Our final duty: Getting everyone checked in at the airport! I was drafted to stand in the rain blocking the cabbie parking to make sure there was room for the coach.
We arrived early and it was a good thing we did. It was a mess. The internet at the hotel died Friday night. No one did online check-ins and RyanAir failed to mention in their email "Check in online or it'll cost you."
We knew where to go, so I had expected an easier time of it. I grabbed all of our luggage and parked in a corner to guard it and help Carrie be mobile. She disappeared and didn't come back for over 40 minutes.
Everyone had shown up to check-in (at the correct place) only to be told (incorrectly) it was the wrong place. The whole group shuffled across the length of the crowded airport to be told it would be £55 a person to check in! Online check in wasn't an option, because they turn it off a certain time before the flight (and it had shut off while walking!). RyanAir never warned us and Carrie was in a crunch. She got the approval to swipe the company card and planned to make a formal complaint later.
Once everyone was checked in, the RyanAir people sent us back across the airport to where we'd began. Later, we'd find out that we could have checked in at the computer stations there all along at a cost of £1 to print boarding passes. The employees there either knew that and didn't want to deal with the crunch or should have known that but couldn't tell us what they didn't know.
Carrie got everyone on the plane, but was worn and weary. I wish I had been able to help more.
On the plus side, we were now free. Free to stand in a stationary line to rent a car!
The line did move and we were offered a V90. I've never driven a V90, but from the dimensions it could have been a boat (over 16' long). Scottish streets are tiny. Scottish parking spaces are tiny. We didn't want a car that refused to fit into either.
We tried to downgrade to a Prius or anything smaller. The only thing we were offered was a V60 which the rep guaranteed us was significantly smaller.
It looked nice on the outside, but something was off on the inside.
Carrie captured my confusion.
Driving on our own was the thing I was the most nervous about the whole trip. Carrie's driven in Ireland before, so she felt confident and played chauffeur the rest of the trip. The V60 had a wonderful built in GPS that told us speed limits and we rented a hotspot with the car for internet access. I started playing music from Braveheart as we cruised to and through the highland hills to Inverness.
We made a "pit-stoppy" in Pitlochry for food, some work calls, and ice cream. I had whiskey ice cream which is the best way to try Scottish whiskey in my opinion.
Scottish roads are interesting. We took the A9 from Edinburgh to Inverness. The speed limit was 70 mph on double carriageways (two lanes, both same direction) and 60 mph on single carriageways (two lane road with one lane going each direction). Heavy gross Vehicles were limited to 50 mph. The center lane was a white dotted line for both. I prefer the yellow dividing line in the US for a clear demarcation of "This lane is going the other way." Speed seemed to be checked by "average speed cameras." There were pullovers every so often and people seemed to be more relaxed than US drivers. It was a very scenic route, but a two-lane interstate could have sped up the trip quite nicely.
Not that we were in a hurry. I played DJ whenever we had service and we enjoyed the change of pace and being on our own.
We arrived at our b&b for the next couple of days in Inverness in the evening. The summer sun does not hide until it would be night in Virginia.
That gave Carrie and I time to walk to the city center. It was a mile down the road and then across a pedestrian bridge. I started counting bed and breakfasts on the way. There were a ton! On the way back, I set some parameters and counted along our route. Not counting side streets (and I could see b&bs on them), our b&b was the 25th b&b along the mile stretch!
So far, Scottish cities seem compact and full of buildings, but lighter on pedestrians and traffic than you would expect from that density.
On the way north, I saw "Flat Earth" spray paint tags on numerous road signs. I think we found the source.
More proof you have all sorts of people all over.
I grabbed a cheap takeaway burger and juice (soda) and Carrie grabbed a drink at a Tesco before we headed back to the room to stream a movie, relax, and sleep. We watched Men in Black 3 if I remember correctly. It came out in 2012, but we're a little behind the times.
No comments:
Post a Comment