To Hull And Back
Hull Fair - 10th October 2009
The plan was this...
Friday night: London all-nighter
Saturday: Hull Fair
Sunday: Home
So it began. We arrived in London on Friday evening and promptly went on the Merlin Entertainments Merlin London Merlin Eye, after visiting the 4D thing they've chucked in the ticket office, which is alright. We didn't really bother paying attention to the Eye, it has a habit of being terribly samey, so we had a Pizza Hut in the west end then went to Trafalgar Square...
After a little while we moved on, to pass the time we were going to do a circuit of the Circle Line - we did, after all, have about 10 hours to kill... So we headed to Embankment, but Kirstie needed to pee. Fine, there's toilets round the corner.. But they're shut? The sign said they were open till 11, this was at 10:45 and the cleaner was cleaning. There was a comments and suggestions number on the sign. Much to our surprise, somebody answered, and told us the toilets shouldn't be shut and we were within our rights to use them, but the stupid cleaning woman wouldn't budge.. 'I go home at ten to eleven'. Well then love, perhaps Westminster council should employ someone who does the job properly, hmm? I fear I may have come down a bit hard on her but she deserved it!
Anyway, Circle Line shenanigans.
All well and good, until Liverpool Street when the train decided at the last minute that it was Hammersmith & City Line now and that it was going to bugger off to Barking, so the more quick to react among us got off, the rest had to go to Aldgate East and come back.. So with little else to do, we went to St Pancras to wait for the morning to come around.
The ingredients for a London all-nighter, Mountain Dew, Pro-Plus and Fluxx.
St Pancras is a very boring place at night. There's nothing to do. Unless you want to go to Costa or Starbucks, which we didn't, but there's only so much sitting around one can do, so we eventually did try Starbucks out. It got old quite quickly, so we sat around some more. It was getting on for 4am now and with nothing to do and tiredness kicking in, we went in search of food...
Problem solved. Slowly the station started to get busier as more people appeared, and a few short hours later, it was time to get our Megatrain to East Midlands Parkway. There's not much there, just a load of cooling towers and a bike rack. After our connection to the bus section of the journey, we made it to Hull and Nando's. Joy. Saturday afternoon now, and the fair beckons...
Now, I've taken stupid amounts of pictures of the fair so there are only a couple here, click the link at the bottom of this post for the full gallery.
The fair was amazing. It was utterly huge. I can't possibly remember the order we went on stuff or a ride count or anything like that, but I'll give some opinions of the major rides.
Top Buzz 2 - Oh dear. Don't believe the hype. The first ride was good, everything subsequently was piss poor, to the point where even Samurai could have done better.
Rock Rage - Wow. A true example of what a ride should be, fast, intense, fun. We went on this immediately after the Capriolo and it was so much better than poor old 2Xtreme...
2Xtreme - I love Mondial Capriolos. And that's why I hate this one. It's not run well at all, it's pathetically tame and runs such short cycles, you'd be better off spending the £4 on something good nearby.
Bomber Mark 2 - Aside from the fact it kept breaking down, it's a very good ride. Great views of the fair and it's bloody fast.
Super Spin - I'd not done an Experience before, and I probably won't do one again. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.
What else... Gamble's Extreme was good, Cullen's Tagada was the best of the three, Atha's Waltzer is the best on the ground, Bowry's Skid is always fun. Apparently Jimmy is bringing the Skid back to Southend next year. Yay. Alright then, have a few photos...
The award for Worst Ride On The Fair goes to the stupid Toboggan coaster thing. It was painful, boring and thoroughly unpleasant.
So at 11pm, with the fair exhausted and after a 20 minute wait for a crap ride on Top Buzz 2, it was time to leave. The journey back was not without its events, though...
The Megabus from Hull to East Midlands Parkway was fine and dandy, but then we were herded onto a train that claimed to be going to St Pancras, which in fairness it did do in the end, but it went the most ridiculous way about it.. At Leicester it started going back the other way and took an hour to get from Leicester to Kettering, eventually arriving in London an hour later than the train we should have been put on. Oh well, for a pound one can't really complain...
So that's it. We've been to Hull and back, and no doubt will be doing the same again next year. Just need a good name for that one, and no, we're not calling it Highway To Hull.
Full photo gallery here: http://ukhurri.fotopic.net/c1767041_1.html
Hull Fair - 10th October 2009
The plan was this...
Friday night: London all-nighter
Saturday: Hull Fair
Sunday: Home
So it began. We arrived in London on Friday evening and promptly went on the Merlin Entertainments Merlin London Merlin Eye, after visiting the 4D thing they've chucked in the ticket office, which is alright. We didn't really bother paying attention to the Eye, it has a habit of being terribly samey, so we had a Pizza Hut in the west end then went to Trafalgar Square...
After a little while we moved on, to pass the time we were going to do a circuit of the Circle Line - we did, after all, have about 10 hours to kill... So we headed to Embankment, but Kirstie needed to pee. Fine, there's toilets round the corner.. But they're shut? The sign said they were open till 11, this was at 10:45 and the cleaner was cleaning. There was a comments and suggestions number on the sign. Much to our surprise, somebody answered, and told us the toilets shouldn't be shut and we were within our rights to use them, but the stupid cleaning woman wouldn't budge.. 'I go home at ten to eleven'. Well then love, perhaps Westminster council should employ someone who does the job properly, hmm? I fear I may have come down a bit hard on her but she deserved it!
Anyway, Circle Line shenanigans.
All well and good, until Liverpool Street when the train decided at the last minute that it was Hammersmith & City Line now and that it was going to bugger off to Barking, so the more quick to react among us got off, the rest had to go to Aldgate East and come back.. So with little else to do, we went to St Pancras to wait for the morning to come around.
The ingredients for a London all-nighter, Mountain Dew, Pro-Plus and Fluxx.
St Pancras is a very boring place at night. There's nothing to do. Unless you want to go to Costa or Starbucks, which we didn't, but there's only so much sitting around one can do, so we eventually did try Starbucks out. It got old quite quickly, so we sat around some more. It was getting on for 4am now and with nothing to do and tiredness kicking in, we went in search of food...
Problem solved. Slowly the station started to get busier as more people appeared, and a few short hours later, it was time to get our Megatrain to East Midlands Parkway. There's not much there, just a load of cooling towers and a bike rack. After our connection to the bus section of the journey, we made it to Hull and Nando's. Joy. Saturday afternoon now, and the fair beckons...
Now, I've taken stupid amounts of pictures of the fair so there are only a couple here, click the link at the bottom of this post for the full gallery.
The fair was amazing. It was utterly huge. I can't possibly remember the order we went on stuff or a ride count or anything like that, but I'll give some opinions of the major rides.
Top Buzz 2 - Oh dear. Don't believe the hype. The first ride was good, everything subsequently was piss poor, to the point where even Samurai could have done better.
Rock Rage - Wow. A true example of what a ride should be, fast, intense, fun. We went on this immediately after the Capriolo and it was so much better than poor old 2Xtreme...
2Xtreme - I love Mondial Capriolos. And that's why I hate this one. It's not run well at all, it's pathetically tame and runs such short cycles, you'd be better off spending the £4 on something good nearby.
Bomber Mark 2 - Aside from the fact it kept breaking down, it's a very good ride. Great views of the fair and it's bloody fast.
Super Spin - I'd not done an Experience before, and I probably won't do one again. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.
What else... Gamble's Extreme was good, Cullen's Tagada was the best of the three, Atha's Waltzer is the best on the ground, Bowry's Skid is always fun. Apparently Jimmy is bringing the Skid back to Southend next year. Yay. Alright then, have a few photos...
The award for Worst Ride On The Fair goes to the stupid Toboggan coaster thing. It was painful, boring and thoroughly unpleasant.
So at 11pm, with the fair exhausted and after a 20 minute wait for a crap ride on Top Buzz 2, it was time to leave. The journey back was not without its events, though...
The Megabus from Hull to East Midlands Parkway was fine and dandy, but then we were herded onto a train that claimed to be going to St Pancras, which in fairness it did do in the end, but it went the most ridiculous way about it.. At Leicester it started going back the other way and took an hour to get from Leicester to Kettering, eventually arriving in London an hour later than the train we should have been put on. Oh well, for a pound one can't really complain...
So that's it. We've been to Hull and back, and no doubt will be doing the same again next year. Just need a good name for that one, and no, we're not calling it Highway To Hull.
Full photo gallery here: http://ukhurri.fotopic.net/c1767041_1.html
