On Our Way Day 2

Hot as hell is the phrase that comes to mind when thinking about our journey south yesterday. Edinburgh was muggy as we left, but the sun was not in evidence to add to the temperature.

Somewhere near Morpeth the killer sun appeared, and as we crawled through the road works at Gateshead, the temperature inside the car rose to sauna proportions. The air conditioning only served to blow warm air over us.

Tempers were frayed somewhat, but mine almost unravelled when I discovered that to access the expensive Wifi I had paid for in advance, I should have had an access code sent to me on my booking receipt. No doubt I had, but had not noticed it and had destroyed the evidence.

Since the internet is administered not by Travel Lodge but by Arquiva, this meant a phone call to some voice in the ether at the end of a crackly line. At least he had a European accent, maybe even an English one though it was hard to tell with the line interference. He seemed to struggle a bit with my accent though, and the crackles.

In the event he gave me a string of letters which, as I try to connect this morning, obviously has no platform for my accessing the Internet, and so to prevent myself going quite mad, I have elected to pay another £5 for an hour of Internet.
I am stupid and this arrangement is daylight robbery.

With no air conditioner in our room we opted last night for a short car trip to the Jolly Sailor pub nearby, which was somewhat less than jolly but afforded us a long cold drink.
We ate our Edinburgh bought Starbucks' salad back in our room with the windows open and listening to the constant roar of traffic playing out in the background.

Now we must get to our Bike Bus and the long slog down to Portsmouth for our crossing to StMalo tonight.
Allons-y!