London Bound!

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I'm on the train back to London, and Durham is the next stop. Train movement doesn't improve my keyboarding any! But with any luck I'll be in London at 12:17, and at my hotel by suppertime! That will involve another train ride, but in the morning I think the hotel has a shuttle to the Metro to Newcastle, a train to Hexhmairport.

Yesterday I made it to a well known stop on Hadrian"s Wall about a half hour out of Newcastle. I took the Metro to Newcastle and was told to take a train to Hexham. Once there I found the information place closed (iut was Sunday). Since there were no signs, I folloed somepone's directions to the bus station which was sall, closed, and almost abandoned. One guy there said few buses run on Sunday. After a chat with a taxi driver I paid 25 pounds for a ride to a Roman fort site called Homestead. It was quite good once I finally found a bathroom (I misread the sign for the main one and walked to the fort entrance first). It turns out there is a special bus to the Hadrian's Wall sites, but it leaves Hexham from a parking lot near the bus station. I could not frind any signs at all. but I was able to take it back to Hexham, though I had to hurray to the far end of the parking area at Homestead as again there was no sign saying where to get it.

As I was back in Newcastle by 3:30PM, I decided to walk around a bit rather than find another Wall site (there was one much closer to the city as it turns out). Again I searched uncussessfully for a toilet (their word) before finally finding a bus station with one. I had planned to use a bus to return to London as they tend to be a lot cheaper without advance booking, but despite repeated stopping and asking had a lot of trouble finding it, partly because I should have been asking for the "coach" station, and because regionalo buses use an entirely different facility. I finally found it not terribly far from the train/Metro station, and it was closed! But a friendly bus driver directed me to the Metro, and I was soon back at Central Station. I checked train prices just for fun, and found that y booking a day in advance I would save a considerable amount, so spent 55 pounds (can't find the "pound" symbol on this machine.) I could not get a pork & apple patty, so settled for an onion & cheese one (not near as good). Also bought a high priced muffin.

I took the Metro back to Sunderland and turned the wrong way so walked several blocks searching for the bus stop. but this time it stopped for me (in the morning it simply drove right past me, and I was told later you have to hail them to get them to stop.) By the time I turned my light out at around 9:45 PM I had pollished off the remainder of my trail mix I left home with and all the drinks I had bought except one bottle of water. I think I may have one package of Guatemala cookies left - though I had eaten them but found them late yesterday!

Woke up at 1:30 and could notg sleep, so was awake until 3:30, tossing and turning after that. Got up at 6:45 and was at the train station by taxi around 8 AM for my 8:30 train. It turned out I could take the Metro so got there a few minutes earlier though oit was crowded and I had to stand the whole way to Central Station. The train to London was waiting when i arrived at Gate 3. These trains have wifi and a place to plug in the computer, hence my ability to send a message from here. They also have good luggage space.

One possibility for tonight is to take in a play, but we'll see what happens when I get to London. Maybe I'll be sound asleep by then!

P.S. These seats do NOT recline!

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