Monday, Week 2 – Walk to Rail Station

I got up this morning at 6am so that I could catch a train at the Oxford railway station at 8:30. It seemed like a lot of time to prepare, but I didn’t really know how long it would take to get there and get set to board the train.

Packing went quickly and smoothly and I left my room to catch a bus to the station. Oh, oh! Monday is a “bank holiday” and the buses don’t start until 9:45am. I was going to have to hoof it. Fortunately, Oxford isn’t that big and Google Maps said it should take 20 minutes. Walking across town before all the tourists were up was actually rather pleasant. The biggest downside was that none of the coffee shops were open yet.

I made it to the railway station by 7:30. I’d pre-purchased my tickets (thanks Melody) and needed to get them from a kiosk. It was a little confusing, but I eventually figured it out. A key thing to remember is that it will ask for the credit card that you bought the tickets with. I’m glad they were purchased on the one I was carrying otherwise it might not have gone so well.

Even at the railway station the coffee shops didn’t open until 8am. I got a medium coffee and a croissant for £2.99 then proceeded to the platform. The trick with finding the right train is to use the scheduled departure time as the key, then verify that the destination is on the list shown on the board when you’re within about 15 minutes of the scheduled departure time.

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