Day 15-Leaving Scotland/Arriving in London

NOTE: A little administrative note here-in the whirlwind that has been happening since leaving Scotland and arriving in London, I mistakenly posted parts of 2 different entries in the last post. I have deleted that entry and am posting the correct the 2 separate posts. Sorry for the confusion :(--Jeff

ADDITIONAL NOTE:Between trying to cram a week's worth of sightseeing, visiting with family and genealogical investigations and not having time to get to an Internet cafe or find a usable signal where we were staying, I will end up completing the remainder of the travel posts when we return to Orlando later tonight. But I have lots of things to tell you about and lots of photos and I hope to get them all up and posted by Wedensday. Cheers from London's Heathrow Airport where we leave in 45 minutes! - Jeff

We all woke up at 4:30am to be sure we would be ready to leave no later than 6am.

It is now 1pm and we are sitting in Heathrow awaiting the arrival of our ground transportation to the B & B. We reserved and paid for a van and driver to meet us when we arrived about 6 months ago when our flight was still scheduled to arrive at 1:25pm. A month ago BMI changed the schedule so that we arrived at 12:25 instead. The service told us they would check all flight updates, but they obviously did not check this one. So here we sit waiting. Since we also have them booked to pick us up on Tuesday to bring us to the airport, you can be sure we'll be checking on them Monday night.

We actually pulled away from the castle at 5:42am, saying our "farewell" as we slowly drove out the 1 mile long access road. The sheep, ducks, cuckoo birds and woodpeckers all gave us a nice send-off. Then it was a 2 1/2 hour drive to Glasgow airport to turn in the rental car, get our bags checked (no overweight charges, thank goodness) and we just had time to grab a quick bite of breakfast before boarding the plane for the 1 hour flight to London.

The car and driver arrived around 1:10pm and it took him until 3pm to find our B & B. We dragged our truckload of luggage up 3 flights of stairs (no lift), and then Cindy, her dad and I walked to the nearby business/retail area (Mark, it reminds me of Queens) to scope out what is within walking distance. Cindy's mom was not feeling well and remained in their room resting. Later, around 6pm, the three of us walked down for dinner and I found 2 Internet cafes within a block of each other. However, back here in the room, I have found an unsecured Wi-fi signal to piggyback on to post this entry.

It's 9:10pm now and we'll be going to bed soon, since I've been up for quite a while today. Tomorrow we have special dispensation to go to usually off limits parts of Windsor Palace thanks to a relative of my father-in-law's and his ancestor who was a member of the royal staff at the palace. I'm hoping for some great photos.

However, no pictures today. Nothing worth photographing in our travels for this day.

---

---