The Road goes ever on and on; Down from the door where it began;
Now far ahead the Road has gone; And I must follow, if I can;
Pursuing it with eager feet; Until it joins some larger way;
Where many paths and errands met; And whither then? I cannot say.

[JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings]

Monday 11 July 2016

Pyrenees Day 0

London to Luchon

The plan: 0825 plane to Toulouse. Arrive 1110. Repack backpacks in luggage hall then walk 1 mile from airport to Decathlon to pick up some gas. From there across the road to supermarket for last few supplies, to Post Office to send off a couple of resupply parcels, then tram and metro over to the train station for 1441 train/bus combo to get us to Luchon.

The reality: an early start and smooth passage through Gatwick saw us board our Easyjet flight on time. Then we sat on the plane, at the gate, and waited, and waited some more, for the arrival of a First Officer who was not part of our air crew, but was hitching a lift on our flight as he was needed in Toulouse. It was an hour and a quarter after our scheduled departure time that we finally rumbled along the runway. Our plan, which was already a bit tight on time, was scuppered.

The Post Office and the supermarket got ditched from our schedule so that we could catch our train/bus to Luchon. Better, we thought, to have a delayed start tomorrow whilst we run those errands in Luchon, rather than having to wait an extra 3 hours in Toulouse for the next train this afternoon and not arrive into Luchon till nearly 8pm.

Everything else went smoothly, and by twenty past five we were standing on our balcony looking at this view:


It's only a one star hotel we're in, but thus far it seems to meet our needs perfectly. In fact (unless it turns out the walls are paper thin and the other guests noisy) I'm sorry we didn't come here last year. The place we stayed then was over 50% more expensive and I've got my suspicions that they may have been involved in the credit card fraud I suffered last year (I say 'suffered' but the reality is that it was of cost and inconvenience to my card issuer, not to me).

So, tomorrow we won't be having our customary early start. At 9am we'll head over to the supermarket and the Post Office and at some time after that we'll mosey on eastwards out of town.


bonus photo of the monstrously large cake we shared for pudding tonight

3 comments:

  1. Ooo, here we go...😁

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm ready, and in the brace position.
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Next you'll be making curtains out of rucksacks. I've just arrived at a posh "guest house" in Falmouth. I'd rather be in Bagneres. Good luck, I'll be looking out for you amongst my own travails.

    ReplyDelete