UK rail trip – 2022
Day 39 – 11th May, 2022
I was up by around 08:00 (or thereabouts) and my payslip was already in my email inbox. It usually takes a few hours more for my pay to appear in my bank account. Sometimes, though, it can take a little longer. This was one of those days. It wasn’t until about four hours later that it had arrived. Once it had, I logged on to the sales website where I bought my first BritRail Pass. Generally, you can’t buy a BritRail Pass while in the UK. Let’s see if the website is smart (or dumb) enough to let me buy the pass. All it took was for selecting the Australian version of the website (with no VPN needed!) and a 15-day pass appeared in my email. I activated it on the spot. I thanked Steve and Christine for putting me up for the last few days. Christine graciously dropped me off at Stockport station. I was on the move again!
I could have easily caught the train to London from Stockport. But, to get the best pick of seats (and never being one to simply pass up on catching an additional train!), I caught the first train to Manchester Piccadilly. I would catch my London train from there.
I walked out to the station concourse, over to Sainsbury’s Local, and bought my litre bottle of orange juice. As I couldn’t be guaranteed of picking up a cheeseburger on the train (stocks have been a little low of late), I picked up a burger from the Burger King. I then walked out to the platform and hopped on the same train I hopped off only 20 minutes earlier. I settled into my table seat!
It was good that I picked up my lunch at Burger King, as the offerings on this service weren’t that great – including no cheeseburger. I did, however, pick up a can of cider and a bag of crisps. So, I was happy enough with that!
On arrival at London Euston, I caught the London Underground from the nearby station of Euston Square. I checked in, dropped off my stuff, and did some laundry. The Wombar wasn’t open yet, so went and grabbed my laptop from my room. My room didn’t have a view of the railway line this time. Nor were there any windows that could be opened – they were all sealed. They were, however, very large floor to ceiling windows looking out onto the street. I would only be staying one night, as I’m planning on taking the Caledonian Sleeper up to Fort William, Scotland, tomorrow night. With my laundry done, I packed up my stuff and dropped everything back up in my room. Time for dinner, I think!
I walked up the street towards Aldgate East station, as I’d passed a pub, a few times before, that seemed quite good. I dropped in, grabbed a pint of cider and ordered a steak. After dinner, I wandered down to Tower Bridge and enjoyed the view. Later that evening, I received a direct message on Twitter from Justin, one of the train managers for Eurostar. He was a standby shift tomorrow and would be arriving at around 13:30. We arranged a quick meet up. With that sorted, I went back to the hostel and called it a night.
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