From Nasareth OR Nazareth
... with a couple of evening departures travelling southbound - far too late for getting to Bethlehem. Northbound (i.e. in the wrong directions) we have a similar paucity of possible permutations.
The 0720 is the only possible time to leave Nasareth in the morning and will be the only possible time that gives any chance whatsoever of making it to Bethlehem in one day.
Whilst Bethlehem does have a very smart bus shelter ...
... fbb could find no evidence of any bus actually going there. So Mary and Joe will have to walk or cadge a lift from the nearest town which is Langadog.
So we invite the journey planner to get us from Nasareth at 0720 with an arrival at Llangadog the same day. It is a long shot, but may be possible.
The 0720 5A takes the happy hapless couple to Bangor, where they have a two hour wait (lovely) from a though train to Craven Arms ...
... where you have nearly an hour's wait before zooming off to Llangadog.
fbb spent some time yesterday afternoon (Christmas Day!) trying to fathom timetables from Transport for Wales. He couldn't find any! He did find an earlier train from Bangor to Craven Arms at 0855 ...
... which would get you to Craven Arms at 1136. But then, joy of joys, you would have to wait until the 1434 unless you travelled via Cardiff and Swansea.
The whole Traveline route seems fraught with stress. Surely there must be a way of travelling south from Nasareth. What about the T2? 
Despite Google Maps' advice, there are no T2 journeys from Nasareth, they all whizz by without stopping on the main A437 road, past the fbb's 1979 holiday let as pictured yesterday.
The nearest time points to Nasreth are Penygroes and Garndolbenmaen ...
... which would involve as fair walk. Penygroes is to the north ...
... whilst Garndolbenmaen might be more helpful as it is south of Nasareth. But these are time points. Traveline will tell us if there are any stops between the two, some of which may be closer to Nasareth.
The answer appears to be that several may be possible.
Pant-Glas is about 2.5 miles from Nasareth ...
... where a draughty bus stop would give access to the T2 ...
... so a weary trudge for Mary who, you may remember, is "en famille"!!
Maybe someone from the village (Dai the Digger Driver???) might give them a lift to the bus stop?
Travelling south from Pant-Glas might be be less hassle - it would certainly be much cheaper - than the Traveline option.
We will see tomorrow.
Christmas Bus Spotting
National Express operates on Christmas Day and the company web site now makes it much easier to find real, actual timetables and in PDF form as well. Service 801 is an example.
Three trips from Bradford to London via Heathrow and three return.
Thanks, Roy!
Next Mary and Joseph blog : Monday 27th December
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Never has there been a time when Fantasy and Science Fiction have been so popular on TV, in Films and, above all, with Computer Games. We enjoy ZOOCEPHALIC monsters (look it up!).
We treat things like ZOMBIES as a game, and, in similar vein we treat the idea of a Devil as a joke.
Surely if God is the personification of GOOD, then understanding EVIL in an anthropomorphic manner (look it up!) is utterly reasonable.
ZION was one of the names of one of the hills that made up Jerusalem. By association the name was used for the Temple that stood on the hill.
The holiness of the Temple became extended to represent Heaven itself.
"Two things in life are certain, death and taxes", so said Benjamin Franklin. CHRISTmas has little to say about taxes (although the adult Jesus gave important guidance) but the gift of the Christ Child, the child who grew up to die for our sins, to make us fit for heaven, is all about heaven. We sing about it in many tradition carols ...
Hail, the heav'n-born Prince of peace
Hail! the Son of Righteousness
Light and life to all he brings
Risen with healing in his wings
Mild he lays his glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! the herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King
... because eternity is what CHRISTmas is really about.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Gwynedd do a very good bus timetable website, this shows that there is a "demand responsive" service 1R which goes to Nasareth itself. Bethlehem doesn't appear to have any buses: Morris Coaches 281 goes along the A40 but that's the wrong side of the river Towy! TfW Rail appear to have removed their timetables from the website so they can run a Covid emergency timetable which can be changed "as and when". I couldn't get their "journey planner" to work, but the one on the GWR website does.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Traveline Cymru website, it appears that the most convenient bus stop to Bethlehem is at Felindre, near Llangadog. The stop is named "Bethlehem Road near Llangadog Common, Felindre". As Andrew says there are stops on the A40 that are closer, but the absence of a bridge over the River Towy in that area makes access a little challenging! On 4 Jan 2022 there are a few journeys between 16:00 and 19:00, but the bus journey is only 2 minutes.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the map page on Traveline Cymru doesn't have a scale, so that the distance involved is not clear. Traveline Cymru allows the user to select "Bethlehem, Carmarthenshire" as a destination, but does not provide any journeys, even on 4th January 2022 which I have taken as the first normal working day after the Christmas/New Year holiday. In those respects, some criticism of Traveline Cymru would seem to be justified.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThere seem to be a few T2 journeys via Nasareth in the evenings and Sundays. They are the ones shown on the timetable serving Llanllyfni.
ReplyDelete