retiredmartin
retiredmartin
Martin
Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.
Latest Posts
June 2026. Leeds to Bradford. Comfort break at Newlay’s Abbey Inn over, we resumed Day 2 of the Cask Camino with a route from posh Leeds to almost posh Bradford. Today’s “Identify the bird” is a tough one. Lots of interesting canal...
June 2026. Leeds to Newlay (er, Leeds). I bet you thought the Cask Camino had stalled at the first hurdle lock, didn’t you ? Never underestimate Mrs RM’s tenacity and desire for blog views; Saturday saw us parked up at Apperley Bridge...
June 2026. Sheffield. Having just got back from Sudbury (the drives are now more physically than mentally wearing, which I think is a good thing), I had an actual day in Sheffield. Obviously, I’m not staying at home, that risks gardening...
June 2026. Sudbury. Suffolk. Mrs RM is, of course, correct in all matters (though she thought she saw Gareth Southgate playing for Australia v Turkey the other night), and is adamant that the only way you understand a place is with an...
June 2026. Sudbury. Now Sunnyside is sold I have to make other overnight arrangements when popping down to Cambridge, which seems to believe that £155 is a reasonable price for a night at a hotel. Luckily there’s still a few places you...
June 2026. Sheffield. An aimless Sheff walk up and down hills to get those 15,000 calories in finds me at the string of public parks above the University, harassing ducks. I think they’re ducks. Floral Weston Park leads to the reservoir...
June 2025. Haydock. Merseyside. I can still get thrilled at a visit to a new place, even if it is a mining village north of St Helens. Genuinely, I’d no recollection of Haydock, bar driving past the racecourse, and that’s virtually the...
June 2026. Lytham (not St Annes). An afternoon in Lytham (not St Annes, for a change) to meet up with Blackpool Jane on her blogging return and swap World Cup stickers with Lee. You remember Lytham ? The one with the windmill and the...
June 2026. Preston. A night in Preston, but an afternoon in Lytham, and that meant no pubs in one of the world’s great pub cities. No, it really is, even with the demise of the Greyfriar Moorbrook, with a proper mix of boozers (ugh). A...
June 2026. Preston. At last ! We’re leaving Yorkshire ! I’d forgotten what it was like to be able to wake up on a Saturday morning with freedom to go anywhere I want as long as I’m home by tea so Mrs RM can check her blog clicks. Mrs RM...
June 2026. Sheffield. From the Park Hill flats we followed the path of the tram toward town, with the UK’s scruffiest tourist sign at the Park Square roundabout. Much of central Sheffield has been modernised beyond recognition in recent...
June 2026. Sheffield. I don’t like these days in Sheffield, there’s too much still to see, but with Mrs RM busy curating her blog I need to give her options for local exploration. It’s a while since we explored the Park Hill flats out...
June 2026. Somewhere near Tonbridge, Kent. In truth, I’d been looking forward to the usual “Meal for Three” from Southborough’s Meows for Michael’s birthday, Mrs Meow is my second favourite lady in the whole world and it’s not even...
June 2026. Royal Tunbridge Wells. I’d left Mrs RM in the cheap Tunbridge Wells Travelodge on Mount Ephraim at 3pm for my dash into West London, and as expected the call about tea came at 17:59 just as I was finishing that pint of Shere...
June 2026. Teddington. London. Two cracking London pubs; one edging the beer, the other the “pub”. Back on the train that does the loop from Waterloo and back via Wimbledon, failing to take the killer shot of the Thames due to being on...