We woke early on Tuesday to get our final breakfast from Carlo's Kitchen next door and depart for Euston on the tube.
Our timing was not perfect because 9:30am on a week-day is not a good time to try to catch the central London tube lines with two large suitcases and associated hand luggage! We started by getting the Jubilee Line from Southwark to Green Park. The first two trains were absolutely packed with no room for anyone else except by squeezing in. Luckily they were coming in to the platform about a minute apart so missing two trains wasn't a problem. The problem was they were all full. I suggested we move down to the back of the train to see if the last carriage might be a bit easier. The next train had some room but only enough for me with both suitcases (stacked end-on-end like another person) plus my backpack which I had trouble keeping clear of the doors. Miriam opted to wait for the next one. Then the train kept stopping on the tunnels waiting for signals due to a broken-down train at Willesden Green.
Next stop for me was Westminster where I had to get off again just to let other commuters leave. There was also a young lass who had fainted in the car and was helped off by some other people; plus there was a guide dog peacefully lying on the floor ignoring the whole commotion! What a ride.
Finally, I got to Green Park and waited for Miriam. She duly arrived and then we had to make our way to the Victoria Line to do it all again. Luckily this was not so full and by Oxford Circus the train was mostly empty so we arrived at Euston in plenty of time.
We ended up being about an hour early for our Virgin main-line train to Manchester but better early than late. Our tickets were cheap £20.00 early purchase ones with no possibility of refund or change. The normal fare is around £140.00 so it was quite a saving.
The Virgin train to Manchester only took just over 2 hours! Very smooth with almost no train noise and the countryside whizzing by. I measured the speed with my Sat Nav app and we were doing around 200kph most of the way. The Google Maps display couldn't actually keep up with the progress of the train as tried to download the satellite images from the net!
We were met at Stockport (just short of Manchester Piccadilly) by Julie and Richard and we spent the afternoon with them. I'll put the afternoon into the next post.