Yate to Gloucester to Tolldown: 24/3/23

The last few days have ben focussed on a fairly small area, so I've been crossing and re-crossing my tracks a fair bit. Our daily dose of sunshine ended this morning at about 8 am, so after my full English breakfast I drove to Yate station in the rain to take the train to Gloucester. I parked in what appeared to be a free car park; and so it proved to be, although the eagerness of others to take advantage of it made it very difficult for me to squeeze out of it again at the end of the day: if I hadn't had eight days' practice I probably wouldn't have made it without denting something. The official station car park was nearby, but I didn't have time to move the car before the hourly Gloucester train arrived. For some insane reason the platforms aren't parallel; to catch the northbound train you have to leave the station, climb some steps, cross a busy road at a traffic light and go down the other side, so I am glad I left enough time.

The train ride was smooth, the carriage about half-full. Gloucester was the second stop after Cam & Dursley, in the middle of nowhere. I went to the Cathedral first but it wasn't open yet, so I went on to the Waterways Museum and discovered it was closed on Mondays; just like the town museum and art gallery (and the art gallery in nearby Cheltenham). If your town only has three tourist attractions, wouldn't you try and ensure that at least two of them were open every day? So I wandered around a bit, looked at the old buildings and the barge docks, had a coffee and -- as the rain set in -- visited the Cathedral, which was very impressive. I spent an hour or so here, then made my way back to the station through moderately heavy rain, stopping for a beer on the way. Gloucester is clearly the poor cousin of Cheltenham, particularly around the station area, and the pub had two poker machines and the atmosphere of a bar in Western Sydney somewhere, but the beer was fine (and cheap) and the building was about five hundred years old.

Back on the train -- again, with a weird platform shuffle arrangement -- and back to Yate, where I squeezed out of my parking space and headed for Tolldown, my last stop before Bath. Unfortunately I went the wrong way, and although I was planning to stop for a snack I was more or less out of town before that became an option. Rather than go back and fight for parking, I set course for Tolldown, and arrived, in the rain, about half an hour later.

Nice room, nice hotel, nice new beer which is locally made in Bristol. They gave me a mini-thermos of milk and provided a coffee plunger, so I have no grounds for complaint. And the heater runs all the time. Heated towel rails are common here, so I was able to dry my socks and shoes overnight, and I had a chicken pie in the restaurant for dinner. Ho for Bath tomorrow!

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