Adapter issues

Sorry gang, I ran out of juice in my netbook only to discover that the adapter I bought in the States doesn't work with my netbook power supply. Thus, I haven't been able to update and I am now working off of a borrowed iPad.

Edinburgh was fantastic and I have lots of stories and pics. After Edinburgh, we headed up north to Stirling for the castle there and the Wallace monument. Then we wound up at the Castle Garry Hotel in Invergarry. Such a great place, I felt like I was in Downton Abbey! Today we drove out to Isle of Skye where we are staying in a nice B&B for two nights. Then back to the Highlands and sadly home after that. Not to worry I've left out plenty of stories that I'll get to when I can power up my netbook.

I'll update if and when I can, figure out what your clan is and let me know. I'll keep an eye out for your relatives!

Parlez vous Francais? Ummm, no.

I’m writing this after a great day of walking about Edinburgh and a pint of Belhaven, so there’s that. Please excuse any syntax errors; do call me out on the grammar though.

The flight in was interesting. Not interesting bad, just interesting. I flew Air France, which has to have the most beautiful flight attendants in the world. I mean wow, could they BE any hotter!? (Read that with Chandler Bing inflection.)

My long flight was first from IAD to Paris, Charles de Gaulle. When I arrived at Dulles (thanks Mom!), the line was easily several hundred people long. Yes, hundred. Apparently the same flight the day prior had been cancelled so there were plenty of angry people to be had. I stood in one line for about twenty minutes before being redirected to a much shorter line nearer the counter. Had I read the sign I would have seen that those with preprinted boarding passes could use the shorter line. Who doesn’t preprint their boarding passes these days?

The end of the first line I stood in. The counter is waaay off to the right of this picture. Lots of happy people

I stood in that line for another twenty minutes full of uncertainty. Is this the KLM or Air France line? Does it matter? It didn’t. An Indian lady behind me in line was quite rude and brushed past me in line to get to the counter. It wouldn’t be the end of rudeness that day. 

Finally I checked my bag (bonus for having a checked bag included in the price of the flight! Point Air France) and made my way through security which was very short. Shortest line through security ever.  I did get the body scanner though and apparently they couldn’t get enough of JG so the TSA dude got word through his earpiece and I got a torso pat down. A full body pat down and I would have expected him to buy me dinner. No clue what they saw on the scanner because I was wearing a button down short sleeved shirt and nothing else. Oh, I had pants on. I meant nothing else on top. Just to get that straight.

Finished with security I took the new Aero Train to the gate where I saw the A380 we were flying on. Man, that sucker is huge! Boarding was fairly smooth and I took my window seat in the back with the common folk. Lots of Frenchies on board and I thought I was in the clear, but the ubiquitous screaming baby quickly made her/his presence known. Did I mention the flight attendants? 

That's double height the whole length, almost 600 person capacity.

The A380 is a pretty cool plane. It has cameras in the nose, tail and belly that you can watch while you are flying. That and a big selection of movies are all in the seat back in front of you. I watched Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (see it), The 5 Year Engagement (skip it) and half of Haywire (probably see it). The food on the plane was quite good. I had the orzo pasta with curry and grilled chicken (cold), Provencale-style penne pasta (hot), cheese, entremets (?), strawberry lemon cake and white wine.  Breakfast was a blueberry muffin, yogurt and tea. The flight was 6.5 hours to CDG and we landed that big boy a little sideways, or at least it look like it through the camera!

Crash fire rescue at CDG. Thankfully not needed.

 de Gaulle airport is quite modern and sleek. There were quite a bit of fire extinguishers with one about every 50 feet in the hallway. Wonder what they are worried about? Before I got on the train to the terminal for my connecting flight I had to stop to confirm directions. While waiting patiently for the lady to finish her conversation with the lady in front of me, this older French guy barged right in and started asking questions. When she pointed out that she was already engaged in assisting someone else, he went to the next person in a huff. I witnessed it again with a separate person a few seconds later. 

CDG fire extinguishers in designed holders.

I soldiered on only to find out that I had to go through screening again. This time I didn’t have to take my shoes off, but after I went through, the agent asked me if I parlez voused francais. Thus the title of this post.

She pantomimed to me that I needed to take my camera (DSLR) out of my backpack to send it through separately. That or she wanted to see my trombone. Then it was my mini binoculars. That or she was calling me a crying sissy. I couldn’t tell for sure.

Suitably ensured that I wasn’t a hazard to the French I waited in the terminal for about forty five minutes. Spectacular people watching though. Then we boarded a bus that felt like we were driving to Orly, but managed to find our way to the high winged Avro jet on the tarmac. With me on the bus were six Indian doctors from Ohio on their way to a golf junket in Scotland. I winced when I saw the baggage handler sling their golf bags on the cart. I don’t think they saw it happen, otherwise they'd been pissed.

We left around 10:15 and the little six year old boy seated next to me passed out while we were taxiing and slept through takeoff. I mean passed out, neck crick inducing asleep. I wish I could do that.

We landed a little over an hour later in Edinburgh (pronounced Edinborough with a slight trill of the r) and breezed through immigration and customs. Coming down through the clouds I could see it was raining a bit but the countryside to the east was really lush. Just the vibrant green grasses I had imagined. I found my way to the Airlink double decker bus and paid my fare to ride in to the city.

The double decker buses are quite interesting. I’m not sure how we didn’t hit anyone or anything because the roads are rather small. That and the turns are tight. Apparently they are putting in a light rail from the airport to the city center, so we had to take a few detours. It’s also several billion pounds and over budget. Sounds familiar? (Ahem, Dulles rail, what?) 

The bus dropped me off at Waverly bridge where I made my way down a ramp in to the train station which sits in a valley between the hill of Princes Street on the north side and the Royal Mile on the south. After a bit of wandering around I found the luggage place we were supposed to meet and after only a few minutes D and K showed up.

Apparently their flight was a bit more eventful than mine. They flew from Reagan on United and because the plane was very small, both had to gate check their bags. They rarely ever check a bag, so when they got to Newark and they didn’t see D’s bag on the carousel, he was quite put out as all of his clothes were in the bag. They only had a little time to register a lost bag before hopping on the 757 to fly from Newark to Edinburgh. Once their they spent most of the time on the remaining batter of his cell phone (adapter in the lost bag) talking to United customer (or lack of) service, most likely in Bangalore. We waited for a few minutes while D called again and that’s when he first heard something out about Salt Lake City, as in his bag was in Salt Lake City.

We figure we should at least see about some additional clothes for D in case the bag was never to show up. What did we find? Yep, an outdoor store with Arcteryx on sale! While out shopping we picked up some bites to eat including a cheese melt at a street fair. Wow, was that good!

Street fair with Edinburgh Castle in the background.

It eased the pain, slightly, of lost baggage.

I want to say it was Mull Cheddar cheese melted with ham on a roll.

 After that we returned to get our bags at the train station while D got our Tattoo tickets. Then the three of us ascended the hill to the Royal Mile to our flat. We met Katie, the manager of the flat rental agency, who showed us around a nice two bedroom place on Chessel’s Court just off the Royal Mile. In Edinburgh, the Courts are little courtyards arranged around a greenspace usually that are accessed off little alleys or arched openings from the Royal Mile. A Close is also a feature of Edinburgh, which is an alleyway, usually stepped that run off the Royal Mile to the next street over. 

All three of us were a bit ragged, especially with D’s lost luggage, so we all crashed for a bit before getting ready for The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. 

Stay tuned!

I'm baaaack!

That's right, I'm back for a few more installments On Maneuvers. This time I'm live from Scotland. Stay tuned for developments, wi fi and power adapter access permitting!