Oh, memories – and not pleasant ones.
Packed commuter services, soggy sandwiches, tepid tea from the trolley.
The heyday of the railways may have conjured up images of classy dining on the move, but those days are long gone.
Thankfully, though, we’re in for a trackside treat.
This is Carriages tearoom in the tiny Northumberland village of Bellingham.
Like so many other places the station closed decades ago.
But now standing alongside the platform are some restored carriages – hence the name funnily enough – and some fabby food.
It’s mid-afternoon and most of the comfy blue seats are filled with couples and families enjoying some café culture with a difference.
What’s lovely, we notice right away, is that each table has a game to play on it. We’ve got dominos but there’s also draughts, chess, solitaire and more. What a brilliant wee touch.
Several of our fellow travellers – or non-travellers to be more accurate – are having the afternoon tea at £8 or £15 for two.
There’s a special celebration afternoon tea, too. At £14 it’s a veritable feast with sandwiches, quiche, homemade sausage roll, fruit scone with jam and whipped cream, four mini cakes and a pot
of tea.
We’re not quite that hungry, though. So we settle on the scone with jam and cream, a lemon drizzle cake – which is at least double a normal slice size when it comes – and a ginger extravaganza.
What’s that, I hear you ask?
Well, it started off as a slice of the gorgeously moist ginger cake. Then the friendly young waiter said: “You can have ginger overload with that.”
Can you have too much ginger? It turns out not!
What we’ve ended up with is the cake, a couple of scoops of local favourite Doddington’s ginger ice cream and a little shot glass with Robsons ginger wine.
If the cake wasn’t moist enough already or the ice cream gingery enough, it was by the time we poured the wine over.
The whipped cream with the scone had obviously been given such a lashing we almost had to dig it out. And the scone – they’re freshly baked every morning – was delicious.
We wash that all down with a cappuccino and a hot chocolate, smothered in marshmallows and cream. £13 the lot.
Did I mention that we weren’t that hungry? Yes, the lemon drizzle cake came away with us in a box.
The train may be going nowhere but this is a first class dining car.
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Balmalcolm’s Muddy Boots offers sweet treats… and a giant jumping pillow
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