My elegant half and I went to Great Britain in September 2019. What a great trip! Beautiful sights, delicious food, nice people, and exhaustion.
After an interminable flight, we landed in Edinburgh, Scotland around 7AM on the morning of the 10th of September. Too early as I found out. Lost as to where we needed to go, we hunted around until we found the right transportation…a train or tram or whatever the hell you call it. At any rate, it took us into downtown Edinburgh. We got off the train and promptly got lost.
Now when I say “promptly got lost”, I don’t mean we walked for 15 or 20 minutes and got turned around. Within 30 seconds of leaving the train, I was beginning to regret not springing for a cab. We had Google maps but evidently the city hit a multi-billion pound lottery and decided to tear up the entire center of town. It felt like you couldn’t move 20 feet without some obstruction saying you couldn’t go that way. And, cars were zooming by at warp 3 on the cow paths they call roads.
We’re dragging luggage, tired from the endless flight, hungry, thirsty, perplexed, and I was getting more than a little frustrated and aggravated. When I get frustrated, I get cranky. When I am hungry and tired I get snarky. If I get aggravated, well let’s just say everything gets turned up to eleven.
My elegant half sees the perfect storm happening and doesn’t tell me to calm down. She knows what happens then. She did the perfect thing; she walked up to a perfect stranger, a lady, and asked for directions. Turns out we were 5 minutes from the hotel. That perfect stranger should be nominated for sainthood or at least she should get a warm hug from someone. I would have done it, but they are funny about that sort of thing in GB.
We got to the hotel. Of course we were too early, but I was expecting that. Check-in is not until 3 PM and it’s only 10 AM. They offered to store our luggage and, “There’s breakfast on the second floor, if you’re hungry.” On the way to breakfast we picked up some sightseeing brochures with maps of how to get there.
The breakfast bar had cooked, dead, meat things (warmish), scrambled eggs that could have used a couple of extra minutes in the skillet, some black, hard, sausage-patty-looking thing (I’ll pass on that), cold orange juice, coffee, fruit, porridge, and other foods.
A full stomach and a lighter load improved morale. My elegant half wanted a tour of the city. So we asked the front desk how to do it. They were so helpful. They told us how to get to the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus place. It was a short 15-20 minute walk. Not a problem except we’re both tired. But, her excitement puts a spring in her step…my step was more like late autumn.
We finally get to the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus place, got 3-day tickets and managed to get on one of the buses. A double-decker! They give us some ear buds to listen to the tour guide. I said that I was not up to anymore walking and could we just take the ride? The elegant half took one look at me and knew I was very tired and said, “of course”!
I don’t remember any of the ride. I know I was awake for a while but eventually:
Not the most comfortable way to sleep. I got a crick in my neck (hurts) but I didn’t slobber on my shirt (that’s a plus).
The ride lasted however long it lasted. I don’t remember waking up until , at last, it was mercifully over.
We walked back to the hotel, got our room, and tried to settle in. The problem was, we could not figure out how to get the lights to come on. After a really long night on a plane and an equally long day on a bus, I was in no mood for a game of “How Do You Turn On The Damn Lights”. Evidently, they take electricity usage very seriously. You need to put the door key card into a slot on the wall to complete a circuit to turn on the lights. When you leave, you pull the card and the lights turn off. That’s all well and good but a country boy from Kentucky ain’t never run into nuthin’ like that.
We went to dinner at a little place across the street. We had something Great Britainish. I don’t remember what it was. But it could have been road kill opossum and I would have eaten it with gravy. Everyone at the restaurant was super nice and the food was wonderful. Hunger is the best sauce for any meal.
A long hot shower, a good night’s sleep, a hearty breakfast and we were ready to face another day.
Retired at Indian Lake 