I had a great time, and I think everyone else did too.
Tom picked me up from Indianapolis pretty early, and we did a little bit of a tour of the area on the way out. It was a nice relaxing day, with a bunch of people showing up, many of whom I remembered from last year.
I actually set an alarm this time, so that I’d have enough time for a leisurely start to the day. Hotel restaurant was running short-staffed, so things were a little chaotic at times.
Checkout, like check-in, was done by a kiosk, so I didn’t have to do anything more than push some buttons and drop my room key card in a box.
Continue readingLast day in Washington DC, or at least the last full day. The weather continues to persuade me to stay inside or in shade as much as possible, so I went to the National Gallery of Art.
Continue readingDay two in Washington DC.
Continue readingDay one in Washington DC, where it’s hot & kind of muggy.
Picture-heavy, so I’ve put in a “read more”
Continue readingWell, I slept badly, but that’s to be expected with pre-holiday nerves & a cold of some sort.
There were very short lines at the Aer Lingus check in, but still, it took a bunch longer than expected. I’m not sure why, but the chap dealing with my check-in had troubles, so did the person they called over, so I was sent to the actual Aer Lingus staff, who just sorted it out?
I’m wondering if the preflight information didn’t update or something.
I like them as an airline, but their systems are not good.
Continue reading
Going against almost every packing habit of the last 5 years, most of my stuff is loosely/badly packed in the suitcase so that it’s not mostly empty & so that the British Snacks will have something to keep them from being bashed to fragments on the trip. The only things in the carry on are the “must travel with me” items & a change of clothes; You only need to have your luggage delayed once before you start doing that.
I’ve ridden the tube to find my terminal for tomorrow. The hotel I’m staying in isn’t in the grounds of the airport, but is extremely airport adjacent , and the tube run between here and the terminals is free. ( Airport terminal hotels were super expensive; the price of the tiny little windowless cabin I stayed in last time more than doubled )
I’ve managed to kick things off with a cold+sore throat combination, so that’s going to be fun. I have a reusable mask with me, so I’ll be at least trying to wear it on the flights, out of consideration for others.
Folks at work have referred to my travels as a tour of Dying British Seaside Towns, and they maybe have a point. Bournemouth clearly has had better days, and Blackpool is less ‘faded glory’ and more ‘decaying remnants’, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that Aberdeen isn’t the crumbling industrial wasteland it was described as.
It’s rather nice. It’s like Edinburgh if those awful tourist shops selling plastic tartan crap had never existed, so instead you have the sort of shops & cafes that people in a city centre are more likely to use, and you need to pay a little bit of attention to find anywhere that’ll sell you some postcards.
I’m told that I got the small season of good weather, and that it’s miserable there the rest of it. Given that the person in question got snowed on in Aberdeen in May, it may be that they’re biased. Or in possession of accurate information.
Continue readingA brief badly planned stop, as it happens.
I left Blackpool on the Friday & made it to Aylesbury in pretty good time thanks to a lucky connection at Preston where the train arrived as I got to the appropriate platform.
The reason for the trip was a birthday BBQ “Sausage Party” for Becs on the Saturday, with the idea that people would bring weird sausages. I managed to miss the fancy dress element, but was reminded in time.
Maybe wires got crossed, or maybe the folks I was with just ran with a theme, but that theme was ’90s. It’s slightly worrying that all I needed to do to hit a 90s theme was out on a bandana & tie my flannel shirt around my waist.
It was a fun day. 🙂
The very next day I went to Aberdeen, which was a mistake in terms of planning. Should have booked a sleeper trip instead for a few days later so that I could enjoy the weekend, instead of leaving very early to get a train to London so that I could not quite run but certainly walk at my best speed to get to the unreserved carriage in the hope of getting a seat
The booking websites were uncooperative, and I ended up with a ticket to Aberdeen but no seat reservation, which isn’t ideal. I got a bit lucky when it came to boarding; A family with a million suitcases was blocking the closest door to the unreserved carriage, so I went to the other one. Turns out only half of the carriage was unreserved, but my route let me walk through the reserved bit to get to the unreserved, where there were still seats free because nobody could get to them through the million-suitcase-family.
I did not leave that seat until after Edinburgh.