More market research (written by Sandra)

Four go to Llandeilo
It was a mad idea, dreamt up by The Boss and our Nephew.  “Let’s take Grandma on a train to the middle of Wales for lunch.”
    That’s how the four of us (The Boss, his mother, our Nephew and me) came to be standing on Bucknell station at 9.30 on a drizzly early September morning.  Promptly at 9.40 the train appeared in the distance.  Bucknell isn’t a scheduled stop so Nephew waved the train down enthusiastically, but I think we had already been spotted.  It wasn’t going very fast. And it wasn’t very big. The driver gave us a cheery “Good morning” as we climbed aboard. We found seats, Grandma and The Boss on one side of the aisle, me and Nephew on the other.  We were surprised that there were so many other passengers, and a man with a trolley selling tea and coffee.

Knucklas Viaduct

    The Boss had booked the train in advance and had 21 tickets (four out, four back, eight seat reservations, four for payment and one with his address on it).
    After an uneventful journey through the wet Welsh countryside we arrived at Llandeilo, where we got off.  A taxi was waiting for us, booked by The Boss who had also arranged lunch.  The taxi took us to The Plough in Rhosmean and promised to come back for us.
    The Plough, a large blue-painted self-styled boutique hotel in the middle of absolutely nowhere, was surreal.  A smart receptionist greeted us, a smart waiter took us to our smart table in the smart dining room, and we spent the next two hours happily eating our way through a very good three course lunch in a room full of other happy lunchers.
    We had a slight panic when the taxi was late and we had to stand in the rain for five minutes, but we caught the train with time to spare and rattled back through the wet Welsh countryside, this time with a table.  When the ticket inspector came by The Boss laid out his 21 tickets and invited him to “pick a card, any card”.  The ticket inspector’s lips didn’t even twitch.
    And so we arrived safely back in Bucknell and agreed that we had had a very nice, if rather unusual, day out.