Friday 25th August 2023

Here's the thing.

I take part in a music quiz each Friday, and I made friends with Keithy Baby, erstwhile foil of Danny Baker back in his radio days.

Keith helped at a whole food stall on St Albans market, and the plan was to meet up, look at the cathedral, have some beers and have a chat.

But.

Keith's family moved to Bristol, and Keith had been waiting for closure on the sale on his house, which went through a couple of weeks back.

So, no Keith.

But the cathedral was still there.

So, we went anyway.

I called a fellow GWUKer to see if he fancied a trip, and he did.

Waiting at Dover Priory, a heavily graffitied Electrostar came rolling in on the opposite platform.

We caught the ten to eight train to London from Dover, meeting Graham in the undercroft at St Pancras, before going down to the Thameslink platforms to get a train to St Albans, which came after just a minute.

A 15 minute walk from the station, or would have been had we not been jumped by a greasy spoon, so we had a hearty breakfast, before walking through the town centre to the market square, and down through an alleyway to the cathedral.

It is one of the oldest cathedral in Britain, or parts of it are. We saw Roman brick, Tudor brick, knapped flint and puddingstone blocks.

And that was just outside.

Inside there were surviving wall and column paintings, tiles, icons, tombs and windows of wonder.

We spent an hour or so walking round, snapping.

Staff were friendly, welcoming and interested in our story, as well as us interested in theirs.

The tower is the oldest Cathedral tower in England. And here it is, looking up.

We spent an hour inside before having taken nearly 500 shots. I decided that was probably enough. For now.

We found Jools, then retraced our steps back to the market square, and hence to a pub for some liquid refreshment while sitting out on tables beside the street.

The day had turned very warm and humid, two pints of Abbot Ale went down well.

Graham had to get back to London, as did we as there was to be a family meal later, so we wandered down the long road to the station, then onto platform 3 to wait for the express service to Three Bridges and the first stop being St Pancras.

We had missed the train to Dover by two minutes, meaning we had 58 minutes to wait for the next one, so we found a seat and people watched, as you would expect us to.

As time drew near for the departure, we went onto the platform to wait, and for me to watch trains arriving and departing. A Eurostar left for Paris from the adjoining platform, accelerating quickly out of the station.

Our train arrived, and after those on it, got off, we all piled on so to get a seat, meaning the train was so packed when it left, people were standing down the whole length of the carriage, and folks at Stratford not able to get on.

Wow.

As the train travelled into Kent, stopping at Ebbsfleet and then Ashford, more and more people got off, even then it was pretty busy, but then on the Friday of a Bank Holiday the day before a strike which will mean no rail services in Kent at all. So, we should have expected it, I guess.

We were among the last off at Dover, the ticket barriers up meaning we had a ten minute wait to get out as those with bikes blocked the entrance hall, trying to get through.

We did get through, of course, so walked to the car, then out onto Townwall Street and up Jubilee Way to home. Where there was a feline waiting committee waiting for us, telling us it was dinner time.

Back out at six to pick up a Chinese takeaway before heading to Jen's where she, John, Mike, George and Trinny were waiting to help us eat and to help celebrate my big day.

We eat well and lots, hen Jen only brings out a cake with candles for me to blow out.

No real time for cards, Mike, George and Trinny left as they had an early start as they are driving to Kings Lynn for some banger racing action, and John left saying he wanted to get home before dark. Leaving Jen, Jools and I.

So we left too, Jools drove us back home along the A2, still busy with holiday traffic, and home in time so I could watch the second half of the Chelsea v Luton game.