The BeerTrain

Not a pure Crank trip this time, more something I managed to persuade the wife she really wanted to do on the way back from a Holiday in Italy! We'd rented an apartment overlooking Lake Como in Menaggio, a very well to do resort town. View from our Menaggio Apartment View of Menaggio taken from the Lake View of the Lake taken from Menaggio As usual with these types of places pretty poor for me in respect of Brewpubs and interesting beers, apart from a good shop that did sell rarities from small breweries in the local area. This meant if we weren't in town of an evening for a meal then I was more than happy to sit on our balcony & sample some of these! We hired a car for the week, good fun down some of the Lakes VERY narrow roads some of which were single track with blind bends in the middle! I drove past George Clooney's house several times but he never popped out to wave, he's been known to have a few beers in Menaggio oft times but he was a no-show this week! I wo...

Monday 03/12/18 Down to the Smoke Unit  Barnsley – Sheffield    1238 Barnsley – Sheffield  16miles Unit  Sheffield – St.Pancras 1329 Sheffield – St.Pancras  165miles After recent travel “blips” we decided not to risk the very early start Tuesday that would be required to make our booked Eurostar departure so travelled down today instead. I booked accommodation in Travelodge Kings Cross (356-364 Grays Inn Road WC1X) at late notice so a Super Room cost £124. On arrival at the Hotel about 15:50 I was told that the room won’t be ready for another ten minutes; even though check in starts at 3pm. My wife was not happy with this, however another member of staff told me the room previously ready for us had a lighting fault (flashing on & off) and rang the cleaners upstairs to get a room number, he then checked us in & gave us room cards so we could go up as soon as they got the nod our room was ready. He then wrote a Free Breakfast voucher f...