Planes, no trains, and an automobile: Fall Break off to a rocky start

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To say that my fall break was interesting would be an extreme understatement. To say that it started off in an uncomfortably interesting manner, however, would be nothing but accurate.

The plan had been to simply catch a train from Stirling to Edinburgh, and hop on the overnight bus to London from there. Since trains typically run about twice an hour along that route, we left the flat about 6:00, thinking that would give us plenty of time to arrange a 45-minute train ride and catch the bus at 9:30. Unfortunately for us, the train drivers chose that night to stage some kind of strike, and there were no trains. Buses were running as replacement transportation, but we'd just missed the last one and they didn't know when the next would arrive. They estimated shortly after seven o'clock, though...and that the trip to Edinburgh by bus would take about two hours. Splendid. In the words of Marty McFly, "Why do we have to cut these things so damn close?"

To make things even MORE interesting, though, the bus DIDN'T arrive at seven o'clock. Or by seven thirty. E, the flatmate I took this trip with, and I started sweating. Even if the bus arrived *now* we would almost certainly miss our bus to London. Only solution? Hire a taxi! Expensive, but effective. So we hired a cab into Edinburgh, got some hot chocolate at McDonalds, and made the bus to London with time to spare.

How to describe that bus? As I sat there for eight hours, legs squished against the seat in front of me, unable to recline more than an inch, listening to the man sitting behind us snore, I contemplated choosing this mode of transportation again. My mental reaction resembled nothing so much as Cary Elwes as Westley upon being asked to surrender to Humperdink on the far side of the Fire Swamp: "DEATH FIRST!!!"

So by the time we got to London Victoria station at 10:20 Monday morning I was extremely sleep-deprived, rumpled, and grouchy. The jolt of adrenaline from finally being IN LONDON managed to counteract most of my bad mood (helped along by a breakfast of scrambled eggs with bacon, toast, and coffee in a nearby cafe), though, and we started off towards the nearest big white pretty buildings.

There are a lot of those in London! We followed the main roads and eventually found ourselves outside of Buckingham Palace...conveniently right at the changing of the guard! The crowd was thick, but we managed to watch much of it. The band was the best part, I think. From there we headed along the Princess Diana Memorial Walk through St. James Park, which was beautiful, and wound up in front of the National Gallery. It was pretty amazing, but the best part (for me) was seeing Da Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks (from The Da Vinci Code)!

After the National Gallery we went for coffee at Costa across the square and regrouped. We also, purely on a whim, purchased a travel guide to Brussels...which turned out to be invaluable, if slightly confusing. We headed towards Big Ben and Parliament after that, stopping on the way to ogle through the wrought-iron gate towards #10 Downing Street. Big Ben was really impressive. And there was the big cathedral right next door that we took pictures of, and didn't find out until two days later that it was Westminster Abbey!

After THAT we hopped on the last boat trip of the day up under about five to seven of the bridges over the Thames to enjoy the views. It was very cold and misty by that time, but still incredible...just being in London, seeing the Tower Bridge and London Bridge and St. John's and the Tower and the Traitor's Gate and the Globe and everything...wow.

But it was getting dark and we were pretty beat, so that was our last event before heading towards our hostel, which was a very nice one located five minutes from the Underground stop and five yards from the British Museum. But that was the next day, which I shall tell of in my next entry 😊

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Photos

St. James Park
View of the Eye!

Natural History Museum
(From the boat)