That time I accidentally went to Edinburgh

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I hadn't expected this weekend to be blog-worthy. Now that spring has finally decided to grace us with its presence, I've started my weekend hiking adventures again. But, most of the places I go now are places I've already been, the ones that are easy and inexpensive to get to (Rothbury, for example, is a particular favorite). And most of the entries I would've written would be the same: the countryside is beautiful, I love Geordies, OMG HISTORY AND BABY SHEEP etc etc.

This weekend, my plan was to revisit Alnmouth, a beautiful little town on the coast (at the mouth of the Aln river...get it?) that I visited and blogged about last year. I was going to walk up the coast to Dunstanburgh, which I have also blogged about before, and then back down, taking in the sights of what my guidebook says is the most beautiful coastline in the UK. But apparently it wasn't meant to be.

The train I was aiming for left Newcastle at 9:35. It being a nice day, I decided to walk the 40 minutes to Central station. I was ready to leave the house on time, but then I realized I'd forgotten my water bottle. Then my lunch burst open in my bag. (Cous cous. Not fun.) I left, according to my watch, about 5 minutes behind schedule.

So I powerwalked. I ran into a coursemate on the way, but did not stop to chat ("Gotta catch a train" I said, "I'm going on an adventure." Oh how true that was). I did a couple of dangerous road crossings, Bostonian-style. I made it to the station, according to my watch, with 2 minutes to spare.

But none of this mattered because it turns out my watch is 5 minutes slow. And UK trains leave on time. I missed the train by 3 minutes.

After a few minutes mulling over the options (walk to the bus station and go to Rothbury again? Catch a train to Hexham and get a bus to Hadrian's wall?), I decided the cheapest and fastest option would be to catch the next train to Alnmouth and stick to the old plan, an hour later than intended. So I set my watch to the clock in Central station, went to a coffee shop nearby and returned 10 minutes early, just in case. Found the right platform, congratulated myself on a day not spoiled by stupidity and unfortunate luck, and waited for my train.

You can probably guess what happened next.

In my defense, the train I got on came to the same platform as the one I was supposed to get on. It was only 3 minutes before my train was scheduled to arrive, and in the UK it's not unheard of for a train to turn up ahead of schedule. The final destination was Edinburgh, which is a logical destination to expect for trains going from Newcastle to Alnmouth. In fact, I'm pretty sure we passed through Alnmouth on our way* but it was hard to tell for sure because we were moving so fast.

We had just barely left Newcastle when the the announcement came on that we were headed to Edinburgh, next stop Dunbar. I had about ten minutes to panic and plan for every scenario I could think of, before the ticket collector came through and I had to explain what I'd done.

Every once in a while, there are advantages to living in a country that thinks people from my country are morons. The conductor gave me a "it's okay, I deal with idiots like you all the time" smile, told me I might as well stay on until Edinburgh because the transfer would be faster, and wrote on the back of my ticket: "BOARDED WRONG TRAIN. PLS ALLOW TRAVEL BACK." Which was thoughtful.

*When I realized we were passing through Alnmouth, I may or may not have started quietly but hysterically giggling. But by this point, the conductor had already come through, so the person sitting next to me knew why.

So I went to Edinburgh. By accident. I admit that I was tempted to stay instead of continuing my apparently ill-fated attempt to visit Alnmouth. If Julia had still been living there, I would've considered it (what an amusing phone call that would have been). But I felt guilty, and I've done all the touristy Edinburgh stuff, and the weather was not as good as it had been in England (I am not exaggerating when I say the sky clouded over almost as soon as we crossed the border), and I didn't want to waste a precious day of sun any more than I already had.



So instead I took advantage of my 45 minute transfer time; I sat in a park by the train station, and ate my remaining cous cous with this view and a bagpipe playing somewhere in the distance. Not bad, all things considered. The conductor told the conductor on the next train about me, so I just had to admit who I was, endure an "aw, cute little idiotic foreigner" smile, and show her the ticket with the note.

Luckily, the weather held out, and since the days are so long this time of year, I actually got a decent walk in. Not as far originally planned, but still nice. A large portion of this walk is on the beach, and there were lots of families with dogs and small children. Parts of it reminded me of the rocky beaches you find near Bar Harbor in Maine.

It's an interesting trip, traveling from Newcastle to Alnmouth via Scotland. At least the train ride was pretty. Not a bad day, all things considered. And it makes a funny story.

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Comments

[Mom]

Very funny story! Glad it all ended well!