Heading to Leicester...

Playing at catchup again.

Back in Leicester for my yearly visit and staying with my friend Nigel in Braunstone, a couple of streets from where I lived for 18 years, pre 1997, when I moved to France. Always strange to be here again.

The trip up from France went smoothly in the end with a few blips (not of the blipfoto kind). On this trip I decided to bring my drone with me,  so that meant carrying the storage case I use for it, attached to the handle on my suitcase with bungees. In the Paris metro there were quite a few stairs to go from one RER line to another, from Saint Michel-Notre Dame up to Gare de Nord.
Once at Gare de Nord, the escalator up to ground level was out of order. So more suitcase humping up that.

Then going through French customs at Gare du Nord, for some reason the automatic scanner didn't want to read my passport, so the sliding doors wouldn't open. A French customs official redirected me to see a "human" to check my passport.
Then once through that, I was directed to a human on the UK border side. But then was promptly directed to an automatic passport scanner. This one worked.
Finally there was a big queue for the x-ray machine. As I had my drone with me, I was hoping that wouldn't cause an issue. Everything had to go through seperately, so luckily I had removed the case with drone inside, before I got the othe customs lady.

It was very busy and it took quite a while to get somewhere to sit down. I had arrived early, so people were waiting to board the previous Eurostar to mine.

When I had gone through the ticket gate before the customs malarky, I scanned the QR code on my phone and was given a slip of receipt paper, which said "You new seat".
Later as I waited, I was a bit puzzled - so checked it against the seat reservation on my phone. Sure enough both the carriage and seat were different. Then eventually on the PA, we were told that the slip of paper was in fact out *new* seat and to keep it with us at all times. It caused a degree of confusion to everyone.

Going down to the platform, to my surprise, my carriage was right next to the ramp I had just come down. But, then, of course that meant a long platform walk at Saint Pancras.

The trip went without incident, apart from a very comical French train manager adding humour to the usual boring announcements. Which made people chuckle a bit.

At Saint Pancras, I did the walk of guilt, through the corridor dotted with customs officials looking at you was you go through. One poor black guy was pulled aside for a passport check.

So I had an hour and 45 minutes to wait for my onward connection to Leicester. Went to my usual spot right at the front of the station, where there are normally some empty seats, so I could eat my packed lunch. Then I went for a wander onto the forecourt. Normally I'd go down to the street to take a few bus photos. But with a back pack, suitcase and the drone case, I decided to take some photos over the wall that borders the street. The zoom on my compact Lumix is pretty good, but it was a challange getting photos of the passing buses without too much streetfurniture in the way and not too much wall in the foreground.

After that, I wandered to the EMR part of the station then decided to stay there as a seat had become available. It can be difficult to find somewhere to sit down at this spot and it was from here I took my photo.

The call came to board the train to Leicester. After a bit of confusion, as my reserved seat was at a table. I decided to find a non reserved one, so I had room to put my rucksack between my legs. With the drone case above on the shelf and my suitcase in the luggage rack at the end of the carriage.
I got settled...

Then came an announcement saying that the train I was on, was going to Nottingham. The one I had booked on was going to Sheffield. Not a big problem, as both pass through Leicester. However, I was on the *wrong* train.
I decided to stay on, as I'd only have 2 minutes to gather my things and do a runner to get the *right* train.

The confusion was because both trains were on the platform, one behind the other. I don't know why they do that, but it isn't the first time. Anyway somewhere in the suburbs of London, the woman inspector came round. I fessed up telling her that sorry, I was probably on the wrong train. She scanned my QR code and her reader made a "wrong answer" sound (like on the old quiz show Family Fortunes). It turned out not to be a problem, just that I'd arrive in Leicester about 15 to 20 mins late.

My friend was there to pick me up and then the rest of the evening was spent having a bit of a catch up.
The following day I realised that I had forgot to pack a belt, an additional power adapter and my spare pair of glasses.
I'll have to head into Leicester at some point anyway, so I'll pick up a new belt. Later today (the 10th) I'm going to meet up with an old school friend, who I've not seen in 30 years. Am sure we'll have loads to catch up on.