Our journey today from St Dogmaels, the end of our Pembrokeshire coastal walk, began at 9.15pm with a short taxi ride into Cardigan, to catch the bus to Carmarthon, to catch the train to Swansea, then connect to the Paddington train. The bus ride took well over an hour and then some and the bus got progressively packed at each stop. A couple of young girls got on, obviously sisters, with 4 kids. Kids with kids - very sad. They weren't too pleased that we had some big suitcases on board and were muttering away about how we shouldn't be on the bus, blah blah blah. Meanwhile her 4 kids were making a racket at different times and taking up seats too. Felt like saying we paid for our tickets, love. Have you heard about birth control?? but that would be very petty, wouldn't it?
After the bus trip from hell, and thank goodness for motion sickness tablets, we finally got off at the train station. It was bitterly cold (and yes, that means it was freezing) so we waited in the much warmer waiting room for the train to Swansea to arrive. Luckily we got seats, then a change of train at Swansea for the Paddington service. Many seats were reserved but we managed to find a few left. The trip was long, made even longer by the fact it got diverted due to a safety issue in one of the tunnels into London. We got diverted into Glousester, an extra 45 minutes or so.
Finally made it to London, back to the hustle and bustle and rush and everyone for themselves attitude. At the West Kensington station, a young mum with a pram and tiny baby had no way to get her pram up the stairs, so I offered to help, then sister #1 came to help. She was very grateful...there should be more wheelchair access and lifts at each station. Just ridiculous.
We found our self contained apartment in West Kensington. It is a good size, has a washing machine and I have my own room, not wrestling with a sofa bed or couch. Yay!
We had pizza for tea and bought some breakfast items for the next few days.
Tomorrow - the plan is...well, I don't know for sure. As it is a long weekend in the UK lots of things may be shut so we will just see what's on tomorrow.
I miss the lovely Welsh countryside already and the friendly people. Give me the rural areas, villages and small towns anyday! Cities are too impersonal and rushed for me.
