The Tri-City Tour November 2021: Travel Day 1 - Llantwit to Preston

[Gill H]

<<Pre-trippie

(Apologies for the lack of photos today - it will get better!)

After a flurry of packing and sorting which caused Cookie to seek refuge under the sofa, we finally left the house about 8.15am intending to have breakfast at the cafe. However, it being Sunday, the cafe didn’t open until 9 so we settled for sitting on a bench with a bacon roll from Greggs and a coffee.

This meant we had plenty of time to get to Llantwit Major station for the first train of our journey, the 9.22 to Bridgend. But alas - we arrived to find that our train had been cancelled!

Fortunately our trusty local taxi driver was available, and within 10 minutes he had arrived to take us to Bridgend. While I would never want to imply a lack of due caution and concern for safety, let’s just say that he didn’t hang about getting us there. Peter was heard to mutter ‘Keep your hands and arms inside the car’ and ‘hang onto your hats and glasses’ at least once.

The taxi made a stop at a nearby Tesco so we could get cash out (as we rarely carry it these days) and we arrived at the station in plenty of time. We gave our driver a generous tip as we were so grateful to him for getting us on our way.

Fortunately the waiting room and cafe was open and we grabbed a coffee and muffin while we waited for the train. There were evidently problems locally as the next Cardiff train was also cancelled, but our train, the 10.09 to Manchester Piccadilly, was running only a few minutes late.
Once on the train we grabbed two seats and squeezed ourselves in. The train was one of the older ones which are really not built for those with a body shape more Ursula than Ariel, or indeed more Baymax than Baywatch. But fortunately we were soon at Cardiff and a nearby table became free, so we settled ourselves across from each other and enjoyed the legroom.

As often on this line, the WiFi wasn’t working, so we settled down to read our kindles and doze for the next (and longest) leg of the journey, to Crewe. There was no refreshment trolley on this journey, so by the time we reached Crewe 3 hours later, we were ready for a late lunch. At the café we grabbed a baguette each, some crisps, a chocolate bar and a drink. Healthy eating wasn’t really going to be a priority at this point, I’m afraid.

We had about 20 minutes to buy and eat our lunch and then walked through to the other platform for our train to Preston. This was an easier leg of the journey – we had seats booked (the only part of the journey this was possible) and it was only 45 minutes before we were arriving in Preston and trekking up to the bus stop. We bought weekly bus tickets as we knew we would be going into town most days, and in less than half an hour we arrived at the house.

Peter’s sister Sharon was at work, so we made ourselves comfortable and took advantage of Sharon’s Netflix subscription (with her permission) to watch Eurovision: The Legend of Fire Saga. As we’re big Eurovision fans this was something we’d been wanting to see for a while. It was fun, particularly the Eurovision parody bits (even if they did take liberties with the actual facts) but unfortunately we aren’t keen on Will Ferrell doing his usual shtick. Still, there was enough to enjoy and at least Pierce Brosnan had the good sense not to sing this time.

Sharon had bought pizza for us, so we put it in the oven, then watched Doctor Who and Strictly until Sharon got home, and then chatted with her until bedtime.

>>Preston Days 1-4

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[P&S]

What an extremely busy travel day! Good job on getting there now to relax