Well, we made it. I am writing this from the living room of our Edinburgh AirBnB. That’s Kathleen standing in front of it tonight and right now we are sitting in the living room, trying desperately to stay awake for one more hour.
We headed to the airport via Seattle Towncar who arrived at our place right on time. The traffic on 405 was horrible. Glad we left early. After an easy check in and a very long security experience (I made the mistake of wearing my knee brace under my jeans so I had to go into a tiny little room with two TSA guys, drop my pants and take off the brace. Fun!) we wound up in the British Airways Club World (business class) where we started the vacation the right way, with complimentary gin and tonics. We boarded the plane and had upper deck seats (kind of scary going up with a two carry-ons, my computer/camera bag and my a bad knee) and settled in. Nice food, nice drinks, a great scotch (a Glenlivet) and decent seats. We got about 6 hours of sleep between the two of us before we were awakened for breakfast an hour before landing at Heathrow.
Heathrow was a zoo as it always is. We forgot that even though we were going on to Edinburgh, we still had to show our passports and pass through security all over again. At least this time I had taken off my knee brace and didn’t have to drop my pants in front of two British airport people.
When we finally got on our flight to Edinburgh (had to move from C gates to A gates besides going through security) we were really upset because even though we still had Business class seats, we found that on short haul flights (Edinburgh was just a little over an hour) they just use a plane full of coach seats and block out the middle seat. So yes, you get a slightly nicer experience but NO EXTRA LEGROOM! All of a sudden my knee was facing a turn for the worst having to shove it into too small a space. Luckily for us, the flight was only about half full so the wonderful flight attendant said we could move up to the empty front row which let me stretch out my bad leg and it worked!
Made to Edinburgh about 20 minutes late due to having to “go around” on landing. I hate that. You never know what caused the “go around.” And getting that take off feeling when you are expecting that landing feeling is very disconcerting. Turned out it was just a tail wind that hit the plane just as they were to touch down and rather than take a shot at having a problem, we jetted out of there and came around again. Only a little scary.
Our driver showed up right on time, got us to our AirBnB right on time as well. Met the owners who were a very sweet couple. The AirBnB is cute, cozy and pretty much just perfect. You can see it on the AirBnB website by clicking here. The best part is the location. As we sit here trying to stay away, we are watching people walk by on the Royal Mile. Grabbed a quick dinner literally across the street—great local beer, steak and ale pie, homemade soup and Mac & Cheese…with pulled pork.
And that does it for today. Stay tuned for tomorrow. I captioned the pics and don’t forget to comment. TIME FOR BED!
Tired minds don’t plan well. Sleep first, plan later. —Walter Reisch
Night Jim and Kathleen. The dinner looked delicious!
Glad you made it OK Mr. Flashpants! Hope your knee calms down and you have an awesome fun time!
I remember going to Edinburgh many long years ago with Mel–his mother was born in Glasgow-and never have I met a more friendly people . In Glasgow the cab driver even took us to his home to show us a typical family dwelling.
Helen, so glad you traveling with us on this tour. We love Scotland. Kathleen is half Scottish. Her mother was a Mcrae.