This was a short 3 day week to end our trip.
Having gotten in to Edinburgh so late last night this morning was a bit of a sleep in. After getting ready we departed our hotel,
The Salisbury Boutique Hotel, and walked down the street to the main road, the A701, where we knew we could catch any number of buses that would take us down to the Royal Mile where we knew we would find a Cafe Nero.
Unfortunately, what we didn't know was that this main road was undergoing major construction this side of the Royal Mile and our chosen bus number 31 was diverted more than several blocks out of the way meaning we had to find another place for coffee. We eventually found another Cafe Nero but still numerous long blocks from where we had hoped to be near Princes Street and Waverly Station. So we walked and walked eventually going to George Street, parallel to Princes Street, with many upscale stores to look into. We went into
Seasalt Cornwall where we each came out with several pairs of new socks and Kris picked up a couple of nice silk and wool scarves. Continuing along George Street we got our first view of what many in Edinburgh call "The Dog Turd", the billion pound shopping centre development of
St James Quarter...
We decided to go into Nando's for lunch but had to find it first. What is easliy found on Google Maps sometimes is not so easily found in reality. We ran into more construction which meant we had to walk several more long blocks just to get across the darn street. But it was only raining a little bit and Nando's was seeming to being more and more elusive. So forget that! We headed toward's the relatively nearby
Kathy's Knits, one of the wool stores Kris wanted to visit.
On the way to Kathy's we decided to try
The Conan Doyle pub for some lunch. Not so... they don't open until 4:00PM week days. Continuing towards Kathy's we came across the "fed! Sandwich Bar" and gave that a try. Excellent choice for a quick toasted sandwich lunch. After lunch, Kris went into Kathy's looking for specific Jamieson's wool but alas, she doesn't carry it :-(
Next stop, after another rather arduous trip around construction zone after construction zone we arrived at the wee
Ginger Twist Studio, a second wool store Kris wanted to visit. This store is so small the two of us together with the shopkeeper barely fit in it. Unfortunately she only had 6 balls, of wool, of the 7 Kris was looking for in a specific colour. Well, at least she got to see the actual colour and now knows what to order when we get home. Those major errands done, we hoped a bus back up to Princes Street and went into Marks and Spencer for a mid afternoon refreshment and cake. Then it was back to the hotel for a bit of a rest as Brian had made dinner reservations for
The Old Bell, a pub we had frequented on previous visits to Edinburgh.
However, while at the hotel, Brian discovered that he had made the reservations for Thursday night. Hmmm... well we decided to keep those and just walk the couple of blocks to
The Abbey, another pub we had been to previously. Good choice of Chicken Curry for Kris and lasagna for Brian. Wine and Guiness were good after that long day of walking.
Thursday morning Brian received an email indicating possible major disruptions on our rail plans for our trip to London early Friday morning. NOW WHAT??? So, we headed down towards the Waverley train station to find out what the issue was. This time we took the 31 bus again but got off before the diversion, stopped at Cafe Nero for lattes, a croissant and a pain au chocolat. Then we continued walking, stopping in Blackwell books for a bit, but they had recently had a flood and part of it was closed so we weren't there very long. At Waverley station we went to the train information kiosk where the fellow reassured us that our train would be fine and would depart as scheduled at 7:22AM Friday morning.
We then walked up to the St James Quarter shopping centre to browse. On the way, we got another view of "The Dog Turd"...
We soon realized that the Nando's we had been looking for yesterday was actually in another new multi-restaurant theatre buiding just across the street so after looking around in the mall for a bit we headed over there. Nice peri-peri chicken pitas with side salads for lunch. After lunch we checked out the theatres to see if there was any movies of interest for us. Not! We wandered back to the shopping mall and out the other side onto George Street again. It was windy out but no rain so all in all a nice day for walking around. Eventually we arrived at the 5-star
Balmoral Hotel and decided to go into it's bar lounge for a refreshing lime & soda. The atmosphere was decidely dull, somewhat stuffed shirtish and a tad snobbish. We left and went up the street to
The Guildford Arms, an old Scottish pub that has maintained it's elegance and charm. A wonderful old pub, with a ton of atmosphere, to sit and enjoy a pint and/or a gin & tonic.
Back to the hotel for a rest then walk over to the Old Bell for our 6:30 dinner reservation. Pretty busy place so good thing we had the booking. We had good dinners of fish and chips for Brian, tomato soup with liver pate on toast for Kris, along with some wine and Guiness as we were preparing to say goodbye to Scotland. We had a 6:00AM taxi reservation for a ride to the Edinburgh Waverley train station so called it a bit of an early evening, returning to our hotel and finishing our packing.
Our taxi arrived on scheduled and quickly delivered us to the train station where we unloaded then found the Cafe Nero for a couple of lattes, a croissant and a pain au chocolate for our breakfast. Then we walked, escalatored and elevatored our way to platform 9 from where our train to London would soon depart. While waiting on the platform, Brian struck up a conversation with a couple of fellow travellers who turned out to be from Qualicum. Small world! The train arrived and we found our seats; car D, seats 26,27. We got underway and soon the conductor arrived, checked our tickets and assured us we were in the right car and seats. We soon found out just how flat the English countryside is with some rolling hills and lots of sheep...
... and it was a pretty nice day except when the rains started, although they didn't last all that long...
It was about a 6.5 hour trip as we traversed different parts of the country...
Interesting situation occurred along the way. The car numbers are all digitally displayed inside and outside the car. So, as already mentioned, we were in car "D". At the next stop, a guy gets on and tells Brian that he, Brian, is sitting in his seat. No. BUT... yes the guy says, this is now car "K". We look up and sure enough the digital display shows that this is car K. WTF... but a second later it flashes back to being car "D", so situation resolved and the guy buggers off. A couple of stops later the same thing happens. This time several people get on and claim others are in their seats. A lot of swearing (as in F*CK-OFF, etc) and it appears fisticuffs are not that far off before someone yells that the conductor said to "just find an empty seat". Kris remarked "The veneer of civilization is indeed very thin."
We eventually get to London King's Cross station, find our way to the Underground station for the Picadilly Line and off to Heathrow. A bit of a monkey f*ck finding how to get from Terminal 2 to Terminal 4 where our hotel is but eventually find that there is a free terminal to terminal train. When we do finally get to our hotel attached to terminal 4, they cannot find our reservation. WTF??? That too, eventually gets sorted and we get checked in. By this time it is about 6:00 PM. We decide to pass on the hotel restaurant and jump on the inter-terminal free train over to terminal 2 where we found a pub like restaurant and both had a bangers and mash dinner along with a much needed DRINK! Our waitress was a pleasant young lady from India whose mother had sent her to England to go to university. She had just arrived 8 months ago and was still getting used to life in London. Exciting times for her.
Saturday was a bonus, free day in London and it was a nice blue sky sunny day. After a good breakfast at the hotel we took the inter-terminal train to Terminal 2 then caught the Picadilly Line into the city. We had to transfer once to get over to the London Bridge underground station, just up the street from the Borough Market. Recall, that earlier in the trip, while in London, we had tried to visit the Borough Market but everything there was closed due to that day being a bank holiday. Today it was a bustling hive of activity.
Many popular food stalls along with numerous ones selling arts and craft items. We saw a booth selling hand painted ceramic plates that we really liked so we ordered up a couple of them and had the guy ship them home for us. It was a bit crowded so didn't get a pic of the ones we bought but his
Richard Bramble web site had these pictures...
After browsing the market for a bit we headed back to the London Bridge underground station and caught the Jubilee line over to Bond Street where we are now sure that the 1% of the 1% must do their shopping. Kris was specifically interested in one store,
Fenwick, where she wanted to visit the cosmetic counters. While she looked there Brian wandered around window browsing for a while. After making her purchases Kris wandered around the store a bit and happened upon the "Hat Department". Not just any hats. These are the expensive hats that ladies buy to go to the Ascot Races and other places of that ilk. Kris was very happy to see these. So much so that she had to haul Brian back into the store to see them as well :-) On the way out of the store we chatted with a gentleman staff member who, we found out, has friends in Comox whom he had visited a number of years ago and he got quite excited telling us about his trip up the island where he had seen bears. Leaving the store we stopped in at the
Duke of York pub, just up the street, for a nice refreshing lime and soda. While there we chatted whith a group of Americans sporting Green Bay Packer paraphanelia. They were in London to see the NFL game between the Packers and New York Giants tomorrow.
Still having some time to kill we jumped back on the Jubilee line back towards Borough Market but got off at the Westminster stop where we did the tourist thing of taking pics of the parliament buildings, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the London Eye...
There was a massive group gathering in the Parliament Square Garden protesting in support of Iranian women. London police were starting to set up roadblocks etc so we decided it was time to head back to the Borough Market and get some dinner. For our last dinner in the UK, for this trip, we chose
The Old Thameside Inn where we were able to snare a riverside table on their outdoor patio. A great place to sit and enjoy the food, fish pie and Toad in the Hole, and the view of some of London's modern architecture...
After we headed back to our hotel at the airport, a seemingly forever hour plus journey; arranged a taxi for the morning; finished packing and called it a night.
We were up and out of the room by 6:00AM Sunday morning, early enough to have some breakfast before the taxi arrived then we were off to Terminal 2. We wanted to arrive several hours ahead of our scheduled flight but actually got there 4 hours early. Probably a good thing as we sailed through check-in and security, grabbed a couple of our final Cafe Nero lattes then planted ourselves in the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge as we had business class tickets.
Our flight to Vancouver could not have gone smoother. Excellent food, including, for our last "snack" before landing in Vancouver, a scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam. A near perfect ending for a trip to the UK. We also both got a pretty decent sleep during the flight as well. At Vancouver International we elected to just stay at the airport behind security even though we had a nine hour wait. Once we got passed customs, we found the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge, went in and explained that we were on the London - Vancouver flight in business class but our connecting flight to Comox only had economy. Good enough to get us into the lounge. Much more comfortable than sitting at the gate for that long.
Finally it came time to check-in so off to gate D38. After a short delay we were off on the 20 minute flight to Comox. Our neighbour, James, was waiting for us. A welcome sight. Pickup luggage and soon back home.
End of this trip.
