Day 10

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Today we are going to Edinburgh! I am so excited. My grandparents emigrated to NZ from Scotland and I have always felt a yearning to see their country.

We woke up at our usual time and enjoyed our last English breakfast. Yesterday we had looked on our map and spotted a Operating Theatre Museum over by London Bridge and we decided to go there before our flight to Edinburgh in the late afternoon.

We checked out of the Nayland but asked if we could leave our bags there for a few hours. They were surprisingly nice about it and offered to lock them in a room in their other hotel just down a bit.

The museum was near Guys Hospital. I have to admit that we wasted quite a bit of time wandering around looking until finally Kristy took the map from me and pointed out that I had us looking in the wrong direction. Duh. The stairs up to the museum had to be experienced to be believed. They were the most narrow, steep circular stairs you could imagine. You had a rope winding up the middle to hang on to while you hauled yourself up. It was quite an amazing adventure getting up them. They ended abruptly when you stepped from a stair through a doorway and find yourself inside the room. The museum was great - specially if you have an interest in medical matters. There was an actual old operating theatre - the oldest in Europe, complete with lecture theatre type seating for the "audience", the box of sawdust under the wooden operating table (to catch the blood!) and the unwashed coats worn by the surgeons. There was an astonishingly high mortality rate in those days but, to me, it's more astonishing that anyone actually survived surgery! They had a brilliant collection of old instruments and apothecary implements. We had a marvellous couple of hours poking round in the attics where the museum is housed. I would thoroughly recommend it.

After leaving them museum we had lunch in a fantastic little place called Joiner Street which was a covered street. I loved all the old bricks in the walls and ceiling. Very "olde worlde".

After lunch we took the metro back to Paddington Station. We called in to the internet cafe to make the last bit of use of our 5 hours of internet time (and left the machines logged in so someone else could make use of our credit). We returned to the Nayland for our bags at around 3.pm. We took a taxi to Victoria Station (rather than dragging our heavy bags on the Underground). The staff at the Nayland called the taxi for us - maybe they warm up to you as you are leaving! The taxi driver was originally from Afghanistan.

We got to Victoria Station in time to catch the 3.45pm Gatwick Express. Actually we could have caught the 3.30pm one but we didn't notice it on the other side of the platform until it was leaving. I really enjoyed the train trip and took quite a few photos out the window. We arrived at Gatwick Airport at 4.15pm.

We dragged our bags over to a weighing area and discovered that we were quite a bit overweight. We were conscious of the fact that the queues waiting for EasyJet were very long and very slow. We hastily hurled stuff out of our bags into the bin, donned several extra layers of clothes and stuffed things in our pockets before repacking our bags. Kristy had to dump some clothes while I threw out our food supplies, tissues, soap etc. It was pretty hard case. EasyJet say you can only have one cabin bag including your handbag so we also had to cram our handbags into our cabin bags. We finally arrived in the queue feeling very hot, dishevelled and stressed. Luckily, thanks to the foresight of our awesome travel agent (Andrea Matheou - House of Travel, Palmerston North, NZ) we already had our tickets so we were able to go in the much shorter queue to drop off our bags rather than have to check in. Even so we were running out of time. A lady shouted out asking if there was anyone waiting for Edinburgh. I waved at her and she pulled us out of the queue and got us up to the counter. After that we had to have our boarding passes checked, passports checked and photos taken. Then they x-rayed our hand luggage. Unfortunately we had forgotten to take Kristy's laptop out of it's bag so we were stopped and had to go back and repeat the process. Then the buckles on my shoes triggered off the metal detector alarms so I was made to stand on a platform, arms outstretched and submit to a thorough inspection. We were conscious of the time ticking along when we eventually made it to the departure lounge. It was the most comprehensive process we have been through. It seemed a bit over the top for a 1 hour domestic flight! We finally boarded the plane - ironically it was 30 minutes late. There is no seat allocation. It's just a free for all mad dash onto the plane to find two seats together. There is no food or drinks handed out on the plane - if you want any you have to buy it, and then there is the scratch tickets they sell for "passenger entertainment"! We thought that we might have fallen down the rabbit hole. We chuckled quite a bit during that flight.

During the flight I chatted to a Scottish businessman sitting next to me. I was really feeling the heat in my extra layers of clothes so, still sitting in my seat, I removed the extra pair of jeans I was wearing - he politely averted his eyes and refrained from comment but he must have wondered what on earth I was doing! As we we were coming into Edinburgh he showed us sites of interest out the window.

We arrived in Edinburgh at 7.20pm, had a quick toilet stop and then caught an AirLink 100 bus into town. The bus driver seemed a bit dour but warmed up enough to point us in the right direction at the end of the trip. Man of few words!

We set off up the road towing our bags along. There was a busker playing the bagpipes! We were definitely in Scotland. It was the most magic feeling. The accents made me very nostalgic remembering the broad Scottish accent of my grandmother. We found our hotel about half a kilometer away. Parliament House Hotel on Calton Hill. What a beauty. Great big rooms, beautifully appointed, gorgeous comfy beds. We dropped our bags and headed off for a walk into town. We stopped at an Italian run place and had the most divine pizza and pasta for dinner. Paying for the meal involved making motions to leave, the bill arrives discreetly in a cardboard folder, you place your money in the folder and leave it on the table. We worked this out from watching other diners! Very different to NZ.

After a wonderful meal we continued our walk up the street where we found a shop called Scotch House. I immediately fell in love and bought brooches and keyrings with MacKenzie on them. We intend to go back tomorrow because they were closing (at 10pm!)

We headed back to the hotel but couldn't resist calling into McDonalds for an ice cream. It's true - they are the same everywhere. We were particularly impressed with their committment to using free range eggs and only sourcing meat from farms which use kind animal practices.

I love Edinbugh. I feel like I have come home. We can't wait to explore tomorrow.

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Photos

Stairs up to the Operating Theatre Museum
I wasn't joking about the rope!

Calton Hill
View from Parliament House Hotel