h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thanks for offering to share your luggage allowance with me, Z.

I'm getting a bit confused now, just peeked into the Ryanair website and they seem to have several roundtrip flights Gatwick to Dublin on the 28-29 at 0.01 GBP each way. Surely that's not the total price?

Now, if we fly from Gatwick and return to Manchester it's 0.01 over and 2.34 back. But how would we get back to Ben's from there if her car is in London?

The ferry/train emergency option is reassuring, am not such a princess that I can't sleep on the floor.

Only other bit is the luggage. My suitcase is *way* too big for Ryanair, and the carry-on won't hold much at all. I can pack an extra dufflebag or something, or maybe borrow one from y'all so I have a couple changes of clothing for when we're in Dublin and up North, leave the other stuff for when we return to London so I don't feel like a bag lady wearing the same thing every day.

I'm assuming that B and I will have public-transported ourselves down to London. Once we go to Manchester we'll take a train to Keightley, then a cab as I presume we'll all be to tired for the bus!

(London incidenly is awful to drive in, and much easier to do by public transport.)

Those flight prices won't include airport tax which is about £30 I think...

There's a lot of different options. Z and I can indeed public transport ourselves down to London, and it does make a lot of sense to do so.

The other option is that we fly back to London and drive up to West Yorks.

The third option, and it's one I'm beginning to favour, is to split the party - I'll go back to London and pick up the car, and other members of the party go to Manchester.

There are, as you rightly say, additional charges. These are the airport taxes, which Ryanair say do not exceed £15.20 each way, so a round trip to Dublin nis less than £35. THIS IS INCREDIBLY GOOD VALUE. Ryanair only has so many low cost seats per flight, the rest are charged for which is one place they make money. They also charge for refreshments, (quite a lot), and are strict about baggage. The baggage allowance, incidentally, is 15k, which is only 5k lower than normal shorthaul. Basically, it is modelled on South West, but lacks some of the wit of that airline. Most of the people who complain about it, seem to want big-airline service and forget that they are paying budget-airline prices.

I've sent an email with some other thoughts and ideas. I honestly think it would be worth staying over on Thursday night and travelling on Friday morning though. Honest-honest-honest.

Ben

Sounds good to me as long as we can find very cheap accomodations while we're there. One thing I'm *really* not fond of is spending too much for a place to sleep and brush my teeth and then not being able to *do* the things I want to when I'm Adventuring. I usually spend more on martinis than I do on lodging. I only do posh accomodations when it's paid for by work or someone *else* who cares about Maintaining the Lifestyle (and then I wallow in being treated like a princess) the rest of the time I camp or find dirt-cheap deals, and that suits me just fine. I *wish* I could bring my tent, then there'd be no worries at all. But I can adjust to normal-people priorities and make the martinis during picnics, so it'll all work out fine.

So, if Z would find the least expensive lodging available for me, let's do it. I've no problem with staying someplace y'all wouldn't prefer to (remember, for me it's ALL fun) and I'm good at finding my way around strange places to meet up with you in the morning.

The split-traveling-return sounds good, or else take public transpot and I'll beg Teuchter to hold my suitcase until we return to London. I *definitely* want to infest Alex and SoRB for a while, need to take some photos for a portrait I promised Alex, so I don't want to risk losing that opportunity.

Oh, MoG, please don't let the scare stories about Ryanair put you off staying two nights here! Dublin-London is one of their core routes, with lots of flights--nowhere near the chances of getting stuck that you would have on routes like to Pisa where there might only be one flight a day. I've flown with Ryanair to London, Bristol and Charleroi without any problems. Woodpigeon, who does a fair amount of business travel, said on one of the other threads that he has always found them okay.

Hoping to hear what gets finally decided...

Azara

Azara, though I'd love to meet you I finally came to the conclusion that I'd better not make that trip this time. I was beginning to worry too much about expenses and also kinda feel that a little breather in between all the running around would be a good idea as well. Sometimes it's better to see less, but experience it more fully, ya know?

Is there any chance you might be lured over to meet up with us during your holiday? That would be wonderful as well.

On the other paw, Z and I are fully inspired to come over at another time, it is just a matter of when....

I've been thinking about an All England Itinerary, and it looks summat like this:

Wed 22nd March - Mog arrives in Gatwick and goes to Seville
Thu 23rd March - Z and Ben go to Seville
Fri 24th March - Seville
Sat 25th March - Seville
Sun 26th March - Seville
Mon 27th March - Seville
Tue 28th March - Stay overnight in London - maybe daytrip to Kew Gardens
Wed 29th March - Touristy trip to Birmingham maybe via Oxford
Thu 30th March - Birmingham - day trips in the Midlands or touristy travel North
Fri 31st March - Day trips maybe York or Haworth or Saltair or the Seattle / Carlisle railway
Sat 01st April - Partying with Annie and Alex
Sun 02nd April - Partying with Annie and Alex
Mon 03rd April - Travel to London - free range sightseeing
Tue 04th April - London - London Eye and River Cruise, more sightseeing
Wed 05th April - MoG goes home from London Heathrow

This involves one additional night in the London area, ie the 28th March, but it means that there is only one journey on the 28th. The traveling (London - Birmingham, Birmingham - North, North - London) can be A-Roads with stop-offs and interesting rather than motorways and get-there-as-fast-as-you-can.

These are just my 7.00am thoughts and not sacred.

Ben

On second thoughts, I think that the trip from the North to London on Monday 3rd would best be accomplished by train.

That way we don't have a car to accommodate in London, we can predict when we arrive, (ish), and we can go our separate ways afterwards, me back to West Yorks, and Z back to Birmingham.

B

That's fine, MoG! I'm not too fond of the whistle-stop tour kind of travel myself, so I can sympathize with your wanting to have time to catch your breath. I'm afraid I won't be able to make it over to England myself at that stage.

Azara

Btw, Z and I are ducking out of the last two days' trip to London - circumstances beyond our control and all that. The Dramatis Personae for the last couple of days are currently MoG and Alfster.

B

I'm getting very excited