‘Miles more smiles!’ is the logo on the side of our coach but today Thursday there hasn’t been many of them going around. After greeting Gregor, (no answer) and boarding the coach, which was 20 minutes late picking us up, we soon realised that today wasn’t a happy one for him. It was too hot and he was sweating already he told us! Irreverent thought number 9. As he is overweight and seems to do no exercise, as confirmed by the middle age spread around his expansive tummy area, it's no wonder any exertion tires him. We set off, with the number 45 hours resounding in our ears yet again, for a 45 minute (I told you before – a mystical number!) journey to pick up our fellow passengers in Brighton, who were not pleased to see that some of our group were sitting in their seats so movement was called for and disenchantment fuelled the tension in the coach. The journey to our first port of call took over an hour and half but with slow moving traffic and road works we didn’t reach our destination until 1pm. It wasn’t a pretty journey, nothing to see only the roadway to speak of; just a mind numbing stop start; stop start kind of thing. However to be fair traffic can’t be helped but Google maps gave us an alternate route- it was a pity Gregor didn’t have the same one! A wrong turn and a drive around when we arrived didn’t help much either but eventually we got off the coach and were given one hour to look around. This was after a three hour journey for a one hour stop off! We were, I must confess, not amused. A decision had to be made; the small town centre or the coast? We opted for the coast and to be perfectly honest we were underwhelmed by it. Now maybe it was because we had to rush from the drop off point to get to the beach and then find out after our mad dash that Gregor had continued with some of the other passengers to the beach I don’t know! However, we had just enough time for a brew and a quick sandwich and a visit to the loo then back to the coach. Again a wrong turn and a tour of a beautiful housing estate full of old worldly houses finally saw us on our way to the next town. Now don’t get me wrong, but honestly when you have seen one pebbly beach and a pier you can be forgiven to wishing that you don’t have to see yet another one! But we did and after paying over £4 for a gift bottle of beer with the town’s name on it, we were glad to leave; even though it meant another long journey back. We actually took the coast road, which would have been so much better on the way here; the scenery was much nicer to look at and you got a real feel of the coastline and its little inlets. Unfortunately, it had been another hot day and we had been stuck in the coach longer than we had been out of it ,so we were too tired and fed up to appreciate it. Our nightmare drive wasn’t over as we then had to drop off passengers in Brighton and then proceed through rush hour traffic back to Eastbourne. I wish someone could tell me why this type of traffic is called rush hour when everyone moves so slowly! Thought for the day: The journey of life is a long intricate dance, so start dancing
1 Comment
Paula South
3/11/2016 05:28:11 pm
What a lovely day...perhaps you'd all have been better parking yourselves on the nearest beach for the day...reminded me after a long journey somewhere on the continent between one hotel and another we were all napping when the driver got us stuck under a too low bridge having taken the wrong turn. Even the tour guide was asleep so no one noticed until the crunch. Bet you all missed Gregor ...not!
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