Today, we begin a new adventure in so many ways. Up at 6:00 to finish (or begin as the case may be) packing for our tour of the Islands, Iceland, and some time in the North Atlantic. It has been a very long time since either of us has packed for an entire 14 day trip away from home, and confined to one large suitcase and one smaller carry-on. Many starts and stops, but we finally realize we are not headed in to a true wilderness, only another side of the globe. If we can get something in Omaha, we can probably buy it elsewhere.
Deb, of course, has some last minute client work to clean-up and we have to make sure our housemates, Harry P. And Sushi, are provisioned for their home alone project (with help of course.) I am off to the grocer for an extra bag of pet food, to the bank for some traveling cash, and to drop off last minute files to Deb's office. The cash was the easy part. Pet food, simple, but my grab of gummy bears for provisions turned out to be the wrong kind. Unbeknownst to Deb, her office is no longer open on Saturdays, thus the drop-off is thwarted.
Deb Duggan arrives at 9:00 as agreed and we are off to Eppley for departure of our 11:00 flight. No traffic, no lines at Eppley and no lines at security, an auspicious beginning. On to Chicago for our flight change. We arrive in plenty of time and traipse from Terminal 1 to International Terminal 5, which is packed to the gills. We check in and receive down line boarding passes. Security is long and we are in line for nearly 90 minutes. We arrive at our gate just as they are beginning boarding. We are flying Aer Lingus direct from Chicago to Dublin, and the plane is neat, clean and large. Our specially picked exit row seats are ready for us but, in this plane configuration, the exit door hardware intrudes significantly on the window passenger's leg room, impinging on comfort. And this row is the baby row- with two wailers occupying the prized seats, one with a toddler and one with a teething infant. We look forward to seven hours of bliss.
Actually, neither child was fussy and we made good time, arriving in Dublin on schedule at 5:06 on Sunday morning, although only one of us got any sleep. I, wearing my normal sandals and polo shirt, was very comfortable until we arrived at the next gate for our transfer to Edinburgh. We were led outside to a coach (2 degrees Celsius and windy) to drive to our turboprop for the over the Irish Sea final journey of the day. Chilly to say the least.
An uneventful hour and a half later, we arrived in Edinburgh and made our way to the G & V hotel on the Royal Mile, just near the Edinburgh Castle. After checking in, we began to set up our electronics. Here we run into our first major problem of the trip. Deb's iPhone has no service, which is going to be a real problem, as I don't carry a smart phone in Europe, only our overseas cell phone.
We find our way around to a phone shop to see about trying to solve the problem - no luck. We stop at a coffee shop we have patronized in the past, and the food is not good, the coffee OK, and the outdoor seating cold.
Back to the hotel by noon, we make reservations for dinner and then break our own first day rule and catch a nap. After a few hours, we were back in business, alert and not quite rarin' to go. Deb reached AT&T and they were able to get her phone back on line; now we are back in touch with the world.
We took a walkabout on the "Royal Mile" High Street. We managed to find an open whiskey store where a purchase was made, and then all the way down to the Parliament building and Holyrood Palace. What a contrast in modern architecture against antiquity sitting next to each other.
Back up the hill, we returned to the Hotel G&V for dinner in the Cucina restaurant. Excellent Italian fare; a starter salad of endive with walnuts and Gorgonzola followed by tagliatelle with mushrooms for me and pappardelle with ragu for Deb. Also an excellent bottle of Pinot Nero topped off with Grappa and stratichella gelato. We retired to the bar for a nightcap and had delightful conversation with the staff - a young Bulgarian woman and the bartender from Spain. What a world view. Back to our room for the night, in bed by 9:30. Long, but enjoyable first day.
