Scotland to London 2005

Not to get too deja vu, but flashback to about 14 months ago to my very first LiveJournal entry and you’ll see a similar itinerary! No performances or competitions to worry about this time, no choir outfits to lug around, and the only music coming with Ben and me is on our iPods or in our heads to burst into spontaneous song (hey – it happens!). However, it also means we’re free to do & see what we want, including what we didn’t see last year – the beautiful Scottish Highlands, the Lake District, and more than just 20 hours in London this time.

Why? Weren’t you just there? Why not go somewhere else?

Well, we’re still in SFO at gate A8 on the cute little 12″ PowerBook via T-Mobile Wireless, since our plane has JUST arrived when it was supposed to land before 2pm…ah well. According to Virgin’s website, our estimated departure is 17:45 vs. 16:30, with estimated arrival around 11:25 vs. 10:30. Our flight to Edinburgh isn’t until 14:15, so we still have several hours of buffer time to get out checked luggage, go through customs, etc. We did DIY checkin for Virgin from my place before we left, so instead of waiting in the line that snaked around the entire lobby, we only had about 3 people in front of us. I had to laugh that Ben is checking TWO bags, where I’m only checking one! haha…

Next stop – Heathrow!

Woohoo! As we’re sitting here STILL waiting, we looked up TMobile hotspot locations just in case there are any close to where we’ll be…voila! Our London hotel is its own hotspot, and even Fort William has a McDonalds that is, plus Heathrow & even every Starbucks & McDonalds in Edinburgh, so we’ll probably be set for internet that won’t be bogged down by dialup speeds. We figured this was worth it enough that Ben just changed his plan to $40 for a month of unlimited access…wheee!

Now if we could just get on the plane to get over there…*sigh*… but this means we can check in again while we’re waiting to get on the BMI flight to Edinburgh, so it won’t be too long until we can update again… 😉

The flight to Heathrow was okay, albeit disappointing that Virgin has changed their entertainment system! No longer on-demand which is what was so great before, but now only scheduled programming, and of course the two shows I wanted to see were scheduled at the same time on different channels, and I had to watch 1.5 hrs of other stuff I didn’t want to see to catch the one 30 minute show I wanted…where was TiVo when you need it? 😉 I did see Peep Show, billed as a cross between The Young Ones and The Office, which was quite clever and funny, so watch for it if it makes it to BBC America. Maybe on the way back I can catch the other one (“Spaced” I think?) by the director of Shaun of the Dead…

Frustrating note is that Ben’s two checked bags totaled over the weight limit for BMI so they charged him £50 extra…argh! At least we’ll be there soon, and we won’t be flying BMI any more after this one…so much for the £4 fare we found, at least for him. My bag was okay, thank goodness!

More later!

Finally we’re here! A ghost tour & more to come…

the Royal Mile, Holyrood House, Edinburgh Castle, fireworks…

driving on the WRONG side, Blair’s Castle, Glen Torridon…

Climb a mountain? Two peaks over 3000ft? Sure, why not!…

Torridon, Inverness, Loch Ness & Kinlochleven…

We came, we saw, we climbed…and climbed…and climbed…

Fort William, Glenfinnan Viaduct, Glencoe…

Signal Rock, Glasgow, odd phonecall, Welcome to England, Uld Ale…

9/11, sheep, Lakeland views, Uldale…

Long live wireless! 😉

Since it’s been so long since we had internet access, now that we made it to London with wifi in our hotel (hooray!) I am backdating my posts that I wrote “live” as they were happening each day or so, so please read these in order for best effect.

Sept 5th, 2005
To Torridon…
driving on the WRONG side, Blair’s Castle, Glen Torridon…

Sept 6th, 2005
Torridon – The Revenge of Beinn Alligin!
Climb a mountain? Two peaks over 3000ft? Sure, why not!…

Sept 7th, 2005
From Torridon to Kinlochleven via Inverness
Torridon, Inverness, Loch Ness & Kinlochleven…

Sept 8th, 2005
Ben Nevis: The Really Big Ben
We came, we saw, we climbed…and climbed…and climbed…

Sept 9th, 2005
Harry Potter Day
Fort William, Glenfinnan Viaduct, Glencoe…

Sept 10th, 2005
Goodbye Scotland, Hello England
Signal Rock, Glasgow, odd phonecall, Welcome to England, Uld Ale…

Sept 11th, 2005
The Lake District, aka Lakeland, aka Cumbria
9/11, sheep, Lakeland views, Uldale…

To get another perspective on our trip, you can also read Ben’s blog…which has also now been copiously updated…he got to update first tonight since he’s the one who brought the laptop… 😉

As for today…

parks, Harrods, London Eye, Big Ben, Guys & Dolls…

iPod nano, London Passes, Changing of the Guard, British Museum, Victoria Embankment, more Big Ben, etc…

drizzle, Hampton Court, Tower of London, tube delays, Woman in White, Addlestones again…

sunny but windy, St Paul’s Attempt #1, Westminster Abbey, Nelson Flotilla, Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, the Rosetta Stone, Kensington Palace, search for dinner…

Portobello Road Market, St Paul’s, Britain at War, HMS Belfast, Thames Festival, final Windsor Castle with locals…

After a long but reasonably on-time flight, thankfully neither of us overweight on luggage, we made it back to SFO and through customs with no worries. Kylie the Kitty really loved all the attention from Ben & John (John graciously picked us up) as my pix were downloaded from the laptop to my computer. Unfortunately I was queasier than usual the entire flight, so I only picked at the first meal, then didn’t even touch the next two snacks, and my stomach still hasn’t recovered yet. That made me really not want to unpack or do laundry, or even tackling upgrading to iPhoto5 so I can actually see my pix. I’m sure after a good night’s sleep in my own bed with my kitty I’ll be fine, so that’s the plan now.

All in all, a fabulous trip! Hope you enjoyed reading about it! Back to mundane reality now…darn! 😉

It took a whole week with working, rehearsals, two Choral Project concerts and trying to clean up for my parents to stop by, but I finally sorted through my ~1400 photos (how did I take that many?!?), uploaded them to Gallery and even captioned them all – hooray!

Enjoy at your own risk! 😉 It’ll take awhile to see them all, so the slideshow mode is your friend, but I have organized them into smaller & easier to digest albums, since I’m sure some people just want to peek at the two main hikes for Beinn Alligin in Torridon and the big Ben Nevis, so those are each their own albums.

hasn’t yet posted any of his, but this is the album that will house both our photos whenever he gets around to his…

http://gallery.britta.com/uk2005

I’ve also tagged all my posts into a UK2005 for anyone who missed reading while we were away.

With that, I bid you all good night!