UK rail trip – 2022
Day 49 – 21st May, 2022
Today, I’m leaving Liverpool and going back to London. Glad to be leaving the YHA Liverpool Central hostel. One of the worst run hostels I’ve ever stayed at. I left the hostel and walked down to Liverpool Lime Street for the last time.
Can’t say I’m sad about leaving Liverpool. Not my favourite city. It’s a fairly rough city and the people have a very ‘in your face’ kind of attitude. Instead of taking a direct train to London Euston, I caught a more local service to Manchester Piccadilly. From there, I’d pick up the express service to London.
Upon arriving at Manchester Piccadilly, I was aiming for an onward connection leaving in 25 minutes – thereby intending to get one of the best seats. But after I made my way to the appropriate platform, I saw that the one before was empty enough and was leaving in a couple of minutes. I decided to hop on it instead. Definitely can’t complain about that!
As the train pulled out of Manchester Piccadilly, I knew I wouldn’t be leaving for the last time on this trip. I’ll be returning to Manchester in a couple of days time to meet up with my friend Gary one more time. We’re planning on going to a pub in Huddersfield. Not just in Huddersfield, but situated right on the station. Looking forward to that! I bought a bacon roll and a coffee from the onboard shop and settled down to once again watch the world speed by.
Arriving at London Euston, I caught the London Underground from Euston Square to Aldgate East and made my way to the hostel. I checked in and decided that it was once again time to do some washing. It had been several days since I last did any. So, I threw the clothes in the washing machine and wandered out to one of the local pubs. After one drink, I returned to the hostel and put my clothes in the dryer. This time, I just stayed in the Wombar. Once my clothes were washed and dried, I went outside again.
Less than 100 metres from the hostel door is Cycle Superhighway 3 – a 24 kilomtre segregated cycle route from Barking to Central London. It is extremely popular and there’s rarely a time when it’s not being used. It was time to get something to eat. There was a KFC nearby, so I dropped in. Probably the worst run KFC I’ve ever been to. Half of the staff didn’t seem to know what they were doing. Still, I persisted and grabbed dinner. With that in hand, I walked down to Tower Bridge and crossed it. I decided to sit down at The Queen’s Walk on the southern bank of the Thames, I watched as river and people traffic went by. A nice, partially sunny afternoon. I spent much of the next few hours there. At some stage, I walked back to the bridge before going back down again.
It was getting on near 22:00, so I walked back to the hostel. Tomorrow, I’ll be meeting up with Ed Pratt, who cycled around the world on a unicycle, and Luke Grenfell-Shaw, who is completing a ride from Bristol to Beijing. should be a good day!