Today we had a planned day away, something we had booked in the early New Year. Having received a number of advertising leaflets, we had booked the Welsh Marches Express with Saphos Trains. They offer a Pullman carriage providing breakfast and dinner while exploring the English/Welsh borders.
Of course, prior to embarking on the digital minimalism experiment, I would have been semi-permanently recording the events of the day onto Facebook. So I was slightly curious about whether the day (and my enjoyment of it) would be any different if that wasn’t going to be the case.
The train was to be drawn by Mayflower, a former LNER train that had been plying the north and east Yorkshire tracks based ouf of Hull in the 1940 and 50s.
The biggest challenge was the early start. I’m more of an early bird than Vaughan who normally doesn’t see 6.30am but that’s the time we had to be up in time for the 7.15am taxi. I did toy with the idea of leaving my phone at home, but as it also doubles as a useful camera, it came along, though without any installed social media applications.
Having turned up as booked, we arrived at the station in plenty of time for the 8.05 departure. The first leg of the journexy (to Bristol Parkway) would be pulled by a diesel locomotive with Mayflower taking us from there. There were certainly a few types gathering in the waiting room (we were at the normal end of the spectrum). Opposite us sat a couple the man wearing a large union jack bow tie and matching socks, We wondered whether they would be in our carriage and whether there would be a last night of the proms atmosphere.
I did have a momentary sense of smugness as I noticed I was very much in the minority as most others in the waiting space were deeply engrossed in their mobile phones.
“These young kids, always on their phones” I said, pointing Vaughan at a couple of ladies we guessed would be joining the train at Swindon. Vaughan looked at them, then at me over imaginary half-moon glasses. Apparently we are not an home to Mrs Smug, especially only on day five.
“That’s probably a post” says Vaughan. Possibly it was but thankfully I’d no means of posting anything so just took a surreptitious photo with the thought of blogging about the day a little later. A subtle but important difference as I found I could relax and enjoy the day with no concern at all for posting updates, or responding to comments.
So far as the package we’d bought was concerned, we were both a bit wary. It’s at the upper end of a reasonable price point even allowing for the fact you’re well fed. At this point we had no standards either to expect or to judge against so trusting to the advertising literature we moved to platform 4 for the arrival of the 1930s.
Unfortunately, the day of our journey, most of the town’s attractions were closed which was something of a disappointment (the market looked well worth a visit). However, certainly not enough to stop us exploring a town that has a Tudor feel in parts but never gets more current than the 1980s – in a very good way from my perspective.
We also found out Shrewsbury has strong associations with Charles Darwin whose statue sits outside the main library (it’s quite a statuey place – and I really enjoyed the visit).
The day wasn’t even spoiled when the steam train ran out of puff at the station and despite thinking it could and knowing it could – couldn’t pull us back home, so diesel it was. Not that we minded too much given the rather sumptuous meal that we were served over the course of the journey home.
A long day but a thoroughly enjoyable one where we were looked after like middling Royalty. We’d certainly do another in the future – either the Settle and Carlisle run or the Cornish riviera trip, but that’ll be next year. Oh and I didn’t even think about social media all day.