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Headed Home
We had a 12:05 flight, so we didn't have to get up too terribly early, even though Hedge likes to get places very early. We left the hotel and headed to Waverly Station to get breakfast. We ended up at Caffe Nero, because we thought there was a Costa but the sign we had seen actually said, "Coming Soon!". The staff was very nice, and we grabbed some coffees, a tea for Gabe, pain chocolat and a scone. Toria didn't want to eat anything, since she was nervous about getting sick on the plane. After we ate, we walked out to catch the bus to the airport, which didn't take very long - less than a half hour, and we got some nice views of Edinburgh as we drove out. United check-in and security did not take long at all, and we were left with plenty of time to kill in the airport shops. We had no trouble spending all the rest of our pounds, and then some. We actually forgot to get Toria a banana, and ended up having to put a sixty pence banana on the card at the last minute, because we had thirty pence left, and that's all she wanted for the ride!
We boarded on time, with Hedge sitting in front of the rest of us; we never get seats on planes with all four of us together. We were all ready for takeoff - but it was not meant to be. We went through all the safety videos and introductions, then continued to sit there. Before too long, the pilot came on and said he had detected a problem with the brakes, and was waiting for mechanics. We all started watching TV shows and movies, which I suppose is a good thing, since we ended up sitting on the plane for two and a half hours. The pilot came on every half hour or so, with updates, and they finally let us off the plane when they could not find the problem. They talked about keeping us in a contained area, but someone came on the intercom and told us to return our duty-free shopping, claim our bags, and then proceed to United desks 41-44.
At this point, we were quite hungry, as we had expected our lunch on the plane long ago. We had no more money, and wanted to sort out our problem, so we split up, with the boys waiting for luggage, and the girls getting in line for the rescheduling. We were grateful to be in an English speaking country, and to be on the last leg of our journey instead of the first. The lady next to us and her son were headed to the United States for a wedding. Some other travelers had tried to fly out of Glasgow earlier in the morning, and their plane never took off, so United bussed them to Edinburgh for this flight, where they again sat and never took off. Several people were able to rebook on their phones, but we had absolutely no service. It took about a half hour per customer, so the line was going absolutely nowhere, and we didn't even know if we would have a hotel room, or if our bank cards would work, since we had told the banks and credit card companies that our stay ended on the 11th. Everyone was tired and hungry and stressed!
Finally a capable lady came to the desk and took charge, which sped up the process. She opened more lines, and sent workers out into the line with food vouchers, so Hedge went to the Marks and Spencer foods and got us some waters and sandwiches. They started asking if anyone would be willing to go to Newcastle and catch a flight from there tomorrow. Honestly, I didn't even know if Newcastle is in England or Scotland, so I discussed it with my neighbor, and she recommended opting out of Newcastle, as it involved two hours on a bus, and chances of fitting on a decent flight were about the same. She also told us that she was stuck in the ghetto in Newark for several days once, and they had to have police escorts, the hotel was so bad. Yikes!
When it was finally our turn, the lady at the desk was nice, and said we could fly to London at 5:30, then have a direct flight to Houston tomorrow, or we could stay in Edinburgh, and attempt the same 12:05 flight via Newark tomorrow. London, please! We figured the direct flight was great, since we wouldn't have to worry about doing customs with a connection, and we would gain time. We had the choice of 9:20 or 11:40, and we went with the earliest option, figuring we would have more time to get out if anything happened. They assured us that we would have a hotel at the airport, and gave us more food vouchers. We didn't have much time to make the London flight, so we hurried along and boarded. It was a nice flight; the crew was very nice, and my seatmate makes the flight often, so she showed Gabe and me the sights, both taking off from Edinburgh and landing in London an hour later. We saw everything on our side of the plane, with Hedge and Toria got nothing on their side. She was also happy to tell us the decent food places in Heathrow.
We wanted to get food as soon as we landed, since we had all shared a bit of food in Edinburgh to tide us over. I read the voucher for the hotel, however, and it said it was not a guarantee of lodging, so we decided to hurry to the hotel and get rooms. We had a lot of vouchers, so we noted the food options and decided to come back if we couldn't get food in the hotel - we weren't sure if we got dinner there or not. It had been implied, but we didn't know for sure. Heathrow is really huge. We walked at least twenty minutes at top speed, then took a train between terminals, then walked another bit to get to the hotel. It was a Sofitel, and it was really nice looking. Sadly, when we got to the lobby, it looked like there were a thousand people in line ahead of us to check in, so the anxiety level jumped up again - we had no place else to go if they ran out of rooms. We trudged along to the end of the line, and waited. Eventually, a really nice young man brought everyone bottles of water. We chatted with the guy in front of us, who had been on a flight from Rome when they had to land because of issues with pressure, and a possible crack in the windshield. He had a nice looking cocktail in his hand, and directed Hedge to the bar, where he got us each a twenty pound drink! The lady behind us was embarking on a tour of Washington, but missed the connection with her tour. We were again glad that we were at the end of our trip. The nice young Indian man came along again with more water, and codes for the wifi, so we all fell in love with him a little. We were extremely relieved when it was finally our turn, and we got rooms across from each other. The lady also gave us vouchers for dinner, and told us there was breakfast too. Then the wifi/water guy took us to the elevator, showed us how to use the key card to work it, and explained how to find our rooms. We were all a bit punch-drunk, but we decided he was like our own little Dobby, and we needed to give him a sock.
We dropped off our stuff in our rooms, and went to find dinner. Imagine our shock when we had to wait in quite a line to get in to the restaurant. When we finally got up to the host, he said without a reservation, it would be about 40 minutes. It was around 9:00 by then, but we figured it would take us that long to make our way back to the airport terminal and find food, and we just didn't have the energy, so we said ok, then it occurred to me that it said "buffet" on our voucher, so I showed it to him, and he explained we didn't actually have to wait for the buffet. They showed us to a table, and we hit the buffet, which was a sort of strange mix of what we think they had left over from the restaurant side. They quickly ran out of stuff, and brought other random items out. We did not even really care, just ate the bits of whatever, then went to the rooms to shower and crash. It felt very strange to be in a separate room from the kids. Even in our apartments, when we had a bedroom, we were still very much together. We did not unpack much, as we were just there to shower and sleep.
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