theDIBB - Going Out in a Blaze of Glory - Summer of Sorcery 2019

Welcome and hope your enjoy the journey:wavey::wavey:

From a pre trip report to the final trip report, I love this moment that a written account of a holiday becomes live and real to anyone who wishes to read it.
As always , I hope you enjoy it and as always you know I appreciate your comments to keep me writing until the very end.:wavey:

Before starting this journey - I hope you have read the pre trip report - if not it is just a little click here away.

The index to the trip can be found here - nice song to start too:cool2:

Just click here to see how many days have been posted !

Welcome to 2019 - Our Blaze of Glory, our Summer of Sorcery and our final one.

Pre- travel day or a prologue/ grand depart for cycling fans!

We appeared to be well prepared- which is always a bad sign!

The alarm clock sounded at 6-50, which was not welcomed on the first day of the school holidays.
It was much needed though, as it was our on line check in time for BA - considering the prices we had seen for pre booking it was a good money saver from the off.;)

We found we could check in for both legs of our outbound journey, and with plenty of seats available we opted for the 2/2’s approach.

This was a better option than I had ever thought and saved over £180 rather than crumbling on the pre booking option ( which I had often thought of!)

If you start reading this and think I scrimp and save, you would be wrong, I just hate paying an airline for something that I can get for free if I get a head start on check in. ;)

Our Manchester flight was exactly 24 hours away, yet those flying from Heathrow would have to wait another couple of hours- handy hint there !

Boarding passes were printed off and sorted by 7-30.

I then also downloaded two vouchers for the Florida Mall for a $20 gift card at just $10 each. This was as the result of a Dibb thread. As much as we don’t do much Florida Mall shopping, it seemed as if it was some free money – time will tell!:thumbs-up

A quick trip to our local Sainsbury’s for sandwiches and batteries (I know you can buy them in every shop known to human kind, but they always seem to be so much more expensive when the kids really need them! ) Our ‘busy’ start to the day then saw the first drop off to the train station at 11-30.

Joe and I were left in the sunshine, as Alison took the car home and awaited her lift from our every helpful Father in Law, who scoops us all up. Thank you, as always, Chris, your help and thoughtfulness is appreciated by us always xxxx.

Joe saw fit to take a photo of the luggage and my new trainers;)

It was another lovely farewell, with both Grandma and Grandad there to bid us a farewell.

There are so few photos you can take of a station that you have not taken before - there was a platform alteration today from previous trips in case anyone is looking for some trainspotting info;)

As we all stood on the platform, with a summer of magic ahead, there was a surge of excitement, anticipation and relief too.

Now begins our journey into Going out in a Blaze of Glory …

The train itself was packed and seemed to be full of people returning home from a weekend in Scarborough.
Thankfully we had booked seats, although our suitcases seemed to make handy seating points for those standing too.

The 12.44 departed on time and we headed to Huddersfield for our first change on the way to Manchester Airport.

Now there is often a moment that as a traveller you dread/ fear or indeed just shiver:omg: at the thought of and that is when station or airport staff need to put a call out for you.

We all stopped when adding our cases onto the connection in Huddersfield, our actions and our hearts were aghast at the announcement,

“If there is a passenger XXXXX on board this train please make yourself known to the train crew, you appear to have left your passports and travel documents in Leeds”

It was not our name, we all sighed a sense of relief at that , yet suddenly became aware that the named party were the group of 4 sat in the area we were bailing all our worldly suitcased goods into – their penny dropped quickly, I caught the attention of the train guard and one panic situation later, they had left passports, boarding cards and hotel info in a folder on the platform in Leeds 😱😱

Everyone on the train shared that heart sinking feeling on their behalf.

Now for the good bit- having left so much information on the platform, Transpennine Express knew they were on this train and had sent the package on the next train to Huddersfield.:thumbs-up

Just one of the group stayed behind whilst the rest of them were told to stay with the luggage and he would meet them at the airport. They were due to check in a 6pm for a flight to Geneva so not having to return to Leeds would make a big impact on them still being able to make it.

And the worst thing of all - we will never find out what happened next! :erm:

They seemed less bothered than everyone around them though!:omg:

As we got off, onto the platform in the airport station, awaiting our delayed train (back up the line, just 3 minutes to Heald Green) to fill in a delay repay form for our delayed train journey into the airport- the heat today had caused a kink in the line near Dewsbury, so all trains had to run slower on a considerable part of the line between Leeds and Huddersfield- that was all well and good, but by the time we all reached Manchester there was chaos- it took over 30 minutes to get from Victoria to Piccadilly and with the Newcastle train ahead of us being terminated in Piccadilly all of those passengers then rammed onto our train for the final 10 minutes to the airport.

I have to admit Transpennine are very fair and transparent with the delay/ repay scheme – I used their brand new beta system and was repaid 50% of our already discounted fare, whilst on holiday. It possibly paid for a beer!:beer2:

We reached Heald Green and checked into a room that had air con. It is a huge thing in this hotel and having stayed so many times previously, we do acknowledge that in the height of summer it is well worth it.

After a day on the train and with the glorious weather around us, we took a walk out to the Airport Pub, that walk is further than you think and I have to admit it continued a summer that I had already been keen on, but for others to have a quick 3+ mile round trip, walking without any purpose possible served as boot camp;)

We did not go for the beer though, as that is hugely expensive and if sitting outside is in plastic cups for far too much £! :nonono:

The view however is amazing - so many landing pictures and the sheer noise and smell of it all served to whet the holiday spirit and in some way make it real.

It was however, rather eerie to see so many TUI 737 Max’s mothballed and parked.

We stopped on the way back for some food at the Hungry Horse.

It does get mixed reviews in certain online places - However, swift service and at prices less than half of the Beefeater, that was at the Premier Inn and portion sizes that were good too, can’t share our superlatives for the place.

The music, the atmosphere and the food were superb.
Another bonus was the cashback offering too.:thumbs-up:thumbs-up

Impressed all round and will pay the place a future visit for cheap food, beer and some cracking music that just added to the holiday vibe! :cool2::thumbs-up

Fed and watered we headed back to the hotel just to watch the planes land , it was such a warm and clear night, we sat outside and enjoyed the free bottle of wine that the Beefeater loyalty card had accrued last year – free wine ! :spin::spin:

Bed was calling and with lights out around 10-30 we knew sleep would be short and the whole of this year was about to become real!

We were on holiday - at last and the next 4 weeks lay ahead of us . Excitement abounded :spin::spin:

Travel day is here - click to read