Edinburgh - Day 1

I left for my business trip tuesday, january 2nd. The new year party at my sister's was finishing, and my parents dropped me off at the airport before driving back 3 hours home. I entered the Quebec Airport at 14h30, someone suggested that I try getting into an earlier flight to Montreal (just in case, because the weather was very snowy), but all the flights were full.

Everything a guy needs in three weeks.

I waited about 2 hours (reading the wonderful book The China Study) before boarding the plane. It was very small, and I was in the last row. I read the whole time, and got into the Montreal Airport. There, I had about 55 minutes to get to my gate, which was enough. I made sure to bring the minimum with me, so I had a camera bag and a small luggage, which I can bring with me in the plane, no check-in check-out of luggages necessary.

In the plane to London, it wasn't bad. I had enough space to put the small luggage in the overhead bins, so only my camera bag was restraining my leg movements. I read a lot, and started watching a movie (Battle Los Angeles) when they served dinner at around 19h30. I was a bit irritated that they did, because I thought they wouldn't and bought a rather expensive sandwich at the airport (which I forgot to keep the receipt, so I can't claim it). I continued reading, and slept around an hour at midnight.

I was wondering whether sleeping would kill me later because of the jet lag. Initially, I wanted to stay awake until the end of their next day, so awake for around 35 hours. I woke up after an hour feeling refreshed, read a bit, tried to relax and sleep, but possibly managed only 15 minutes total after that.

I got to the Heathrow London Airport, 85 minutes before my next flight left. Thinking I was ok because I only had carry-ons, I followed the signs to terminal 1. I saw really quickly that I had to take a shuttle bus to get there, which took a bit of time, then went through customs, and walked. I asked directions to someone who was working there, just to be sure, and he told me that it would be gate 8, but that I can't know the door number (8a, 8b, ...). He asked me when my flight was due, and I told him 20 minutes, which made him chuckle.

On I walked, and I soon saw a panel that said something like "Please allow the following timings to reach: Gate 8: 25 minutes." I started walking quickly, not wanting to run. I got to gate 8 at the right time, but the flight had been delayed by 40 minutes. I waited, and when the panel showed that they were boarding, I went to the specified gate, and was told that the flight was cancelled due to very strong winds in Edinburgh.

Retrospectively-speaking, I know that they got the worst storm (link to BBC news) in like 14 years, flood warnings in many places in Scotland, and the city itself got many minor damage all over. Wow, what a greeting I got, for my second time out of Canada (first time in Japan in july 2007)!

So I waited for the next flight, due 3 hours later (12h40?). After about 1.5 hours, I learned that this flight was cancelled too, and that we had to go to the airport entrance to reschedule our tickets. I followed some people, not knowing where I should go, and asked about a train alternative. Apparently, the train was not going as far as Edinburgh because of the winds! I rescheduled for the 15h05 flight hoping it wouldn't be cancelled too.

I didn't eat anything since the beginning of the Montreal-London flight, but I wasn't really feeling hungry. Maybe it was because of lack of sleep? I bought a small sandwich at around noon anyway, and waited a long time. I tried taking a nap because reading was drowsily difficult, but only managed to get around 30 minutes total.

I went to the gate to wait, waited, waited, noticed the flight was delayed to 15h30, waited more, and finally, boarded the plane. We left at around 15h45, tried to read but couldn't manage to sleep, and we got to Edinburgh without crashing anywhere. When leaving, the pilot told us that we had good wind in our back, and the flight would be quicker, but when we got there, the plane kept circling Edinburgh for about 30 minutes. When we finally did land, the pilot told us that the mechanical staircase was defunct, and we had to wait for someone to bring one. After about 20 more minutes of waiting, we were out of the plane, then after a few minutes, I was finally out of the Edinburgh Airport at around 17h30. 22 hours in airports or planes.

I took a taxi to the hotel (Premier Inn - Haymarket Edinburgh, Google maps location), knowing I wouldn't go to work the same day. Stepped in my room at exactly 18h00, ate at the hotel restaurant, took a walk, took a shower, relaxed, and went to bed at around 22h15.

I found the restaurant to be pretty good, though on the expensive side. Actually, since this is a restaurant inside a hotel, the prices are average, but if I wasn't claiming these costs, I would have eaten somewhere else for dinner. Not really knowing what to choose from the menu, and thinking I would be here often, I ordered the first item, which happened to be "Pork, leek and bacon sausages with mash, topped with spiced onion marmalade and served with gravy and garden peas". It was very good, and I had a beer.

The view from my window.

On my first evening, I found out that Edinburgh was quite a rowdy city. I never had any problems to actually fall asleep, nor was woken up during the night, but in the evenings, I could often hear groups of people talking loudly near the hotel's parking lot. There is a bar really close (Carter's, no homepage) - actually a few in the vicinity - so they possibly were some patrons with a pint too many in them.

Edit: Spelling, and added some text, pictures and links.