Well now, where were we? It has been a few days.
We left the Gladstone Library about midday on Saturday via taxi to the Shotton (Wales) train station. There we began another three train journey— this time to Scotland to meet up with our friends, Stan and Mary, for a third house sit for them. Our Transport for Wales train from Shotton was headed to the Manchester Airport, but we were getting off at Warrington Bank Quay (England) for an hour layover before heading onto Carlisle (England) and then Dumfries (Scotland).
We didn’t have set seats on the approximately 45 minute trip to Warrington, so initially Bob and I were across the aisle from each other, but after the first stop some people got off and Bob was able to move next to me and put his backpack overhead to have a bit more room.
We got off in Warrington, located the platform for our train to Carlisle, and then went into the rest area to have a lunch snack that we had with us. It was only after Bob had bought us a water and we had our snack that he realized his backpack was still on the train to Manchester.
OMG! The backpack not only had his passport, our iPad (on which I do our blogs), the important papers we need to have with us, the adapter plug to allow us to plug into UK outlets and our phone chargers, and his only coat. Not a happy travel moment.
He tried calling the Transport for Wales company to report the issue. No luck. 15 minutes before our next train, he finally found a very nice young woman from Avanti (train company for our next two trains) who got the particulars about the backpack, called the Manchester airport station, and got someone to say that they would check the train for the backpack when it arrived. We had to catch our next train and we’re told to call back at 1:30 and she would let us know whether it had been located.
He called, and they had recovered the backpack!! Huge sigh. They were putting it back on a train to Warrington, and they would confirm when it had arrived. Long story short, by 3:30 it was back in Warrington. After a solo train journey for Bob today back to Warrington, we have been happily reunited with everything and are very appreciative of the good Avanti train staff who made this happen.
In the meantime, we have had a lovely time catching up with Stan and Mary, hearing about the lovely family get together they are heading off to in Canada, going through all the home, garden, and pet care instructions, and enjoying their cooking and generous hospitality. It isn’t often that a place feels familiar when we arrive, but their home does since we’ve been here before.
On Sunday, they took us out to lunch at The Boathouse on the River Nith near where it empties into the Solway Firth and across which you can see England. The restaurant and the views were lovely.
But the best part of our visit was meeting Otter, their new Border Terrior rescue, who they received in September.
Much more on Otter and our stay in Thornhill to come.
Peckish Travels 