small under seat bag’ on airlines such as Jet2 and Ryanair, so you could have this in addition to your hand luggage that goes in the overhead locker. Indeed, there’s a strap on the bag that allows you to hook it on top of a rolling case, which is handy. I actually wish I’d taken this to Athens rather than a small tote bag, as it would have made packing to go home much easier.

Whilst I’m primarily using this bag for daily commuting, I can see it being very useful for international travel, should I need to fly somewhere again. I’ve had it for about six weeks as I write this, and have taken it to and from work a few times. Overall, I’m pretty happy with it; it’s the first time that I’ve bought a backpack online rather than in a shop where I can try it on first. So, I’m pleased that it’s been a worthwhile purchase.

Why do I like trains so much?

November 9, 2025 by Neil Turner

A photo of a steam train, named Sir Nigel Gresley. It is an LNER blue A4 Pacific named after its designer. This was exhibited at Railfest in 2012, at the National Railway Museum

If you’ve been reading this blog for a long time, you may have noticed that I write about trains and public transport quite a bit. Recent posts have included the railway station in Wales with the excessively long name, decarbonising London’s rail termini, renaming London Underground lines and the issues with the Central Line in London. Trains, and especially trains in Britain have been an interest of mine for as long as I can remember, and this is an attempt to rationalise why that is.

My dad worked for British Rail

Compared with the average young person in 1980s Yorkshire, I probably got more exposure to trains than other kids my age. This was because my dad worked for British Rail, in their civil engineering department. As such, we got employee travel benefits, meaning 20 days free travel per year and a steep discount on all other rail travel beyond that. As such, we travelled by train a lot; despite living in York, we would have regular day trips to London which was only a couple of hours away.

My parents still have their staff travel privileges, even though my dad retired from the railway over a decade ago. I unfortunately don’t, as I’m no longer dependent on them, but I was able to keep it through my time at university, which was nice.

I could see trains from my bedroom window

The window in my childhood bedroom overlooked mainly fields, but in the distance, I could also see trains on the East Coast Main Line. Our house overlooked one of the busier four-tracked sections, and so as well as London-Scotland Intercity trains, I could also see Transpennine and Crosscountry services, and a few freight trains. We were close enough to be able to make out train liveries and types, but not individual train numbers.

I have vague memories of seeing the engineering trains that were involved in the electrification of the line, which took place in the late 1980s, and experiencing the then new electric Intercity 225 trains that are now in their twilight years.

A photo of two trains at the National Railway Museum in York - an Intercity 125 High Speed Train on the left, and a red steam engine on the right

I grew up in York

York is an important junction on Britain’s railways, largely thanks to George Hudson (although he has a rather complicated legacy thanks to some dodgy financing). It has a much bigger station than many places of a similar size, and is where the East Coast Main Line meets branches from Harrogate and Scarborough to the north, and Hull and Leeds from the south. There are lots of places that you can get to from York without changing trains. So, the combination of easy journeys and free/discounted travel meant that I was able to go on lots of trips by train whilst growing up.

York is also home to the National Railway Museum, which I used to visit regularly as a child. As an adult, I haven’t been in a few years but we’ve taken our nine-year-old there at least a couple of times.

I didn’t pass my driving test until I was 31

It was August 2015, at the age of 31, before I passed my driving test. We bought our first car the following month.

However, that meant that I spent the first 13 years of my adult life largely reliant on public transport. In 2010, I moved out of Bradford, where I was working, to Sowerby Bridge, and this meant that I spent subsequent years commuting to work by train. And even now, I tend to prefer commuting by train – it’s rare that I drive to work, even though I have the option.

Also, in 2009 and 2010, when Christine and I were dating but not living together, one of us would get the train across the Pennines to see each other almost every weekend.

I read magazines about trains

Ever since I could read confidently on my own, I’ve been reading Rail Magazine. Indeed, I’ve had a subscription and/or read it through Readly or Pressreader for many years now, not missing an issue. Which, as it’s published every fortnight, is a lot of content.

For a time, I also read Modern Railways every month, although I stopped when it was no longer included with Readly. I haven’t subscribed because, whilst I appreciated the analysis in it, I just don’t have the time to read that as well. Indeed, recently I was six issues behind with Rail Magazine and only really caught up due to being ill at the end of October.

Consequently, my knowledge of British rolling stock is pretty good. Give me a photo of a passenger unit or locomotive that has run within the past 20 years in Britain, and I’ll probably be able to tell you its class number, when it was introduced, which company built it and where. Granted, it’s not the most useful superpower, although it did come in useful when advising a friend with sensory issues about which trains would be nosiest on a long journey.

I’m also not a trainspotter – I don’t note down individual unit numbers and I don’t actively spend time hunting out particular types of trains. Not that there’s anything wrong with having a hobby like that, if that’s something you enjoy. It’s just not for me.

So, I think, in a nutshell, that’s why I’m interested in trains.

Park and Ride for Northern English Cities

October 18, 2025 by Neil Turner

A photo of Temple Green Park and Ride in Leeds

I like a good Park and Ride system. You park your car somewhere on the edge of a city, usually for free, and then switch to a more sustainable mode of transport to get to the city centre.

I grew up in York, whose Park and Ride system has been around since the late 1980s. Nestlé Rowntree were an early sponsor, and I remember as a kid getting a box of Smarties when boarding. Back then, it was operated in the car park of the (then) York College of Art and Design on Saturdays, using hired in coaches. Later, it moved to a purpose built site on the other side of the A1036 Tadcaster Road and eventually got its own dedicated fleet of buses. Nowadays, York’s system operates from six sites and is the largest one in the UK, as befits such an ancient city.

Most other cities in the north of England have some kind of Park and Ride scheme, and this is my attempt at summarising them. I’m including every settlement in the North East, North West and Yorkshire that has official city status.

Bradford

In a way, it’s a shame to start with Bradford, as there isn’t an official Park and Ride scheme there yet. Bradford definitely needs one – I think part of the reason why Bradford has such a reputation for bad driving is that congestion is a major issue, and you almost have to drive aggressively to be able to get anywhere because otherwise no-one will let you in. One was proposed for south Bradford, near the northern end of the M606, but it seems that a majority of respondents to a consultation opposed it, and nothing has come of it since.

There is also Low Moor railway station, which opened in 2017 and is located a short drive from the M62. If you time it right, you can park there and commute by train to Bradford. However, there’s only a couple of trains per hour, so it’s not a ‘turn up and go’ service, and only around 100 car parking spaces.

Carlisle

I’ve only been into Carlisle once, in 2012, and I apparently didn’t see fit to write much about it. We were there just for an afternoon and, it being January, it was pouring with rain.

From what I can tell, Carlisle does not have a formal Park and Ride scheme.

Chester

Chester, however, does have a formal Park and Ride scheme. At present, there are three services, located in the north, south and east of the city. A fourth site, to the west, is closed at the time of writing. These are all bus-based services, and the northern site is next to Chester Zoo.

Back in 2011, Christine and I used the Park and Ride service in reverse, to get from Chester city centre, where we were staying, to the zoo. At the time, the Park and Ride called at Chester railway station and so we actually had ‘train’ tickets to use the bus. However, none of the current Park and Ride services call at Chester station and so zoo visitors are instead advised to catch the Chester-Liverpool X1 service; this also drops you at the zoo entrance, rather than the Park and Ride site which is a 5-10 minute walk.

Doncaster

Yes, Doncaster is a city, as of 2022, thanks to Queen Elizabeth II’s Platty Jubes. Travel South Yorkshire list 10 (!) Park and Ride sites for Doncaster, although some of these are ‘railway stations with car parks’ and not all of them have a turn-up-and-go service. Still, it’s good that they’re being promoted in this way.

Durham

Durham is a bit like York, but with additional altitude, and so it has three Park and Ride sites. These are all bus services.

Kingston upon Hull

Hull just has the one Park and Ride service, and unlike most others, it looks like it’s purely a commercial service operated by Stagecoach. It’s for traffic approaching from the west, which is where most of the traffic to Hull comes from to be fair, with it being on the East Coast. It’s located at Priory Park, which is the next junction on the A63 after the Humber Bridge as you head east.

Lancaster

Like Hull, Lancaster has one site, located by junction 34 of the M6 to the north of the city. It’s a bus service.

Leeds

Leeds has three Park and Ride sites: one at Elland Road, the Leeds United Stadium, serving the west of the city, one at Stourton, to the south, and a third at Temple Green, serving the east. There isn’t currently a northern site. We use the Elland Road service quite frequently, as it’s cheaper than parking in Leeds city centre and has recently started running on Saturdays again. It’s a bus service, with buses every 10-15 minutes. We’ve used the Temple Green service once, which is the header image for this post.

If the West Yorkshire Rapid Transit System goes ahead, then you may also be able to catch a tram from the White Rose Centre into Leeds in a decade’s time.

Liverpool

There’s no formal Park and Ride service in Liverpool, but Merseyrail has information about car parking at its stations. Of these, Headbolt Lane, Liverpool South Parkway, Maghull, Southport, Bidston, Birkenhead North, Hooton and Leasowe all have 200 or more car parking spaces. Generally, trains on Merseyrail run every 15 minutes.

Manchester and Salford

Salford is a city in its own right, but I’ve grouped it with its larger neighbour as it shares a transport authority. The Bee Network lists a staggering 41 Park and Ride sites, using a combination of rail, bus and tram. Not all of them have lots of spaces, but many have 200+. For some, you may have to pay for parking as well as your travel. Helpfully, the Bee Network page also lists those that have electric car charging facilities.

We tend to use Hollinwood Metrolink, which is just off the eastern side of the M60, and has a modest multi-storey car park with 178 spaces. You can tell that it’s well-used but we’ve also always managed to find a space when we’ve used it. Metrolink services are normally every 12 minutes.

Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland

I’m also grouping these two local rivals for the same reason as Manchester and Sunderland. Nexus list the stations on the Tyne and Wear Metro with parking, rather than offering a formal park and ride scheme. Again, you may need to pay to park at some of these stations. Trains are typically every 12-15 minutes.

Preston

There are two Park and Ride sites in Preston; one at Walton-le-Dale, to the south-east of the city near the M6, and a second at Portway, to the west. Whilst the Walton-le-Dale site is run by the county council, the Portway site is a commercial one, run by a local operator.

There’s been a long-standing proposal for a privately-funded tram line running to Preston city centre from a potential park and ride site at Junction 31A of the M6, but nothing seems to have come of it.

Ripon

I’m including Ripon on this list as it is officially a city, despite its small size. There have long been proposals for a park and ride scheme, but there isn’t one at present. Elsewhere in North Yorkshire, the towns of Whitby and Scarborough have Park and Ride schemes, but neither is a city.

Sheffield

As with Doncaster, Travel South Yorkshire offer a list for Sheffield. Unlike Doncaster, the majority of these are tram services, and each has a decent number of car parking spaces. Trams typically operate every 12 minutes.

Wakefield

No formal scheme here either. You could park at Outwood, or Sandal & Agbrigg railway stations, I suppose.

York

And we’re back to York. York wasn’t the first city in the UK to adopt a Park and Ride – services in Oxford date back to the 1960s. But it’s one of the biggest and has a dedicated fleet of all-electric buses. As it’s a dedicated service, the buses are limited-stop services that skip stops in the suburbs.

It makes sense that York was an early adopter of Park and Ride services, being an ancient city with roads that weren’t designed for cars and therefore limited capacity for car parking.

Our 2025 holiday: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch station

August 27, 2025 by Neil Turner

The old station house at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch station

I wonder how many RSS readers I’ve broken with the title of this blog post? Anyway, our last stop on our day out to Anglesey was Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch railway station.

I think most Brits are award of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch station’s claim of being the station with the longest name on the British Rail network. However, it’s more commonly known as ‘Llanfairpwll station’ and this is what appears on train destination boards. Indeed, its unnecessarily long name was a contrivance thought up by the railway company that originally built it in the 19th Century as a way of encouraging people to visit it by train. It roughly translates into English as ‘The church of St. Mary of the pool of the white hazels near to the fierce whirlpool and the church of St. Tysilio of the red cave’.

The platforms at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch station

Llanfairpwll station today

Llanfairpwll station (as I will call it for the rest of this post) isn’t much of a station. It survived the Beeching cuts in the 1960s, but nowadays it gets a rather infrequent service. Going back towards the mainland, there was a wait of over an hour for the next train whilst we were there. And it’s a ‘request stop’ – if you want to get on a train, you need to make a clear signal to the driver of the train, as otherwise services will pass through at low speed. Similarly, if you’re on a train and want to get off there, you need to tell the guard that you want to do so, so that he/she/they can tell the driver to stop.

There are two short platforms – indeed, some trains that do stop there need to use selective door opening as they’re longer than the platforms – and a footbridge. Only platform one, for trains back towards the mainland, is accessible from the car park as there are no ramps or lifts on the footbridge. There is a gate leading from platform two, for trains towards Holyhead, but it would be a very long walk/wheel back into the town.

As well as being a request stop, Llanfairpwll station is unstaffed. The old station master’s house has been restored, but isn’t in use as far as I can tell. There aren’t even any facilities to buy a ticket here. I think Transport for Wales is missing a trick here, as tickets purchased from here could be collectors items. A machine could be installed that even just sells ceremonial platform tickets.

A photo of the outside of James Pringle Weavers at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch station

Tourist trap

The reality is that most people who go to Llanfairpwll station arrive and depart by road. The station retains a large car park, and the fact that this car park has bays for coaches tells you a lot. Next to the station is a large shop, run by James Pringle Weavers (in reality a subsidiary of Edinburgh Woollen Mill) which sells a range of merchandise with Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch branded on it, amongst other things. I’m sure most people grab a couple of photos on the station platforms before going to the shop, and then moving on, without setting foot on a train. And yes, that’s exactly what we did too.

It’s nice that quirks like this still exist in places in the UK, but I feel like the station itself could be more front and centre. Perhaps, with longer platforms, better access, a more frequent service and some ticket machines, more people might actually visit Llanfairpwll station by rail.

Our 2018 summer holiday in the Loire

July 21, 2025 by Neil Turner

A small train plodding around the Parc Floral de la Source

Last summer, I blogged about previous un-blogged holidays in 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023. As I’m away on this year’s holiday at present, I’m going to write about our 2018 holiday. Although our holiday fell before my blogging hiatus, it only got a brief mention at the time.

This particular holiday was our nine-year-old’s first trip outside England, although as it was seven years ago they were two at the time, as that’s how maths works. Nominally, our holiday was in the Loire valley in France – yes, the same place as 2023 – but we fitted some other places in too.

A photo of the outside of the Cadbury's Factory in Bourneville, West Midlands

Cadbury World

I suppose our holiday ‘started’ in the West Midlands, at Cadbury World. This was one of several places that we called at on our journey down. I’d been before with Hari – her family is from Worcestershire – but this was the first time we’d been as a family.

Cadbury World is adjacent to the Cadbury’s factory in Bourneville, a model village built by Cadbury’s for its workers that now forms a suburb of Birmingham. It tells the story about Cadbury’s – the history of the company and how chocolate is made. So whilst it’s a museum, it’s also very much a tourist attraction, with indoor rides and a chance to watch professionals make chocolate. During my earlier visit in the 2000s, you were able to see some of the actual Cadbury production lines in the factory, but I don’t remember seeing them on this visit.

It’s not quite a full day out, which suited us as we’d arrived there having set off from home – it was over two hours’ drive, and we had further to go afterwards. The attraction is run by Merlin (the Alton Towers and Sealife Centre people) so whilst it can be quite pricey, there are various discounts available if you can book in advance.

We stayed overnight near Oxford, where we met up with my parents and had a meal for Father’s Day.

Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

As per usual, we entered France by ferry from Portsmouth. Having driven down from Oxford in plenty of time, we spent the afternoon visit the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, home to a museum and various boats such as HMS Warrior (pictured) and HMS Victory. The museum is huge, and is actually split across three sites with a shuttle boat between them. We were only there for the afternoon, and so we only saw about half of the museum. It’s also home to the wreck of the Mary Rose – again, we didn’t have time to see it.

We did, however, have a late evening stroll around Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth.

Our ferry was the overnight Portsmouth to Ouistreham (for Caen) service. In subsequent years, we’ve taken the longer Portsmouth to St Malo service, which leaves earlier and arrives later, giving you a better night’s sleep. The Caen ferry leaves Portsmouth at 11pm UK time, and arrives at 7:30am French time (6:30am UK time). I wouldn’t recommend it, especially if you then have to drive once you’ve arrived.

Blois

We called briefly in Blois on the way to our campsite to have some lunch. It’s a city with a large, well-preserved château in the centre – bits of the château date as early as the 13th Century, but it was substantially complete by the 17th Century. We had a quick look around, but didn’t go in.

A photo of Chateau de Chambord, a massive French castle.

Château de Chambord

One thing the Loire is not short of is châteaux, and Chambord is the chonkiest. It’s an absolute unit.

It was built in the 16th Century as a hunting lodge, and so as you would expect, the surrounding parkland is huge. Following the French Revolution in the 18th Century, it was abandoned with its furnishings removed. During the Second World War, it was used to store works of art normally displayed in the Louvre in Paris, and later on the 20th Century it was restored and opened to the public.

Inside, many of the rooms remain unfurnished. Most notable is a double spiral staircase.

Zoo Parc de Beauval

As mentioned, we stayed in the same area in 2023 and made a return visit to this zoo, so I won’t go into much detail here. It’s a fantastic zoo and arguably one of the best in the world.

Château de Chenonceau

Chenonceau is the château that is also a bridge, spanning the River Cher (which then flows into the Loire further downstream). You can indeed hire a rowing boat to go under the château, should you wish – we didn’t. And whilst it spans both sides of the river, you can’t exit on the other side.

Most of the château dates from the 16th Century. In the 20th Century, the château had roles in both World Wars – in the first, it was used a hospital, and for a time during the second, it was a way to smuggle people out of occupied France. It was then occupied by the Nazis, leading to the Allies bombing it in 1944. Thankfully, it was restored in the 1950s and remains one of the most popular Loire châteaux for visitors.

Parc Floral de la Source

This was somewhere that we hadn’t originally planned to visit ahead of time, but decided to visit on a whim. And it was lovely.

It’s a huge garden, with several different themed areas. Indeed, it’s big enough for there to be a little train that runs around the park – we saw it running (and it’s the header image of this post) but it was only open to a pre-booked school group. As well as a wide variety of plants and trees, there are animals too – some birds, a butterfly house, and some farm animals. I think we spent most of the day here, before we hit Auchan in nearby Orleans – Christine’s first time in giant a French hypermarket.

Le Mont-Saint-Michel

On the way back now, and we called off at Le Mont-Saint-Michel. It’s a small island, accessed via a causeway from the mainland, and it’s very photogenic. I’ve been before, and on a previous visit you could park your car on the causeway and then walk up. Nowadays, you park on the mainland, and a double-ended shuttle bus takes you across the causeway.

As well as the abbey at the top, there are lots of little windy streets selling everything a tourist could want. Indeed, it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the most-visited bit of France outside of Paris.

Matlock

Back across the channel now, and we called in at Matlock in Derbyshire for a couple of hours on the way home. It’s a picturesque inland spa town on the edge of the Peak District, and we had a wander around the town and the park. Nearby is the Heights of Abraham – we didn’t go, but it’s on my long list of places to visit in future.

Heading off on holiday to North Wales

July 19, 2025 by Neil Turner

A photo of the village of Portmeiron in North Wales

Later today, we’re off on our annual summer holiday. This year, it’s a week in North Wales, where we’ll be staying in a rented holiday cottage.

As usual, we’re going with my parents, who have kindly paid for the accommodation for all five of us. It also gives our nine-year-old chance to spend time with their paternal grandparents – as my parents live in York, they’re just a little too far to see on a regular basis.

Like last year’s holiday to Northumberland, this holiday is a domestic holiday; although Wales is a separate country from England, it’s not a separate nation state and so we don’t need to worry about having different currency, passports, plug adaptors and the like. And there’s no biosecurity restrictions, so we can bring and take back as much cheese as we’d like.

We are driving there, and it’ll be in our new electric car. Naturally, I’ve spent some time before we leave scoping out where we can charge the car whilst we’re there, but it’ll be its first distance test. A full charge should be enough to get us all the way there.

We’ve already started a list of where we’d like to go. This may well include Portmeiron, as pictured in the header image. That photo was taken the last time we were in North Wales, back in 2018. What we actually end up doing will, of course, depend on the weather.

I’ve written more than a week’s worth of blog posts in advance, so there’ll be no gap in blogging whilst I’m away.

Recent travel miscellany

June 19, 2025 by Neil Turner

Disembarking a Jet2 aeroplane at Athens Airport

This is the fifth and final blog post about my trip to Athens – bearing in mind that my trip was only for three and a half days. This is where I want to write about everything else that happened whilst not in Athens – i.e. the journey there and back. Here are the links to part one, part two, part three and part four.

Ibis Budget hotel at Manchester Airport

As I mentioned last Monday, my flight was a 6:30am departure from Manchester on a Sunday morning. With this in mind, I booked myself a room in the Ibis Budget hotel at the airport, and then got a train over on the Saturday night.

Now, if you’re staying in a hotel with the word ‘budget’ in its name, you need to manage your expectations. The rooms are small – there’s space for a double bed, but no bedside tables. There’s a small and narrow desk, a blind instead of curtains, and quite a thin mattress. But as I only needed the room for about seven hours, it was fine. There was free Wi-Fi, and most importantly it was in very easy walking distance of Terminal 2, where I needed to be for my flight. I didn’t want to stay somewhere that required a shuttle bus transfer which may or may not turn up at stupid o’clock in the morning. And the room was significantly cheaper than almost all other hotels at the airport.

A photo of the inside of Terminal 2 at Manchester Airport

Manchester Airport at 5am on a Sunday

Speaking of an early start, you would not know that it was only 5am on a Sunday once you were through security and in to the duty free bit before the gates. It was like the Trafford Centre on a Saturday afternoon – all the shops were open, all the lights were on, and it was heaving. There was a lack of seating, although Terminal 2 is being renovated at present which may explain the lack of capacity.

Judging by the airlines and destinations, it was mostly package holiday flights taking advantage of off-peak slots.

Flying with Jet2

Indeed, my flight to Athens was with Jet2. Jet2’s selling point is that they’re a budget airline, but they’re not as stingy as some of their rivals *cough* Ryanair *cough*. You’re allowed one standard cabin bag, and one small bag as standard, although you can pay extra to ‘guarantee’ space for your cabin bag in the overhead locker. My carry-on case was quite a bit smaller than the maximum permitted size and so I didn’t bother, and indeed had no issues with space. As with my trip to Dublin, I only took carry-on luggage with me.

If you want a meal on the flight, you have to pre-order it when checking in online. It is, of course, extortionately expensive for what it is, but the food was fine and rather welcome considering my early start. If you don’t pre-order food, the cabin crew may be able to offer any food that is left over after the pre-orders have been given out.

On more than one occasion, staff wished me a good holiday. I didn’t have the heart to tell them I was travelling for work.

Flying with KLM

My flights back were with KLM, the Dutch flag carrier, and so this meant a connection at Amsterdam. I honestly expected more from KLM – after all, Jet2 is a budget airline and so I didn’t expect any niceties like in-flight entertainment or Wi-Fi. But I didn’t have those with KLM either, and both planes were also a bit shabbier and care-warn than Jet2’s plane. They were all variants of Boeing 737 planes, if you’re interested.

KLM did include a ‘snack’ on each flight though. From Athens to Amsterdam, we were all offered a Beemster cheese sandwich with a honey and mustard dressing, which was actually quite nice, and a small piece of cake. Drinks were also offered. Meanwhile, for the much shorter flight from Amsterdam to Manchester, we just got a packet of Mini Cheddars and a more limited range of drinks.

My flight back to Manchester also appeared to be a late aircraft swap. When I checked in at the gate, I was given a new boarding pass with a different seat number, having been moved from row 29 to row 22. Indeed, there was no row 29 on this plane. Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is KLM’s hub, and so they must’ve decided to swap the planes as the flight was under-booked.

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport

After Dubai, Schiphol is the second busiest airport that I’ve been to. My brief layover there on Tuesday is, to date, the only time I have been in the Netherlands, and I don’t think it really counts as I spent my entire time ‘airside’. Unlike other big airports, Schiphol has just one massive terminal, arranged in a horseshoe shape. Thankfully, my arrival and departure gates were relatively close to each other and so I didn’t have to walk too far. Like in Athens, there were lots of food and shopping brands familiar to Brits. Although, unlike 5am in Manchester, by the time I got to Amsterdam at close to 9pm local time, many of the places to eat were closed. I ended up spending €10 on a WHSmith meal deal for some sustenance.

Getting home

I think some colleagues at the summit were a little concerned that my journey home to Sowerby Bridge consisted of two flights and then three trains. As it was, both flights were only delayed very slightly, and all my trains were on time – a relief as I had to change at both Manchester Oxford Road and Victoria, and the connections were both around five minutes. Not only that, but my train from Victoria to Sowerby Bridge was the last train of the night, so I was very relieved to make that connection.