T-1 A New Adventure, an Investment and a Magical Mystery Tour

Since we have to fly from Gatwick at 11am on Monday morning our holiday technically starts today as we need to stay overnight at the airport to make sure we can get to the terminal in time!

As usual I was up bright and early, finishing off the last minute packing and making a picnic lunch for us to eat on the train.

The weather was awful – pouring down with rain and very windy. Luckily Lee’s parents arrived in time to give us a lift to the train station so we didn’t have to lug our suitcases on and off the bus.

We had planned to travel light, with two suitcases and a smaller case full of toiletries and cables to check and two pieces of hand luggage. Somehow though we ended up with three bags for hand luggage and our picnic lunch and a variety of warm layers which were quite an ordeal to carry!

A New Adventure

The train journey to Gatwick is always an ordeal, and we usually get the train into Reading and then the very s l o w train onto the airport. As today is a Sunday we decided against that route as it meant sitting at Reading train station for nearly an hour for our connecting train. So we decided to be brave and tackle the London Underground.

Once we managed to locate a home for our cases and a couple of seats for us on the boiling hot 13.07 out of Bristol Temple Meads we settled in for an easy ride into Paddington. The train actually arrived in early!

From there we took the Bakerloo line up to Oxford Circus and then the Victoria line to Victoria train station. Navigating the tube with suitcases was actually easier than we thought it would be. The worst bit was trying to drag my very heavy case up the stairs at Victoria.

Unfortunately we missed the earlier train by about half a minute – but the Gatwick Express was standing at the station so we were able to wait on the train instead of the freezing cold platform.

By the time the train left the station it was standing room only but 35 minutes later we arrived at the Gatwick South Terminal ready for Twilight Check in.

An Investment

There were only two other families in the queue for Twilight Check in so it didn’t take very long. The guy checking us in managed to talk us into paying £50 each for the fire exit seats! Personally I think airlines have a cheek to charge for these seats but the leg room on Virgin planes isn’t that great so we hoped it would be £100 well spent.

Once the three cases were checked we headed upstairs to Pizza Express for dinner… only it seems to have been replaced with a W.H. Smith! Oh well, ham egg and chips and the second half of the Arsenal Chelsea match in Weatherspoons would just have to do. (Pauline: Lee may have rolled his eyes when we insisted he pack his glasses – but they soon came out of the bag when he realised he could see the game better wearing them!)

A Magical Mystery Tour

Once we were sufficiently fed and watered we headed outside into the cold and wet to find the bus to our hotel. They seem to have moved the bus stops since our last visit and we wondered around for a good ten minutes before we found the stop. The our hotel wasn’t listed on the board! Just as I was about to ask the next courtesy bus to drop us off on the way out of the airport we spotted our bus.

Now before I tell you what happened next I need to tell you about our hotel. When we were booking our overnight stay we had two hotels to chose from; the Premier Inn or the Courtyard by Marriott. I’m a big fan of the PI, mainly because they have good showers and they serve Alpro soya milk at breakfast. But Lee pointed out that it was at the North Terminal and since we were flying from the South then the Marriott (which is at the entrance to the South Terminal entrance) would be better.

So we board the bus and hand over our £5 to take us the two minutes to the South Terminal entrance. Two minutes later we drive past our hotel (which is on the wrong side of the one way system) and head out onto the dual carriage way. Our Magical Mystery Tour takes us firth to the North Terminal and then, yes you’ve guessed it to the Premier Inn! Luckily its a Sunday evening and there’s not traffic so just ten minutes later we are deposited outside the Marriott.

If you’re looking for an overnight hotel at Gatwick then the Marriott is a pretty good place to stay. The hotel is very new and the room was nice – though it was a little odd that our window looked out over the check in area downstairs!

Evening entertainment consisted of I’m a Celebrity and an early night in anticipation of the long day ahead tomorrow…