OK, not my best work.
I’m probably tempting fate by saying this, but my packing process feels like it’s getting faster. Some of that will be because of the things which never made it out of the bag(s) in the first place, but I’m thinking that a bunch of it is due to having a designated spot for (most) things, so it’s just a case of findings the thing & stowing it, no decision making required.
For a long time I’d been doing the much-advised “tightly roll all your stuff to save space” thing, but after some experimenting, I’m not sure that it’s as generally applicable as travel blogs/vlogs/instagrammers like to think. Recently I’ve gone with “fold until it’s roughly the same dimensions as the bottom of the compartment”, which then lets me stack things and let the weight of the stuff above compress it for me. To be fair, this is for things like Cargo Shorts, Sweatpants, Hoodie, … Not the things I’d need regular access to, so it doesn’t matter much if I need to move something to get at it. ( The Big Black Bag is a sort of front-of-the-top loader, a squat rectangular shape where the front ⅔ unzips )
Didn’t sleep amazingly well on Friday or Saturday nights, so my precautionary 2 hours before alleged checkout alarm was very useful indeed. Most of the packing up was done the night before, so I could do the second to last bits (any clothing items I’m not wearing, laundry, anything in any room of the place gets moved to the bed) before wandering out to get some breakfast from the amusingly named Boston Tea Party¹.
I was impressed. They had a nice location, on a corner jutting into a square, so they could have outside tables and awnings. Good food, and one of the “scan the code to order at your table” systems, which are great for a low-brainpower morning.
In theory I was supposed to check out by 10, but since the owner had basically said “please be out by the time the cleaning lady arrives at 12”, I feel that my 10:15ish departure was OK. ( A bunch of that was just putting things back roughly where they belonged; unfeasible number of cushions back on the sofa, weird embroidery cushions on a chair and not the floor, chair by the desk and not in the bedroom fireplace to keep the ghosts at bay, … )
I made a stop a the pinkest & most floral cafe I’ve ever seen; Sweet Little Things. It’s like drinking coffee in a very fancy cupcake.
As a side note; Is Bath one of those Hen/Bachelorette party cities? There was a group who showed up while I was there, but then went to one of the other locations in Bath, possibly because of size of group or whether they were doing actual breakfast; The location I was at had apparently called the other one to let them know a group was incoming .
Then there was another smaller group I passed on the way to the station, and I’m pretty sure I saw a few more during the week.
And then to the station.
It got oddly crowded on the platform after the photos were taken, I’m told due to there being no trains yesterday because of rail strikes. As a stroke of luck I’d noticed that the Great Western Railway app had a ‘how full is this carriage’ indicator on their live train information screen; It had been blank earlier, presumably because the train wasn’t running yet, but had now updated to show that the middle of the train was full ( I’m assuming it’s showing reserved seats, not actual people per carriage ), so I moved myself to the far end of the platform to line up with the back of the train.
Surprisingly, it worked, and the last carriage isn’t full. I don’t think there are any empty doubles, but I’ve not got anyone sitting beside me, and I can see some empty seats around. Meanwhile, much as with the trip out here, they announced that they couldn’t do the cafe cart service because they can’t move through the train.
Maybe it’s just a polite fiction, and there is never a cart?
¹ Who are a chain, maybe a franchise, that I’d never heard of prior to going to Salisbury. Looking at a map, I think I can see why;
