The Journey to Pau: Lancaster to Stansted airport.

This is one journey I never thought I would have to take but the company I was going to work for wanted me to fly via RyanAir to Pau in the French Pyrenees. I chose to go by train via Birmingham as travelling through London and the extra cost id not seem worthwhile for the extra half hour the journey would take this way.

Well here goes. The first leg of the trip was using Virgin Trains to Birmingham. I had reserved a seat bu virtue of booking inline but it is really a waste of time. Somebody will be sitting in it, wwhen you eventually find it, and there are usually plenty of other seats anyway. One time I got into a carriage on an early morning train to Glasgow and there was only one other person in the carriage and they were asleep in my reserved seat.

Decent seat, quiet carriage, a perfect way to start the journey. I slept most of the trip to Birmingham. With 25 minutes to wait at Birmingham New Street I located the platform I wanted for the direct train to Stansted Airport and then went to get myself a pasty. The pasty of choice was Lamb and Mint but here lies my first language problem. I had no idea what the girl behind the counter said to me, I think she asked if I wanted vegetables with that. Bemused I said no and handed over the money and wandered to the platform. Whilst eating my pasty out of a paper baged I contemplated how I would eat peas, carrots and cauli out of this bag as well.

The train arrived and then I made my first elementary mistake. As a train commutter of long-standing (pun intended) I should have known better than get on a train at the door closest to the stairs that access the platform. I spent the first 90 minutes standing where I had the joys of listening to a 90 minute conversation of the joys of X-Box by a passenger to the poor person at the other end of the phone; at least they could walk away and leave the phone talking to itself but I had to stand and listen.

Most people left the train in Leicester so I got a seat and sat/slept/sat for the next 3 hours to the airport. Leaving the train I found a taxi and on the way to the hotel for an overnight stop the driver informed me that the proposed rail strike is at exactly the same time as my return to the UK but it would only cost me £350 taxi fare to get me home. Cheered by that I got to my hotel room and stayed ther iuntil breakfast at 6 a,m,