Vegas - The Journey to........

My friend Janette and I decided a few days beforehand that we would go down to London the night before because of some weird rumour about checking in four hours beforehand instead of the three we expected. With the trains being a bit, errm, late sometimes, we got the times and the assistance booked changed. Train was at 4ish, but I arrived about 3.15, due to the taxi and traffic being very late - which was not the usual thing for York!

I managed to drag my case to the Customer Service place, and eventually managed to talk the guy who'd been gabbing with his colleague, ignoring me. He looked at his list and said, 'Oh yes, you're the lady who's going to Berwick.' Errrrm, no, I'm going in the entirely opposite direction to London, you dingbat! (I didn't actually call him that, but certainly felt like it! He quickly corrected himself, showed me the slip of paper (he'd actually read the one below it), and he then took my case to the customer lounge, with me following behind. Waited in lounge for Janette. Our train was a little late (this would be a recurring theme throughout the time I was away! LOL!), so it gave Janette more chance to get up and get to the station (sorry, J!). By her own admission, she is NOT a morning person! LOL!

Eventually she arrived, with family in tow, she's got two lovely boys and a really nice hubby, so we chatted for a while, and then the customer services guy came back again and led us to where we were getting on the train, then was told it was a longer train and we needed to go elsewhere, so off we all trooped, and waited. Then - a train came in, everyone said goodbye to each other - wrong train (wrong train company as well - LOL!).

Then, whilst we were waiting for the right one, there was a bit of a kerfuffle and the police arrived. Apparently, someone had caused a bit of a stir either on the platform or a previous train - not sure - and they'd been called. They had a word with this lad, and took him away, he started resisting, so the handcuffs went on! It was all very discreet, but quite exciting as well!

Eventually the right train arrived and we got on. Janette's sons started to run alongside the train, we hoped and prayed they wouldn't meet a lamp-post! Unfortunately, they misunderstood one of the porters who they thought was saying stop, but by the time they realised, we were getting faster and out of the station.

The train journey was pretty average, but we made friends with a cute little baby, which passed the time. We passed the bridge near the Rainbow on our way in, but couldn't remember which way it was, so missed it!

Got into Kings Cross, and then made our way to the taxi rank. The easier way would've been to use the Thameslink, but when I booked my assistance, he said that Kings Cross staff weren't insured to take me across the road! TRUE story! Sooooo, we got in a cab and drove all the way to Victoria. Interesting experience, but quite expensive! We weren't quite sure of the time we'd booked assistance from, so asked a very nice Railtrack worker, who radioed for help, which was already on its way - we were early (makes a change I hear you say!)! I then had to CLIMB into this contraption thing, which had very narrow ledges to sit on (and I don't have the pertest of bottoms, thank you VERY much!), and a very narrow place to put your legs (ditto to previous comment!). I ended up with one leg sort of hanging out, hoping my boot wouldn't fall off, and I'd have someone either running after me trying to give it me back, or running off with it! LOL!

We eventually got to the platform and I decided to be Miss Independent and walk onto the train (shush!) - there was no step and the seat was next to the door, so it was fine. Met up with cute baby no 2 and then had cyclists come on board who were told, along with this other bloke that they were probably in the wrong end of the train - but did they move?! Nope! They were actually quite helpful, eventually, when we stopped, but it took time.