Today was another fairly packed day of sightseeing and driving.
We started our day with breakfast once again since it was free. The menu was pretty much identical, so we knew what to look for and eat.
After breakfast, we packed all our things, checked out of the room and went to pick up Rashmi. From there, we proceeded to our first stop of the day which was the Strathspey Steam Railway. This was going to be our second steam train ride and it started from a place called Aviemore which was about 45 min from Inverness.
The drive was smooth and we arrived at the station about 25 min before the train's departure. We found our coach/car and seats and I went to take some pictures of the steam engine and the train. The train jerked to a start on time at 10:15 and we set off on a ride through the Cairngorm National Park, the biggest national park in the UK. The train goes till a place called Broomhill and then returns to Aviemore. It was a shorter ride than the "Harry Potter" one but the views were still scenic and the ride was relaxing. We spent the time just chatting amongst ourselves. We were back in Aviemore at noon. After the usual visit to the gift shop, we headed back to our car and started driving to our next stop.
Our next stop was a place called "The Hermitage" which is again a natural wooded area with tall Douglas Fir trees and an easy trail through the forest ending at a waterfall called Black Linn falls. The route to The Hermitage was also scenic with heather-covered hills topped by low clouds. It took us about 90 min to reach The Hermitage and we were able to find parking without much problems. The weather was looking a bit threatening but we decided to risk it and got on the trail. The trail was flat and easy to navigate. The trail was also quite crowded with a lot of people, so there was never any danger of getting lost or anything. The river was flowing by the side of the trail and it was relaxing to hear the sound of the stream rushing over the stones and rocks. After about 10-15 min of walking, we came to a point where there was a small waterfall and a cascade before it. There was also a charming, picturesque building which is called Ossian's Hall overlooking the falls. After taking pics of the falls, we briefly visited Ossian's Hall to check it out from the inside and also get another look of the waterfalls.
We walked back to the parking lot and got back in the car. Our next stop was going to be Edinburgh where we would be returning the rental car. The drive was about 90 min and pretty uneventful. Our initial plan was to drop Rashmi off at her hostel, return the car, stash our luggage in a Stasher location and then walk around Edinburgh downtown for a bit and maybe grab some dinner before heading to our airport hotel. Just before reaching Edinburgh though, Rashmi had a better idea which was to go to our airport hotel first, check in and drop off our luggage, drop Rashmi off in her hostel and then return the car. We had enough time because it was still around 3:30pm and we had time till 5:30pm to return the car. Also, it turned out that the airport was nearer than Edinburgh from our current location. So, we set the new directions in Google Maps and went to our hotel. It took us about 10 min to check in and then we went to Rashmi's hostel but before that, we went to a gas station and filled the tank because we had to return it with a full gas tank. Rashmi checked in and dropped off her stuff in her hostel and we went to return the rental car.
Unburdened from our luggage, we were free to spend our time in Edinburgh downtown, so we caught a bus and went to an area that Sahana and I hadn't visited before. Rashmi had done a walking tour of that area, so she became our guide for the next hour and a half while we took in the sights of Edinburgh. It was very interesting and we enjoyed the nice weather and the casual walk and conversation.
I had done some research and found a restaurant called Holy Cow that was fully vegan, so we decided to have dinner there. However, during our walk, we had gradually found ourselves at the other side of the downtown area and we had already walked quite a bit by then. So, we got into an Uber to go to Holy Cow. The place wasn't crowded so we could get seats easily. We placed our orders (burger, salad, soup) and talked about our trip while we ate. There were a lot of tempting dessert options but we resisted the urge to order any as we were all quite full by then.
There was a tram service from a stop near Holy Cow that took Rashmi to a stop near her hostel and also to the airport. So, we bought tickets for it and hopped on the next tram that came by. Before getting on, Sahana and I hugged and said goodbye to Rashmi as she was staying on in Edinburgh for a couple more days before flying back to the US. She got off at her station and walked to her hostel while we stayed on and got off at the airport terminus. Google Maps said that it was a 9 min walk to our hotel from there and we were debating whether we should catch a bus or an Uber. The idea of a 9 min walk did not sound too demanding but we were worried that it may go through some sketchy area in the dark. After a short discussion, we decided to try walking to the hotel and were pleasantly surprised to see that it was actually about a 5 min walk and that it was extremely easy and safe.
I had read that we had to plan to be in the airport strictly 3 hours before departure, so we had to leave the hotel by 8am. Since breakfast was not included in our room rate, we decided to shower and check out and then try and find some breakfast at the airport. The hotel provided an airport shuttle but it was the most useless service we've ever experienced. First of all, it took its own sweet time to come around. They'd said that it comes every 15-20 min but it took more like 30 min to come and by then a huge crowd had built up outside the hotel. The bus already had some passengers (not sure where it had picked them up) so by the time all the hotel guests boarded the bus, there was almost no standing room. Nobody (including the driver!) seemed to be in a good mood and worst of all, the bus dropped us off at the tram station which is like a 10 min walk to the terminal. The shuttle service didn't even drop us in front of the terminal, so all the people had to get off and lug their suitcases about 10-15 min to the terminal. The checkin desks weren't yet open when we reached the airport but a line had already formed. The checkin process started at 8:30am exactly and we finished checking in pretty quickly. Went through security and were at the gate soon after.
We found a Pret a Manger where we got some coffee / chai latte (with oat milk) and shared some kind of berry croissant which was vegan.
Our flight was B61080 from Edinburgh to Boston and I was tracking the incoming flight from Boston (B61079) and Flightradar said that it was late by about 90 min, so I assumed naturally that our flight would be delayed by a significant amount of time as well. However, the JetBlue app and the flight status display screens at the airport kept reporting the flight as being on time. So, I decided to dig a bit further by looking at the actual aircraft that we would be flying on. That's when I realized that JetBlue was not going to use the incoming flight from Boston to go back to Boston. Instead, they were switching planes with the one that had just landed from JFK. So, in essence, we would be flying back to Boston on the aircraft that flew in from JFK whereas the passengers flying to JFK would be flying on the aircraft that would come in from Boston.
Relieved that we would not miss our connection in Boston, we waited and finally boarded our flight on time. We pushed back from the gate a few minutes ahead of time and we were soon up in the sky, heading back to the US. Apart from the fact that they didn't have any record of us requesting a vegan meal, the flight was smooth. Their default vegetarian meal actually had 2 out of 3 items that were vegan, so ate those and that kept us going till we landed in Boston. I watched a few more episodes of Friends and a couple of episodes of Office.
We landed in BOS about 50 min ahead of time which is something that is pretty rare for a 6.5 hr flight. We were in the last but one row of the aircraft and some of the passengers in front of us took a long time to deplane, so it took us even longer to get to the terminal. We had to go through immigration, pick up our bags, re-check them in for the flight to DCA and go back through security to our next gate.
In the Global Entry immigration line, they asked Sahana to show her Global Entry card and then said that since she'd got a new passport, she had to update that information somewhere. I'm not sure why they didn't say the same thing to me because I had got a new passport too.
We went down to the baggage carousel but our flight's luggage took a very long time to come because there were three JetBlue international flights arriving at the same time. We picked up our suitcases, followed the directions to the place where we had to drop them off for our next flight and then proceeded to go to the JetBlue counter so we could ask them if they could put us on an earlier flight to DCA. They informed us that there were no earlier flights that had available seats. Also, our flight was running late by about an hour, so it looked like we may have to wait for quite a while in the airport.
We went through security and walked to our gate and prepared to wait for about 4 hours. Later, I realized that the "earlier flight" that we had requested to be put on was actually running even later than our scheduled flight. It was actually currently scheduled to leave Boston after our flight because it arrived almost 2 hours late in Boston!
Anyway, our flight from BOS to DCA was short and uneventful and we landed just 15-20 min later than scheduled. Our luggage appeared on the baggage carousel pretty quickly, so we didn't have to make Sneha wait too long to pick us up at the kerb.
Back home in 5609, we had a yummy dinner (chapati + channa masala) that Sneha had cooked up for us.
With that, our trip to Scotland concluded and we can now begin the process of planning our next trip!
No comments:
Post a Comment