Blackpool (Sept 2012)

Blackpool (Sept 2012)

I waited 64 years before my first visit to Blackpool. People said “You should go, you’ll enjoy it”. So I did, and I didn’t!

The hotel was disappointing, and about three miles from the main attractions, and the weather was awful. Strong winds, sleeting rain and bitterly cold.

As we’d never been to Blackpool before, we asked for a map at the hotel, and were bluntly told “we don’t have any”.

So we headed to the Tourist Information opposite the Tower. It was closed. The rain was so heavy we decided to take shelter in a hotel in the hope of a pot of tea. The hotel we went in was even worse than our own, with tables full of dirty plates and long queues for the café. The bad weather seemed a better prospect, so we set off again. Our next stop was a seedy bar, where we were told we could only enter if we handed over £6. We declined, and went back out into the rain. Next stop was Blackpool’s iconic Tower. What a dive! Dirty, shabby, sticky, dark and dingy and overpriced. The only saving grace was the ballroom, which looked rather good (no doubt, because they film Strictly Come Dancing there).

We knew of an art gallery nearby, and decided to go there next. We got lost several times, and got colder and wetter. When we finally found the gallery, it was closed!

So, we set off back to the hotel for a cup of stew. (We ordered tea, but it was more like stew!).

We decided to cheer ourselves up with a tour of the lights after dinner on a tour bus. The traffic was awful, so our driver took us round all the back streets, and by the time he got to the illuminations, the bus windows had all steamed up. What little bit of the lights we did see were nothing special, although the Bispham tableaux weren’t too bad.

The following day was better, as the rain finally relented, still cold though!

We went back to the Grundy art gallery, which was a treat, and the highlight of the weekend. There had installed a nine hole crazy golf in the gallery, with different statues on each hole. Hitler was there, Saddam Hussein, builder’s bums, grave stones, desert islands and more. The most fun I’ve ever had in an art gallery and highly recommended. We later went to the Winter Gardens for a coffee, another venue well worth a visit.

The tram system in Blackpool is great, once you get the hang of it, and free to over 60’s.

Maybe if the weather had been better, Blackpool may have appealed more, but I don’t think I’ll be rushing back anytime soon.

Martin.

Norbreck Castle Hotel (Blackpool)

 

Norbreck Castle Hotel (Blackpool)

This hotel looks quite impressive from the outside, but sadly the interior is really rather shabby.

As the largest hotel in Blackpool, I understand that coach parties are the only way forward for such a hotel, but with volume, comes lack of service. Queues to check in, overcrowding, and poor service are the norm. Our room was tiny, cold and unwelcoming. The windows were frosted, so we had no view, and the heating only came on between 6pm and 8pm. The bed was hard, and facilities were poor.

In the bar/café area, everywhere was sticky and grubby, with lots of uncleared tables. The carpets and chairs were threadbare, and our cup of tea was stewed and undrinkable.

Toilets in the public areas were best avoided.

We upgraded to a dinner in the Boston restaurant, and to be fair, the food was good, and so was the service.

Breakfast was fair, but the plates were cold, even though the sign advised caution: hot plates!

Checking out was a nightmare as several coach parties all crammed into the reception area, so there was nowhere left to sit and wait.

4/10

Phantom of the opera review (Leeds)

Phantom of the opera review (Leeds)

The problem with seeing a big show in The West End or Broadway is that you will never be satisfied with anything less.

I saw Phantom on Broadway in 2004 and it simply blew me away. Unfortunately, the production in Leeds was never going to get close to that incredible evening in New York.

Of course, Phantom is really about the music and the singing and orchestration was spot on. The disappointment was with the staging, which was sometimes good, but sometimes average. The emotion of the piece was also lacking in parts, and only really got going in the last ten minutes.

However if you’ve never seen Phantom, it’s well worth a visit, but if you’ve already seen this masterpiece, then give this version a miss.

7/10

Martin.