As I said in an earlier post, we travelled south at the beginning of August. Neither of us really enjoy flying to be honest, much preferring to let the train take the strain, and as we are retired we have plenty of free time. Plus it's much more cost-effective for us as Adrian worked in the rail industry for 39 years and is entitled to reduced rate (and a certain amount of free) travel, which I am too as his spouse.
So we set off from home on the Thursday morning, catching the Northlink ferry MV Hamnavoe which sails from the ferry terminal literally just a few minutes down the street from where we live. We've been lucky that up to now we have never had a bad crossing between Stromness and Scrabster but I guess there is bound to be a trip at some point that will be a bit more bumpy LOL We booked a taxi to meet us at the terminal in Scrabster before we set off as it was a bit tight time-wise with the train connection from Thurso.
I suppose it is quite a long train journey down to Inverness, around 3 3/4 hours, but we find that it doesn't really drag as there is lovely scenery along much of the route. This train gets us into Inverness with plenty of time to have some dinner before boarding the sleeper.
We were really looking forward to travelling down to London on the new Caledonian sleeper trains. Alas, the new rolling stock has had a fair few "teething" problems since it was supposed to come into service back in April. It is now running on the Lowlander route, but still hasn't yet come into service on the Highlander route. Most disappointing, not least because the old trains really are well past their best these days. Hopefully the next time we travel down the new sleepers will finally be in service from Inverness too. The sleeper leaves Inverness about 8.45pm and gets into London Euston around 7.50am. The journey is a bit clanky at times but I do manage to sleep fairly well.
Once we get into London, we are looking to travel back out again LOL So it was a short walk along the Euston Road to London St Pancras station to catch a train to Hitchin, where my Dad was waiting to pick us up. We spent Friday at my parents' (Beverly was already there as she had flown down the day before); it was nice to catch up as we hadn't seen them since the family all came up here last year for Mum's 80th birthday 😊
On the Saturday, the day of Mum and Dad's anniversary, we all decamped to Hitchin. Mum, Dad, Amanda and Liz were staying for the weekend at Hitchin Priory Hotel; Adrian, Beverly and myself were booked into The Sun Hotel until the Thursday. Sam, of course, still lives in Hitchin so he only had a short walk from his flat into town. The anniversary dinner was at Hitchin Priory on the Saturday evening. We had a private room and the meal was nice enough. On Sunday we had a family lunch there. Again the meal itself was fine but the service was pretty slow. None of us were impressed with the disabled toilet facilities ~ which were pretty much non-existant! The only toilet on the ground floor of the building was the gents, which meant that anyone with a physical disability had to ask a member of staff to "stand guard" so that they were able to use a cubicle in there! Wheelchair access into the building was poor too.
The three of us staying at The Sun Hotel weren't that impressed with our accommodation either, sadly. The hotel is a very old building, originally a coaching inn dating from the 16th century, so one expects that there are difficulties with incorporating modern amenities (although to be fair, they do have disabled toilet facilities on the ground floor for both ladies and gents!). It is a rabbit warren of a building, with long winding corridors and lots of stairs to the various bedroom areas. The rooms were clean enough, but Beverly's en-suite bathroom was not in good condition having a fair bit of mould on the ceiling. What was more disappointing was the dining aspect. Breakfast was really chaotic, with items running out and hotel guests having to actually find members of staff. Lunch wasn't too bad but the evening meals were very variable. I know in the scheme of things this is only a small thing, but I was amazed that for the whole time we stayed in the hotel there was no sparkling water available! The hotel was plainly short-staffed and in need of updating. It's such a shame as whilst the hotel has always been a wee bit shabby around the edges, the food and service has always been very good.
To be honest, the next time we go down to Hitchin we will most likely book into the Premier Inn!
Still, it was lovely to spend time with family and friends. Beverly and I went to visit my friend Olive, who lives over the road from our old house, and it was so nice to have a good chin-wag and catch up with the latest news from the neighbourhood. I do miss Olive, I must confess. Our old house looks much the same. It was a bit odd, whilst we were waiting for the taxi to take us back into town, to be standing outside the house knowing it didn't belong to us anymore. We had lunch with Caroline, who lived in the house next door to us (she moved to another part of Hitchin the same week that we moved) ~ we became good friends whilst we were neighbours and hopefully she will be coming up to visit us soon. We also had dinner with more friends, Christine and John. Christine and I worked in the same office and have known each other for a long time, since before I had the gruesome twosome in fact! She and John want to come up to visit too; it will be lovely to have folk coming to see where we have made our new home 😊
Weather-wise it was much warmer than we have got used to living here LOL To be fair, it could have been much worse as a week or so before we travelled down the temperatures were in the 30s! It felt still hot enough, though. Hitchin has changed a little in the 18 months or so since we moved, with some shops having closed down and new ones opening up. It has the feel of a somewhat "younger" town these days, and seems more geared up to young professionals. I think it is probably an attractive place to live for younger folk as it's only about a 30 minute or so commute into London, with property prices/rents being lower.
Dad picked us up from the hotel on the Thursday and we spent the day with them, travelling back into London to catch the sleeper in the evening. Whilst we were waiting on Hitchin station Sam sent a text to say that Euston was in chaos! By the time we got there, the station gates had been temporarily closed as there had been an electrical failure somewhere near Camden, I believe. The trains weren't running, and in the end there were a fair few delays and cancellations. We had visions of the flippin sleeper not running but in the end it was only about 30 minutes late leaving Euston and made up the time overnight, getting into Inverness more or less on time.
We had some time to kill at Inverness so I sat at the station with the luggage, reading and people-watching, whilst Adrian went for a little walk and got sandwiches, etc, for lunch on the train to Thurso. Unfortunately the trains don't really marry up at all well with the ferry, so we had more time to kill in Thurso. Even more unfortunate was the fact that the weather was horrible! We had made a rookie mistake in only taking "shower proof" jackets away with us and they were definitely not man enough for the rain hammering down LOL We got awfully wet just walking from the station down into the town area ~ it wasn't really raining when we started our little trek but by 'eck it certainly was by the time we made it to shelter 😮
Thurso station was closed when the train got there, I suppose they are short-staffed too. So the toilets were locked and everyone had to leave the area from the back exit. I was quite shocked by how "sad" Thurso has become even in the couple of years since I was last passed through. It must be quite depressing for the folk who live there with so little, it seems, in the way of amenities. Even the museum has closed, apparently because Dounray has withdrawn its funding. We had planned on having a hot drink and a bite to eat in the museum cafe, not to mention making use of the loo facilities, but had to look elsewhere. Fortunately, there was a cafe open not far from the museum so we were able to dry out a little bit. Unfortunately for us, said cafe closed at 4pm so we had to venture out into the rain once more. We phoned for a taxi to take us down to the waiting area for car drivers as the check-in area at the terminal didn't open until 5pm ~ or so we thought! The walk from the car waiting area to the terminal is about 10 minutes.....in the pouring rain and with a howling wind blowing in from the sea it felt much longer! The hood of my jacket is so big, even with the toggles pulled tight, it kept pushing my glasses down my streaming wet face. In the end, I had to take them off as I was worried they would fall off completely so I was walking along head down, with no specs on, and just hoping I made it in one piece LOL
It was a blessed relief to finally reach the check-in area.....only to find that the doors were locked with a notice saying it wouldn't be open until 5.30pm. In the end it was a good 10 minutes later than that before the staff finally turned up, by which time we were cold, still wet and rather grumpy. The first thing I did was grab some dry clothes from my suitcase and march into the ladies to change! Oh, the bliss of dry trousers, top and jacket! Thankfully, and somewhat surprisingly, the crossing was pretty smooth. I had phoned for a taxi to meet us from the ferry terminal in Stromness and to be frank it was a relief to finally be back home!
So there you have the epic saga of our trek down south, my lovlies ~ hopefully the next trip will be much smoother 😄
