Car Shuffle

Rather than leave it until next week, we opted to take the chance of being near to a railway station to do the car shuffle - moving it from Brinklow to Nottingham Castle Marina. It turned out to be an unusually complicated operation, more so than most and did require Mike to do two things for the first time.

He booked the outbound train tickets last night on line. This took some while as, after quickly identifying the preferred journey, the payment process was seriously flawed. The route was three stages and the system would only allow for the third one to be purchased. After several failed attempts to buy the whole journey Mike gave up and bought just the third one and then the other two - as a single -purchase - separately. In the process he discovered that National Rail now charge £1 to receive tickets from a station machine, only e tickets are free. The first purchase offered to download a rail pass to Google Wallet - so this was the first 'new thing'.

The second purchase was different and only offered physical tickets from a machine - at an unavoidable £1 charge! No e ticketing available it seems.

This morning Mike left the boat in good time, around 9.45, just in case there was an issue at the machine. As it happened when he arr3iuved at the Ticket Office there was a person sitting at the desk, looking very unwanted. He was more than willing to extract the paper tickets - at no extra charge!

The first train was to Leicester, only a short ride. In the distant past there was a direct line to Rugby the nearest station for Brinklow, but that was 'rationalised' by the infamous Dr Beeching. Today the journey involved either two or three changes. In this case, the second leg was to Birmingham New Street - not the obvious direction on the map! 

Here, Mike wanted to pick up some lunch as the connection was quite generous in time. However, New Street is formed of different zones and changing trains usually involved checking out of one zone and then back into another. Food stands are both 'in' the zones and in the central concourse. If did feel as if the number of lunch on the go outlets is much reduced. The first ticket let Mike out of a zone but and to the other zone where the third train was expected. First: no where to find a sandwich. Second, the train Mike thought he was travelling on was delayed indefinitely! Fortunately he checked his email ticket (the rail pass does not show journey details) and found that somehow the system had sold him a later ticket from a different train company! At least it was on time but from a platform back in the first zone!

At this point Mike discovered that either the gate or the pass does not allow for Zone changes - but real people do, fortunately. In the end the final train ran to schedule.

Now to get from Rugby Station to Brinklow Marina. Mike was about the last person out (having misremembered the station layout - he has had this problem before) and by the time he was at the taxi rank, none were to be seen. After waiting a few minutes, he saw another taxi driver obviously waiting fro a pre-booked fare and asked for guidance. he quickly rang a friend who was only three minutes away (really!) who took Mike to the marina very efficiently. A road works closure meant a detour around narrow lanes. At one low rail bride, a transporter lorry with a large piece of machinery was standing talking into his phone and looking rather worried. Even turning around would not be easy on the narrow road.

Mike collected the car from the far end of the marina (where he had been asked to leave it out of the way) but then had a protracted argument with the sat nav which seemed to have taken umbrage at being out of use for three weeks! Eventually, can and phone agreed to talk to each other and he was on the way.

A shortish cross country route brough him to the M1 which took him most of the way to Nottingham. Being the start of a bank holiday weekend, heavy traffic was expected but the whole journey was distinctly unbusy the opposite side had a short tailback for no obvious reason for a mile or so. The satnav proved its value once leaving the motorway as the remaining journey included a large number of roundabouts, each with different layouts! Mike arrived at the marina well  ahead of the original ETA but first had to make contact with the office.

Next on the itinerary was Nottingham Station, just over a mile away. Options offered included a walk along the towpath, the nearest tram stop not very close or an Uber. This latter was the second 'new thing'. Fortunately, anticipating that this might be needed, the app had already been downloaded but lack of familiarity with its intricacies did not help. Aided by the lass in the office, it did not take long for an Uber to be booked and paid for which arrived quicker than it took Mike to walk from the office to the marina entrance!

The ride to the station was very efficient and dropped Mike at the entrance. First glance at the departures screen suggested that a slightly earlier train might be possible. However, signs also asked passengers to be patient as a new computer system had just been introduced and the staff were still getting to grips with it. By the time Mike had ticket in hand it was past that departure time.

No matter as by the time Mike had reached the platform that train was now indefinitely delayed! the final train then to Loughborough was just about running to time and, as it happened,  Mike was back at the start point at the time he had put on his provisional trip plan! He was back at the boat just seven hours after leaving it.

Meanwhile Christine had been doing some well needed laundry (danger of running out of essentials!) which very quickly dried as the weather today was a dramatic change - from grey and chilly to heatwave! The forecast is now for that almost unheard of event, a hit and sunny bank holiday!

Christine also unpacked a desk fan that we had just bought in hot weather last year when we were prevented from further cruising by the drought. The minimalist assembly instructions took time to unravel but she found the cooling air flow a life saver in an otherwise almost repressive heat.