Odyssey 2010

[elenopa]

I am completely crashed and feeling like a zombie right now. I expect to keel over at any minute. It is possibly not a good idea to go to a convention straight after a week at PGL with the school, and one of the wettest Good Friday walks I have ever known. But I had fun, so I'm

Comments

[imc]

I wanted to go to the Clanger symposium but I was busy with robots. (Also rather sad that I missed Mitch Benn, but such is life.) smallclanger thoroughly enjoyed himself I think.

It wasn't just me then who missed the M4 junction. I had three tries, got it right on the third one thanks to Google Maps which proved invaluable. On the first one I drove past Windsor Castle and almost got to Legoland before I got on the motorway.

The road you're looking for is just after you pass the Three Magpies (pub seemingly in the middle of nowhere) but you can't get on it because you are on a bridge flying over it. You'll see an aeroplane on sticks on the left. The next thing you come to is a sign saying "M4 M25 / Slough / Staines" and a big arrow pointing straight on. Instead, turn left (Newport Rd) and immediately left again. You are now on the West Ramp which takes you back past the aeroplane on sticks, under the bridge and on to the M4 north.

[elenopa]

Thanks. I am going to save that route.

During one escape attempt, I saw a sign to Iver and seriously considered turning, because I lived there until I was six, and would be able to negotiate my way through Uxbridge from there.

[bopeepsheep]

My default, if in doubt, is to turn left down the Bath Road and head for the A312 at Cranford, because I can navigate back to the M4 from there in my sleep, having had grandparent(s) living close by until 2005*. This is also the reason I can sleep happily through all the plane noise. :D

*In 2007 narenek was sent to a big data centre 'at Heathrow' for a week's work. I was very amused - and a little sad - to discover it was built on the field we used to play in, at the end of my grandparents' road.

[elenopa]

Is that *the* Cranford?

[bopeepsheep]

No, that Cranford's based on somewhere in Cheshire. Cranford, Hounslow, is home to Cranford Park and the River Crane (hence the name).

[the_magician]

Yes, I live locally, and what I would do is come out of the hotel car park and head East (towards London) on the A4 for about a mile or so until you get to the A312 big roundabout (just past the Travelodge). Turn left, head north, take the M4 exit. Very very simple (pretty much my route home, except I turn right onto the A312 and head down to Feltham/Bedfont)

There is the route as mentioned above with the sign from the hotel car park ... and as has also been mentioned above, coming out of the rear entrance of the hotel carpark, to take the A4 West, you turn right out of the carpark and come out not at the McDonalds but one road further west, at traffic lights where you can turn right onto the A4 West.