A fairly early rise and then we were off in a taxi to the train station.
The first stage of the rail journey was fairly familiar. Train from Croy to Edinburgh. We had time in Edinburgh to get some food for the next train to Peterborough. It was due to leave at 11am, but no platform was showing until nearly 10:50 and we were both getting a bit edgy. However, platform 5 appeared and half the folk in the waiting room stood up and left, en mass.
This was our first ‘Cattle Class’ train journey in a long time. We would have travelled First, but had left it late to make sure that none of the rail strikes would mess with our plans.
Actually the journey was really quite pleasant. We’d sandwiches to eat and a glass of wine each and also the ability to order coffee from the buffet by scanning a QR code at the seat and paying for it. We didn’t really need it, but it was good to know it was available if required. Also, I’d come prepared with my next Stella Rimmington book on my phone and a good pair of Bluetooth earbuds to listen to the story with.
Soon we arrived at Peterborough which I still imagine in my head as a little station in the middle of nowhere, but is really quite a nexus of lines from all around the country. It seems to have had a bit of an upgrade in the last year with comfortable, airy waiting areas. The downside was that we weren’t allowed to go out of the station for some weird reason and that meant we had to drink <spit> Starbucks coffee.
The next train arrived on time and off we sped to Stowmarket (which I always get mixed up with Stotfold which is where Jamie and Simonne used to live). We didn’t speed very fast because just outside Bury St Edmunds we came to a grinding halt and the announcement came that due to a passenger being taken ill earlier, there was now a backlog of trains waiting to clear the blockage. One of the problems with rail travel is that you can’t just overtake a blockage!
About half an hour late we reached Stowmarket and were picked up by Simonne and driven to the house. We were entertained by Vixen and had a catch-up with Simonne. Later when Jamie arrived home, we had dinner of roasted stuffed squash. Very nice and Scamp was delighted because it was vegetarian.
Early bed, well, early for us and a full day planned for tomorrow with a visit to the seaside and a chance to see Vixen running free in the safety of the ‘dogs run free’ fields.