It wasn't hard coming up with four destinations to visit in England. The problem was how to shoehorn them in on a week's visit to London.
xTC The answer was BritRail. Riding a passenger train through the English countryside proved one of the most civilized and efficient aspects of an all-too-brief vacation visit.
Friends recommended that I buy a BritRail Flexipass in advance in the United States. They said you don't have to wait in line for tickets or worry about fares. The cost is $259 for four days' first-class travel. Initially it seemed a little expensive, but one day's use of this pass showed me how much money I'd saved over buying tickets there. Rail travel is higher in Britain than fares for comparable distances on AMTRAK.
I have to confess a travel allergy -- the escorted daylong bus trip. I don't care to be confined with 20 bus-seat rows of gabbing and enthusiastic tourists. On the train, you are your own master. You can come and go almost at will. And the little side trips you create for yourself always include some unexpected pleasures, some little details that a bus trip edits out.
I had been warned in advance that the best use economically of the BritRail pass was for trips of longer distances. (You are permitted as much use [multiple trains and transfers] as you need on four separate days. The days need not be consecutive.)
My favorite destination turned out to be the ancient city of York (I visited Bath, Cambridge and Salisbury as well), with its cathedral, neighborhood of shops called the Shambles and the National Railway Museum.
The train left King's Cross Station at 7:30 one Tuesday morning. We arrived a little early and made our way into this great arched space bustling with activity. The coaches were all marked, and we found our seats, neatly marked with computer-printed reservation cards with our names attached. It was here that a lesson of British rail travel dawned on me. The trains are fast and modern. The stations are old, well-used and filled with the romance of the rail.
The train, which was soon gliding along at 99 mph, had a dining car, where the thought of a large English breakfast served on tables seemed mightily appealing.
It was, but was not inexpensive at $20 for the full spread of juice, toast, cold cereal, croissant, eggs, sausage, bacon and small grilled tomato. It did give us a chance to talk with the business travelers on the train who informed us of the bargain fare we were getting. If you didn't want this breakfast, there were plenty of vendors at the station, where a sweet roll and tea could have been had for $3. On the whole, I didn't mind the splurge.
We arrived on time. The 188-mile trip took one hour and 57 minutes. The York station that greeted us was an amazing Victorian creation, full of cast-iron arches and big clocks with mighty hands. The place was clean and well-maintained. A train seemed to be arriving and departing every three minutes. There was a fully staffed tourist-information room, where we were offered directions, maps and good advice for a day's walk through the old city.
It's only about a 12-minute walk along the Roman walls to the York Minster, the largest Gothic church in England (13th to 15th centuries), where choir school students happened to be practicing their chants. It was an unexpected treat. After another 45 minutes here, we took off on foot through the town and its Shambles area, a narrow street chock-a-block with tourist shops filled with wares generally more practical and less obnoxious than those in central London. A nice shop on the outskirts of the old city provided pots of steaming tea and buttered scones, cream and preserves. I never cease to be amazed at how hot the tea water remains.
The guide at the admissions desk of the National Railway Museum (adjacent to the main city train station) told us the place is 17 acres in size. Admission is $6.75. Friends at home recommended an hour in the gift shop alone. Both pieces of information were helpful. I overdosed on locomotives and gleaming coaches with gold stripes and glistening paint schemes. There is no train to ride here (who needs one after the trip up from London?) but there is a do-it-yourself section where visitors are allowed to try their hands at setting the arms of an old-fashioned block signal.
The museum is full of delightful oddities. One exhibition on train tickets included the stubs you once purchased to take a dog on your journey. Alongside this was the machine that actually printed the tickets. There were also displays of 1930s' rail-travel posters and 1890s' stained glass panels from long-demolished terminals.
By the later afternoon our feet were giving out, and we limped back to the main station. Our train, the Flying Scotsman, was running 40 minutes late. Once aboard, we heard a voice over the public address system explain the tardiness. The crew was late making up the coaches at the yard, and vandals had put chunks on concrete on the track. We appreciated the candor.
IF YOU GO . . .
The BritRail Flexipass is $259 for first class, $195 for standard class and is for four days unlimited travel during a one-month period. It must be ordered from BritRail; call (800) 677-8585. The pass must be bought in the United States. Once you pick your locations, it is a good idea to drop by the tourist information desk at one of the larger train stations in London, say Victoria or Waterloo. Clerks will make reservations and free seat assignments for you as well as advise on train departure times.
The Flexipass allows considerable savings on longer-distance traveling. For example, it could be used for day trips to Salisbury, 84 miles from London (one hour and 21 minutes away via train); Bath, 107 miles (one hour and 11 minutes) and Cambridge, 56 miles (one hour). If individually purchased, the cost of these fares together for one person, first class, is $400.