driver told us that our coach left 5 minutes ago! He had ticked off all the passengers on his list and gone before quite a lot of passengers had finished coming through immigration.
So we went back to the counter and got our $30 back. The lady advised us to catch a taxi to Hull Station and get the train into York. As we still had our big suitcase we would need another taxi in York. The taxi driver loaded our luggage and when we told him our plan he said he could take us all the way to our flat for 53 pounds. The convenience of that was too hard to resist, so we had a very pleasant ride, chatting about Anlaby St in Hull where Mum Colless and family lived and rugby league as he was wearing a Hull Kingston Rovers badge. He was a fan of Gareth Ellis who was to be returning from West Tigers soon, but he told us the club was ripped off by Willy Mason. No surprise there. Catherine told us that the postcode system locates destinations very well and our driver confirmed this by dropping us right at the door just using the code.
We were feeling very pleased with ourselves at arriving at the flat at a time that was earlier than we would have done if we got off at Tilbury, overnighted in London and caught the train to York. Catherine had posted us 3 keys to get into the flat and we had them ready. The red one opened the common entry doorand we walked up the stairs to number 7, put the blue key in the front door handle, turned the key and pushed the door. . . it did not move. We tried it umpteen times with no success. We noticed that there wasanother keyhole in the door, the older type that takes a long key with a hollow handle on the end but we did not have such a one.
Lyn stayed with the luggage on the landing while I went to the paper shop and received instructions as to where I would find a locksmith. Half an hour later I returned with a straightened blue key, which still did not open the door, and the phone number of a 24 hour lock service. As we were shaking the door vigourously a neighbour came out and advised us that the concierge in flat 1 would be able to help us. However, he did not answer his door so we did not know how long he might be before he returned home. So we went for a walk around the shopping streets for a couple of hours, leaving our luggage on the doorstep. When we returned, Martin the concierge answered his doorbell and apologised to us for locking the extra front door lock. He gave us the key, we opened the door, unlocked the airlock door with the third key and finally felt we had come home. We had already fallen in love with the city so we very quickly went exploring and got lost numerous times but the Minster always led us back to Goodramgate. We bought English fish and chips (very good) and wandered around till it got dark about 9.30pm. A roller coaster day that we will remember well.
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