Going Home

 The day started in an interesting way.  We had to leave earlier than the breakfast, so a 'continental breakfast' was arranged to leave out for us. Carefully making our way down the steep stairs, we found ... no breakfast! Oh well we could buy and live off bananas.  So carefully walking slowly we found the railway station.  Nobody was in it except a Very Odd Guy and a Labrador.  As we approached the seats, he became a bit aggressive, muttering expletives under his breath, so we naturally backed off. Then strange and unusual man took himself and his dog into the gents.  Relieved when people began turning up, an announcement ' The train for Llandudno Junction is 20 minutes late'. Oh well, we were in no hurry.  The train eventually turns up, and we get off at the Junction.  So we waited for our train, the one going to Cardiff.  Another announcement: 'The train going to Cardiff will be 20 minutes late'! Lots of muttering on the by now packed platform.  The train arrives, we all get on to a brand new very smart train and we start our journey.  Another announcement: ' Good morning, this train is for Holyhead, via Bangor'. What? We are on The Wrong Train! The young guys opposite looked aghast and said that THEY were on  the wrong train too, and as it transpired, so was everyone else!  A lady passenger came down and said we'd all have to get off at Bangor, cross a bridge and wait for an hour for the next  train, which turned out to be the same train returning! One or two got extremely angry and a lady on the platform got the brunt of it. We were last over the bridge and apologised; it wasn't her fault after all. She said we'd be on 'her' train when it arrived, and when she came looking for tickets, she called us Mr and Mrs Reasonable People, loudly so others could hear.  We'd sort of teamed up with the young guys on the wrong train.  One was a pianist, and the other a new transport policeman, touring the line to get used to it 'great start to my career' he said! We had to agree!  So the real train arrives and the guard complained that, it was full, they had to go all the way to Cardiff, and the brand new toilets had run out of water!  We were glad we didn't need to 'go' and glad to get off, relieved in fact as it took us 7 hours!

Boy did we sleep that night!

Comments

  1. Andywindy10 November 2021 at 03:23

    Ah, Bangor, the town where everybody thinks that there is no beach! There is, though it is rather small, a triangle of sand in a corner of the Harbour wall.
    We had a vaguely similar experience in North Wales, one year when on holiday with our three Girls. We had been along the coast to the West (Could have been the day that we did Conwy castle) by train, and on our way back to the holiday camp at Prestatyn. We and a few hundred others boarded the train, advertised and announced as stopping at all stations, and sat there aghast as we sped through Prestatyn without even slowing down! We all had to get off at Fflint, cross the line, and wait for over an Hour with 3 very hungry, stroppy children (now 1 Hour past their teatime) for a train to come the other way and actually stop!  Apparently the Driver had forgotten that he was driving the stopping train, and the Guard, sorry, "Train Manager" had made an official complaint at the next stop, which they had to stop at as someone had pulled the chain!  


























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