Now that BA no longer fly from Leeds Bradford down to Heathrow and with a much more limited service operated out of Manchester Airport, we decided that our best future option was to drive down to London and pay for parking while we are away. It means that as soon as we land back into the UK, we are masters of our own destiny in that we can quickly collect the car and be on the M1 North. The result sometimes is that we are back in Yorkshire before the Manchester flight has departed Heathrow!
However, there is a but and today it changed into a huge BUT! The problem being that the trip of 200+ miles can take anything up to 6 hours and so we do the journey in two stages which requires a hotel stay somewhere in the vicinity of the Northampton junction of the M1.
The perfect stop for us is the consistently good Premier Inn. Clean rooms and beds, well maintained, pleasant staff and above all else, sensibly priced. In fact I booked tonight’s sleepover for the grand sum of just £56, a price to bring a smile to the face of any Yorkshireman. In fact, this is cheaper than a night on a caravan club site which is ludicrous considering you have to bring your own accommodation to stay on one of their sites!
Anyway, we had a great run down to Harpole where we have stayed previously, unloaded and reported to reception to check in. “Name or booking reference please “ said the receptionist. Coy I replied politely. Frantic pressing of keyboard, staring intently at the screen and then the words, “you don’t have a booking!” She was right of course because I’d actually booked the wrong day!
The long and short of it was that after much discussion, we did secure a room for the night but that came with an additional price tag of £58! 😳😳😳 I’m still in shock, not really about the money, but more about my ability to do this on a seemingly more regular basis. The last occasion, not very long ago, when I was insisting with check in staff in Johannesberg that I had booked a particular flight. However, I wasn’t just a day out there, I was a month!!
Such is life so in the morning, it’s off to Heathrow and hopefully no more surprises before we get on that flight to the “Windy City”.
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