Dolgarrog; Friday, 23 August, 2024

I finished work at 5 and headed straight down to the station to pick up the train into town and across to Euston. I had a smooth journey across town and through a very busy Euston (18:00 on the Friday evening of a bank holiday weekend, perhaps not the best time to be at the station), and onto the train which left on time and started to whisk me towards my destination for the night – Chester.

Despite leaving on time the train picked up random delays along the way, and by the time we made it to Crewe we were about 15 minutes late. That was compounded by a much longer wait than timetabled in the station to detach the rear five coaches, and consequently by the time we got to Chester the train was 29¾ minutes late, just 15 seconds short of doubling the delay repay compensation from 25 to 50% of the ticket.

Thankfully my hotel was only a couple of minutes’ walk from the station, so I was quickly in the hotel and checked into my room, then back down to the bar for a late-night pizza and drink before turning in for the night.