S&B meets country walk mark II

[gaijingirl]

There's plenty of things to do too for anyone who doesn't actually want to come to the yarn shop....

 

[gaijingirl]

oi...

 

[eme]

oh! it all sounds good!
I'm more of a find out what there is to do and then see what we feel like on the day kind of lady.... that's a bit of a cop out I know but we could each find out a bit more of one of the things you have posted and bring it with us?
As for the cooking / eating out thing... reckon we can bring stuff for breakfast / lunch and eat out / drink out for the eves?
xx

 

[eme]

oh just read your suggestions again and realised there were yer actual plans for sat sun - ooweee! well done lady... well I'll go with train / castle on sat as we are walking on sunday...

 

[Pieface]

I'll bring my rubbish bike too then

I can call from work GG if you want to pass the details on to me.

 

[gaijingirl]

I'm having YET AGAIN.. a complete fucking nightmare with the Trainline.com

Having only just settled a 1 month long running dispute over their complete fuckwitted incompetence earlier this week.. yet again I'm close to burning down their HQ!

So I booked our tickets online for the train at thetrainline.com. AT NO POINT is there an option to book bikes. So I call them up to book the bikes on too... NO... I should have booked them at the same time as booking the tickets apparently. HOW???!!!! IT WASN'T AN OPTION!

So I ask them to cancel the reservations and re-make them including the bikes... and they say that will cost an extra £10 per ticket... and there's nothing else they can do. (I've already spoken to 2 different departments there).

So then I call the individual train companies with whom we're making the journey, but only Virgin have been able to make the reservations so far.

I've emailed them AGAIN, so I'm hoping that they'll come back with a sensible suggestion for me...

AAAAAARRRGHHHHHHHHH

 

[Ms T]

Oh dear.

As me and hendo will be driving down during the day, we will volunteer to go shopping for booze and food, if you like.

 

[innit]

Now I'm glad I didn't book a train ticket yesterday!

GG, if you are able to book train tickets for a sensible sort of price, please can you get me one? I won't be bringing a bike. Otherwise I'll just ask nicely for a seat in one of the cars

As for the schedule, it sounds great to me - the walk sounds perfect for Sunday, and I guess we could play it by ear for which option to choose on Saturday, depending on what time we get away from the Colinette shop (I warn you all that I may be hard to tear away!)

 

[eme]

So I ask them to cancel the reservations and re-make them including the bikes... and they say that will cost an extra £10 per ticket... and there's nothing else they can do. (I've already spoken to 2 different departments there).

awww gg - does that mean you have to *pay* to take your bike on the train or we've just missed the £19 fares? buggering buggers - trainline are an arse... you know when you say wether you'd prefer facing / backwards airline or whatever as a seat? this isn't actually a seat booking?!? what on earth is the point of having it there as an option then? and surely most people would like the option of booking '4 with a table' too.... trainline = grrrr....

 

[gaijingirl]

We do actually have 4 tickets and 4 bike reservations as far as we go on the virgin line (which is something like Worcester.. can't remember).... but no guarantees that we can get our bikes on for the rest of the journey....

I'm not giving up yet though. My last debacle with these fuckwits stretched out to 11 emails and 5 phone calls before they actually believed what I was saying and realised that the reason that they couldn't sell me a ticket for my journey was because - in fact - they hadn't sold any tickets for that journey as they had forgotten to "upload" the train to their system. Fuckwits...

 

[Choc]

If it does end up raining I expect we can book a cab to take anyone who does not fit into any of the cars already with our party...

and option 3 is for the hardcore ladies who will go cycling even if it rains

(at weather)


as for the train and the bike...as far as i am concerned i will just take my bike without a ticket for it and resolve the problem personally on the day. btw i booked via virgin train website and there was no option of bike taking either.


the castle looks lovely, the walking on sunday sounds great and the steam train and the colinette shop, maybe we have already a busy schedule when we do all those things and of course knitting as well. yay, i am getting quite excited about our trip

 

[gaijingirl]

Just back from a conversation with a booking person at Paddington after trying to book bike tickets for our journey.... had an "interesting" time of it... until at 9pm, half way through our attempts to book bike tickets he promptly announced I would have to come back to do the rest as he was clocking off.... Anyway, will write up the results of it all tomorrow....

 

[Choc]

Just back from a conversation with a booking person at Paddington after trying to book bike tickets for our journey.... had an "interesting" time of it... until at 9pm, half way through our attempts to book bike tickets he promptly announced I would have to come back to do the rest as he was clocking off.... Anyway, will write up the results of it all tomorrow....

oh my god what a nightmare situation hang in there gg

 

[gaijingirl]

right.. here is the bike situation. our train journey on the way out is made up of 3 legs. the first leg we have 4 bike reservations. the second part of the leg is not one on which you make reservations.. it's a commuter train, so you just put the bikes on and at that time of night it should be fine as it's not rush hour. the last leg, you do need to make reservations, but for some reason we can't.. the guy at the station suggested that it may be they only have 2 reservable bike places. however, this leg of the journey is only about 30 mins long and going to welshpool arriving very late on a friday night. he suggested they'd probably let us on anyway as the train would not be crowded. so basically it's a bit of a gamble. obviously if we get off the first leg and they don't allow us on the 2nd leg or 3rd leg with our bikes we're a bit screwed.

on the return, it's only a two leg journey. again the majority of the trip - arriving back at euston - is reserved.. but the first leg is unreservable.. so a bit of a gamble.

i would probably take the gamble myself and try and blag it... whether we think this is a good idea with 4 bikes (and Eme's folding bike) is another matter. another good reason to buy a folding bike i think... as soon as i win the lottery... or sell something else...

the other option is if kublai and i take our bike tools, we could probably, in an emergency just take our wheels off our bikes (mine is quick release anyway) and carry them on to the train as luggage.

so what shall we do. so far there are 3 of us with bikes and eme with her folding bike... and choc/innit?

 

[Pieface]

I'd be prepared to wing it with the bikes.

GG - do you know what the riding is like round there? It's just my bike is quite old and shit......

I transfered money for the ticket today - totally forgot the idiot that I am

 

[gaijingirl]

I'd be prepared to wing it with the bikes.

GG - do you know what the riding is like round there? It's just my bike is quite old and shit......

I transfered money for the ticket today - totally forgot the idiot that I am

TBH.. I don't know what the riding is like around there. I am doing what I always do which is assume it's flat as a pancake and inevitabley find it's hills all the way....

 

[eme]

just come back from putting the folding bikes through their paces... did over 80 miles (over 5 days!) going along country roads / gravel / sand / a bit of dual carriageway / up and down *big* hills / in the sun and in the rain... yay!
folding not quite as speedy as advertised but still they tuck into luggage bits in trains very handily....
Have to say as we came back on the train yesterday two people got chucked out halfway as they had no reservations for thieir bikes in the guard van which I thought was harsh... but maybe it was because there were others getting on who had at that station iyswim....
if it's only a short distance and it's not actually possible to reserve a space then I would just go for it - the ticket would show you had on the other trains... thanks for all your hard work GG!! x

 

[gaijingirl]

oooh.. where have you been? I just came back on Friday from 5 days cycling and camping in Dartmoor... my knees are still in agony now...

 

[eme]

cornwall.... was heaven!

 

[gaijingirl]

We were really close to each other doing the same thing!! I'm determined to get the Cornwall Riviera train next before it gets stopped and do the same thing down there!

 

[Choc]

i am getting a bit uneasy now for the fist time hearing people got actually chucked out of a train for their bikes

here is hoping that wont happen to us, otherwise we will cycle until the early morning hours to reach destination..hmpf!

 

[gaijingirl]

It does happen. However, only once have I actually not been let on. The worst time was when bloody SWtrains sold me a return ticket coming back on the Brighton line on the Sunday of the London to Brighton bike ride. I was doing a triathlon about 3/4 of the way down the line, but not in Brighton itself. They sold me the ticket and a reservation for the bike and then when I went to get on the train they said I couldn't.. no bikes were allowed on that day. After ranting about the fact they had sold me a ticket without pointing this out to no avail, I gave them a big excuse about my (non-existent) baby waiting for me at home and the babysitter having to leave.

In the end, it comes down to the guard on that train. In this case, he didn't care and let me on. Some of them are real jobsworths. TBH the bit that is most dangerous for us is the virgin train, but we do have reservations for that. I think the next one should be fine as it's just a commuter train and we're outside commuting hours. It's the last one that could be problematic - it is a gamble... on the other hand given the time of night we're travelling the guard would have to be a right bastard not to let us on...

I get so angry about this.. I had a similar incident last week following the National Cycle Network no. 27 Coast-to-Coast route. ACcording to the Sustans map in conjunction with Devon County Council, two buses had been equipped to carry bikes along the route... We didn't have enough time to complete the route and cycle back so we decided to return by bus to the train station where our train would take us back to London - only to find out that they had scrapped the idea as they couldn't get insurance to cover bike carriage on the buses.... It's only through luck that I checked half way through the week, rather than at the end of the week as we would have been stranded, miles away from the train station with no way of getting back to London... I just don't trust any public travel company any more...

Anyway.. sorry, went on a rant there...

Again.. folding bikes.. the way forward I reckon!!

 

[Choc]

do we have reservations for the virgin train.. i don't, i think?

hmm folding bikes...always have small diameter wheels = a bit slow innit?
sayin that the other day i got overtaken by one, which surprised me...small bloke on it as well

 

[gaijingirl]

do we have reservations for the virgin train.. i don't, i think?

hmm folding bikes...always have small diameter wheels = a bit slow innit?
sayin that the other day i got overtaken by one, which surprised me...small bloke on it as well

I always thought that too.. but they're bloody fast... something to do with less tyre to surface friction or summat.... the sort of thing that Sigmund Fraud would know about I expect...

I have made 4 bike reservations - and Eme's bike is folding so doesn't need one.. so that's Koobz, me, PieEye and you... (is that right???)

 

[Choc]

excellent, thank you. let me know if i owe you some money...

 

[gaijingirl]

excellent, thank you. let me know if i owe you some money...

No.. the bike reservations were free..

 

[Choc]

juhu !

 

[gaijingirl]

Right.. I have to confirm our bunkhouse booking tomorrow.

AFAIK we are:

Ms T
Innit
Acechick
PieEye
Me
Eme
Dimples
Kublai
Hendo

9 people. There is a 9 person bunkhouse and an 11 person bunkhouse. I tried to reserve the 11 person, but she may well move us into the 9 person bunkhouse if I confirm for that number, so anyone who was thinking about joining in last minute.. now's the time to say!!

I'm calling later today.

 

[Choc]

+Choc =10

better go for the 11bed bunk house, it is only in a month as well so someone might still join in..

 

[Ms T]

Hendo's worried about sleeping in a bunkbed! I've told him there are rooms as well -- I am right in that, aren't I?

(Otherwise I will have rebellion on my hands! )