Tag: London Gatwick

The Retirees return to Nottingham.

We arrived at Gatwick Airport South and after resting our weary heads from trains and planes, we then set off in search of the Europcar office, which also proved to be difficult to find but we got there only to find the car we had reserved was not available. After one and a half hours we finally got away from Gatwick and headed off up the M23, the M25, and then the M1 to Nottingham. It really felt like we were going home with all the familiar features along the highway. Finally, 4 hours after leaving London Gatwick we pulled into Bostocks Lane off the M1 and arrived at the Novotel Nottingham Derbyshire; a hotel well known to us. When we left the UK in November 2015 the hotel was undergoing renovation, now in April 2017 we were given a comfortable room with a view of the bush leading to the canal path leading to the River Trent. Spring was coming and as usual flowers were blooming everywhere.

Rested we awoke to a grey day without any real plans. After speaking with our eldest daughter in Australia, we decided to ride the tram to Hucknall. In 2015 the council had just finished constructing a new tram line from Toton (the next village beside Long Eaton) to Hucknall through Nottingham and although we were there for the opening we did not ride the rail all the way to the end. So that is what we decided to do – ride the tram to Hucknall. As we left to drive to the park and ride station I took photos of the beautiful road side flower beds proving that Spring was in the air but it did not feel like it at all.

Kerry had read about Bridlesmith St and its boutiques and as I was foolish enough to comment that it was just near the Lace District and the tram passed through it, our first stop was Bridlesmith Lane. Of course there were some shops that needed investigation but we finally made it to the old Market Square and picked up the tram once again to complete the journey to Hucknall just down the road from Newstead Abbey the former home of Lord Byron. We had lunch at the Station Hotel which had a curious games room which included a quote from Lord Byron on its wall “What’s drinking? A mere pause for thinking!”

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The Retirees return to Italy – Leaving the SS Costa Diadema for Nottingham.

We spent our day tying up loose ends and generally lazing around the ship. We attended the disembarkation lecture and tried to reconcile our on – board account with the deductions made from our cash card (that is another story). The following day we were unable to disembark until around 9.30 am and that was an hour earlier than our schedule time. We shared a cab to the Civitavecchia rail station and caught the train to Terminii but after enduring screaming children and ignorant Italian parents for an hour we left the train at what we thought at first to be the wrong station. However, when checking the station timetable we found that we could catch a train to the airport from that station without going into Terminii.

Our train trip to the airport was far less stressful but we had arrived hours too early. We had lunch and then waited and waited until the check in opened finally making our way to the plane and ultimately London Gatwick. A long day travelling. Just when we thought that our travelling was going to get easier, we encountered the case of the missing hotel. We had a reservation at the Hilton London Gatwick but could not find it until a kind gentleman in the carpark told us the sign directing us to the hotel meant go straight ahead then turn right not turn right. We soon located the hotel and ordered room service. It was now 10.00pm Italian time/9.00pm UK time. We had been travelling 12 hours and were dog tired.

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