After a few days of fairly bad knee pain (subject is another post that I must write) I needed something that wouldn’t involve too much walking. Looking at the map of railway stations that I can travel to for free, courtesy of my older persons bus pass, I noticed a station just north of Coventry serving the area around Coventry Arena, home of the recently promoted Coventry City Football Club.
I did have to walk about half a mile to catch the X12 bus to Birmingham International. A short walk from the bus stoat International took me to Platform 4 ready for the Avanti service to Coventry. Being an inter-city service, as opposed to the usual commuter train, I had always been a little unsure as to whether I was covered on my pass – the internet says so but I wasn’t one hundred percent convinced. However, the conductor casually inspected my pass today and exclaimed, “That’s fine”. So no more worrying.
At Coventry, I had to swap over from platform 1 to platform 4. Standing on the correct platform, the information display informed me that I had about ten minutes before the train so took the opportunity to go over to platform 3 to use the loo.
As my knee was still sore, I took the lift back, travelling with a guy and his bike. On the bridge level, he went right whereas, I turned the other way to go back to platform 4. I was almost back when I heard a station announcement state that my train would now be leaving from, wait for it, platform 3. As I backtracked, the guy with the bike spotted me and asked if I needed help – do I look like a confused old man ? Don’t answer that !!!
The train left a few minutes late (not a problem) and was soon at Coventry Arena.
I had almost an hour before my train out which would be plenty of time to complete an Adventure Lab cache about the football ground. All the parts were found without too much trouble and, at the same time, I collected clues for a multi-cache. The final of the multi was a couple of hundred metres away so I took a gentle walk to find it, without success.
I returned to the station and waited for a train to Nuneaton. I had arranged to meet family in Coleshill for dinner so I was aiming on getting a train to Coleshill Parkway via Nuneaton. As this was outside my ‘free’ area, I had to purchase a ticket from trainline.
This train was also a few minutes late which didn’t present a problem as I was facing a twenty minute transfer at Nuneaton.
At Nuneaton, another change of platform and a wait ensued.
The train pulled in (a few minutes late but I’d have plenty of leeway at Coleshill) and off we went.
About half a mile out of Nuneaton, the train ground to a halt and an announcement came over the PA saying that the line was blocked and we would be returning to Nuneaton.
As we pulled into the station, we were informed that the train had been cancelled but Anyone wishing to travel to Birmingham could do so via Coventry – not much help to me.
The next train, if the line had been cleared wouldn’t be for another hour – too late for dinner.
The bus station is only a five minute walk away so I left the trains behind and made my way to catch a bus (or two) checking on travelling as I went. I needed a 19 to Ansley then the, once a day in each direction, 735 to Coleshill.
The 19 was late away (a common theme for today) but I would have time to change.
At Ansley, I left the 19 and crossed over ready for a ten minute wait for the final bus. I checked bustimes.org and, I’ve never seen this before, but my bus was not far away and six minutes EARLY. I started to worry that I may have missed it but before that thought could take root, the 735 appeared.
I climbed on board the empty bus and was asked where I was going. “Coleshill” I replied. “That’s good”, said the driver, “most people think we’re going to Nuneaton”.
Having quiet roads and not having to pick up any passengers, we arrived in Coleshill nearly ten minutes ahead of schedule. The kind driver, let me off at the traffic lights and a short walk down the hill got me to The Harvester in time to see my wife and daughter finish their dinners. I managed a drink and got the staff to rustle me up a bowl of chips.
So, overall, I didn’t get dinner but, on the plus side, I visited a new station and got another AdLab in the bag.