This week concluded with 3 of us heading off on Friday afternoon on the Ale Trail.
Warren, my brother Rob and I headed over the boundary towards Yorkshire from Piccadilly train station on the 12:27 with our 1st stop being Dewsbury.
If we were to follow the Ale Trail that Oz and James Drink to Britain took on BBC we should have headed out to Batley 1st however Warren had taken some advice from some of his work colleagues who suggested that we miss out Batley.
The trip from Manchester to Dewsbury was not the easiest as we had no sooner left Manchester than we were being advisedandnbsp;that the train would be stoppingandnbsp;at Stalybrigeandnbsp;but as this was unscheduledandnbsp;stop we would not be allowed off the train! The train then stayed at Stalybridge for over half an hour – most annoying as we were looking forward to our 1st pint! Then the guard announced that it was impossible for us to continue with our trip and that we would be returning to Manchester and thus our Ale Trail was over.
Then again without warning the Ale Trail was back on track and we were heading in the direction of Dewsbury 🙂
So as I said our 1st stop was the West Riding sat within the confines of Dewsbury Station only 1 hour later than predicted. The pub was a traditional Yorkshire pub with a fine selection of cask ales a great place to start our Ale Trail. 3 pints came to just sort of £7.00
Within the time it took for us to sink our 1st pint we were back on the platform waiting for the train to Marsden, again Warren had been advisedandnbsp;that the stop off in Mirfieldandnbsp;was not recommended and so we were now off to the Head of Steam in Huddersfield, actually the Ale Trail recommends the Kings Head however more intel from Warren meant that the Head of Steam was the right choice. We stood outside and soaked up the late afternoon sun.
Again we were off this time on the train to Marsden missing out the stop in Slaithwaite. As we got off the train in Marsden we headed over the road to the Railway not The Riverhead Brewery Tap and Dining Room for some strange reason. Whilst we were waiting for the beer to beandnbsp;drawn on the hand-pull Warren’s First Aid skill was calledandnbsp;in to help an elderly lady who had fallen on the cobbles outside the pub. While Warren helped out and waited for the paramedic Rob and I managed another pint before walking back to the train.
This time the train managed a 5 minute stint up the track before it too stopped and was held for 10 minutes, then back to Marsden we headed again. With 30 minutes wait for another train we sneaked back into the Railway for another pint before heading back to the train only to find that it was not going anywhere. The guard did offer to sound the train horn if we wanted to go back to the pub, who on an Ale Trail needed telling twice?
However no sooner had we taken two mouthfuls than the horn sounded so the pint was swallowed very quickly 🙂
By now the time was ticking by and we elected not to call at Greenfield or Stalybridge but to head back to Manchester.
To end the day we stopped at Sinclair’s before heading home.
if you want to do the Ale Trail look it up here http://www.realaletrail.net/andnbsp;lets hope you have better luck than we did with the trains!
Also this week its been hot and sunny in Manchester as can be seen in the following photo’s taken from my office near Piccadilly
As sit and type this we’ve had an excellentandnbsp;afternoon with Helen, Laura, Matt and mark who called round even though it was cooler than recent days we sat in the garden with the chiminea burning.
Chris Froome of team Sky has also won this years (100th) Tour de France with a fantastic 3 weeks of cycle racing.
