2015 - Day Out 11: Blackpool

Back on the coaches again, we go back on Greenline coaches a planned day out in Blackpool and a late return so that we can see the world famous Blackpool Illuminations.

Its an early start and I make my way into Wollaston ready for the 07:05am journey on National Express West Midlands service 276, after getting some supplies for the coach journey, I make my way to the bus stop and the bus turns up ten minutes early, the driver kindly letting me on so I don't have to wait in the cold. I send a text to Mr UKBuses to let him know that the bus is about to depart and as we arrive in Norton, Mr UKBuses boards, but he was not wearing a dress, as he had to pretend to be a woman, see ticket below. and we make our way into Stourbridge Interchange. A "Fresh Air" break is had whilst we walk down towards our pick up point and at 07:45am we do see a Greenline coach which drives straight past us, just after 08:00am the coach returns and we cross Birmingham Street to board. We take our seats, which are still at the front, but behind the driver this time and we set off around all the other pickup points which include, Halesowen, Blackheath, Quinton and Dudley. With our last pick up point at Dudley reached, we set off towards the M6 Motorway just after 09:00am and as soon as we enter the slip road, the traffic is halted due to an incident ahead, after about five minutes we are on the move again.

Did Mr UKBuses wear a dress to get on the coach!

Mr UKBuses has a nap!

At about 10:20am it is time for a break and we exit the motorway and stop at Sandbach Services, a bladder stop is needed first and Mr UKBuses takes his place in the queue at McDonald's, whilst he is waiting I pop to the shop next door where I get myself a sandwich and I find a table and Mr UKBuses is still waiting in the McDonald's queue, he does eventually get served and joins me to eat his meal. With our food finished we make our way back outside for some "fresh air" before boarding our coach for the second part of our journey. The food has taken its toll on Mr UKBuses who drops off on the coach for most of the remainder of our journey, see picture above, We approach Junction 32 on the M6, where we leave and join the M55, where at Junction 4 we leave the motorways behind and have a few miles to go where we arrive at Blackpool just before 12:30pm, with the coach parking up at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, see picture right, our driver Nigel tells us that we have until 06.30pm before we head out and drive through the famous Blackpool illuminations. We make our way to the sea front where opposite the Pleasure Beach we wait and board a tram which takes us to the North Pier stop where we alight and make our way through the town centre.

We decide to pay Preston a visit and we have to find Corporation Street to get our bus, with Mr UKBuses map reading skills, we eventually find our stop just as our bus is about to depart, luckily the bus driver stops and we board Stagecoach in Lancashire service 61 after purchasing our Stagecoach DayRider tickets. We pass through Kirkham and after an hour and ten minutes we arrive at Preston Bus Station, see picture left, which has over 70 stands. A few pictures are taken around the station, which is looking very outdated, it might have been good when it first opened in 1969, but needs to be bought up to modern day standards. We decide to leave Preston early and at 14:32 board our Stagecoach in Lancashire service 68. We leave Preston behind and we are on a different route back to Blackpool this time passing through Lytham, St Anne's and we know we are near when we pass Blackpool Airport. We make our way back into Blackpool and as we arrive in Rigby Road, we alight so that we can visit the depot of Blackpool Transport, also home to the trams. A few photographs are taken and we head back to the sea front.

It's back on the trams again and we board at the Manchester Square stop and go a couple of stops and alight at the Tower tram stop, that is after some uncouth person decides to nearly soak us by knocking over a can of energy drink on the ledge behind our seats. Its time for some refreshment and we make a visit to J D Wetherspoon "The Albert and The Lion", there is a member of staff at the door saying that there are no tables at the moment and it may be a wait for a table if food was ordered. Mr UKBuses makes his way to the bar (he actually purchased the first round!) and as he is served, a table becomes free and we take the opportunity to grab the seats (the fastest I've ever seen Mr UKBuses move!) and we eventually get to rest our feet. With the drinks finished and the pub getting busier, we decide to leave and walk around the corner to another one of our favourite pubs in Blackpool, we enter "The Castle" and as we went upstairs last year, we decide to give the downstairs bar a visit this year. The place is busy but we do get served quickly and music is blaring out at full blast and Mr UKBuses spots the DJ who resembles Paul O'Grady, his name was actually Jim Curran, he may have looked like Mr O'Grady but he had the voice and language more akin to Roy "Chubby" Brown. We liked the DJ and his sense of humour so much, we decided to stay and have a second pint, Mr UKBuses was hiding though as the DJ may have taken the mickey our of him if he was spotted.

We still needed to get some food before we boarded our coach, so we head back to the seafront and it is time for another ride on the trams, boarding again at The Tower tram stop and we have an enjoyable ride along the sea front at Blackpool saving us a walk of one and a half miles as we alight at the Blackpool Pleasure Beach tram stop. Time for food and we make a visit to a new J D Wetherspoon public house, "The Velvet Coaster", which opened in May 2015 and it is the first time that I have visited a Wetherspoons with a lift, but the building has three floors and considering it is a large pub it is virtually packed with us having trouble finding a table. After looking on all three floors, we head back to the ground floor where we spot a table. With our seats found, we peruse the menu and I go to the bar to order our food and get the drinks. Mr UKBuses decides to have his usual a BBQ Chicken Melt, without the melt and I opt for Scampi and Chips. Mr UKBuses sticks with his Guinness and I ask the barman to surprise me with a real ale and I am served Viper and I can say after drinking it, it did pack a bit of a bite. We have a little wait for our food and after finishing eating, we have a few minutes to finish our drinks off before leaving and having a short walk back to the coach, with some "fresh air" taken along the way.

We board our coach and with everyone on board at 6.30pm, we make our way to the seafront where the coach pulls over waiting for the illuminations to be switched on. After a few minutes the power has been switched on and we slowly make our way along the seafront taking in the lights. After we pass the Blackpool Tower, we are able to move along a bit faster to see the rest of the lights before heading back onto the M55 Motorway and then the M6 motorway, the day has taken its toll on Mr UKBuses as he falls asleep, see picture above right. We have a short stop at the Knutsford services, with me having to wake up Mr UKBuses as we arrive, where a bladder stop is taken and "fresh air" break had before boarding the coach and completing our journey. We arrive back in Dudley, our first drop off point just before 11.00pm and then we head off to all the other drop off points doing a late night tour of the Black Country before finally arriving back in Stourbridge at about 11.45pm. We decide to walk up to Stourbridge Interchange and with the last buses home already departing, we decide to get a taxi arriving back home just before 12 midnight.

Another good day out (if a little tiring) with thanks to our coach Driver, Nigel and the Mr UKBuses and luckily we could see the lights without much glare from the bald spot:

Bald Spot 1: The Bald Spot waits for the tram outside Blackpool Pleasure Beach!

Bald Spot 2: The Bald Spot is spotted on a stand in Preston bus station!

Bald Spot 3: The Bald Spot is spotted outside Preston bus station!

Bald Spot 4: The Bald Spot spots the trams in Rigby Road Depot, Blackpool!

Bald Spot 5: The Bald Spot is seen outside Blackpool Transport Bus Depot!

2012 - Day Out 15: Plymouth and Torquay

Date: Saturday 01 September 2012

It is the second day of our break in Torquay, and we continue with the success of the first day with the weather already looking good and today will also see us cross into another county.

I wake up early and decide to get some fresh air to fully wake me up and have a walk around the back streets of Torquay arriving back at the hotel in time for Mr UKBuses waking up and meeting at the breakfast room ready for our first cooked breakfast in our hotel accommodation for this weekend. We are shown to our seats and coffee is served before our order is taken. Mr UKBuses decides to do an "Mr D9" when, at the moment he pours his coffee, background music in the breakfast room is started, at least he didn't start it off with a burp. The waitress takes our order and after a few minutes, she returns with a couple of plates in hand, Mr UKBuses gets his cutlery ready to tuck in, but alas it is the breakfasts for the people sitting at the table behind us, we don't have to wait too much longer and after a further few minutes our breakfast arrives. Brown sauce is ordered and Mr UKBuses has trouble pouring it, giving it a few slaps and I was hoping that a big dollop would fall out of the bottle covering his breakfast. We both tuck in and soon we have finished and give it a few minutes before we move to let our breakfasts go down and have a final preparation before we get our first (actually operated by FIRST Devon and Cornwall) to our first destination of the day. We have about twenty minutes to wait but we go to the bus stop opposite The Corbyn Head Hotel and get a bit of fresh air and also a chance for me to have a "fresh air" break before our long journey ahead.

At approximately 09:10 our First Devon and Cornwall bus arrives and we board Service X80 which will take us on a journey lasting just under and hour and fifty minutes to get us to our first destination. Our first point of call on the journey is Paignton, where we pick up a few passengers and start our journey to the next point of call, but the driver has read his running board wrong and when we arrive by Paignton Zoo, we make a U-turn and head back to Paignton Bus Station to wait for the proper time before leaving and getting to our next point, making me dizzy in the process by going round in circles. We shortly arrive at Totnes where the bus driver has a break, giving me a chance to have a sneaky "fresh air" break before the driver takes us to our final destination of Plymouth. Just before 11:00 we arrive in Plymouth, alighting at the bus station and whilst I have a "fresh air" break Mr UKBuses gets his photograph count started. From the bus station we make our way down to the Royal Parade and at the end of the road is stop A8 where our next bus turns up at 11:24, First Devon and Cornwall's Service 2 which takes us to the Sugar Hill district of the city.

After we alight our bus we have a short walk to the First Plymouth Depot, but we are not close enough to take any good photographs of the vehicles parked up, so we make our way back to the bus stop which is based just outside of The Morley Arms Public House, and as we arrive we just miss the bus, so we decide to pop into the hostelry and sample a pint of "Doom Bar", see picture right, being served by a friendly landlord. We spend a few minutes to sample our drinks and make our way out to the bus stop, where First Devon and Cornwall's Service 7 turns up to take us back to The Royal Parade in the City Centre. We make our way along the Royal Parade to stop A1 taking a number of photographs along the way, as we arrive at the stop so does our next bus, First Devon and Cornwall's Service 81 which will take us across the county into Cornwall. After fifteen minutes we arrive to catch the Torpoint Ferry and as we cross we are officially over the border crossing from Devon into Cornwall. We arrive in Torpoint passing both The Kings Arms and The Queens Arms along the way before alighting at The First Deport in Torpoint. We take a few photographs of the depot, which is similar in build and looks of First's depot in Hereford. We spot a bus coming and we run across the road and get there just as the returning Service 81 pulls up and we board, taking the short journey back to the Torpoint Ferry and return from Cornwall back into the County of Devon.

Who is this mysterious person (who has a bald spot forming) always getting in the way!

We arrive in the Plymouth district of Milhouse where we alight and cross the road to see another depot, Go-Ahead's Plymouth Citybus Depot. After asking a security guard he refers us to the main reception where we gain permission to have a look around the depot and take a few photographs of the vehicles parked up at the garage. After fifteen minutes walking around the depot, we return to reception to say thanks and also to inform them that we are leaving the site and as we pass the security guard we say thanks again and return to the bus stop opposite. After a few minutes wait we board service 81 which takes us back into Plymouth where we alight at the bus station taking a few photographs before having a walk down to the Hoe where we have a break and a couple of pints of "Butcombe Bitter" in The Admiral McBride, see picture left, before returning to the Plymouth bus station to take a few more photographs before boarding the returning service X81 back to Torquay at 16:10, where after having another "fresh air" break in Totnes, we pass through Paington and arrive back at our bus stop outside The Corbyn Head Hotel just before 17:50, where we decide to have a bit of rest before our night out in Torquay.

At 19:15, we meet up again and have a pint of "Tetley's Smoothpour" at the hotel bar, showing Mr UKBuses my find of "The Interceptor's" (click here it is about 05:20 in) appearance on Grange Hill on YouTube ("Who put this ball in my bottle bin? You're in trouble Pal!"), before making our way back to the bus stop to catch our Stagecoach South West's service 12 bus into Torquay for a bite to eat and to sample a few public houses in the town. After purchasing our "NightRider" ticket we alight in Torquay town centre and have a little walk up to The Strand where we enter J D Wetherspoons "The London Inn", where we have our first pint in Torquay Town and after perusing the menu we order our food, Mr UKBuses opts for the Chicken Tikka Masala which includes his poppadoms this year and I opt for Scampi and Chips, but when it arrives at the table it turns out to be Fish and Chips, but I opt to eat it rather than sending it back but realise I should have, as I get halfway through my fish and come across a few bones. We have a few minutes after our food and finish our drinks off and move on to the next public house.

We have a walk around by the harbour and visit a pub that we sampled last year, "Seamus O'Donnell's", an Irish Bar, and as we walk in we decide to opt for a Guinness (Well it is an Irish pub), but we quickly change our mind when we see something on tap which has not been seen for years, and opt for a pint of Caffrey's. The refurbished back room is full so we head outside where I can take advantage and have some "fresh air" and enjoy the cool summer night overlooking the harbour. With our drinks finished we decide to visit another old favourite from last year but as we head up the little alleyway leading to the pub we hear what is on next door and without much decision making we head  into "The Devon Arms" ready for a bit of Karaoke. Starting off with Robbie Williams "Angels", I put a few more requests in and just before 10pm Mr UKBuses decides that he has had enough of all these X-Factor wannabes and heads back to the hotel. I end the night off belting off a few more classics such as Boomtown Rats, Bon Jovi and Metallica. Just before 11.30pm the Karaoke finishes and I make my way to the bus stop only to see it pull off without me, so I enjoy a nice brisk walk along the seafront and back to the hotel to get some well deserved rest.

An amazing and enjoyable second day even though I did end up with a bit of a sore throat at the end of the night, rest is needed for tomorrow for the day at the Torquay Vintage Bus Running Day.