We only had the two days in Edinburgh, so alas, we had to leave. Yesterday morning we got up and headed for the train station. We took a cab, but it was like 5 blocks so oops. It was thankfully very easy to find our platform, and a nice lady told us we needed to go further down because we were in first class and that’s at the front. It was definitely worth it to have paid the bit extra for first class. We had bigger seats and a table and food. And the lady across from us (sharing our table) had her dog with her so we got to pet the dog and he slept on our feet some. That’s the first dog we’ve really gotten to pet a lot. (We miss our puppies, but the friend watching them says they’re doing well. But Link has gotten protective. When he’s in her lap, and her dog comes over, he growls at the poor fella. ^_^) The train trip was fun, but it got hot towards the end. I guess the air was out, because it was supposed to be air conditioned. But the views were great and the food was good, and the people were nice, and I enjoyed it immensely.
The train arrived in London at King’s Cross station, which is where the Hogwart’s Express in Harry Potter runs from. We took a picture of the little display they have up, and it made me happy. The station also had queues for the taxis, instead of having to hail them on the street, and that was a great idea. More places should do that.
We went to the hotel, which did let us check in early, and our room is much more what you’d expect for a mid-range hotel back home. Comfy bed, little couch (which I’ve been sitting on all the time for eating and writing this email and stuff), decent size bathroom. And I haven’t showered yet but Christopher says the water’s all crazy hot here too. So that’s good.
Firstly we went in search of some means of doing laundry. We needed non-smelly pants. There were no laundromats but the dry cleaners up the street does laundry for 18 pounds per quite large bag, so we dropped most of our things off there. Then we got some milk (you’d be surprised how hard it is to get milk. None of the restaurants offer it), and, of all things, some garlic bread from papa john’s. Hey, it was right across the street from the hotel, and I’ve been going crazy for garlic bread lately. Then I took a brief nap before dinner.
Around 5:30 we headed up for a medium long walk up to the Globe Theater. It’s an exact scale replica of the original, with the standing room for cheap and everything. We needed to pick up our tickets before dinner. So we did that (and Christopher was mean. I used the loo (^_^) while he got the tickets and when I came out he said the travel agent booked the wrong night and we couldn’t go. He even got the face right, because he worked on it while he was waiting. Normally I can tell when he’s lying. Not funny Christopher! But he was lying so all was well. (He insists that I explain that he was not lying, he was ACTING, because we were going to a play. ^_^)), and then went to dinner.
There was a greek place that looked good (have you noticed we ate at weird places for where we were? Italian in Paris, Mexican in Edinburgh, Greek in London.), so we went there. I wasn’t really hungry (I *might* have eaten almost all the garlic bread), but I had some very tasty hummus.
Then it was time for our show. We rented cushions because the seats are just wood (authentic, and there’s no roof), and I got a blanket too. It wound up being just about perfect with the blanket. All the people kept it warm enough, and there was a teeny breeze so it didn’t get hot. I also got some hot chocolate. Our seats were cheaper because we were behind a beam in front of us, but you know how much people move around in plays. They never stayed behind it on the tiny section of stage we couldn’t see for more than a second or two. The play was excellent. A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been my favorite Shakespeare play for about 15 years, and even Christopher loved it, and he expected it to be meh. You know how it is with Shakespeare. You can’t really understand half of what they say, but good actors use body language and all enough so that you get it. And it’s a really funny play.
Afterwards it was pretty late, so we went back and passed out. Well, I had a snack first. ^_^
On the Road to Crunchy Mama 