Friday 17 January 2014

there and back again

It's been my day off. I had a plan of getting on a train with Bren, getting off at Shotton, and going on a bit of a bikeride. Last night she wasn't entirely enthusiastic, so I modified things, concentrating on the romance and relaxation of a train journey.

In my plans, we were on our way for 10am, and at Meols station shortly afterwards, picking up the Liverpool bound train that would drop us at Bidston in time for the Wrexham bound train at 35 minutes past the hour.

In fact we left just before 1pm. Tyres had to be pumped. Clothing had to be donned.

But the trip went exactly as I'd planned. We were on the train that closely connected to the Bidston to Wrexham DMU,  and had but a few minutes wait at the station.

In good time, the Wrexham train arrived, and we got on. We had a picturesque and pleasant journey out to Wrexham. It deposited us in due course at Wrexham Central station, and that's where the trouble began.

I hadn't made any plans except, "get train to Wrexham, do whatever, go home again"

You, dear reader may range from lifelong resident to occasional browser from Hawaii. Despite Wrexham being only 30 miles or so away, I tend towards the latter. And so does Bren.

Rudderless, we struck off in a random direction, but the lack of focus was causing some stress. After cycling for a while, we hit upon the plan of following signs towards tourist destinations. The nearest of these was something called King's Mill. We somehow managed to go straight past it, turned back and stumbled upon the mill, only to find that it was shut. January you see.

Plan B. Get something to eat.

We'd ridden past several pubs, but as we headed back towards the town centre, we found that they were all shut. In the end, we found ourselves in a...

Wetherspoons.

Spent £15 on two return tickets to end up in an environment we could have encountered 2 niles from home.

Never mind. The menu was familiar. She had the curry. I had the veggie burger. We ate our food, and attempted to get back to the station. Unfortunately, we took something of a wrong turn, and ended up not at Wrexham Central, but at Wrexham General.

More stress. We knew roughly when the train was going to arrive, but not precisely, and not for the first time on this jaunt, we were a little lost.

We just about made the train. An hour's wait would have been our fate if we'd missed it.

We got back to Meols with just a little bit of dusk left, close to 5pm. The nights are drawing out.

driving lessons in North Wirral? learn to drive in Hoylake? driving instructor in Birkenhead?

1 comment:

Pete said...

Google bicycle maps is your friend.

Do it again to cleanse the bad memory.

Suggested route Shotton (or even better Hawarden Bridge but hardly any train stops) to Chester via the old freight train line not the Dee towpath. Back on Wirral Line Chester to Birkenhead to Moreton.