Day 5 - expect the unexpected

We are all packed up and ready to go. Ready for our last day here before flying home.

But wait. A text from Virgin Atlantic telling us that our flight has been cancelled and to check online for the next flight. The next flight is….Monday night. And we are at Friday morning. Oh.

After allowing ourselves a bit of time to let it sink in, we went into planning mode. Extend the hotel. Extend the cattery. Extend the car park. Inform the family that they might have to collect the turkey!

We called Virgin and after speaking with the lovely Tim, we managed to get a flight on Sunday night instead. So two extra days.

With the help of Gemini AI, and a search on a cute winter village to reach without a car, we found Port Hope. We booked the first train (unfortunately 5:30pm) and a hotel in the town and then got on with our day.

We visited the Allan Gardens conservatories. A short walk from our hotel. It’s very cold today and the wonderful green houses were a welcome respite. They housed lots of tropical plants and we had a pleasant hour wandering through them.

We then went to buy some new underwear and socks for the additional stay and a small holdall, and then packed a few things and made our way to the station.

The train was running late, which was a bit of a pain, but once we were on, we sped along to Port Hope and arrived to a deserted station. The trains here are absolutely huge. Great big polar express style trains with big loud whistles!

When we got off at Port Hope, we were literally in the middle of nowhere in a snow storm. We had to walk across the train tracks to get to the deserted car park. No sign of a taxi or life in general, so we walked through the town and found our hotel. The Carlyle. This used to be a bank, and has ten rooms. We picked up our keys from the post box and let ourselves into the most wonderful room. Two big comfy beds, a fireplace, a coffee machine and a BATH.

The hotel offered us dinner which we kindly accepted and it was one of the best meals we’ve had. Andrew had pork chop and mash, Oliver had a panini, and I had salmon. Amazing.

We went out after dinner and braved the snow and the wind for a 15 minute walk through this film set style town.

Into bed and the land of nod.