Woke up, went to breakfast, finished packing. Ken called a porter around to the room, while Jerry went off to pick up a few more gifts. We met up at the reception, where Ken was just getting the bill (room tariff included breakfast, but not dinner) and we waited for our taxi (or tacsi as the Welsh would write it, which we can add to ffordd – meaning either way, as in way out, or terrace, as in a type of road – as the Welsh acquired on this trip.) In terms of sight seeing, we had lucked out on the weather, but now it was time for the rain to hit back. The estimated time to get from Portmeirion to Bangor Station was generous, which left us with too much time leftover in a fairly minimal station. With the cold winds moving the wet all over the platforms, we took shelter in the ticket office – but we had to stand. In contrast, about ten minutes prior to the trains arrival, we sat out on the platform in the cold, huddled together – but we had a bench to sit on!

The train ride from Bangor to Crewe was uneventful. There were some noisy boys off to the cinema, playing music off of their mobiles. Ken gave applause when they got off, to the amusement of another passenger sitting across from us. When we got to Crewe, we were almost able to catch an earlier train to Euston – but we just missed it, and settled into the waiting room for our planned train which was a half hour later.

As for the last leg of our trip, we rode on Virgin Rail again, and in the first class. Unfortunately the stellar services that are available during the week, are not on the weekend. Though they still offer free tea & coffee, crisps, water and biscuits; you have to go and get them – which involves walking through a good length of train (since we sat in one of the most forward first class carriages) and even through a couple of standard class carriages. The shop staff did mention (after Ken revealed his long trek to them) that they had heard that the shop carriage is supposed to be moving to be in between first and standard class. Of course this also meant that that the Tea and Coffee, biscuits, apples, crisps, waters and two sandwiches (which were not free) had to be carried back through all those carriages. Even with all that there was to complain about, the lunch was still enjoyed…

We managed to arrive into Euston station five minutes early, and we bustled about with others as we made our way into the underground station from the rail station. We went one stop, and changed lines to another train to get to our hotel. The tube train was alternating between packed and crammed. We arrived at our stop, and made way to our hotel – the same hotel from the beginning of our trip. In fact, we managed to get the first room that we had here from our previous UK trip.

After we settled in, we set off for a laundry stop – as we had nothing but dirty clothes by this point. It wasn’t much of an ordeal, and it was followed by a nice little Japanese dinner. We then returned to our room, tidied up (the room and ourselves) had a snack, watched some telly and caught up on email…

Tomorrow: Gas! Bang! Wallop!