I was lucky enough, earlier in the year, to win a trip on the Swanage Devon Bell railway with a Champagne Afternoon Tea. I actually won this from Silver Travel Advisor (thanks so much!) I often go to Dorset, Devon or Cornwall for walking holidays with members of my family (see my numerous reviews about our 630 trek along the South West Coast Path).
Anyway my son and I decided to have a few days in Dorset to do some walking and to incorporate this lovely prize during the time we were here. We set off from London all suited and booted (the information said you had to dress smartly) and arrived at Swanage in plenty of time for our 15.10 train journey. The station was packed and there was a lot of hanging around before they finally let us on the train. There were different classes, we were in the Pullman with our Champagne prize, there was another carriage which was the Prosecco Trip. ( I believe they were given a hamper with a bottle of Prosecco and some scones in it.) Then there was just the regular carriages which were for people just travelling to the next station. Not everyone in our carriage was smartly dressed, one man had very casual shorts on which detracted a bit from the “exclusive” feel of the treat. A very friendly steward gave us a little history of the carriage and joked about how the Champagne would be bottomless and we might want to try and break the record of consuming 13 bottles during the journey! The train left Swanage and we were served sandwiches and given a glass of Champagne, then we had a couple of cakes with more Champagne. We passed the very impressive Corfe Castle and then we had a few scones (I, being veggie, received 2 large scones. My son, not being veggie got 2 tiny ones for some reason!) By now the Champagne had dried up so we asked the Steward if we could have a refill. He seemed surprised that we would ask and filled our glasses but did not fill the glasses of the couple sitting opposite us! (They did eventually ask!) When we reached Norden the engine changed ends to take us back to Swanage. It was nice to see the uncoupling of the train and I went onto the platform to take some pictures. The journey back was as picturesque as before, but no more Champagne appeared! (In case I sound like an alcoholic here, let me just stress that our glasses were the small plastic ones you might use on a picnic, not normal size wine glasses).
It was a nice experience, it only took about an hour but when I saw how much the tickets were (£55.65 each), I felt it probably was not worth that amount. We were really pleased to do the trip but had I don’t think I would have booked it had I not been the lucky winner of the competition.
