Posted on

London to Edinburgh

I once again was up and at the coach station at 7:45am, but Expedia had the time wrong and it didn’t leave until 8:20am, which sucks because I could have stayed at the B&B and enjoyed a nice breakfast there.  Anywho, I grabbed a coffee and boarded a really neat vintage double decker bus for a tour around town.  Due to the climate protests all over central London our tour was altered and traffic was heavy, but we stopped at Buckingham Palace for a while then drove past the Eye of London, down Fleet Street, past St. Paul’s Cathedral, over the London and Tower Bridges amongst others, and then stopped at the Millbank Millennium Pier to catch a boat.  The boat tour was pretty quick, basically over to Tower Bridge and back, but offered wonderful views of Parliament, the Eye, Tower Bridge, Big Ben (covered and under construction until 2022 though I think) and everything else along the water.  Honestly, if I did it again I’d do it at sunset or at night, I bet that view is gorgeous.  Once we got back to the coach station I picked up my bags from the B&B and took the Victoria line to Kings Cross station.  Of course I needed a cheesy photo taken at Platform 9 ¾ and I sat and waited for my train.  Unfortunately, someone was hit by another train along our route and there were trespassers along another major route, so almost all of the trains were delayed or cancelled.  My original 3:30 train to Edinburg was delayed, then they loaded us in, then they kicked us off and cancelled it.  There was about an hour of confusion before I got confirmation that I could jump on any of the other trains that were running, so I jumped on the 4:30 train and crossed my fingers that I’d eventually get to Edinburg.  Fortunately I was sat next to two lovely people and we chatted and exchanged stories for a couple hours (mainly me talking, travelling solo I don’t get my daily words out!). A Dr. Eeyan Pepper stayed with me until Darlington and was a super nice guy, travelled lots himself and owns a place in Florida.  The second leg I was pretty much by myself so I plugged the headphones in and zoned out for the rest of the trip.  It was after 10pm when we finally arrived, so I scurried through the cold to my hotel about a mile away.  Yotel is in an old building but they completely modernized it, so everything is new and neon and very eclectic.  I was starving, so I went around the corner to KFC and got an interesting combo bucket including a chicken sandwich one (1) thigh piece, a weird salad, and fries. Then went back to the hotel and crashed.

Posted on

Ms. Worldwide 2k19 Non-stop travel: Start!

After spending the day cleaning, donating stuff, and throwing bags of leftovers and garbage away, I headed to O’Hare for a 9pm flight to London. However, it was already delayed until 10pm, and after we boarded we sat for another hour to fix a mechanical error.  Also, Norwegian subbed our flight out to another smaller company, so we were on an older plane with small seats and literally zero entertainment for 8 hours.  Ah well, I took some Dramamine and tried to sleep most of the flight anyway.  After arriving 3 hours late in London, I took the Gatwick Express to Victoria Station which was super easy and convenient, and checked into my B&B.  After settling in and taking a quick shower, I met up with a friend from high school times past that I haven’t’ seen in nearly two decades.  It was great walking around Hyde Park and eating at Hard Rock Café with him and just catching up after being apart for so long.  Then we walked back to my B&B and I basically passed out for the night.

Thanks to jet lag I was up early the next day and at the coach station at 7:45am for an all-day bus tour with Premium Tours.  Our tour guide was friendly and engaging and the bus was comfy enough.  Our first stop was Windsor Castle, where I wandered the grounds, toured the interior of the castle, visited the gorgeous church, and watched the changing of the guards.  I had to get back to the bus so I left right after the guard band started playing “It’s Not Unusual” by Tom Jones, which was hilarious.  Our next stop was Stonehenge.  Y’all, look, if you like ancient history, mystery, and really big COOL rocks then Stonehenge is a must!!  If you’re the type of person that goes…they’re rocks, who cares? Then you can probably skip it.  I’m the former, and loved loved LOVED it.  I was really disappointed that we only had a half hour to walk around, I could have used another hour at least for walking around the entire area, reading the signs, and listening to the audio tour.  That being said, there was a nasty thunderstorm approaching so even if we had longer we would have been stuck inside.  I definitely need to go back there, perhaps next June 21st when they have their huge summer solstice celebration!  After Stonehenge we headed to Bath and got an hour to wander and shop.  Bath is a cool city, but I’m not sure I need to go back.  If I did, it would mainly be to stay the night at the hotel that lets you use the hot spring water…that sounds unique.  After Bath we drove around the Cotswolds area and went to Lacock where we stopped at The George, a really old traditional country pub, for a local made hard cider and fish and chips.  Delicious!  This is also where some houses were used for Harry Potter so we saw the Slughorn and Potter houses.  Next to the Potter house is an old church, which although is indeed very old is actually a functioning modern community church.  It’s not particularly big, but it’s cute, and most importantly there’s this black cat that hangs around and tries to sneak inside so often they actually have a sign posted telling visitors NOT to let the cat in!  Oh, that cat kept trying so hard to charm us and sneak in though, I took advantage and made friends.  Afterwards, we all returned to the coach for the long 3 hour ride back to London.  We didn’t end up getting back until after 9pm, so I walked back to the B&B and ended up in a conversation with the caretaker Simon about travel and food and life in general before heading up for bed.  Lynton Hotel isn’t fancy or modern, and kinda tight to be honest, but the owners are super friendly and the breakfast smelled delicious.