It's Time to go ... Car

Today marked the end of our motoring around England and Scotland. We needed to return the car to Budget in York and catch the 12:29 train to London. Google Maps suggested about 2.5 hours driving time so we organised an early breakfast to give ourselves a buffer. It was just as well we did because we did have some trouble with the traffic.

We left Bowness-on-Windermere at about 8:30 in light rain and made our way over to the A65 at Kendal. We were making reasonable progress until we caught up with a queue of traffic behind a farmer in his tractor. The problem with most roads in England is that they are 2 lane, winding and busy. Overtaking is almost impossible so when you get stuck behind someone, most of the time you just have to wait. Fortunately the farmer turned off in Kirkby Lonsdale so we were able to make good progress again. Or at least until just past Skipton...

The A65 was closed near Blubberhouses for major roadworks so we were diverted through Ilkley and Otley. The traffic was chaotic, not helped by more road works on the diversion route. We probably lost 15-20 minutes because of the diversion and it looked worse for anyone going the other way. We eventually cleared those traffic problems and were on to the final run into York when we hit another delay. This time in was about a one mile stop-start queue trying to join or cross the York Ring Road and was caused by more road works. 

As we were plodding our way along, a bloke at the side of the road yelled out "Hey are you going to Budget?". Neil was from Budget and recognised the car. He had just dropped a car off and was trying to get back so we gave him a lift. In the 19 days we had this car we drove a total 2,489 miles plus another 85 in the one we had for a day before leaving York. In return for giving Neil a lift, he dropped us at the station which saved a lot of messing around. In the end we made the station in plenty of time but for a while there with 50 miles to go, I wasn't so sure.

Our train arrived on time and we boarded for London. Unfortunately it seemed we had booked onto the "sauna special" as the heating was stuck on in our carriage. Fortunately its was only a 2 hour 15 minute trip to London. With stops only at Doncaster, Newark Northgate and Peterborough, it hours faster than you could drive. Couple that with the 11 Pound advance purchase tickets, there is no other way to travel. 

Our train arriving at York station from Edinburgh

We arrived into London at Kings Cross Station. Our hotel is the Premier Inn at Euston so we went one stop by Tube. By the time we had walked around in several circles getting to the actual platform and back to the street, we probably could have walked to the hotel directly...

Our hotel in Euston

After settling in, we went for a walk to find some dinner. We wandered down Tottenham Court Road until we found ourselves in the Covent Garden area. We had dinner in Le Garrick, a french restaurant in Garrick Street. After dinner we wandered back to our hotel along Woburn Place.