The best laid plans

The holiday is ready to start

Today is the first day of the holiday, so we have our bags packed and are ready to go. However, originally the trip was due to start tomorrow - what happened? See the details below.

When plans don't quite work

As I discussed in yesterday's post, the plans for our journey were settled in October subject to the bookings becoming open. But of course, as Rabbie Burns reminded us in his wonderful poem called TO A MOUSE:

 But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men 

Gang aft agley

Which for those who don't know the poem or the Scotch dialect roughly translated means: 

But Mouse you are not alone, 

in proving that planning may be in vain,

because the best laid plans of Mice and Men 

often go wrong.

So, when I came to book the start of the journey - the trip from Taffs Well to Barcelona - I had all the times of travel sorted. It was planned for us to leave on Friday Morning:

• 5.28am Taffs Well to Cardiff (Arrive 5.47am)
• 5.53am Cardiff Central to London Paddington (Arrive 7.44am)
• 7.49am London Paddington to London St. Pancras International (Arrive 8.05am)
• 9.31am London St. Pancras International to Paris Gare de Nord (Arrive 12.59pm)
• 1.15pm Paris Gare de Nord to Paris Gare de Lyon (Arrive 1.35pm)
• 2.42pm Paris Gare de Lyon to Barcelona Sants (Arrive 9.32pm)

But when I came to book the train travel from Taffs Well to London, the tickets wouldn't come up. I was very puzzled, until going to the Great Western webpage I discovered:

A closed Severn Tunnel and a Rail Replacement Bus between Newport and Bristol Parkway. The 5.28am from Taffs Well would now get me to London Paddington by 8.51am and to St. Pancras by 9.15am which, with border controls into the EU at St. Pancras International Terminal meaning you need to arrive 40 minutes before departure, there would be no chance of catching the 9.30am Eurostar that I had already booked.  

Thankfully, Drew was able to rearrange some things and take a flexi afternoon in work, so we could replace the early start tomorrow with a gentle afternoon trip to from Taffs Well to London, an overnight stop in a hotel close to St. Pancras and a more gentle start tomorrow morning. So, the disruption to the plans led to an extra days holiday - not a bad outcome!

Underground

Of course, even these plans might not go without a hitch. London Underground has strikes today.

So our journey from Paddington to St. Pancras may be disrupted! Though it looks like we may be OK, on the Hammersmith and City line if not the Circle line.

I'll update on the journey in my next post.