Hello this Wednesday morning from Edinburgh, Scotland. Bright sun outside, as well as loud tram construction noise (think that woke me up this morning at 0830- no need for an alarm clock). I'm meeting the Coughlins in a few minutes for the trek up to Edinburgh Castle. We're at separate hotels near the Edinburgh Playhouse, not far from Edinburgh Waverly train station.
MONDAY
Made our way to SFO via BART for our 1045 Chicago flight. This was a snack flight with offerings of a cheese enchilada, one of my favorite AA meals, or a salad with BBQ chicken strips. No wi-fi on this 737-800. I had the Samsung tablet along and watched some video on it.
On arrival in Chicago we made our way to the Flagship Lounge (first class international lounge) to wait for our 2145 departure to London. We had about 4 hours there, a consequence of some of us traveling on award tickets and working with flights that had availability. Plenty there to snack on though the bacon-wrapped scallops were my favorite. I only had a Sam Adams ad a Diet Coke though there was a full bar available.
Tom in AA 777 first class
Headed to our flight right outside the front door at 9. Meal selections in first class were Shitake Crusted Beef Fillet, Salmon and Halibut Bundle, or Baked Goat Cheese. I had the beef which was very tasty, accompanied by wilted spinach, balsamic grilled tomatoes and whipped potatoes (choice of salad or vegetables). This came with Chicken Consomme, marinated cheese antipasto and smoked salmon and herb marinated shrimp appetizer. My wine choice was Casa Silva Sauvignon Gris from Chile.
Shitake Crusted Beef Fillet:
On-demand movie system was having issues. The movies I wanted to watch were not available, so just watched an hours worth of TV instead (episode of Blue Bloods). Was sound asleep on my flat bed seat after dinner.
Flight time was just over 7 hours. About 2 hours before landing up for breakfast.
TUESDAY
Zipped through Fast Track passport control at London Heathrow and made our way over to the Heathrow Express train and activated our 4 day railpasses. We are traveling as a group so these are discounted to $175 each and are cheaper than buying individual $249 passes. It gives us the flexibility to take any train. I was worried if we bought prepaid tickets, and missed a booked train, that discounted individual tickets could not be used on other trains, so this was the best way to go. After boarding the train, 15 minutes to London Paddington Station.
At Paddington, four of our party bought Oyster cards (you save about half for journeys compared to cash prices on the Tube), and we made out way on the Circle Line over to Kings Cross. First available service was the 1330 service to Newcastle, so we boarded that, searched around for seats all about the car we were on, and were on our way. There was a 1400 service to Edinburgh, but the station agent I talked with suggested checking the Newcastle train out first as they were very full due to school holidays. Was worried we'd be standing all the way to Edinburgh.
Our train had about a 20 min delay as it headed north due to signal issues, so by the time we had got off at Newcastle the 1400 Edinburgh train was just 5 minutes behind us. Just enough time to walk a ramp over the tracks to our new platform and see the train approaching. Very little luggage space on this train so time stood in the connecting corridor between cars with bags for the remaining 90 mins up to Edinburgh. We arrived at 1830.
About a 15 min walk to our hotels, and we were back out at 1945 for dinner We ended up at Bella Italia off Rose Street for pasta, and were back at our hotels just before 10.
My room:
New photos start here:
http://tom911.smugmug.com/2012Olympi...3672&k=XtV7BMr