Wales on rails: fine food and great views on the Holyhead to Cardiff

The Gerald of Wales, which runs the length of the country, is a rarity: a train with an onboard chef serving three-course meals and proper morning fry-ups

I can smell Gerald long before I can see him. It’s a misty summer morning and there’s an aroma of frying bacon wafting from the onboard kitchen of the train that’s standing, almost bashfully, on the furthermost platform of Holyhead station, Anglesey. This must mean one of two things: I’m either watching a private luxury train preparing to take pensioners on a day trip, or I’ve travelled back in time and will shortly be enveloped in loco steam and handed a copy of the Picture Post and pouch of pipe tobacco by the man opening up the station kiosk.

“You’ll be wanting the full Welsh then, love?”

I spot a Lilliputian red-painted cottage on the seafront at Conwy – officially Britain’s smallest house