# Classic buses and cafes



## brix (Aug 17, 2009)

I've just had a lovely few days pootling about the North of England visiting friends and relatives.  I spent a  couple of days on vintage bus trips (http://www.cumbriaclassiccoaches.co.uk/routes.asp) when I visited family in Cumbria, and then I headed for the North East and some friends, knowing that I like this sort of thing, took me for (terrible) coffee in the Rendevous Cafe in Whitley Bay.  

Some pics:


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## brix (Aug 17, 2009)

Pics of the cafe:


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## janeb (Aug 17, 2009)

I was in the Rendezvous Cafe 2 hours ago, having a nut sundae and peppermint tea - you're right, the coffee is truly awful but the cafe is great in every other respect.

Rendezvous cafe: Whitley Bay

I would like us to meet
where the Horlicks is sweet.

I could tell you my story
with a knickerbocker glory.

Talk of mermaids all day
spooning pear parfait.

Licking ninety-nine cones
we could turn off our phones.

Smile, perhaps disappear,
with a chocolate eclair.

Rendez Vous with the sea
and the sugary breeze.

Come eat strawberry flan
while we can, while we can.

by Julia Darling, 2003


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## brix (Aug 17, 2009)

janeb said:


> I was in the Rendezvous Cafe 2 hours ago, having a nut sundae and peppermint tea - you're right, the coffee is truly awful but the cafe is great in every other respect.



I really loved it in there although I found their policy on ice-cream cones slightly draconian


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## janeb (Aug 17, 2009)

And it is very strictly enforced - was there last summer when a middle aged man trying to buy an ice cream cone for his elderly and infirm mother was refused one because they wanted to sit inside, in the end they had to buy an oyster wafer ice cream 

Did you see the picture of Norman Wisdom, with the staff, by the till?  Used to be a regular customer when he was in the area by all accounts.


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## brix (Aug 17, 2009)

janeb said:


> And it is very strictly enforced - was there last summer when a middle aged man trying to buy an ice cream cone for his elderly and infirm mother was refused one because they wanted to sit inside, in the end they had to buy an oyster wafer ice cream
> 
> Did you see the picture of Norman Wisdom, with the staff, by the till?  Used to be a regular customer when he was in the area by all accounts.



That's hilarious 

Yes, I saw the pic of Norman.  Unfortunately by that point I had been told, very firmly, that I couldn't take any more photos.

I did love the cafe but they ought to think about relaxing the rules a bit.  As you'll have seen from my photos (the ones I took before I got told off anway) there wasn't a soul in there so it wasn't like I was disturbing anyone.


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## starfish2000 (Aug 18, 2009)

Those pictures have made me nostalgic. My dad was a bus conductor....by all accounts, his buses were an entertaining mixture of Cabaret and Das Boot.


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## brix (Aug 18, 2009)

starfish2000 said:


> Those pictures have made me nostalgic. My dad was a bus conductor....by all accounts, his buses were an entertaining mixture of Cabaret and Das Boot.



Hello!  I thought my thread had died, so glad to hear you enjoyed the pics.  The conductor in the photos was a particularly wonderful fellow, all sort of twinkly, and it made me realise how much I miss bus conductors, full stop.  He was checking that the old uns' got on and off safely and having a bit of craic (sp?) with them; it was really lovely and human.  Your Dad's buses sound like they would have been fab! 

Have some more pics:


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