Today was a travel day, in which I extracted myself from Wallasey, where I was visiting relatives, and took myself to the Ibis Hotel at Manchester Airport for an early flight tomorrow.
I programmed the onboard GPS of the rental car to take me to the Ibis Budget Hotel at Manchester Airport by giving it the alphanumberic postal code. I was following the map on the car screen and listening to the Disembodied Voice, when all of a sudden, I found myself at the entrance to the Wallasey Tunnel, paying £2.30. I made myself stay calm, while I searched my memory. Of course there was a highway that would take you from Liverpool to Manchester Airport, but I had assumed that I was going to go south down the Wirral Peninsula. Apparently, the Disembodied Voice had other ideas. Of course, it took me the way I hate to drive, as I really don’t enjoy driving through downtown Liverpool, partly because it looks rough, and partly because I don’t know where I am, or where I’m going. Not having a lot of choice, I just kept following signs to Manchester Airport. Eventually, we got onto the M62, and the route took us to the M6, and then the M56 to the airport.
After driving around a couple of times, I found the Ibis Budget Motel. It is hard to see from the road as it is behind the Holiday Inn. In any event, I showed up at around 1:40 and they checked me in immediately. (I had called ahead of time, telling them I would be early.) I unloaded the car, got everything up into the hotel room, returned to the car, and drove to the Car Rental Village to return it to Alamo. The signs here were very confusing, but a cheery girl stopped me, and I told her I was trying to return the car. She looked it over, said it was in excellent condition, said I would get my £200 pound deposit back and we parted company.
I waited around 10 minutes for the bus to show up, which took me to Terminal 2. Then I had to find a way of walking back to the hotel. Of course there were no signs telling you how to walk from Terminal 2 to Ibis Budget. Indeed, I found myself walking through a parking lot. Eventually, I did find my way back, got into my room and collapsed.
The room was teeny-tiny but well-designed. And the shower was big enough for me to wash my hair, so that is what I did before spending a pleasant evening knitting, eating my snacks, and watching various BBC programs (including one of the Spey River in Scotland, that looks lovely.)
Tomorrow I will be up bright and early to get on that first morning flight to Heathrow!
