huddersfield surprise
In amongst travelling back and forth to Kazakhstan I did have the opportunity to visit a far more exotic location. Huddersfield! From London there is no best way to get there. Too short a distance to fly and incredibly expensive on rail as well as a multitude of changes so I decided to drive. The journey was slow due to endless sections of the motorway that were undergoing improvement but with no signs of it actually taking place. It was therefore 2230 when I arrived at the Premier Inn Huddersfield and entered what the website warned was a limited carpark. There was one space that was pretty much the same size as my Range Rover Sport so I drove into it and climbed out of the tailgate hoping that the car next to me would have left earlier than me. It must have been quite a sight to see me climbing over the back seats and out of the back with as much decorum as an overweight 62 year old can manage. I quickly checked in and in true merchant navy tradition headed straight into the bar and ordered two pints of beer before closing time. Obviously drinking two pints of any liquid just before bed is not the best idea but what the hell. Back in my room I realised that I had not eaten all day but no problem all Premiere Inn hotels have kettles and I had packets of Heinz tomato soup and Itsu noodles in my bag. Have you ever tried eating slippery rice noodles with a spoon? Anyway I managed with the only collateral damage being one pillow case slightly spattered with 'hand crafted broth' whatever that means
Ok I think I need to pause before continuing to describe Huddersfield and explore the noodle issue a little deeper.
Ok I think I need to pause before continuing to describe Huddersfield and explore the noodle issue a little deeper.
The above is on of my list of essentials for travel, especially to uncivilised parts of the world but also for general travel when you arrive late and you cannot be bothered to wait for room service if indeed it exists. No I am not receiving advertising for the above but they really are a class above the usual Bombay Bad Boy style of pot noodle. I am actually surprised that I like them because they project everything that I am not. Gluten free, I don't care, 207 calories I guess is pretty reasonable, and suitable for vegetarians (or is it vegans), I don't care because I am a committed carnivore. So back to the point 'with hand crafted broth' seems to suggest that a person (with hands) makes this broth i.e. it is not produced in a machine that mixes exactly the same quantity of ingredients each time and drops them into a huge vat for consistency. Now I imagine lines of asian ladies dressed in immaculate white, each with a little saucepan in front of them, a pile of ingredients and then some cunning method to turn this hand crafted broth into a paste and squeeze it into a sachet. Hmmm I don't think so! Anyway dam fine noodles and with a packet of Heinz tomato soup for a starter you have a travellers emergency rations that there is no problem bringing through customs. I think even Australia would allow dried noodles and a sachet of hand crafted broth into the country.
I don't normally provide sensible travel advice so the above is an aberration.
I don't as a rule like the low end chain hotels such as Travelodge, Hilton Express etc and I have found that the standards differ greatly from one to the next. Of late I have had good experiences with Premier Inn and that is exactly where I stayed in Huddersfield. Firstly and I know you will hate me for my ignorance, I thought of Huddersfield as being a grimy, smokey city full of chimney stacks and desolate, empty factories with perhaps a few ex employees still wearing coveralls sitting and talking about the good old days. What a pleasant surprise and after the tortuous drive and having to exit my car via the tailgate, the lady in reception was all smiles and very welcoming. What a good start. The rooms are in what look like a series of factory buildings that have been nicely converted and when I woke up in the morning the view of the canal was really great. I do love a full English Breakfast and in this type of hotel it usually means a badly stocked series of heated stainless steel pots with limp bacon and congealed eggs or even worse scrambled eggs that have turned to soup. No not in this budget hotel as a waiter took my order and a good plate of breakfast and a cup of steaming coffee was on my table in about ten minutes. Excellent stuff Premier Inn.
The drive home was further torture and made worse by a slow puncture in one of my tires but my memory of Huddersfield is a good one.
I don't normally provide sensible travel advice so the above is an aberration.
I don't as a rule like the low end chain hotels such as Travelodge, Hilton Express etc and I have found that the standards differ greatly from one to the next. Of late I have had good experiences with Premier Inn and that is exactly where I stayed in Huddersfield. Firstly and I know you will hate me for my ignorance, I thought of Huddersfield as being a grimy, smokey city full of chimney stacks and desolate, empty factories with perhaps a few ex employees still wearing coveralls sitting and talking about the good old days. What a pleasant surprise and after the tortuous drive and having to exit my car via the tailgate, the lady in reception was all smiles and very welcoming. What a good start. The rooms are in what look like a series of factory buildings that have been nicely converted and when I woke up in the morning the view of the canal was really great. I do love a full English Breakfast and in this type of hotel it usually means a badly stocked series of heated stainless steel pots with limp bacon and congealed eggs or even worse scrambled eggs that have turned to soup. No not in this budget hotel as a waiter took my order and a good plate of breakfast and a cup of steaming coffee was on my table in about ten minutes. Excellent stuff Premier Inn.
The drive home was further torture and made worse by a slow puncture in one of my tires but my memory of Huddersfield is a good one.
