Off on one of our popular Mystery Weekends today, but
where am I going?!
It’s all very exciting!
The original plan was for Brian to do this trip and I was
going to go to Germany’s Black Forest tomorrow but I have to be at a meeting on
Wednesday so we have had a change around.
I only have a couple of pick-ups in Liphook and
Petersfield and am from Petersfield by 09:30.
My first stop is at Chieveley Services on the A34/M4
junction north of Newbury. This is a good stop because you can go in all four
directions from here so not giving the passengers much of a clue! I always ask
them to write down their name and where they think we shall end up on a piece
of paper and give them to me and those who guess correctly will receive a prize
later! I hope there is no more than two winners as I have only bought two
prizes!
I collect everyone’s guesses and not one has got it
right! Chocolates for me tonight! At least I won’t have to buy anything for the
mileage quiz now!
From Chieveley I drive onto the M4 towards Bristol and
then come off at Swindon and the A417.
I then join the M5 at Gloucester and drive north towards
Birmingham coming off at junction 9 and into Tewkesbury for our lunch stop.
Tewkesbury makes a nice stop as it is a small town with a
wonderful Abbey, pretty river, Olde
worlde half timbered buildings, lots of cafes/restaurants and is flat! It also
keeps the guessing game going because there are numerous places we can reach
from here.
After dropping the passengers, there are 40 of them, by
the Abbey I park the coach in the coach park which is close by.
I pick them all up again at 14:30 for the last leg of our
journey and even though I constantly ask them where we are going nobody has
guessed yet. Have you?!!!
From here I take the A38 towards Worcester and then the
M50 towards Ross on Wye and then the A40 to Monmouth and then the A449 to
Newport and then back on the M4!!
It is now quite obvious where we are going as the signs
are only showing one city – Cardiff.
Our hotel, the Parc by Thistle, is a 4* hotel located in
the centre of the Welsh capital and will be our base for the next three nights.
And it is St David’s Day!
The hotel is difficult to get to with the bus, well you
can’t get to it with the bus!
There is a road you
can drive up as far as the bollards stopping you going any further but
you then block the car park entrance/exit and another road the taxi’s queue on
to get to the rank next to where I am stopped. With parking for disabled on my
other side I completely block the road.
The staff are good and a couple of lads appear to help
take the cases in but realise they might need some assistance with 40 cases so
return with a big luggage trolley that
takes the case in two goes.
Once all of the luggage has been taken into the hotel I
go off in search of a parking spot.
I know I can park in the coach park at Sophia Gardens
at a cost of £15.50 per day and it is
only a twenty minute walk back to the hotel.
Once at the coach park I go to buy my ticket but the
machine won’t accept my card nor will it accept a coach parking payment. There
are three other machines close by and I try them all but with no success. I am
worried that if I leave it here overnight without a ticket I’ll risk a large
fine. On one of the machines there is a number to call so I call and leave a
message on the machine not really expecting a reply late on a Friday
afternoon,.
Within a couple of minutes I received a call back!
It was a local traffic warden who is stationed in the
Cardiff Bay area and he advises me not to leave the coach without a ticket. I
offer to pay him over the phone but that can’t be done either.
He says I can park in Cardiff Bay overnight and kindly
gives me instructions to follow and says I can call him on the mobile number he
has given me when I am in the area and he will tell where to park exactly.
It is now rush hour and it takes me ages through the
traffic to reach the Bay area. Once there I call my friend back and he tells me
to wait where I am and he will come out to me in his car.
Sure enough he turns up and beckons me to follow him to
Tiger Bay and a lay-by outside of the large BBC Centre where Casualty is
filmed. He tells me I can use this lay-by all weekend without any charge and
right next to it is a bus stop with frequent busses into the city centre.
How very helpful is that. What a nice man and the
friendliest traffic warden I have ever met. Top man! I give him a drink and off
he goes.
I catch the bus back to the centre but again the journey
is a long one due to the Friday night rush hour. I jump off near to the hotel
and walk the last bit, finally arriving back in the hotel at 18:10! It has only
taken 2 hours to park! It only takes 2hours 40minutes to drive to Petersfield!
My room is excellent with the most wonderful shower and
if all rooms are like this then there will be no problems.
Before dinner I go into the bar for a beer and it is more
like a disco with slightly too loud background music, flashy lights and a
glitter ball! Not quite what we expected or wanted! There are seats and another
quieter bar in the restaurant but didn’t know that before dinner.
I sit on my own and enjoy a good dinner before retiring
to my large bed.
The only downside was the noise. There is a nightclub
around the corner and it did become a tad noisy but in the morning realised my
window was open a bit and shutting this cured it.
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