The Other half and myself flew Newquay to Gatwick yesterday to take in the Grand Designs show at the Excel Arena. Flying works out about the same as driving financially, but saves 10hrs behind the wheel.
On leaving the Excel, a little hiccup on the DLR left us a bit tight for time. Tight became tighter and we missed the flight by 5 mins, that's the flight, not last checking in. Flybe are great and were very helpful, but the next flight was 4pm today. A night in a Gatwick hotel and the prospect of hanging around for most of the next day didn't fill me with joy. So, we wandered over to the Gatwick express exit and checked out getting a train home. The Eastern European girl behind the desk was delightful. She gave us our options and told us that for an extra £30pp we could take the Riviera Night Sleeper and have a bed. Superb!! I've been no fan of trains for many years, I considered them tired, dirty and over-priced. The whole experience was very enjoyable, the sleeper is a 1st Class service with all the trimmings, crisp bed linen, airline style soap bag with all the bits, porter service with hot brekky brought to you with a wake-up knock at the door. I'd travelled on a SNCF couchette years ago, which was a very basic service by comparison.
We pulled into Truro at 8.03am feeling as fresh a daises.
Give it a go sometime, you might be pleasantly surprised, we were.
makes for some new aquaintances when you least expect it
.. oh and a bit of 'parle francais' helps 
