Brief trip to London to see Don & Scott off back to Florida
Don & Scott had been staying in my flat for ten days. I popped up to London to see them off the premises!
When they arrived (see last month) they turned up in a cab from Heathrow, with a huge amount of stuff. They have, very largely, missed out on the Elizabeth Line as it was on strike or had engineering works for most of the time. But, all was running by their return date so, after some persuasion, I enticed them to try it on the condition that I went with them as far as Paddington. I decided on a reasonable time for the journey and added on half an hour. They wanted to add an additional hour, which I wouldn't particularly have minded except it would have meant I had to hang around at Paddington for over two hours. So I asked if they wanted to go to breakfast. They didn't, but when I said I was going anyway, they came along!
We navigated all the clobber to Stratford station and, on arrival on the platform, sought help. Being an old station, one needs a ramp to get a buggy onto the train. I have to say it was both super efficient and super pleasant. A very simple change at Whitechapel is needed and I left them to it at Paddington. They still arrived at Heathrow with ages to spare but luckily were, somehow, eligible for the Virgin lounge. Not bad for £5.50 each, Stratford to Heathrow.
I had come across an app called SeatFrog which allows one to bid for cheap first class rail fares. I decided to try it, mainly because I would get access to the GWR Lounge at Paddington if I won. I bid the minimum, which was £12 - had I just wished to upgrade to first class, it would have been £53!! I hadn't realised what the snag in my cunning plan was ... the result of the bid is only announced 30 minutes before the train goes which meant I had to hang around outside the lounge!
I won. Was it worth it? Basically 'no' as to get to the train I had to leave 20 minutes after walking into the lounge. The actual revised ticketing mechanism was very simple - an additional ticket QR code just arrived on my phone. The lounge is in two sections - see pictures. There wasn't really much on offer - a decent sort of drinks m/c, some soft drinks, bananas and unexciting croissants. No newspapers.
The first class on the train is spacious with singe seats as well as doubles. They are marginally less iron-boardy then those in second class but not what you would call especially comfortable. They do recline a bit. There was free coffee but nothing like as good as the coffee one buys in second class and a rather nice slice of cherry tart. I would have spent £3.30, so it cost a net £8.70. Worth it? Not really, but if the train was crowded? Would it cost £12 then? I dunno, but I shan't bother again.
When they arrived (see last month) they turned up in a cab from Heathrow, with a huge amount of stuff. They have, very largely, missed out on the Elizabeth Line as it was on strike or had engineering works for most of the time. But, all was running by their return date so, after some persuasion, I enticed them to try it on the condition that I went with them as far as Paddington. I decided on a reasonable time for the journey and added on half an hour. They wanted to add an additional hour, which I wouldn't particularly have minded except it would have meant I had to hang around at Paddington for over two hours. So I asked if they wanted to go to breakfast. They didn't, but when I said I was going anyway, they came along!
We navigated all the clobber to Stratford station and, on arrival on the platform, sought help. Being an old station, one needs a ramp to get a buggy onto the train. I have to say it was both super efficient and super pleasant. A very simple change at Whitechapel is needed and I left them to it at Paddington. They still arrived at Heathrow with ages to spare but luckily were, somehow, eligible for the Virgin lounge. Not bad for £5.50 each, Stratford to Heathrow.
I had come across an app called SeatFrog which allows one to bid for cheap first class rail fares. I decided to try it, mainly because I would get access to the GWR Lounge at Paddington if I won. I bid the minimum, which was £12 - had I just wished to upgrade to first class, it would have been £53!! I hadn't realised what the snag in my cunning plan was ... the result of the bid is only announced 30 minutes before the train goes which meant I had to hang around outside the lounge!
I won. Was it worth it? Basically 'no' as to get to the train I had to leave 20 minutes after walking into the lounge. The actual revised ticketing mechanism was very simple - an additional ticket QR code just arrived on my phone. The lounge is in two sections - see pictures. There wasn't really much on offer - a decent sort of drinks m/c, some soft drinks, bananas and unexciting croissants. No newspapers.
The first class on the train is spacious with singe seats as well as doubles. They are marginally less iron-boardy then those in second class but not what you would call especially comfortable. They do recline a bit. There was free coffee but nothing like as good as the coffee one buys in second class and a rather nice slice of cherry tart. I would have spent £3.30, so it cost a net £8.70. Worth it? Not really, but if the train was crowded? Would it cost £12 then? I dunno, but I shan't bother again.
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