retiredmartin
retiredmartin
Martin
Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.
Latest Posts
August 2026. Bath. I’d opted for a couple of nights down in Bath, a little luxurious but the student residences on the edge of town were cheaper than a Doncaster Travelodge, Twerton Mill’s riverside rooms near Bath City FC spotless and...
August 2026. Bath. I arrived back at Isambard’s (quite good) statue with 5 minutes to spare, and half an hour later was clambering the Paragon steps on the edge of central Bath. You must know this one. A symphony in brown dark red, where...
August 2026. Bristol. My train to Bath left in 50 minutes time; Google reckoned 54 minutes walk from the Port of Call to Temple Meads, which gave little time for dawdling on the descent through Cotham Hill. And so, once more, I could...
August 2026. Bristol. I’ll show my deep ignorance of suburban Bristol now and admit I don’t really know the difference between Clifton Village and Clifton proper, about 50p on a pint I guessed. Yes, there are buses I could have taken,...
August 2026. Bristol. It’s been a while, but I finally managed a trip outside that brutal Manchester-Midlands-Cambridge-Kent corridor last weekend. A choice of routes down to Bath, and the one stopping at Oxford would have been ideal...
August 2026. Skegness. Lincolnshire. We stayed at The Vine, as we did back in 1999 when our 6 month old cried through Roger Protz’s dinner in the oak panelled dining room. A week later we found out James had a hernia, bless him. I’m not...
August 2026. Skegness. Lincolnshire. Obviously Skegness isn’t the most newsworthy east coast seaside resort this week, what with alien bins* competing for our attention, but I was genuinely keen to discover why the trains from Sheffield...
August 2026. Skegness. A Sunday night in Skegness, my first Summer visit, so no better time to see the real heart of the seaside choice of the entire East Midlands. I’d been looking at a train from Sheffield but a) it’s £54 before...
August 2026. Skegness. Lincolnshire As you’ll know I’m not intending to complete the Beer Guide again, once in a lifetime is scary enough, as David Byrne sang. But I still like visiting the new GBG pubs, and colouring in the maps, and a...
August 2026. Sawtry. Near Huntingdon. This was the view from our motel window last Saturday, near the lowest pub in the country*. Redwings Lodge, on the B1043 (Ermine Street) alongside the A1(M) at Sawtry, was the only place (well) under...
A belated highlights package for July, the stand-out of course being the English demolition of the French in Miami. No-cared about the final. With Mrs RM taking a break from exploring the Caucasus, there’s a bit more local travel in...
July 2026. Chesterfield. An aimless afternoon in Chesterfield, and there’s nothing wrong with aimless. Those two pints in the Rutland Arms and Royal Oak saw a town in rude health, and once it gets that museum open this year it’ll warrant...
July 2026. Chesterfield. “A Top 100 pub ! ANOTHER one ?“. Why not ? The Royal Oak was the highlight of July, a “Wow” moment that Thursday afternoon in floral Chesterfield. The Shambles may not have the fudge and Harry Potter tat of York,...
July 2026. Chesterfield. One more trip to write up and then I’ll do that July highlights post you’re all clamouring for. Mrs RM’s ongoing rehabilitation had meant a postponement of our Big (but largely sober) Trip to Chesterfield with...
July 2026. Newcastle. One thing about Tyneside; just like London or Genoa, you’ll always find something new on a trip. This time, it’s Pink Lane and the Catholic cathedral. St Mary’s is a NCSS 4 joy, the highlight the stained glass...