Displaced

This has now become a retrospective report on the travels: we lost most internet accessibility in Edinburgh with the move to a B&B and lost all online access in Barcelona and France. So here it is: the closing round of the trip, catalogued in retrospect, with all that hidsight has to offer.

First, Edinburgh the Beautiful. Contrary to expectations, the weather was great. Until Monday. But we’ll get to that. Saturday was the beginning of How Many Shows Can You See in a Day? and the Search for the Box. These two activities rolled out in parallel, the former a happy challenge the latter a fierce one.

The answer to HMSCYSIAD is “infinity” provided the variable for energy and ability to get from one end of a steep city to the other is also “infinity”. Our answer ended up being more like “2”, except on Monday when it was “3” when we also saw the Tattoo which hardly counts because I got tickets weeks ahead and we might not have gone if I hadn’t because I was soaking wet (rain on Monday – see forecast below) and my legs were shaking because of the SFTB and over-exertion. The bagpipers of the Tattoo have no sympathy for crybabies though, so the show went on.

More to come…

After the botched birthday night, we discovered a new “feature” of our Horrible Hotel: 10 AM checkout, no exceptions. Our plane left at 3 PM. Sweet. Wisely, we forewent any other thoughts of London success (for this trip anyway) and just went for a long coffee and chat. Amazingly, Gatwick’s Easyjet people have also managed to construct an inter-connected series of tunnels very similar to Glasgow’s but with only half the real estate. Gatwick’s superior security made me re-think my assessment that Easyjet is just out to get me. Perhaps they’re ramping up some massively complex psychological scheme to foil terrorists. For example, if you had bombs in your shoes, walking eleven miles on flammable carpeting would likely ignite the explosives. You know, from the friction. You’d never make it with a bomb either – carrying all that weight all that distance would take the spunk right out of you.

Edinburgh was a sunny, cool relief. (London had seemed like a glamorous good idea, but we have re-assessed and decided that the fewer the destinations, the better the vacation.) Our bed and breakfast is a bit out of the way but it’s manned by a very practical and non-intrusive hostess, a prime selling point. We schlepped off to the city center immediately to catch the beginnings of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and some dinner. I’d ordered the catalog but, with 1500 un-reviewed listings, I had no idea what tickets to pre-order, so we’re winging it, which is working out well.

After a long hunt, we tracked down a great restaurant and had our best dinner yet (also a great wine – Whistling Duck Shiraz and Cabernet) and staggered back up the hill to forge through the hordes of people in the streets at 11 PM following the opening night of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. About 6 weeks ago, we snagged the last 2 tickets to Monday’s performance, so we stopped for a few minutes to gloat. All in all, a nice return to Scotland.