Visit to Nottingham by rail & Tram

Visit to Nottingham

Thursday 18th February 2010

Eight keen travellers arrived at Hinckley Station, with great expectations, to catch the 10:30 train. First problem - no trains due to a fatality on the line. A replacement bus was offered, but the timings were unknown & it would be calling at Narborough & Wigston stations on the way to Leicester (not a quick trip then!). We then spotted Station Taxis' 8 seater sat doing nothing & after a bit of negotiation we were off - straight to Leicester Station.

Unfortunately we had missed our intended connection, this would have allowed us to get off at Beeston & visit a couple of pubs there - never mind we'll just have to go again! So it was straight to Nottingham, off the train, onto the Tram, up to Basford & the Fox & Crown, an excellent pub with the added bonus of being the home of the Alcazar Brewery. On offer were Sheriff's Gold, Wind Jammer, New Dawn, Fox Tale & Vixen's Vice all from Alcazar. They were all in excellent form & the food looked good too!

All too soon we were back to the Tram for one stop only to Wilkinson Street for the Horse & Groom (GBG10 p380), formerly the Shipstones Brewery Social Club. The pub was looking as good as ever & there were 9 offerings on handpump, we were obviously going to be staying a while, so the decision was taken to have lunch.

Next stop, no Tram needed here, was the Lion just round the corner - 11 beers on handpump including 3 from Castle Rock. A CAMRA discount of 15p per pint was very welcome here. So lets see - that's 3 pubs and a choice of 25 real ales so far - I don't know what we'll do if this real ale ever catches on!

By now it was sleeting well & there were rumours of considerable snow fall back at home - so what! - back to the Tram & down to the Old Market Square & the Bell. Here they run a loyalty scheme - buy 7 pints, get one free - just suited the 8 of us - but who had the free one! There were 3 beers from the Nottingham Brewery available here.

Final call of the day was the Vat & Fiddle, the Castle Rock Brewery tap - how can you go Nottingham Station & not call in? We had at least an hour before the train so the time was put to good use here using up some 50p Wetherspoons vouchers.

We caught a train home at about 6:30pm which should have got us back by about 7:30, but was delayed by half an hour.....

Words by Alan
Photos by Alan & Geoff

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