Thursdays Story...

The plan was breakfast, ride into the city, park up the bikes, ditch the rucksacks in left luggage and go and explore. Breakfast was perfect, our host (an ardent Sunderland fan) kept us talking well into three pots of tea and we left for the journey back home a little later than planned.

Sunderland is as busy as any other city and so we endeavoured to ride as much as possible, but some sections it was easier to walk with the bikes so we could follow the signposts for the railway station. On arriving at the railway station we looked for the Left Luggage Department, there wasn't one. Nevermind, we would have to carry them round with us. We looked for bike racks in the city centre - we couldn't find any ! This is a warning to any fellow C2Cers who fancy some sight seeing, leave your bikes well outside the city centre or at the lodgings if possible. This is a polite request to Sunderland City Council, as you are a major player in the C2C, how about more bike racks in the city centre?

We gave in, went back to the station and asked about an earlier train. This time we were in luck, there was one due in fifteen minutes; not too full so we could fit the bikes on without a prior booking and so we decided now was the time to go. When we said the train was not too full, that was a bit of a white lie. It was not too full of long distance travellers, however there were a lot of people travelling to Chester-le-Street as England were playing in a one-day Cricket match. Once our fellow cricketing fans got off the train we spread out across our seats and promptly fell asleep!