Monday, August 31, 2009

Edinburgh, Scotland

We left this morning from SLC International. The check in was pretty uneventful, except for the TSA security official who decided that while he was checking out my passport that he'dquiz me about the origins of my last name--all while Shelley was waiting for me. He was all "Tell me about your last name. It's pretty unusual." I said, "Well, it's English, and I don't have one. That's about all I know." He laughed, handed me my passport, and after putting everything I had in a box, along with my shoes, I proceeded through security without anyother hassles.
The flight was fine. We each had a little screen to watch HGTV, Food Network, Spongebob, or even a music section to make your own playlist for the flight. It was fantastic! Not fantastic? The pilot kept announcing things over the system, interrupting the music witha volume that was about four clicks louder than what you had been listening to. I guess theyreally do want you to pay attention to all those silly announcements. Oh, the best part is thatone of the free shows that was playing was called, "The Flight that Fought Back" and was of the flight that crashed in the field during 911. Yeah, because that's what I want to watch when I'm flying all day on a plane.

When we arrived at JFK, I looked out the window hoping to see the Statue of Liberty around somewhere,but no luck! Drat! The landing was a bit rough, and then our pilot proceeded to tell us we may or may not be sitting on the runway for a bit because of the back up in flight traffic. Hey, our flight was actually like 45 minutes earlier than it should have been. Is there arule about speeding in the sky? :) Anyway, we only had to taxi for about ten minutes. But, I have decided that trying to get off a plane is like trying to merge into traffic in Utah--people just don't know how to do it. Seriously, it was a bit ridiculous.

We had a very expensive piece of pizza at the airport food court, and we're just waiting for our flight to board in oh, three hours or so. Woopdie doo. Hanging out in the airport is so exciting that I almost can't stand it.
* * *
Our flight across the Atlantic was very uneventful. And long. I felt like the plane wasn't moving at all on the moving map. I didn't sleeep at all, partly because of the time change (we gained 8 hours total), but mostly in part to some cute little Indian girls in front of us. At first, I thought that their whining was kind of funny. I may or may not have actually laughed. I don't know, but there's something about a kid whining in a different language that is less annoying than if it was a kid whining in English. Basically, she whined the whole flight and had only one volume: loud. In other flight news, I sat next to a kid who was trying to move to the UK. He was interesting. Upon landing, it was snowing at the higher altitutes and raining lightly in the city. Just outside the airport, there was a rabbit chasing a bird. It was seriously funny. :)
* * *
When we got to the airport, we took the bus to the city centre, and then walked to our hotel where we dropped off our bags. We couldn't check in yet, so we walked around the city, and eventually bought a 24-hour hop on/hop off bus pass so we could just ride around for awhile. We were tired. Some of the places we saw included St. Giles Cathedral, the Palace of Holyroodhouse (which is where the Queen of Scotland stays), and we walked through a really old cemetery where it proceeded to pour on us. This is a very rainy place!
Here are some of my favorite pictures from today.
A view of downtown Edinburgh.




Mostly, I like this headstone because it says, "Whose affection as a Wife and Mother were an example of every thing that is good."



This is at The Abbey at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Ruins of a 12th century abbey.


A memorial to Sir Walter Scott. Tomorrow, we are climbing the 278 stairs to the top of this tower for a panoramic view of the city.


Well, that's it for today. I will try to get more of our adventures posted tomorrow. Our hotel has free WiFi. Woot woo! I'm going to try to post my pictures in a slideshow, but that will have to wait for another day, as it's 9:15 on Monday, and I haven't slept since Saturday night. :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love all of it!! You make me laugh. :)
Kimmy

mom said...

wow- great photos. I miss you already. Good luck with the stairs! Can't wait to see stuff tomorrow. Drink water to overcome jetlag.