Personal Site & Travel Blog
After a night in the Megabus Gold sleeper, we arrived — only slightly late — in Glasgow.
We dropped off our bags at easyHotel and went for breakfast at one of the few decent places open before 8 am: Where the Monkey Sleeps. The Ladykiller bagel should be able to keep me going until lunch…
In spite of the thorough border check of French customs, Megabus once again managed to get us to our London destination twenty minutes early. Plenty of time for a pit stop at CASK Pub & Kitchen for a burger and some beers! And for a visit to the crapper… Not trying to be rude here, but the company name in cast iron makes it very obvious where this colloquial name actually comes from.
After all this preparation and anticipation, I’m finally on my way to Glasgow again! This time I’m travelling with my girlfriend, which will make the trip even more enjoyable.
Our Megabus arrived quite on time, is not too full, the power plug is working—unlike the USB plug—and it’s only a little bit too warm. I’ve had worse. 😉
Well, it seems my trip with the Caledonian Sleeper will not be happening in the foreseeable future…
I’ve been warned that foreign cards wouldn’t work to order the berths I wanted, so I tried to get a British debet card. But apparently the Scottish bank in Brussels is not really for normal accounts, and banks in Scotland require you to actually live there to open an account. So this morning, when the Bargain Berths for the dates I’d like to book became available, I tried to book them with my Belgian credit cards anyway — I had some luck with them before — but:
Fine, just use a Fastticket machine then, you’d say? Well, unfortunately Bargain Berths are only sold as Print@Home tickets! Strangely enough, in their explanation about those Print@Home tickets they mention ‘overseas customers’. As long as those ‘overseas customers’ have British credit card then, I guess…
So, unless ScotRail introduces a payment system fit for customers worldwide, no Caledonian Sleeper for me. 🙁
Hopefully Serco — who will be taking over the service in 2015 — will have some berths or ’Pod Flatbeds‘ available for an interesting price AND better payment options!
But until that time: Megabus Gold, prepare a bunk bed for me! 🙂
For my trip to Glasgow in September — yes, I want to be there for the referendum — I’m seriously considering travelling using the Caledonian Sleeper train from London. I’m quite happy with the MegaBus Gold sleeper service, but the train seems to be just a bit more comfortable and roomier. And when GlasgowFoodie wrote an article about the sleeper, I became even more interested to try this sleeper train at least once.
Unfortunately the full price tickets are quite expensive — easily over a £100 — and the cheaper Bargain Berths are only available on the ScotRail site, which doesn’t accept foreign credit cards for some reason…
Well, I still have some time to find a solution, since bookings for my preferred travel dates haven’t opened yet. Any suggestions?
