Day 17 - Helmsley

Distance walked: 6km
Beer: 1/2 pint Wychwood Hobgoblin Ruby (You Can Drink It), 1/2 pint Wainwright's Amber Ale (You Can Drink It)

Today was not a relaxing day.  Instead it was a travel day which proved to be not relaxing at all.  I first got a taxi to Garsdale railway station, arriving in plenty of time for my train.  The taxis here double as school buses so my choices were arrive 1 hour early or 1 hour late.  After a long cold wait, the train got me to Leeds on time.  So far so good, but I had another 1 hour wait for the connecting train - which was late.  Also, while you could reserve a seat they didn't label each carriage so the only way to find Seat 1 in Coach G was to walk through each coach peering at the reservation labels.  I didn't bother, I just grabbed a free seat.  Other people did bother causing massive traffic jams in the doorways and aisles at each stop.  It didn't help that there were no luggage racks so the doorways were piled with suitcases.  When I arrived at Thirsk railway station, blessed be, my pre-booked taxi was waiting (and waiting (and waiting - I had to give him a big tip)).  After a long, chatty drive I finally got to my destination here in Helmsley.

This is where the fun really started.  My hotel (the Royal Oak) had no record of my booking.  So much for thinking Celtic Trails (who are handling this particular hike) are more organised than Contours (who managed the previous two).  Eventually the landlord discovered a booking from CT under the heading Scala but the name of the person was something completely different (a German name).  CT was also supposed to have mailed me my guide book, map and luggage tag to here.  Actually, this is my second set of all these.  The first set was set to me in Australia back at the beginning of August but never arrived.  The duplicate hadn't arrived here either.  Just in case I'd bought copies of my own in London but I rushed out to the local newsagent to buy luggage tags so I could clearly label my suitcase for the baggage service.  Of course, once I got back to the hotel my parcel had shown up.  I quickly ducked out to the local Oxfam shop (3 minutes before closing) and donated the copies I'd bought.  Now I just need to hope that my landlady at the next stop is expecting me and not Ulrike or somebody else or nobody at all.

I had dinner at my hotel.  Just standard pub grub - a steak & ale pie with chips and mushy peas.  The chips were from a packet but the pie was homemade and not bad.  Altogether Harmless.  The local pub dog, Marvin, desperately wanted to share my pie with me but I was heartless and refused.

Turns out I maligned Celtic Trails.  After dinner I was chatting with the cook.  She mentioned something about good thing I had a big dinner since I hadn't paid for breakfast.  When I said "no breakfast is included" she ended up pulling up the email CT sent to the pub.  There was clearly stated my name (not Ulrike's).  Whoever took down the details from the email really screwed it up.  The cook still wasn't sure about who should pay (me or CT) or whether breakfast was included, but I insisted and the landlord eventually said he'd call CT to sort it out.  I think the pub is new to hosting people on supported hikes.  They were friendly just not very well organised.