Northampton; Sunday, 20 March, 2011

I checked out of the hotel and joined my friends (who had also been staying over) for a late breakfast before spending the morning having a wander around the town.

After a couple of hours of wandering we stopped for a late lunch and a bite to eat, before it was time to head back to the hotel to collect luggage and make our ways home.

My friends had come up on the bike, but I was going back on the train so I said goodbye to them at the hotel and walked down to the station.

I had known that the journey home was not going to be particularly easy as the rail company had a strike going on, so instead of a quick 60 minute journey from Northampton straight into London I had to look forward to a 50 minute coach ride to Milton Keynes to catch the hourly service that was running from there into town.

However, that was without the gremlins getting into the works and the radiator on the coach blowing out and leaving us dumped by the side of the road on the outskirts of Milton Keynes for 40 minutes before a replacement coach arrived.

By the time that got us to Milton Keynes I had missed the train and so had to wait another 40 minutes for the very last train of the day (which at not even 6:30 is a bit poor) down to London.