I just returned from a business trip to the UK. The town I went to is a rather small one, some 700km from my office. By car, it would have taken me about 7 hours to get there according to map24.de. By plane, it took me – well – about 6 hours to get me there. Don’t get me wrong – the flying time itself was only about an hour, but I went to the airport by train, and the town itself had no airport of their own so that there was an additional taxi ride. On both flights, the plane had about one hour delay. This was especially annoying since on the flight back I had to go to the airport very early in order to avoid traffic jam. I was – as to quote a famous resident of Great Britain – “not amused” to see the message “delayed” on the screen…
“Annoying” is a very good cue. It was my 3rd time in that town, and I always stay in the same hotel. There’s not that much choice of hotel anyways (it’s a really small town), so it has a mixture of both leisure and business travelers. Not only is the food pretty expensive (even for hotel standards and even for Great Britain which is by itself rather expensive), but what is much more annoying is the lack of any decent internet infrastructure. They have WiFi – but only in the lobby and at a rate of 3.95 GBP (~6 EUR) per 30 minutes! No WiFi in the rooms, and not even a free telephone jack! The telephone cord is hardwired to the phone, and last time it was even hardired to the wall outlet. This time there was a connection jack to the wall outlet, but with a plug I have never seen before, and for which the reception could not provide an adaptor! For business travelers, this is an absolute no-go, especially at the premium rates they charge. But obviously the lack of competition in rural areas creates this kind of customer-unfriendliness…
Speaking of competition, the good news is that on my second day I finally found another place to eat. The pub was well hidden at about 10 minutes walking distance from the hotel. It was conveniently located next to a Tesco’s and goes by the nice name “Queen of Hearts”. The food was decent, the beer was great – both at about half the price as in the hotel. All they’d need now would be WiFi… (just kidding).
Test question for readers: I put in enough clues so you have a chance to figure out the town I visited. Up for the challenge? (Family and co-workers may not participate 🙂 )