Day 23 – Edinburgh – ?!?! London
Another day catching up on a backlog of blogposts. Now caught up, this one’s live.
Checked the weather last night, and the Met Office had issued some cautions for wind and rain. North of Scotland can expect snow, possibly a blizzard, so it looks like we’ve picked the right day to head south.
Some minor drama at Waverley station, our train had no platform on the board 15 minutes before departure, then all the boards went blank. L managed to find a railperson who told us which platform we needed. Hiked there, got on the train, all was good.
Headed south, made it through Newcastle without incident, always a good thing. Got a good view of their bridge, the one that looks like Sydney Harbour bridge. Also for the first time managed to see the big statue with the wings just south of the town. not sure why I’d never managed to see it before, maybe I was thinking it was bigger, as it wasn’t as huge as I’d thought. Had an aamazing view from the train of the North Sea, wind blowing into the oncoming waves meant it looked very cold and uninviting.
As I type, we’re parked somewhere south of York, due to signal failure. We’re spread across a crossing, so I can imagine the the truckdrivers I can see are somewhat nonplussed. I’m not sure what the signal failure is all about, as two trains have passed us heading north so I’d imagine it’s not affecting them. So we wait.
Of course it’s all L’s fault, she posted that the train was running on time to facebook, right before we stopped.
After 30 minutes, we are moving, pottering through Doncaster.
Nope, not any more. We’re stopped again, approx delay 76 minutes and counting, while another train has just zoomed past heading north. Have emailed the train folks, suggesting they give us free wifi for the journey, as presently we get 15 minutes free. Having used this time, I won’t get a reply, obviously. Oh well.
Moving again, delay now at 82 minutes and counting. Am looking through the East Coast info website and see that a bunch of other trains have been cancelled, so am wondering if we’ll make it to London today. We seem to be powering ahead at normal speed though, so we’ll see how long that lasts. Then again, my laptop battery has probably only got enough juice to make it to London at our present ETA, so another delay could beb a problem. Then again, I’ve just found the power socket under the table so scrap that. I love trains that come with powerpoints.
We’re now being told that there should be no further delays, so ETA is 2.20pm. Looks like Waverley station is now closed, so we were lucky to get out when we didprobably about the first time I’ve been thankful for an early morning.
I can’t believe how many powerplants there are around this area, We must have passed 6 or 7, surely they can’t all be atomic. Must google this later.
Hmm, just looked at the delay refund policy and we might get a full refund for this one. WIll dig around and see if I can arrange for it to happen in pounds, not vouchers.
Delay now at 97 minutes, but we’re chugging along at present. Zooming through a tunnel. Zooming indeed, we’re chugging through the English countryside at 100mph, though it doesn’t look like the driver will make up any time on this. Yup, even cranking it up to 122mph the delay is stil 98 minutes, which kind of makes me wonder how fast these trains normally go.
Ya boo hiss as we pass the London dump/Emirates stadium.
Hooray! only about 102 minutes late at Kings Cross!
—
Caught the tube to our hotel, located centrally near Lancaster Gate station. The room is a little quirky, floor slopes in odd directions, odd furniture, but for a London hotel room it’s rather spacious. There’s also a lift, and it is tiny, I could not turn around while wearing my backpack, so I had to back out at the right floor.
Dinner was aftger a short stroll into Paddington, at a pub called the Sawyers Arms. They had some okay reviews on the web, and promised fine cask ales. All of the interesting cask ales were not available, and the food was pretty ordinary. Feeling experimental I went for the hunter chicken with a side of breaded dil wedges. The breading was good, the pickled dill very bland, tasted more like warm cucumber. Hunter chicken was a sliced chicken breast, with bacon, cheese (a fairly bland cheddar by the taste), and I believe shop-bought bbq sauce. And chips, mostly cold. It may have been an off night and they only had the work experience kid cooking or something, but it was not a good meal.
Grabbed a couple of essentials at Sainsburys atr Paddington station, wandered around the area a little, then it was time for an early night, ready to get up and seize tomorrow (starting with the laundry). Dessert was a Sainsbury’s gooseberry yogurt thing, strange but okay.