Train trip from Manchester to St Bees

In the foyer of our Hotel we noticed a mural which said "Manchester Bee", with bees imprinted in the background.  Turns out this is a tribute to the workers of the past who were said to work like busy bees.  The Manchester Bee has become the symbol for the area.  The locals are very proud of their heritage.  

First class carriage with comfy seats and great service..  and wonderful company!

 

Our train trip to St Bees was in two stages; the first stage to Lancaster was in first class where we had a reserved seat and they served us water, tea and coffee and a snack box. We were pleasantly surprised and impressed with British Rail.  Our helpful driver announced 'This train goes to Blackpool and Blackpool North and all sorts of stations'! Our second stage was very different!  Grab a seat wherever you could and hope one of the passengers who had their dog sitting on the seat beside them might kindly move it. No such luck!  The further north we travelled the more space became available and eventually we found seats together.  Our estimation of British Rail has dropped but we were very thankful that we didn't have to stand up for the 2 1/2 hours journey.

This train trip is said to be one of the best rail journeys in all England. It was a very pleasant trip as we passed through many cute villages and watched as beautiful countryside flashed by. We stopped at Ulverston where Stan Laurel from Laurel and Hardy fame was born.

Allan and Graham had a wonderful chat, well they listened, with four Englishmen, about sport.  We've named them the 'Cleator Four'.  There wasn't anything they didn't know, especially after they had finished all their tinnies. They seemed to know as much about Australian sport as English.  It was fun just listening to them talk.  Ammie thought one of the men looked like James Bond, alias Daniel Craig.  She nearly caused a riot when she told him!

Our new friends were giving us all the info about the poobs in the villages we will be passing through on our Coast to Coast walk.   It's seems they know the whole lot of them very well!  Some sad news!  They told us that you lose the weight on the walk and eat it back  at night with the poob meals.  We asked them about Kidsty Pike (the highest point of the whole walk) but they had never heard of it.  Obviously there's no poob there.

That's Daniel Craig's double in the blue shirt. 

Now wait.... They know about nuclear waste too.  We passed Sellafield, the nuclear waste plant where they all work.

The closer to St Bees we got the higher the fells became.  Ammie and myself are starting to worry....   We need our  T-shirts with the slogan 'We can do it!'

Ammie's highlight of the train trip was when we left the train from Manchester and had proceeded up the stairs to another platform to catch a connecting  train to St Bees, when all of a sudden Allan realised that he had left his  backpack on the train. He bolted down the stairs with such speed, Superman would have been impressed. Certainly Ammie was...

Allan arrived on the platform just as the conductor's arm was about to indicate to the driver that all was clear.  Allan had to run through three carriages before he found the said backpack.  He returned to us much relieved and smiling.  We too were greatly relieved.  There was lots of important information in that backpack.

We arrived in the lovely village of St Bees  and walked along the perilous road to Abbey Farmhouse, our accommodation for the night.  We were greeted by Steve, who set about giving us a lecture because we hadn't rung him.  He likes to  meet his guests  are the station because it's too dangerous, walking up that road with suitcases.  He wasn't tellling us anything we didn't already know...   He was most insistent that we had been instructed to ring him.  After feeling suitably rebuked, Steve suggested we take a stroll around town and then he would serve  us a beautiful afternoon tea.

We did  feel very welcome.  The scones were yummy and the back garden very pleasant to enjoy a quiet few moments before dinner.