Exploring the East Coast – East Linton & Edinburgh

And so its here, the final part of Exploring the East Coast, my series where I’ve visited every station on the East Coast Mainline (ECML). From the major stations of London Kings Cross, York and Newcastle, to the small rarely used stations of Acklington, Chathill, Pegswood and Widdrington, there were just two stations left to tick off and in this post we’ll visit both. Unlike the majority of the other posts where I’ve visited the stations on the same day, or at least with only a short gap, life meant that I visited the first of these two stations in February 2024 and the final station of the series in September 2024.

CTR-EUS Avanti West Coast – Standard Class – New Evero Train

Having arrived in Chester on a delayed Transport for Wales service from Manchester Airport, I had a reasonable length connection before the last leg of my tour of the north-west, the train taking me south. To finish this mini rail tour I would be travelling on what was, at the time, Britain’s newest class of train, Avanti West Coast’s (AWC) class 805s. This journey from Chester to London Euston during the first month of the type’s operation in standard class would be a good test to see how the units compare to other members of the AWC fleet.

Manchester – Spotting Around The Airport

AvGeekery was the main aim of my tour of the north-west and after a disappointing spotting trip to Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport the previous day, day two’s itinerary featured a location that promised to be more successful. Manchester Airport is the third busiest airport in the UK and the busiest outside of London, with more than 28 million passengers passing through in 2023. The airport sees more than 180,000 annual movements and with destinations ranging from Amsterdam to Addis Ababa and Zurich to Zakynthos, there’s plenty of variety.

TMP-HEL VR Pendolino Ekstra Class

With the morning spent exploring Tampere and a wonderful lunch at Ravintola Tampella, I had headed back to the station a bit earlier than necessary ready to catch my VR service back to the Finnish capital. I’d be once again travelling in Ekstra (1st) class but this journey would be a little bit difference to my journey to Tampere earlier in the day as I’d be travelling on one of VR’s Pendolinos.

LHR to HEL Finnair Business Class

Since signing up for British Airway’s (BA) Executive Club more than a decade ago, I’ve accrued a decent amount of Avios points by using BA’s online shopping portal and earning Avios however I can get my hands on some. Back in 2019 saved Avios paid for my flights to and from Madrid in Business Class with BA and Iberia, and now it was time to spend some more. Two flights with another BA partner airline were booked and I was heading to another new country!

Lisbon – The City of Seven Hills – Part 2

This post covers the second part of our visit to Lisbon back in February, so if you haven’t read part 1 you can check that out here. Part 1 ended with us heading for lunch with some people we had met on a walking tour, and we were hoping to try somewhere recommended by our tour guide João. Unfortunately, when we found the restaurant, it was closed, with a notice on the shutter advising the owners were on holiday.